Who could forget yesterday’s blog? Well, of course, you could. It wasn’t that memorable, so I’ll remind you. I wrote about two kinds of oil. Olive oil and Olive Oyl.
We all know that olive oil is one of the most popular oils in cooking. So in today’s piece, I figured I would touch on the topic of cooking and eating. I think we all have cooked something, somewhere along the line. Even if we are the worst of the food preparers, everyone has made a PB&J or heated a slice of bologna in the microwave.
But cook, we must, if we are to eat.
And eat, we must, if we are to live.
Yet, here are a few things to ponder.
We eat more than you probably would think. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the average American consumes nearly one ton of food yearly. That’s 1,996 pounds of food a year. That works out to be 5.5 pounds of food per day.
With that, the study also revealed some other interesting numbers.
Americans ate: 632 lbs. of dairy products (including 31.4 lbs. of cheese), 415.4 lbs. of vegetables (most popular being corn and potatoes), 273 lbs. of fruit, and 183.6 lbs. of meat and poultry.
I recently read an article stating that the next pandemic source could likely be caused by meat contamination. Unfortunately, meat can become tainted at any point in the supply chain. Some pathogens, such as E. coli and Salmonella, are naturally found in the digestive tracts of many of the animals we consume. It is kind of gross to think about, but true. And the contamination into our food source can happen anywhere along the process, from processing and packaging to cooking.
So. What are the safest types of meat to eat?
Well, obviously, some kinds and cuts of meat do tend to pose a greater risk than others.
And. The ones that are considered the safest may surprise you.
So if we are talking strictly from a food safety standpoint, experts agree that the lowest risk comes from processed meats, particularly those that are likely to be cooked again. Processed. So that would be things like hot dogs, bacon, and chicken nuggets.
They may not be healthy for us otherwise, but at least they don’t carry things like E. coli and Salmonella. Processing tends to eliminate any disease-causing pathogens. Then, when we cook these things again — according to package directions — it acts as an extra precaution.
Surprisingly, food safety experts consider deli meats the second safest option. Again, these meats have been processed, so even without being cooked a second time, like hot dogs and sausages, they are unlikely to cause any digestive issues.
What’s next on this list? They are also saying the pig is the way to go safely. For a long time, pork was considered one of the riskiest meats due to the prevalence of a parasite called Trichinella. And that parasite causes a disease known as trichinosis or trichinellosis. But that disease has all but been eradicated, say those grand old experts. So pork it up.
They also say ground meats aren’t dangerous, so long as we cook the stuff until it is well done. I don’t know many people who like their burgers well done, though. They get a little brick-like that way.
And the rest of the meats aren’t so bad, safety-wise, until you get to chicken.
Chicken tends to be responsible for the most food born illnesses, but that is likely because it’s the kind of meat we eat the most. Many cases of food contamination come from the mishandling of meats and cross-contamination in our own kitchens. Slop it around on the counter and you are really asking for it.
So there it is. Our food in the form of meat.
The meat.
Meet me in St. Louis, Louis. Meet me at the fair…
(That’s a song from the movie, Meet Me In St. Louis, with Judy Garland. A good one if you haven’t seen it. They have meat there. On sticks. Surrounded by cornbread. And you slather them with ketchup and mustard. Yeah, baby.)
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Not eating meat is a decision. Eating meat is an instinct.
— Unknown
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I have known many meat eaters to be far more nonviolent than vegetarians.
— Mahatma Gandhi
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They claim red meat is bad for you. But I never saw a sick-looking tiger.
— Chi Chi Rodriguez
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