Tapdance of the Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats are very amusing. Our government has decided that we need legions of them to keep all of us informed and safe. Lets look at the latest of two groups. First we have the Environmental Protection Agency and their buddies. They maintain voluminous files of chemicals (identified by CAS number for clarity) and their effects on us. One of the baddest chemicals is acrylamide. Since it is used to purify water, limits are set by the Food and Drug Administration as no more than .2% of content in food, and up to 10 mg polyacrylamide/L water can be used to wash or peel fruits and vegetables.
Next we visit the United States Department of Agriculture. They are the creators of the food pyramid. I see a a nice baked potato, corn, breads, and all sorts of other forms of grain and starchy foods right at the base of that food pyramid. These foods are supposed to not only be good for you, but they are the foundation food group. The most basic of foods.
So where has this chemical shown up? In starchy foods cooked at high temperature (by baking or frying). Although you will hear that french fries and potato chips are the worst offenders, this chemical is found in baked potatoes, bread, crackers, cookies, corn chips, breakfast cereal, taco shells, pop corn, in fact, any starchy food that is cooked at high temperature.
Now there are advocates who say we should put warnings on various foods (similar to cigarette warnings and saccharin warnings) indicating that the foods can cause cancer (look to California to lead on this front).
I wonder if the Lord's Prayer will need to be revised from "Give us this day our daily bread" to something more contemporary like "Protect us today from our daily bread."
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