PennApps Hackathon 2011

PennApps is a 48 hour hackacthon, in which a bunch of students in teams of  four complete to make the best web app or phone app. The PennApps Hackathon has amazing food. We code. They feed us. Stuff in bold is stuff I ate:

1. A lot of vitamin B energy drink shots
2. A lot of coffee
3. A lot of bottled water
4. Other drinks
5. Milk

5. Chips/popcorn
6. Candy
7. Insomnia cookies
8. Indian food
9. Chinese food
10. Bagels, cereal
11. Trays of fruit (mango, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, kiwi, cantaloupe)
12. Burritos, sandwiches, pizza
13. BUBBLE TEA. DELICIOUS BUBBLE TEA.
14. Cheese Calzone

I'm pretty much just doing graphics (yay for Paint.Net), but I did meet some cool people (a.k.a my team members), one of whom is from Drexel.
Actually, the logo I made is pretty nifty in my opinion because it has an ulterior meaning.

Update: So I ended up sleeping from about 7:15 to 8:15 am and I learned some php, which is cool.

Food Addiction?

I was cleaning out my "internet scrapbook" folder full of funny, ingenious and cool things I find on the internet (e.g. a CD container being used as a bagel lunchbox). I find it rather disturbing that a majority of the pictures that I have amassed are food pictures. Cute cupcakes with icing, grilled bread, chocolate mooncakes, a wallet shaped like toast with butter... a cow sitting at a guillotine (I'll keep that one.), a circuit board made out of candy, various cheese items, and the list could go on. There's even a dark chocolate bedsheet design! And chocolate vermicelli!

There is definitely something wrong with me.

Time to annihilate all these pixels. Actually, I should make a list of foods/concepts that I want to try. It'll be fun. So that'll be on the sidebar --->

I'm With Fatty by Edward Ugel

I spent a few hours of my day reading Edward Ugel's I'm With Fatty: Losing Fifty Pounds in Fifty Miserable Weeks. It's a pretty short read detailing 6 foot 2 Ed's attempt to lose 50 pounds - from 263 lbs to 213 lbs within 50 weeks (do I call him Edward? Ed? Mr Ugel? I guess Ed, because he talks to us really familarly). His writing style is pretty droll; I don't really laugh but I get his jokes/allusions to other literature works when he mentions them (in particular, the Thor reference!).

In dishing out his struggles, Ed sheds light on his personality, his culinary training (Dude! 5ish years of learning about ingredients and cooking with a French chef! I would love that!), his childhood food culture, his - frankly speaking - addiction to food, his exercise, and the way his family supports him. Stuffed in are snippets that make the story realistic: the occasional/frequent (depending on your point of view) relapses, the binges, the 3+ pints of ice cream in a day, the slurping up of a Big Mac (without the center bread piece, to make him feel better). You start to care for this Ed guy, perhaps due to empathy, or just the way he sounds so intent on trying. You want him to lose all those 50 lbs, even though the faceless obese 1/3 of the American population (or 2/3, if you want to stick in the "overweight" people too) need to lose some 50+ lbs to be labelled "healthy" according to BMI standards. The way Ed pleads with himself to stick to his "Fatty Project" and the clear fact that he gets all depressed and mindless when his wife leaves him (For a week. For a conference. This isn't a drama book.) all give some sort of sincerity to our narrator. In addition, he doesn't belittle us with any pompous attitude; instead, he uses layperson's speech and - the best part - he doesn't preach some sorta diet. This is a dude telling a story, not selling a fad diet/book/marketing some product for $$$ (*nod to Dr. Atkins, Dr. McDougall, Dr. South Beach, and the "Is Sugar Toxic?" article in the NY Times, by Dr. Lustig*).

Oh wait, Ed IS selling a book - this one. It's okay, he needs the money. This is his job after all; after being fired from his previous job, his "job" was to stay at home with his kids and adhere to his "Fatty Project" for a year, and write about it. Oh, and cook dinner, which by the way, was another reason I liked him, because my father staunchly believes that mother does the cooking.

Of course, there are parts that I disagree with. I almost skipped past the part about a juice cleansing diet thing that Ed and his personal trainer tried, because

1. Juices for a week for "cleansing" are terribly unhealthy. There is literally no protein in drinking raw vegan juices for a week, let alone much fibre. However, I'm fairly sure there are enough vitamins (except B12, but as Ed does eat animal products, he definitely has enough B12 to last a few months stored in his liver) and minerals for a week, and I suppose a short-term juice diet doesn't cause death or anything too serious. After all, it's better than the french fry & soda diet that 100s/1000+s of people go through, right?

2. Ed claimed that his personal trainer lost 10 lbs within 24 hours, and another 8 lb by the next day. Losing 10 lbs in one day seems rather far-fetched, and my Nutrition 517 professor, Dr Compher, said that it seemed highly unlikely. I suppose this can be explained if Ed's personal trainer has a high BMR (understandable). In addition, Ed did say that his trainer's muscles did look like they atrophied, so I guess that could be a source of the weight loss. Either way, still unrealistic for the layperson.

***Spoiler Alert***

So what happens in the end? After going through a roller coaster of weight gain and loss, Ed finds himself 46 lbs lighter, happy with the fact that he ate healthy and played racquetball through the winter holiday season, and only at an overweight BMI (as opposed to an obese class I BMI)! He's happy, he realises that people at gyms and Weight Watcher meetings aren't snobs or judgmental; they're friendly and/or indifferent. It's a pretty chill ending.

***END Spoiler Alert***

So why am I doing a non-science book review on a food blog? Frankly, I haven't read a good food book a while; in a lot of books, I find the author really critical or utterly obnoxious, or I disagree with a lot of the premises made because they aren't scientifically correct, or are just so self-evident it seems degrading to me to read it. Ed doesn't claim anything scientific, he doesn't arrogantly ridicule others. Quite the contrary. He details his addiction, his obsession, his compulsive eating, and he voices his fears and helplessness. He's one of us. We all want to lose weight for some reason, and we all subconsciously think about it even when we do EpicMealTime-esque dinners. He makes me see myself - I'm a food addict too! I'm obsessed with food too! Sure, I'm classified as "healthy" by BMI standards, but there's currently the frosh 15. According to Ed's doctor, gaining 10 lbs in a month (which Ed did in the first month of his Fatty Project) is a terrible feat. I gained 10+ lbs the first month after taking methimazole last year. Lovely, you know, as it was also prom/beach season (but I didn't go to prom! Harhar!). Since I've generally kept my weight out of this food blog, I don't think I'll stop now, since it's such a vapid topic.

Anyway, as Ed says, if you want to motivate someone to get off being labelled as class I or II obese, threaten them with the fact that they'd probably die from sleep apnea, oh, shall we say, tonight, and that in order to save yourself and see your kids grow old, you have to wear a humiliating breathing mask thing...unless you lose some weight.

I guess it makes me feel glad that, hey, at least I, unlike Ed, don't have "fat pants" - larger sized pants for in case I get fat during the week.

Lentil Chips!

One thing that really irks me after learning about celiac disease is that "gluten free" is not "healthier" than a normal diet. Celiac disease is when your body can not break down gluten; celiacs lack the enzyme. This does not mean that gluten is bad for you. GLUTEN IS DELICIOUS. It is a protein found in bread! "Gluten-free" food does not mean it's somehow more salubrious, or more "natural". Gluten-free wheat bread is well... not really "natural" [although I'm starting to despise that marketing gimmick too]. Yet, "Gluten Free" appears right under "Trans Fat Free!" and "No Cholesterol!" Now, I know that the Mediterranean Snack Foods company is not the only company that does this [Pirate's Booty is another], but in general, this practice is like labeling an apple as "No Cholesterol!", or water as "Calorie Free!". It's stating the obvious to appeal to the public, because advertising and journalism tell the public that "x-Free!" = healthy.

A diet for celiacs is not deemed healthy, since many of the foods aren't fortified with vitamin B12 and folate, whereas most grain/gluten-containing foods have fortified vitamins/minerals from some law in the 1970s [in the U.S., at least]. Going on a "gluten free" diet as a non-celiac is like going on a "peanut free diet because some other people are allergic to peanuts".

How many people do you know are true celiacs? I know one. Apparently it is 1% of the population, although this doesn't state much since Graves' disease is also 1% of the population and I know 3 other people with it [not including myself].

Anyway, I had to put this out there because I'm getting sick of hearing people/girls [yes, sexist generalisation, but I believe more girls do this than guys] talking about their salad and their complete abstinence from bread and cool foods, not that salad isn't cool.

I got these Lentil Cucumber Dill chips [no packaging image, but here is the shiny image for the website] because there was a rather high protein content compared to potato/corn chips, and cucumber dill seemed like an amazing combination! I was thinking that it'd taste something like dill pickles. That would've been amazing; imagine a sour, watery, crispy chip like that! Speaking of which... are there burger flavoured chips out there?

Unfortunately, I was really upset with the quality and taste of these chips. Firstly, there was an overwhelming amount of saltiness. I just checked the sodium content: 260 mg/serving. In comparison, Lay's Original Potato Chips has 180 mg sodium/serving, and I think those are salty already... So, I believe there is 44% more sodium in the lentil chips. Uh, bleh.

The second part that I was highly discontent with was that it tasted like there was sour cream powder smothered over it, but it wasn't even fresh sour cream. It was like... salty, garlicky, pungent sour cream.

No cucumber taste.

Some dried dill flakes.

No lentil taste.

Super crunchy, though.

In other words, stay away. They're also kind of very expensive [probably due to the high markup. I'm telling you, a Dining Dollar equals at least 2 real dollars...].

Food Landscapes Calendar!

TS gave me a Food Landscapes Calendar for my birthday [no, today is not my birthday].

I have seen some food landscapes before; this specific calendar art was made by Carl Warner. I highly respect the creativity of using food to make art. I once painted a cup of coffee and included real ground coffee in it [and it smelled good, momentarily!].

I like the reciprocating relationship in which food can become landscapes/photographs/art, and art can become food [food items made out of yarn, crocheting, pencil and eraser, etc.] The landscapes are really pretty and are interesting to look at after a weary day of looking at other items in biology.

Every time I look at the January landscape, I see something new. Today I saw the hot air balloons.

Now, food is permeating pop culture. Think about it. At Hot Topic, they have pizza and potato chip cloth bags that you put your change in. There also is a huge influx of food-shaped erasers. There are tons of jewelry out there that depict food; I have cupcake earrings and pasta [farfalle] earrings.

Food is becoming a serious topic.

Green Tea Ice Cream!

Xenophobia has been, and still is, a major issue everywhere in the world. The sad part is that while some people shun others because they are of a different ethnicity/race/religion/etc., they still reap the benefits of that ethnicity/race/religion/etc. Now, that sounds confusing, but here is an example that comes to my mind: Green tea.

A lot of people like tea. A lot of xenophobic people like tea. Perhaps. I don't have statistics, but judging by the fact that tea is mentioned so frequently and drunk so often, one can assume that at least one xenophobe has enjoyed tea in this world.

Tea is originally from Asia. There are plenty of stereotypes about Asian people.

Yet, I'm sure during WWII, some people liked green tea, although perhaps some among thaose green-tea-consumers detested the Japanese for I'm-not-sure-what [I don't want to delve into facts about war. It just irks me.]

Also during WWI, sauerkraut was named "liberty cabbage".

Oh, then there were "freedom fries" and my spin-off, "freedom kisses" and etc. in 2006 when something happened between the U.S. and France.

I suppose my question is, why do people judge and hate and despise people of other ethnicities/races/religions/etc. while they still enjoy those places' foods? I'm not sure French fries are "French" though. At least, not the ones at McD.

Either way, why blatantly say "I hate those primitive/sneaky/dirty/cheating/useless _______s" when one drinks tea, eats chocolate/xocolatl, chews samosas, bakes macarons, or indulges in latkes?

Food unites us all, it's something we all need, and such diverse foods by so many cultures should be appreciated. And, it is appreciated; people love to try exotic food.

So why do people hate other people based on their culture? Culture should be appreciated.

Actually, a side note I have is that yesterday I saw a website detailing the weirdest foods or something, and thousand year egg was on it, as were other foods, and they were all really scorned upon, which angered me. I personally don't like the taste of thousand year egg, but I still appreciate it exists. The fact that the website degrades cultural food just makes me mad.

At least thousand year egg doesn't have freakin' propylene glycol in it, like chocolate cake you can get at the store these days.

The reason I bring this topic up is that THERE IS GREEN TEA ICE CREAM AT COMMONS. Green tea ice cream at a school cafeteria.

Green tea ice cream.

Sure, there's green tea ice cream at the Asian food mart, and at Asian restaurants, and perhaps even some groceries [I don't think Shoprite stocks it, though]. But, at a school cafeteria? I found this surprising because green tea is getting incorporated in American food culture, which is pretty interesting.

Actually, chocolate mochi, or coffee mooncakes are also an Americanization of Asian food culture, but that stuff is usually reserved to sort-of high end retail.

Green tea ice cream at Commons indicates a larger acceptance of different cultures, I suppose. Maybe they'll have red bean ice cream one day, although I really doubt it.

The ice cream itself looked like green tea ice cream, and it did taste like green tea, although the flavor was extremely weak. It mainly tasted quite sweet and not that bitter. However, I tend to prefer tea without sugar and super strong, so I suppose other people may have liked it.

Yummy Umami - No, You Won't Die!

I have not been updating recently due to homework. Here is one of the things that was due at midnight, yesterday. It is for my Writing Seminar final project. I am not sure I believe 100% of what I wrote, although it has opened my mind to, well, MSG.

Yummy Umami: No, You Won't Die!

How will slurping up that steaming bowl of ramen influence your health? Listen to those advertisements, and you, like I, learn that cow's milk causes cancer, apples are full of cyanide, and ramen induces vomiting. Please! When are we going to separate fact from fiction? It's time to question the validity all those "truths" surrounding various foods. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a controversial chemical, rumored to cause obesity and nausea, although scientific evidence has been shaky. The blame initiated with propaganda touting all things "natural" as "healthy", and labeling MSG as "unnatural". True, MSG is extracted using fermentation and microorganisms, but it originally comes from animal or plant protein [Kusumoto]. Does this mean that it's dangerous, or even that artificial? Other foods widely perceived as "natural" are actually just as synthetic as MSG: genetically-modified seedless grapes, rennet-processed cheese, and fermented potato vodka. These are just as man-made as MSG, while MSG is just as natural as these. Why, then, does MSG get such a bad rap? It is mentally and physically gratifying; it stimulates the digestive tract, makes the digestion of food efficient, and simply tastes delightful. MSG, which may actually be beneficial, should not be vilified since it is just as "natural" as myriad other foods.

What are the hard facts about MSG? MSG is just like any other isolated food chemical. Sucrose crystals taste sweet, table salt crystals taste salty, and MSG crystals taste umami. Although just an emerging term, umami describes a "savory" flavor. It has joined the four other main flavors in food science, which include sweet, salty, sour, and bitter [Renton]. The delicious umami taste obtained from MSG foods is caused by L-glutamate, an amino acid [Lehrer 57]. L-glutamate is naturally present in animal flesh, parmesan cheese, and anything that evokes that tasty savory flavor [Lehrer 60]. To parallel this concept, sucrose is naturally found in sugarcanes and sugar beets. These plants are chemically processed to synthesize the crystals that we spoon into our coffee, among other foods, and we think that this is completely safe! Likewise, L-glutamate, traditionally extracted from plant or animal protein, is now mostly made using enzymes and fermentation and attached to a sodium molecule to create stable MSG crystals [Kusumoto]. Companies, restaurants and families sprinkle this into soups, sauces, etc. What makes the industrial refinement processes of sugar different from that of MSG? Is MSG alone in causing health problems such as obesity?

Those who avoid MSG claim that it makes us overweight and obese. In an INTERMAP study in 2008, the food intakes of 752 Chinese adults were analyzed. The amount of MSG consumed was calculated based through observing how frequently people cooked with MSG or soy sauce. If participants had consumed food from restaurants or grocery stores, those places were contacted for nutritional information. A body mass index (BMI) is a formula used to measure body fat. According to the World Health Organization, a BMI equal to or higher than 23.0 kg/m² is defined as "overweight" for Asian populations [He]. The average intake of MSG was 0.33 g per day per participant, although some people were "nonusers of MSG" [He Table 1]. For nonusers, the average BMI was 22.3 kg/m². Conversely, the top users of MSG (sectioned off to 27% of the study population), had an average BMI of 23.5 kg/m². Dietary analysis showed that the people who had a higher intake of MSG also had a higher intake of fat, cholesterol and animal protein, and a lower intake of vegetable protein and carbohydrates, compared to those who were nonusers [He Table 1]. He postulated that MSG increased the participants' appetites, so they ate more food than they needed and therefore became fatter.

Further analysis, in contrast, shows that MSG does not cause weight gain. Correlation does not mean causation, and MSG may not be completely responsible for the higher average BMI. Instead of MSG causing the high intake of protein, what if the converse is true? L-glutamate is widely present in animal protein [Lehrer 60]. Also, perhaps the lifestyles of the rural participants mean that they aren't educated about the effects of eating too much fat, or rely solely on seasonal foods. Another drawback of He's study is that eating 0.33 g of MSG per day is not extremely significant. Just 10 g of the much-used soy sauce in Chinese cuisine contains 0.11 g of L-glutamate [Renton]! Our bodies even produce 40 g of glutamate, daily, making that extra 0.33 g of dietary L-glutamate trivial [Renton]. In a similar study in 2010, 1282 Chinese adults were enrolled, which is nearly double that in He's study [Shi 457]. The only significant changes were that participants chose fewer protein-rich foods (which are composed of more glutamate) and more complex carbohydrates [Shi 459]. This is understandable; the higher amount of L-glutamate probably caused the brain to adapt to a lower protein diet [Shi 457]. The intake of fruits and vegetables remained the same, as did the total number of calories consumed [Shi 459]. Shi showed no correlation between an intake of MSG and weight gain [Shi 457]. So, does MSG actually have an impact on our bodies?

If used the correct way, MSG's influence on flavor allows us choose more nutrient-dense foods! Generally, fat-free and salt-free foods taste bland, which is why people choose greasy or salty foods [Jinap]. Who would choose a dry, bland wedge of pita bread (fat free, made solely out of flour and leavening agents)or a raw broccoli floret when salty nachos smothered in cheese and sour cream beckon? However, an overconsumption of fat or sodium promotes weight gain. MSG itself is tasteless, but once introduced into fat-free foods, it enhances the flavors of the food. Eggs taste more "eggy", and tomatoes taste "better" [Renton]. Now, pita bread coated in barbeque, herb, garlic, or any other MSG seasoning is much more receptive and tasty. Broccoli with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese is much more palatable. For the same weight, MSG has less sodium than plain table salt (they both have ones sodium molecule attached, but the chloride is much lighter than the glutamate, C₅H₉NO₄) [Lehrer 57]. We'd feel just as satisfied, and won't consume as much fat or sodium [Jinap]. In theory, if we add MSG to a varied diet, we can not only eat fewer empty calories and sodium, but also satisfy our taste buds! Opponents may argue that this liberal sprinkling of MSG will ultimately be detrimental, but that can be said of any nutrient. For example, those multivitamins may give you a boost, but chugging a whole canister of them will leave you poisoned. Any food that is over-consumed will kill – even broccoli!

MSG also contributes to digestive health. Food digestion starts in the mouth, and the wonderful taste of umami, from MSG or other sources, stimulates the salivary glands to release saliva. The saliva wets and prepares the food for chewing [Jinap]. This is important for the elderly, or those who have weak teeth or jaws, especially in eating tough protein items such as fibrous animal flesh. In addition, the saliva present after swallowing the food allows for better oral hygiene, since the proteins in saliva improve immunity and reduce the bacteria in the mouth [qtd in Yamamoto 845S]. Our stomach and intestinal linings use L-glutamate as a source of energy to digest food more easily, and it also induces the pancreas to release more digestion enzymes [Yamamoto 844S, Jinap]. This means that in a dish of stir-fried vegetables with MSG, minerals are more easily absorbed into the intestinal lining and bloodstream [Jinap]. Mucus is a secretion from the tissue linings and it prevents stomach acid and salts in the partially-digested food from reacting with the cell lining and forming painful ulcers [Jinap]. The addition of MSG to foods is especially helpful to the elderly, especially when they eat very little or are insensitive to delicate smells and tastes [Yamamoto 846S]. In addition, this is a cost-efficient way of persuading hospitalized or depressed people who have no appetite to eat more food [Yamamoto 846S].

Aside from research studies, why not look at our basic physiology? L-glutamate, a component of MSG, is evolutionarily desired by the body. Umami is traditionally encountered in high-protein foods that the body needs in order to carry out daily functions. We metabolize these foods for energy and the synthesis of protein molecules such as enzymes, transport proteins, muscle fibers, hair etc. [Chaudhari 199, Yamamoto 846S]. Umami has various sources; parmesan cheese (free L-glutamate) is one, as is MSG powder (L-glutamate bound to sodium) [Renton]. There are a variety of taste receptors that elicit the umami sensation, which demonstrates that the body has evolved to want L-glutamate. One of these receptors is the receptor combination of T1R1 and T1R3 in humans [Nelson 201]. Other combinations elicit other tastes; a suitable analogy is based on the activation of T1R1 and T1R2, which is interpreted as sweetness [Nelson 201]. Sweetness, the universal signal of carbohydrates and energy, also comes in many forms, such as the "natural" fructose in cherries and the processed sucrose (glucose + fructose) in toffee. Both are universally regarded as safe. Free L-glutamate amino acids in parmesan cheese do not negatively affect our bodies, so MSG, which is digested by the body into sodium ions and free L-glutamate, should not induce illness.

Is it justified to victimize MSG because it is processed? Many foods that we eat are equally "artificial", from simple sugar crystals to the vitamin-enriched bleached flour used to make perfectly square slices of bread. The manipulation of "nature" is not necessarily unhealthy; cheeses made with chemicals are safe! In fact, is the milk used even "natural", when we consider the hormone injections and antibiotics used for continuous, uniform lactation? If not, we already consume "unnatural" food with zeal and confidence. Why, then, are we singling out MSG? From targeting MSG's synthesis to hatching up "controversies" concerning other "artificial" foods, propaganda can blatantly skew scientific fact. This not only extrapolates to widely favored genetically modified foods such as corn, but also to the modification of nature in the first place. Why do we prize pig gene manipulation, but react to any stem cell DNA investigation with chagrin? Lobbyists or unsatisfied customers with monetary goals in mind can use emotional appeal and the media to sway a public crusade against almost anything, even if it's advantageous! Perhaps we should stop repeating the myths that are constantly drilled into our brains, and actually visit the science standing forlornly behind all the hype.

Works Cited

G. Nelson et al., "An Amino-Acid Taste Receptor," Nature 416 (2002): 199-202. Nature Publishing Group. Macmillan Publishers Limited. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

He, Ka, and Liancheng Zhao. "Association of Monosodium Glutamate Intake With Overweight in Chinese Adults: The INTERMAP Study." Obesity 16.8 (2008): 1875-880. Obesity, A Research Journal. Nature Publishing Group, 22 May 2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .

Jinap, S., and P. Hajeb. "ScienceDirect - Appetite : Glutamate. Its Applications in Food and Contribution to Health." ScienceDirect - Home. 12 May 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. .

Kusumoto, Isao. "Industrial Production of L-Glutamine." Journal of Nutrition 131.9 (2001): 2552S-555S. Journal of Nutrition. American Society for Nutrition, 1 Sept. 2001. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .

Lehrer, Jonah. Proust Was a Neuroscientist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print.

N. Chaudhari et al., "A Novel Metabotropic Receptor Functions as a Taste Receptor," Nature Neuroscience 3 (2000): 113-19. Nature Neuroscience. Nature Publishing Group. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.

Yamamoto, Shigeru et al., "Can Dietary Supplementation of Monosodium Glutamate Improve the Health of the Elderly?" The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 844S-849S 90.3 (2009): 844-49. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. American Society for Clinical Nutrition, 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. .

Renton, Alex. "If MSG Is so Bad for You, Why Doesn't Everyone in Asia Have a Headache?"The Observer. The Guardian, 10 July 2005. Web. 8 Dec. 2010.

Yamamoto, Shigeru et al., "Can Dietary Supplementation of Monosodium Glutamate Improve the Health of the Elderly?" The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 844S-849S 90.3 (2009): 844-49. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. American Society for Clinical Nutrition, 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. .

Zumin Shi, Natalie D. Luscombe-Marsh, Gary A. Wittert, Baojun Yuan, Yue Dai, Xiaoqun Pan and Anne W. Taylor (2010). Monosodium glutamate is not associated with obesity or a greater prevalence of weight gain over 5 years: findings from the Jiangsu Nutrition Study of Chinese adults. British Journal of Nutrition, 104, pp 457-463 doi:10.1017/S0007114510000760

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Food Injustice

UPDATE: So, I apparently got 3rd place out of 40 photos. The photo that got 3rd place is the one with the plastic spoon, knife and fork, the broken coffee cup, and the piece of bread - the third picture. 3rd place means I don't get any prizes but I get my photo displayed on college green on Wednesday from 11-3 I think... so check it out :)

The Civic House at Penn with Moral Voices had a photo competition about food injustice. I tried not to waste any food in the making of these photos... [mostly wasted spinach and lettuce...:(]

As a side note, I wonder why there was a "Dinner for Hunger Awareness" via Unicef at Penn. Why host a buffet dinner to kids who are able to obtain food? Sure, each person is paying for this dinner, but why not pay to experience fufu or Plumpy'nut? Then, the people to whom the money is going [excluding the amount that goes to Unicef workers and advertising...] will get to experience the buffet dinner so ubiquitous in our lives [instead of just obtaining more fufu or something]

Omelettes...

It looks like the letter Y. As in, "Why?"

Yeah, they're supposed to be mismatched...

Pure injustice right there. Why is a segment of fruit so much more expensive than a pastry? What if the world sold and bought food based on caloric value? Implications... would be ridiculous.

Salad leaves...

Oh the puns. It's such a mouldy cliche metaphor...

It just so happens I obtained an apple [that I was ACTUALLY going to eat...] with a hole in it from a worm or insect or bacteria or something...

Art!

This is just a post to say that there are a bunch of pages at the top that link to my art. I do a lot of drawing [mostly of food :)] and I'd like to sell my pieces. The prices range...the lowest is $5 or $10 for A5 sized paper pieces, and they go up to a few hundred [or thousand, or seventy million, depending on how philanthropic you feel, since I do need money for college].

If you send/give me money, I'll send/give you the art. Advertise for me :)

I also do commissioned art.

If you've always wanted a picture of a slice of cherry pie in a bowl of corn chowder hanging on your kitchen wall, I'll be happy to draw it for you [if you pay me]!

Mind the Food Gap - Urban Nutrition Initiative Dinner

Today at Commons there was a dinner from 6 to 7:30pm hosted by the Urban Nutrition Initiative, which is a community service group that teaches high school kids how to plant gardens and how to cook and do nutritional planning. This week, actually, is Food Week. Initially I wasn't even going to go, but I figured that I might as well go after my Nutrition midterm [which I did not do well on. I definitely didn't get above a 95% which really irks me because this stuff is really easy...] and I wondered if I'd be late, since I had to get my camera from my dorm. The really stupid thing is that I came into my dorm, left my school bag in my room, then went back out. As I approached Commons, I realised that I'd forgotten to bring my camera. By then, it was 6:10 so I figured I might just blog without pictures. However, downstairs in Commons, no one was serving food or anything... so I went back to my dorm and rushed back out and back to Commons. By then, they'd started discussing stuff about food justice. I think it's a really broad topic that one could write a book about, or devote a blog to. Either way, it was a light discussion for my table since we didn't have a table leader from the group to talk to us.

This event seemed pretty legit since they gave us 3 different sized forks and a spoon. They also emphasised the fact that the produce was local; the first course was "Roasted Red Pepper & Brie Cheese Soup", which was really delicious, actually. It was really tangy, great with the bread crust [but the bread by itself was pretty plain].

The "Spinach Salad with Local Feta, Red Onion and Warm Shallot Vinaigrette" was amazing. I seriously loved the vinaigrette!!!! I could drink that stuff [okay, I can't.]

The feta cheese chunks were really huge though, and different from the feta cheese I had eaten at this Greek restaurant back in high school.

Everyone else had "Hendricks [sic. no apostrophe] Chicken with Tarragon Cream Sauce, Sage Whipped Potato and Sautéed Broccoli Rabe". Since I'm a vegetarian, they gave me some butternut risotto. I tell you, this is NOT risotto. It's bulgur with butternut squash and cranberries. It is not a risotto. Risottos are sticky and creamy and made with arborio rice or other short-grain sticky rice. It was alright. The vegetable side was way too buttery. I guess it's personal preference, but I've grown up eating either steamed vegetables or vegetables cooked in light oil. I'm not used to the butter-drenched vegetables thing. Nor am I used to spreading a tablespoon of butter on bread, either...

However, the lighting was great so my pictures turned out nice. Actually, the guy next to me took pictures of his food too!

"Warm Bread Pudding with Maple Crème Anglaise" was pretty intense...the plate was cold and the pudding was sort of lukewarm. The bread pudding was nicely textured, and there were a lot of raisins. Overall, it was really sugar saturated. The maple glaze did not have any maple flavour. The thing that confuses me is that they said that this was grown locally, so I wonder whether Philly has a maple tree farm? I doubt it...but I could be wrong.

Interesting. I think I want to join this group to teach nutrition to kids.

WATER BLOG DAY!

If everyone remains faithful to one website, my blog will be among [at least] 5148 blogs in the world that blog about water. After all, this is supposedly the "year of water" [and I thought it was just a Penn phenomenon...]. Today is Blog Action Day 2010, and the topic is water... and I'm supposed to come up with a witty blog post about two hydrogens covalently bonded to an oxygen molecule.

By the way, here is the link to my blog on the Blog Action Day page! It happens to be called Food Tech :D. The Penn group "Free Stuff at Penn" also blogged about water, which makes me very happy since they even mentioned how water in Philly is hard water and is that the Penn campus has filters in places... [I can't attest to that since I haven't seen any of those].

Anyway, I suppose now is the time to talk the hard facts of hard water [ha.ha.ha.] and give an actual meaningful post, sans waffle. Again, everything on this blog is my opinion, so please don't feel offended if you like to buy 250mL bottles of water from Costco [my parents do that].

One thing that I detest about the U.S. is the fact that prebottled water seems to be a necessity. WATER IS A NECESSITY. Prebottled water is a marketing gimmick used to screw up the environment. I really don't know why else we humans in the U.S. require prebottled water. In countries where water carries bacteria, insects, disease, mercury, poop, etc., bottled water is necessary. For most of the U.S., however, bottled water [okay, I got sick of typing "pre"] just pisses me off. I don't care if you're only capable of putting "pure spring water" to your lips. It's freakin' H2O with a bunch of minerals and trace elements. What do you use to brush your teeth? What do you drench yourself in, when you're showering? Where in the world do you SWIM, if you dislike normal tap water? You've been ingesting tonnes of tap water in your life, and you even rinse your fruit and vegetables with it. You wash your dishes and your clothes in it.

Why, then, are you afraid of sipping it? Why do you fear calcium? Is it because it leaves a white residue on your coffee-maker? Do you censure the fluoride in water because it's ostensibly harmful?

Why is it okay - oh, I mean, imperative - that you, a privileged, literate, richer-than-80%-of-the-world person, drink water from a bottle, whereas other people have to live on malaria-saturated swamps?

Tap water makes so much more sense.

It's pretty much the same thing as bottled water.

I have to admit that NJ tap water tastes very different from HK tap water, and Philadelphia tap water. Actually, the best tap water I've had comes from the airport at South Carolina...or maybe I was just really thirsty after the plane ride]. I have to admit that NJ water didn't taste that great initially, but after a few days, it started tasting clear. In other words, it started tasting like water, and spring water started tasting chemically bizarre.

One thing to get clear [hahaha, "clear"] is the fact that if you get used to NJ tap water, you can get used to any tap water, because NJ has all the pharmaceutical monopolies. Another cool thing is that they give out water quality reports every year in late August to each resident, so we all get to know what's in the water we're drinking.

I have one bottle for my water. It is bright green, stainless steel, and doesn't smell at all [the ones from Marshalls absolutely reek when I checked their insides out]. It cost around $10 from Borders when the one in my town was closing down. I believe it was from Gaiam, and you can find this company's bottle on Google Shopping. It used to have some design on it but it washed off, although I prefer it plain green.

Is my argument solid like ice? Will you melt it with your anger? It's okay if you disagree; I'm not partaking in consumption. I'm not wasting the energy associated with

1. Obtaining and refining oil.

2. Making oil into plastic bottles.

3. Filling bottles with water at some factory.

4. Finding "spring" water [or tap water] and drilling holes in the ground.

5. Shipping water to warehouse.

6. Shipping water from warehouse to store.

7. Shipping water from store to home.

Instead I'm just getting water pumped from some local recycled/water-that-used-to-be-sewage-perhaps plant and putting it in a stainless steel container.

Kamman!

I always enjoy going to the Asian foods store, because there are always really funny brand names and logos and such. For example, Chiz Curls evidently spelled the word "cheese" wrong by spelling their product as "Chiz". Right below, however, the word "Cheese" is not only correctly spelled, but also correctly capitalised! It's also funny since there are no actual "curls" in the bag [well, I could be wrong, since I've never actually opened a bag of them]. Those puffed corn pieces are actually... well, rod shaped. Not curly. :) But, it's funny.

Gosh, I really love this one. Oh the biology-related innuendos! Would you like some bacterial pili to contaminate your food - I mean, they can contaminate your nuts! Oh! Hey, the pili are growing! *New Discovery!* - Pili have nuts! To be a health nut, you gotta obtain a ton of conjugation via pili!

... the list goes on.

I Am Upset.

I Am Upset.
I did terrible on the 5 AP exams that I took this year.
Yesterday, I noticed that I didn't seem to be eating as much food as usual, and I figured that it was due to the methimazole, which was curbing my hormones, which was probably curbing my leptin release. Which is good, because a slower metabolism means that I should be consuming fewer Calories.
Today I got my scores, cried, and ate a lot of chocolate.
I think that I'm the type of person who does a lot of emotional eating. Anxiety eating. When I study, I have to eat. When I'm not sure what to do, I eat. Recently, though, everything has been really chill and relaxed, so I haven't really had a reason to eat much. I'm sure evolution has ingrained it in our brains to eat whenever there were external stresses. I mean, in the past, when one was freaking out, it was probably due to the lack of food, which would thus encourage a search for MORE food and rampant stuffing of the food.
This, of course, does not bode well for the modern human.
Though, despite the fact that I ate more food than usual in this past week, I still ate less than I did in April and May, which the methimazole probably accounts for.

I don't feel like blogging about the chocolate I ate today so I will talk about it tomorrow. I have to thank JM for it though, since she gave it to me. Well, she's allergic to it.

Rollin' up Graves'.

Short message about Rolos and Graves' Disease.

My previous calc teacher, as you know, kept candy in a drawer for we students, every single day. At one point, I spied this thing that looked like a chocolate, with a golden foil wrapper. It was really sticky, with the caramel inside sticking to my teeth the way benzene sticks together.
Anyway... a few weeks later, at the Hershey store, I realised that they were actually ROLOs. I think that these are significant because I wanted to give one to AP but I ended up chickening out.
Today, I thought of them just because, as usual, I am thinking about food. However, I'm also thinking about not thinking about food, because I actually need to lose 350000 Calories. Okay, maybe not exactly 350000 Calories, but in the past few months, I have gained at least 2 to 3 kgs because my metabolism is slowing down loads, thanks to Graves' Disease. This is a good thing, because it proves that methimazole is working for me, but it sucks for my body since I'm storing everything as glycogen and triglycerides. Tack on a bunch of parties... and plain old exercise doesn't really cut it.
Hmm... at least I know that I can change this. Technically, I'm still of an "average" mass. No such thing as a lost cause. I'm trying to be optimistic.

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush...

This morning, I got back from my blood test and decided to have some mulberry yoghurt. My friend JM has a mulberry tree in her yard, and she's been feeding us with A LOT of mulberries, which has been awesome since I have never had mulberries before. They're these tiny [as in, Centrum sized] berries that look like mini blackberries, but taste completely different. For one thing, they're not very sweet, and the texture is smooth, save the grittiness because of the puny seeds. My mum added some sugar to the mulberries to stop them from getting mouldy [after all, these are pretty wild mulberries. They aren't cultivated].

This was definitely a change from the typical strawberry or blueberry yoghurt. I'm not even that fond of strawberry yoghurt.

Anyway, now I'm consuming dried jujube berries [red dates, hong zao], because my mum says that they have a "high iron content" [well, not entirely true], which would help replenish my lost blood today. There's also a lot of vitamin C, of which I wouldn't mind having 400% the daily value, since I want to be extra protected against colds or illness, especially as I have Graves' Disease. I remember during the last few weeks of October, during college applications [2 E.A. and 1 E.D.], I basically consumed over 800% of my daily vitamin C every single day in the form of citrus, Centrum, granola bars/cereals, and Zipfizz [I don't know why my mum bought so much Zipfizz, way back]. That, coupled with a ton of caffeine, made my hands shake uncontrollably, and I felt exhausted and irritable. Luckily, I don't have to go through that again... until college...

My doctor told me to cut caffeine down, though, since I have Graves' Disease.

La Tasca

Spanish food is NOT Mexican food. It is NOT even close to Tex-Mex. People tend to forget that. Anyway, at D.C., we were wandering around the Gallery Place, after having visited all those museums, and we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in order to show grandpa the "American" cuisine. Of course, being the disorganised family we are, we only decided this after trudging through random streets. By that time, we couldn't relocate it. Earlier, to prove that we actually passed by it, I had taken a picture: In the end, we went to La Tasca, which is a Spanish restaurant that sold tapas. On WordReference, "La Tasca" means "cheap bar" in Spanish, and "tapas" basically means "tapas". Or, "hors d'oeuvres". Or "snacks". [Today, I presented my senior project about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; great book! and there was tons of Spanish that I pronounced very badly. Je parle francais; haha]. Anyway, this is one of the times in which QUALITY is much more valued that "quantity".
My dad got some shrimp/scallop thing. $7
Grandpa got salmon. For these two, I have no opinion to give as I didn't consume animal pieces. $7.25
My bro got some kind of sausage with white beans. $6.75
My mum got this Spanish potato and egg and onion omelette. $5.75. In all honesty, this was really good [I tried some, because the mayo was spicy and my mum didn't like it]. Actually, it tasted more like mustardy-mayo, or something. It was EXOTIC!
My delicious mushroom risotto. Oh-so-smooth. $7
It's not really "La Tasca" because at Costco, you can get tons of food for $7. As in, you can get 48 pieces of sausage, or 92 mozzarella sticks. However, this restaurant had damn high quality [except for when they forgot to cook my brother's dish. By the time we 4 had finished, his dish hadn't arrived yet]. Although you can't really tell from them photos [they could be the size of my laptop, I guess], the serving sizes were really small, compared to other restaurant chains [the restaurant with the largest serving size has to be the American Olive Garden. I don't think I "love" Olive Garden. Anyway, good culture! [In the outskirts of D.C's Chinatown].

D.C. in a Nutshell

Damn awesome, except that it's, uh, a QuakerFoods ad for oatmeal, in the metro station.
Chipotle in Chinatown in D.C. I didn't think that this was possible. But it is!! Yay hope!
Giant plastic icecreams on the way to the metro station. The family sitting outside was watching me with scorn. They probably thought I was the stereotypical tourist with camera who doesn't speak English. Well, they're WRONG!
Space/Air Museum. They're actually M&Ms. However, there is probably some copyright/royalty issue with using the phrase "Mars M&Ms".
Air/Space Museum, plastic aeroplane food way back when gas appeared "unlimited". Looks very tasty.
Some vegetable pizza. The crust... reminded me of this pizza from Pizza Hut in Australia. Or, it could've been Pizza Box, in Hong Kong. I'm not quite sure, but it was that thick, doughy and dry kinda crust. The best ever!!
Swiss Roll at breakfast time from their Asian food market. In the end we ended up trying the green tea, orange, coffee, and strawberry flavoured ones. They all tasted exactly the same, except that the strawberry one had a little zing to it. Apart from the colour, they could've all passed off for "Original!" flavour [whatever "Original!" means in company terms]. Later I found out that there was propylene glycol inside the cake. Which irked me. Yay antifreeze ingredients...
Green bean soup, with sugar and TAPIOCA. Genius! Gotta try that soon.
My parent's friend made dumplings. Egg and Chinese chives... BEST. DUMPLINGS. EVER!
I will post about La Tasca tomorrow.

Vegetarian!

"Are you vegan?"
J asked me that today when we were on the bus to the track meet [at which I did terrible. Worse than terrible, actually]. I wonder what makes him think that I could be vegan [considering I don't really talk to him much...]? I replied that I'm a vegetarian, though I've honestly considered being vegan in the past. I don't want to though, because chicken eggs and cow's milk yoghurt are huge components of my meals.
Why am I vegetarian, though? Here is my train of thought, a mish-mosh of propaganda welded together into my own beliefs.
1. Homo sapiens are evolutionally able to eat other animals - the teeth are evolutionally adapted to eating animals, AND plants. A.k.a. we are omnivores [no disputin' that].

2. Homo sapiens are evolutionally able to drink cow/goat/buffalo milk. We have enzymes. If PETA [or any other narrow-minded activist] tells you that "humans are the only species to drink milk from another species, so humans ought to be vegan", you should retort back: "So what? We're the only species that eats Boca Burgers."

3. I hate Tyson and its stupid chicken farms, oh, I mean, cages, oh, I mean, shoe-boxed sized jails. I hate McDonalds and its uncaring shredding of rainforests [for raising crappy food] and its Republicanism [sorry to bring in the politics] and lack of the concept of welfare [for both its workers and its ingredients]. I hate other restaurant chains and other animal killing operations for the fact that they're basically monopolies and jerks and freakin' uncaring. Thus, I will not buy their stuff [usually dead animals in marinade], so they won't profit. They should DIE. I could go on for hours about this.

4. This is my favourite reason ever. In simple terms: if I have a hectare of corn, I can feed myself for... let's say a month. If I have a hectare of corn and feed it to a baby cow, a month later it would've eaten all the corn. If I eat the cow, it could feed me for, perhaps, 4 days [if I made cow-butt soup or something]. Doesn't sound like much, but if you're comparing billions of people, you have a WHOLE lot more food for people.

5. I like being a rebel.

6. I'm not really into the whole animal activist crap. PETA sickens me because they are so extreme and NARROWMINDED. People Eating Tasty Animals is actually a very appropriate backronym for them, because what they do is way too absurd to be taken seriously, and they basically kill off caged animals when they "set them free into the ocean" because caged animals do not develop right, and thus aren't able to live in their natural habitat. Plus, they put a really bad name on we vegetarians/vegans. I can be a vegetarian and respect people for consuming animals.

7. People who truly care about me will respect me for being vegetarian. Great way to tell what side people are on.

8. I don't really miss eating animals. Bacon smells good. Tuna sandwiches smell good. But I'm kinda indifferent to them. It's kinda like telling me stuff about baseball. I don't really care.

9. I figured out an answer to the [grammatically incorrect] question that people always ask. "Where do you get your protein from?!", they exclaim. From now on, I will say, "Where do you get your narrow-mindedness from?" and if they reply, "What?" I will say, "Where do you get your common sense from? I get my protein from food."