Potassium Bromate in bread: Cancer causing food additive

I was making french toast this morning. I was making with omega 3 packed brown egg, organic soy milk and organic vanilla extract. All sounded good (however I heard there is no health benefit difference between brown egg and white egg even the color of egg yolk is different). But I was using white bread to the healthy dip to make actually potentially risky food! I love bread and I usually stick with bread made with whole wheat unbleached flour with no or less preservatives. But once a while I buy white bread for the taste (smooth, fluffy, less grainy). Especially for french toast, I like using thick white bread over anything else.

But I was shocked when I saw the ingredients of the white bread I bought from particular store, it contains "potassium bromate". This additive is used to strengthen bread dough to increase the volume and to produce bread with a fine crumb. That's why the bread is fluffy and has fine texture. Most bromate breaks down with heat, but when bread is not cooked with high enough temperature, small amount of bromate may remain.

Potassium bromate is known as cancer causing additive. Lab found kidney cancer on mouse. It is banned to use in most of the country, but is it not banned in US. In California, under proposition 65, the law requires to put warming sign on the labels. I see these signs sometimes on the shelves but I find stores and packages made us uneasy to find out the little label.
The list of current proposion 65 has 22 pages long (!) of all the chemicals to cause cancer. Is it very important to read all list of ingredients on the label and avoid to consume these chemicals. It is said the amount and risk to cause cancer is small and it is safe by FDA, but imagine if we eat this small amount of 'said to be non- risky' chemicals every day every meal for entire life, which most likely we do in some degree, the amount is no longer small amount as they say. Please be responsible with your health!!

Pizza in Milan

My newest obsession: Milan, Italy ! I absolutely love almost everything there that I can find. Stylish people, amazing food, great coffee, beautiful details, fabulous shops, even the crazy traffic that will take you 30 min via 18 different streets to go to one small block away on the map by car around Milano Centro. It's like in the movie.

I thought it's amazing that, from my opinion, the food looks to be cooked simply using good raw ingredients and good olive oil in Milan. The taste is yet amazingly rich and deep.

And pizza they have is something you can't find in US unless you find the fancy restaurant on fancy street.  Shrimp, prosciutto and arugula on thin crust !! It is sooooo good. And the salad is simply served with no dressing. Only dressing is extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar on the table! And it tastes so good ! Now I am not so interested in blue cheese dressing anymore.

Sunscreen Ingredients we should avoid

 Summer is now almost here. I also take skin care seriously as much as food I eat. It got me attention when I know the truth about sunscreen. I used to only care about the number of SPF and the title of the sunscreen. But there are more important facts to know about the ingredients. According to EWG (environmental working group), lot of sunscreen lotion contain ingredients may damage DNA and skin cell and disrupt the body's hormone systems, some even may speed the development of skin tumors.

Some of ingredients used for 'chemical' sunscreen to avoid:

• Oxybenzone (notorious hormone disruptor)
• Octyl methoxycinnimate (hormone disruptor)
• 4-MBC (hormone disruptor)
• Retinyl Palmitate or Retinol * ( form of vitamin A = when applied to the skin in the presence of light, it can form free radicals that damage DNA and may develop skin tumors and lesions)

Better choice of ingredients for sunscreen:

• Mineral sunscreen contains UVA protection, which does not appear to penetrate the skin
• Zinc oxide (mineral sunscreen)
• Titanium dioxide (mineral sunscreen) **
• Avobenzone (3% for the best UVA protection)
• Mexoryl SX (ecamsule) (European chemical sunscreen formula)
• Tinosorb S and M (European chemical sunscreen formula)

Sunscreens Exposed: 9 surprising truths | EWG's 2011 Sunscreen Report | EWG's Skin Deep

*  Contradicting to the fact that Retinol or Retinyl palmitate is used in anti-aging cream to reduce wrinkles and sun spots and increase collagen to regain elasticity of your skin. However, it can't be used in the presence of light even with sunscreen. If you are using Retinol skin care product, use only at night and have very good sun protection during the day.

** Titanium dioxide controversy: although Titanium dioxide is listed as safe mineral, the form of ultrafine or namo particles (less than 0.1 microns = 100 nanometers(nm)) can penetrate the cells, leading to photocatalysis within the cell, causing DNA damage after exposure to sunlight. Coarse (less then 10 microns = 10000 nm) or fine (less than 2.5 microns = 2500nm) particles are safe and effective at deflecting and absorbing UV light, protecting the skin.

 This one is what I start to use this summer. Aubrey Organics Natural Sun SPF 30+ Unscented for sensitive skin and children 
So far, the coverage is very good. There is no typical sunscreen smell that I don't like. Lotion is kind of heavy. If you apply on your face and take picture with flash, I think the face will show very white......
There is same thing with SPF15. It is little more creamier than 30+ and less paste like.

Ramen Noodle Recipe with Vegetable: 1

Even I try to eat so called 'healthy', it's not like I eat salmon, broccoli and brown rice all the time. I sometimes even eat instant ramen noodle for convenience! But every time I do this crime, I add or avoid little to the package and suddenly it will make meal not so bad. Just find any kind of hard leafy vegetable in the fridge and cook and add. Also, one very bad thing about instant ramen is the soup base comes with it. It contains amazingly high amount of sodium and long list of chemicals. For instance, the one package of Sapporo Ichiban Miso ramen shows sodium of 663mg per 1/3 block of noodles with soup. It looks like one package contains that much, but actually three times more. That means, if you drink all the soup base, you will consume 1,989 mg of sodium by eating 1 pack. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day — or 1,500 mg if you're age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. I know the soup is what ramen makes good, but when I cook, I don't eat soup.
  
Miso Ramen noodle with Vegetables
( Serving: 1, Cooking time: 10 min.)

Ingredients

1. Instant Miso Ramen noodle: 1
   
2. Kale: 2
3. Broccoli crown
4. Organic carrots: 2 sliced
5. Shiitake Mushroom: 1 sliced
6. Organic green onion: 1 chopped
7. Sesami Oil (or Olive Oil): 1/2 table spoon

Direction:

1. Cut all vegetables and saute (except for green onion) with sesami / olive oil for 2 min with medium heat till some part of the surface of some vegetable (carrots) gets light brown. Cover and cook for additional 3+ min till vegetable is cooked. Don't cook to long. Cook vegetable as much as you desire if you like. Don't add salt when cooked. For less fat version, steam vegetable instead of sauteing.
2. Cook Ramen noodle as directed on package.
3. Add cooked vegetables and chopped green onion on top of noodles.

Carrot Cake after making Carrot Juice

After making carrot juice, I made carrot muffin using grated carrot bits left over from juicer. Even all the juice was sucked out from carrots, it was surprisingly very good. Since there are lots of left over carrot bits from making 2 litters of juice out of 3 kg of carrots. Here is the carrot cake I made using cast iron skillet. It's crispy at top and soft inside.

The Best Carrot Juice ever for me

I am not really crazy about carrot juice. The juice I have had from store is either too strong and bitter, or too sweet yet  too much "carrot" taste without any other taste. (of course it's carrot taste because it's carrot juice...) But I changed my mind after I had this one. I use organic carrots because then I don't need to peel the skin. Carrots have a lot of nutrition near skin. But at the same time, non-organic carrots have pesticide or other chemicals on the surface and it could make juice taste bitter. That's why I use organic carrots. Just wash well and cut the top and put in the juicer.

Carrot Juice
( Makes 2 litters)

Ingredients:

1. Organic Carrots: 3 kg (6 lb 8 oz)
   
2. Organic Strawberry: 7 big pieces or 200g
3. Organic Fuji Apple: 1

Direction:

1. Put everything in the juicer.
2. Save carrot bits from juicer for carrot cake or muffin!!

Chicken Drumsticks with Shiitake Mushroom and Tomato Red Wine Sauce

Another my favorite chicken drumstick recipe. It's fantastic dish for economically challenging time. It's fantastic dish for not so economically challenging time too. Again, easy. But this time I took time to cook chicken (1 hr) to make very tender. Make sure you take out skin before you cook (for health benefit = less fat). It will still taste really good without skin flavor.

Chicken Drumsticks w/ Shiitake Mushroom and Tomato Red Wine Sauce
(Serving: 3~   / Prep time: 5 min / Cooking time: 1 hr 45min)

 

Ingredients:

1. Chicken Drumsticks skinned (1 kg)
   
2. Onion: 1 medium-large (200 g) sliced
3. Organic ripe Tomato on the vine: 4 large (400 g) cut in 1/8
4. Shiitake Mushroom: 120g, sliced
5. Chicken Broth (low sodium): 1 cup
6. Red Wine: 1 cup
7. Bay leaves: 3 leaves
8. Sea salt: 1/2 teaspoon
9. Olive oil: 1 tablespoon
10. Butter: 1 tablespoon
11. (option) Marinara sauce: 2 table spoons
12. (option) Worcestershire sauce: 1/2 tea spoon

Direction:

1. In the pan (I use cast iron skillet to cook), melt butter and saute onion for 5 min and set aside.
2. In the same pan, pour olive oil and saute seasoned (sea salt) chicken for 5 min flip the drumsticks and cook additional 3 min till surface is lightly brown.
3. Add cooked onion, shiitake mushroom and tomato and saute for 2 min until mushroom is cooked.
4. Add red wine, chicken broth, bay leaves. Cover (mostly, but not completely) and cook with low heat for 1 hour.
5. Uncover and (add marinara sauce and worcestershire sauce for more taste if you need) cook with medium low heat till sauce gets thick about 30 min. Stair sauce occasionally.

* Sauce tastes better when you use fresh organic ripe tomato on the vine and it will make difference in taste where and when you get tomato. If the tomato itself is tasty, then you don't need to add marinara sauce.

* Originally this recipe was cooking with white wine. But I start using red wine and I like it. So I changed the recipe a little bit for red wine.You can substitute red wine with white wine.

The best and healthier Pancakes : Whole wheat Blueberry Pancake with soy milk

This is by far the most healthiest pancake recipe using whole wheat flour and unsweetened soy milk. Although it sounds bland, it tastes actually really good !! As you can see, I don't put any refined sugar in the ingredients. I use maple syrup (real maple syrup) instead. 

Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancake w/ soy milk

( Makes 8 large pancakes)

Ingredients

1. Organic Whole wheat flour: 2 cups
   
2. Baking powder: 1teaspoon
3. Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon
4. Fine grain sea salt: 1/2 teaspoon
5. Egg (organic): 2 large
6. Unsweetened soy milk: 2 cups
7. Unsalted butter: 2 tablespoons melted
8. Maple syrup (organic, grade B): 2 tablespoons
9. Organic Blueberry (frozen or fresh): 1/2 cups

Direction:

1. Melt butter. Use microwave (for convenience) for 20+ sec till butter just melt.
2. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt). Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl combine eggs, soy milk, melted butter, and maple syrup. Mix till all ingredients are well combined.
4. Add wet mixture into dry mixture. Use spatula combine the mixture like slicing the batter. Don't mix too much. Flour doesn't need to be completely mixed.
5. Heat the griddle to medium high. Pour batter and equally divided blueberry on top and cook till bottom is golden, edge of the pancake is cooked and till the bubble shows up on the top side batter. Flip the pancake and cook the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

* Using pancake griddle makes it perfectly even heated pancake. If you don't have it, use non- stick coated pan. Then you don't need to worry about putting extra butter or other grease on the pan to cook. The batter already contains butter in it. Butter is saturated fat. It's not good to consume much.

* Eat with Maple syrup.My favorite - GRADE B ORGANIC. More amber flavor and nutrition.

My Shopping List: Organic Whole wheat flour, Grade B organic maple syrup, 365 Organic Unsweetened Soymilk
Where: for flour:  Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market 
for maple syrup, soy milk : Whole Foods