Waffling

What I talk about when I talk about the dangers of formaldehyde, a new study on UPF diets, cultured foie gras regulatory applications and soil using biochar.

Hello, Hello. Nice to see you here. Thank you for reading Technically Food, and welcome new subscribers Elena, William, Sarah, Prabjhot and Craig. A quick reminder that my archives are always available to paid subscribers and available for one month (from post) to free subscribers.

I’ve been waffling on what to write about this week. Y’all know I love to go deep on ultra processed food. Also called “food-like substances” by Michael Pollan and my own name for it: pre-digested food. Some intriguing news in the UPF world came out of the NIH this week from Kevin Hall. In the study, currently under evaluation, Hall found (again) that folks consume more calories on a UPF diet – ultra-processed, hyper-palatable foods – versus a minimally processed diet. And not just a few calories. 1,000 calories!

Pears have a surprising amount of naturally occurring formaldehyde, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s the formaldehyde in man-made materials that we want out of our built environments. Photo by Applesnpearsau / Flickr.

Study participants ate four randomized diets: ultra-processed and hyper-palatable; ultra-processed high in energy density and low in hyper-palatable; ultra-processed low in energy density and low in hyper-palatable; and minimally processed. In this study, one goal is to tease out the effects of foods high in hyper palatablity and energy density are doing to our bodies.

Participants reported similar measures of hunger, fullness and eating satisfaction on all four diets. On the UPF diet participants increased intake, gained weight, and body fat. Only on the minimally processed diet did participants lose body fat. I’ll leave this topic here because the study isn’t published yet. I’m already a full believer in the chronic health conditions caused by the over consumption of junk food in our SAD diet. (Our over consumption of UPF is not our fault. It’s what’s cheap and all too available.)

For a more nuanced essay about the complexities of covering health and nutrition for mainstream publications, please read Gary Taubes’ recent Substack on the topic. Taubes writes deeply on topics I care about including sugar and diabetes. He’s worth following.

The other item knocking around in my mind is from a recent ProPublica piece about formaldehyde — a gas that increases our chances of getting cancer. (Sidebar: it’s “almost always impossible to pinpoint a single cause for someone’s cancer.”) I recently lost my aunt Mary and my next door neighbor Linda to cancers that were so pervasive that no specific cancer could be pinpointed. These losses sit heavy in my heart.

Long long long ago, if you had to dissect a frog in high school, it might have been kept in a jar of formaldehyde. Photo by Charcoal Soul / Flickr.

After an inordinate amount of research, ProPublica staffers found that “public health risks from formaldehyde are greater and more prevalent than widely understood — and any hope of fully addressing them may well be doomed, at least for the foreseeable future.” The gas naturally occurs in small amounts in fruits and vegetables but the version we’re worried about is what’s found in cleaners, new cars, building materials and too many others to list here.

What stopped me from worrying about the deluge of UPF made by Big Food was ProPublica’s lookup tool that allowed me to find my address to see my own threat from formaldehyde. Then I looked up my parents and my close friends. It’s not great. As I laid in bed looking at my four walls, I thought about my house, which was built in the late 30s. It’s had little in the way of remodels so when I curse my home for its poor insulation, I’m also possibly happy it’s poorly insulated.

For anyone interested in reading more, the article walks us through why the chemical has perpetuated in our built environment and outlasted even the evils of PFAS only to finally gain traction under Biden. The industry is still pushing back on regulations and we can only assume that our next president will allow them to continue.

Onwards for now and back to waffles because I can’t write a newsletter about only the bad stuff.

Are frozen waffles UPF? I looked over the dozens of options online and here are the ones I’d buy. They’re made of apples, carrots, zucchini, and green peas. The rest of the ingredients are things you can easily find in your kitchen. Side note: the pea protein you find formulated into so many foods these days is made by extracting protein from yellow field peas. The fact that this brand calls out “green peas” is a sign of good transparency. You cannot make pea protein at home!

And one more reason to smile. Here’s the best video I’ve seen this week. (It’s a spoof on Costco.)

I’m just here for the tidbits:

1. Looks like my hope for someone making soil sexy is becoming a thing. New startup Rosy Soil raised $3.6M in seed funding to create peat-less soil. Peat, the removal of which is damaging to wild peat bogs, is replaced with biochar. Biochar is made (or upcycled) from organic waste. From there it’s added into a soil mix to support our plants. The plastic bag the soil comes in is made from plants. Let’s hope the bag is also backyard compostable.

2. Ever wonder whether new countertop composters work? I stash my own compost in the freezer until the container is full. From there it goes into my green bin, and my local trash company turns into organic soil sold to farms. Every municipality is different. In the county I live in, I can’t add compostable dishes, utensils or cups because it won’t break down into organic waste. Countertop machines claim they can handle compostable tableware, but I’ve wondered how true their claims are. Wonder no more. A NYC friend of mine put them all to the test for The Wirecutter. There’s a ton of research here and if you have the time you’ll want to dig down.

3. Recalls continue: onions at McDonald’s, SunFed cucumbers and Costco eggs. What is going on here? Why so many recalls? Some blame the FDA and others blame process issues exacerbated by Covid. What can you do? Keep your kitchen super clean, stay alert to news about these stories and shop at your local farmer’s market.

4. Gourmey, a cultured foie gras maker, is seeking approval in the UK and EU for its synthetic ingredient. Gourmey is the first startup to seek approval in the EU, which is notoriously difficult and more rigorous in its novel food and ingredient regulations. Applications are pending in the US, Switzerland, and Singapore. If they receive a yes, it will be a big win for the cultured meat community. Via Tribu.

5. The UK is banning all junk food ads before 9pm. This includes online and television ads. “Junk food” refers to fast food, soda, chips, yogurt, cereal, ice cream, and cookies. If there’s added sugar, it’s on the list, which you can check out here. The ban doesn’t start until October 2025 unfortunately. A lag that gives the industry time to do its usual avoidance and lobbying.

What I’m reading:

1. Republicans continue to stir up trouble for alternative proteins. This time they’re up in arms over China’s increased interest in the category. Alternative proteins, which I write about often, includes cultured meat, protein from microbes, precision fermentation of whey, casein and egg proteins, mycelium, and protein from single-cell organisms. There’s a great opinion piece in the NYTimes on the us-versus-them problem, which isn’t a problem really, it’s that US senators want to vilify the idea of how we might eat without traditional animals fueling our appetite. My only complaint with this essay is that the author compares China’s love of tofu (I love it too!) to their willingness to embrace alt-proteins. However, once their government says to do something we can assume they’ll do it.

2. At night I’m all about fiction. Right now I’m reading Colored Television by Danzy Senna. Next up is Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles so that I can watch the show!