The darker side of shelf life

In this issue: A study linking 12 preservatives to cancer and Type-2 diabetes, getting our calories from goo, and the demise of vegan menu items at McDonald's. Plus book giveaways.

Hello, hello. Welcome to Technically Food, my newsletter about food for people that care. A study came across my desk that I can’t stop thinking about. Out of 17 common preservatives, the study connected 12 of them to a rise in several cancers along with Type-2 diabetes.

Preservatives are those pesky “ingredients” (quotes mine) found primarily in packaged and frozen foods. Preservatives are added to extend shelf life and retain product integrity. Apples don’t need anything, but apple slices might include calcium ascorbate, ascorbic acid, citric acid, or calcium chloride. These aren’t wholly bad per se, but if your diet was made up of 75% or more of packaged foods then, the question researchers had was, did your risk for cancer and Type-2 diabetes rise?

The answer was yes.

Researchers reviewed the diets of over one hundred thousand people looking for the most frequently consumed pairs of additives. The mean age of the survey was 42 years old and about 80% were women. This was a nice change of pace when it seems as if most studies look at a dozen healthy men in their twenties.

Image by ChatGPT

In looking deeper into cancer, researchers found that while “eleven were not associated with cancer incidence, and no link was found between preservatives overall and cancer,” people who consumed more packaged foods with preservatives had higher rates of overall cancer.

Sodium nitrite for example — bacon, hot dogs, etc — was linked to 32% increase in prostrate cancer. Potassium nitrate — bacon, hot dogs, deli meats, some cheeses — was linked to a 22% increase in breast cancer. The list goes on but I’ll leave it there. The study is worth checking out along with this piece in The Guardian.

In nutrition studies there are always caveats. In this case more research needs to be done including, we hope, clinical trials digging deeper into ultra processed foods that require preservatives, which have become the staples of the Standard American Diet.

Now for something fun: I’m giving away a book to one lucky paid subscriber. The book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now? by Ruby Tandoh, former Great British Bake-Off contestant. In the book, I learned what rocketed bubble tea to such an atmospheric rise in popularity. Tandoh says it’s the biggest trend since hamburgers in the 50s (in the UK). Bubble tea is a diverse category. I thought it only meant drinks with tapioca pearls. Tandoh describes the texture of tapioca as “a dense bounciness between mochi and fish balls” (totally agree!), and she writes that this texture is called “QQ.” But bubble tea, she wrote, could be almost anything bright and flavorful with juice and other add-ons. The book is full of food trends and it will go out in the mail soon.

The next book in my giveaways is by Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute. His book is titled: “Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food — and Our Future,” and it just came out this week. Become a paid subscriber and you’ll be included in the pool of names for the giveaway.

I hope you had a great week and are thinking about how to extend your own personal shelf life. The ingredients for that? Sleep, diet, exercise, less stress, and fun. Get to it.

I’m just here for the tidbits:

1. In my in-box this week, a press release about a group of nursing students who were investigating the Upside Down Food Pyramid (UDFP anyone?) After talking to one nurse, says the press release, the three nursing students determined that ‘Real foods’ like full-fat milk and yogurt, butter and red meat would “bring sweeping changes to school meals across the nation, including the federally funded School Breakfast Program.” Complete nutrition is valuable to everyone, especially kids in school, and changes to the food pyramid — whole milk, fewer whole grains, no sugar and more animal protein — can accomplish that but it is just one way to eat, not the only way.

2. On LinkedIn this week, I read a post from Kimberlie Le, the co-founder of Prime Roots, a vegan deli meat company. (Prime Roots appears in my book, Technically Food.) Le tried McDonald’s veggie dips when she was traveling in the UK. She wrote: “Mushy texture, confusing flavor profile, virtually no protein —somewhere between the worst arancini and mashed potatoes.” Kim’s mom is a chef and she grew up in the kitchen, so I respect her opinion. In a video I watched, the dippers look like fried empty husks. Last week, McDonald’s UK announced they’d be dropping 80% of the its vegan menu items. Not on the chopping block was the McPlant, which Kim thought was “great.” (When I tried it a few years ago in SF, it was very far from great.) I asked Le why there were so many unappetizing vegan products on the market. Le blamed the people formulating the products who were “a.) vegan and haven't had meat in 20 years or b.) a meat eater trying to develop for what they think vegans will like.” The industry would be in a much better place if plant-based foods went through more sensory analysis and consumer testing.

3. Remember Soylent and the engineers that loved getting their “food” from powder that didn’t need to be cooked? The NYT covered the rise of all-in-one protein shakes and bars. The grabby headline was: “Let Them Eat Goo.” The brands they name check included Liquid Salad, Ka’Chava, ABC 360 Bar and Huel. This category is exploding and there is much to consider. Liquid Salad comes in a baby food pouch. Feel good about sipping out of liquid food stored for who knows how long in plastic? I don’t. Also, the fiber may still be there but not in its original form. Ka’Chava has too many ingredients, many are fine but there are several gums and binders so it’s also not for me. You will definitely find a protein bar in my fanny pack when I’m out on the trail, but I’d rather eat whole foods or a bar (in an emergency) and last a smoothie (if I was stuck in an elevator for 8 hours). And yet another new shake, Maeva, that crossed my path and also has far too many ingredients, not all great, in one single-serving pouch.

   

4. Here’s something I never thought of: A Taco Bell open until 3am that serves alcohol. It’s called Taco Bell Cantina and in San Francisco it’s on Third Street near Giants Stadium. You can also find it in Pacifica, Las Vegas and Austin.

5. Did you grow up drinking Minute Maid OJ—the kind you mixed with water from a frozen can? I did. Hard to forget that icy pulp and hardly real taste? I can’t recall the last time I saw anyone buying frozen juices. You? And this is probably why Coca-Cola is phasing out the cans after 80 years. Coca-Cola named “shifting consumer preferences” for the demise of the category. If you loved that not-quite-real taste you’ll want to head out to the freezer section stat.

Where you can find me:

1. I’ll be in conversation with Nancy Matsumoto who is a wonderfully prolific writer and friend. Her latest book is called Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System, which we will talk about at Book Passage in Corte Madera on March 22nd.