Melody's Food Safety Blog

I find that the Ketogenic diet is very popular in Taiwan in recent years, especially for people who want to lose weight. There are also restaurants selling Ketogenic foods on the streets of Taipei. I've always wanted to learn more about this new food choice, though I'm not a medical student or a doctor or nutritionist, eating choices about social behavior are all related to food safety. So it's interesting to start looking at this type of diet for Taiwanese, or perhaps people around the globe.     Ketogenic Diet v.s. Weight Loss First, we must know what is the Ketogenic diet. After researching it, I found that the so-called "ketogenic diet" is actually eating "low-carb, high-fat food" (1). This actually surprised me. It makes me wonder how do you lose weight if you only cut the intake of carbohydrate but increase the intake amount of fat? How can such a diet be healthy? We can see that many articles on the Internet suggest that when choosin...

Recently, more people are concerned about animal welfare and animal rights. Speaking of them, I attended an educational training course hosted by the National Animal Industry Foundation in Taipei a few weeks ago. During the course, the speaker said that the reason for Taiwan to legalize tail docking of swine is because when the density of animals in a narrow space is too high, the tail of a pig can easily cause other pigs to feel upset and irritable, which could cause cannibalism, especially the situation of tail biting. Since tails are close to the anus, it’s easy to cause bacterial infection. Although this is a very practical issue, I literally laughed when I heard this. This sounds like a law designed to promote animal welfare and reduce the number of unhappy and aggressive pigs; however, isn't the best welfare for animals is to let them grow naturally with plenty of space to move around? It makes me wonder if tail-docking swine is in favor of animal welfare for pigs or economi...

Since the emergence of industrial agriculture, we’ve been asking the wrong question: “How do we make the most possible money; rather than how do we produce the most appropriate food?”    Our food system has problems in every aspect. The system we have today is to produce and market food for the benefit of businesses. However, if what we, as customers, want is to be able to eat healthy, safe, and affordable food, then what we need is a system to try to achieve that goal. Sustainable is the agriculture issue that concerns me the most. How can the distribution of food for humans and livestock be met without the continued exploitation of natural resources? How to deal with the so-called meat culture? How to make the agriculture system sustainable? There is a ginormous amount of land being mined for growing commodity crops e.g., corn and soybeans because they have a high production rate and they can shorten the growth time of food animals reaching the slaughtered weig...

1. Improperly Cleaning Fruits and Vegetables No matter you are going to eat the skin of a fruit or vegetable or not, you need to rinse it before consumption. Once the skins of fruits and vegetables become incomplete, bacteria can enter the food. Just imagine the sanitary conditions while transporting the crops. However, do not use soap, detergent, or bleach to clean the skins. Only the use of running water would be good. 2. Thawing On Kitchen Counter Bacteria thrive easily at room temperature. Even if the food was frozen, it is not safe to thaw it at room temperature. If you want to defrost raw meat, a better way is to thaw it in the fridge. For example, thaw the meat tonight in the fridge that you plan to eat at noon tomorrow. But if you are in a rush, it's relatively safe to defrost your food in a microwave. Otherwise, keep food in cold water while keeping it dry, however, remember to change the water at least every 30 minutes. Of course, it is also okay to thaw foo...

Today, I want to share with you guys why I think Food Safety is important. I’ve been to some interviews lately, and have been asked the reasons why I like food safety. So, I came home and thought about the answer. Here are five main reasons for me to care so much about food safety. Please feel free to share your reasons with me if you have any.  1. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if we got no food to satisfy our physiological needs, how can we achieve the need for self-actualization? 2. We as the oriental say, “Bread is everything.” The ancients put the needs of humans in this sequence:  food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, and recreational activities. Have anyone ever thought of why “food” is at the first of the sequence? If a person can't get enough to eat, will he care about what he's wearing? When you have no food to eat and no clothes to wear, would you care if you had a house to live in? Or perhaps, to even consider getting an education or ...

1.            All proteins originate in plants All of the protein that you get when you eat a steak or a hamburger came from the plants that the cow ate. Meaning, all proteins originate in plants. 2.            Meat eaters get half their protein from plants The largest study to compare the nutrient intake of meat-eaters with plant eaters showed that the average plant-eater not only get enough protein but 70% more than they need. Meat-eaters get roughly half of their protein from plants. 3.            Protein from plants has higher quality Do you know that one cup of cooked lentils or a peanut butter sandwich has about as much protein as three ounces of beef or three large eggs? Yet, protein from plants has the higher quality from animal food. Because every single plant contains all the essential amino acids that the human b...

I watched a documentary that completely blew my mind about how much energy you will get from having a plant-based diet. The name of the film is <The Game Changers>. I totally recommend it to those who are working out; who are doing exercises; and for those who would like to be more healthy.  We would probably all think of “protein” when we think of words like “exercise”, “fitness”, “muscle”, “strong”, or “energy”. And seems like it's natural to associate protein with meat in modern days. But why? Have anyone ever try to think of the reason why and when protein and those words have become synonym?  The movie talks about the history of protein and those words. The idea of “Meat Gives You Energy” came out in the 19th century in German, when a famous chemist, Justus Von Liebig, publicized that the muscular energy came from animal protein and that vegetarians weren’t capable of doing prolonged exercise. He’s believe was so wildly accepted that even inspired the f...

According to the WHO, nearly one in ten people get sick from food every year. Looking into Asia, 125 million people suffer from foodborne illness each year, and more than 50,000 of them die. Forty-million of the population who suffer from foodborne illness are children under the age of five, among them, 7,000 die each year. Although there are low numbers of death by foodborne illnesses or food poisoning in Taiwan, we shouldn’t forget about chronic diseases! There’s a slang saying, "Illness finds its way in by the mouth." So, what chronic diseases are related to bad eating habits? Knowing how many people die and why they die each year is one of the most critical ways to assess the effectiveness of a country's health system and how the disease affects its people. Three out of the top ten causes of death both worldwide and within Taiwan are deeply related to food choices. This is a food safety issue. Food safety is about making sure that people can have safe and he...

I watched a documentary on Netflix that completely blew up my mind about the livestock industry. People who care about eco-friendly global issues should definitely watch this film! To anyone who cares. Please go watch COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret “We must consume meat to get a sufficient amount of protein for daily use.” “Meat gives us protein.” These are a myth in fact. In general, people think vegans are thin and without muscles, however, Mac Danzig, a mixed material art champion, stated that he is a vegan and he has noticed that since he stopped consuming any animal proteins, he is more energetic during training and exercise and his muscles grow and repair faster and better than before.  Many studies have shown that vegans have a much lower risk of getting cancer, chronic diseases, and cardiovascular diseases than those who eat meat. They even have a lower death rate.  In fact, the higher the intake of dairy products (milk, cheese, etc.), the higher the r...