Short Memories

Or is it that I'm just old and already know crap people are just rediscovering now? Prolly.

It started with the "pink slime" uproar. There's this "food product" that is basically taking the less palatable parts of the animal we've already butchered for the good parts, and process them with ammonium hydroxide to make it edible. Essentially, the "meat" used is connective tissue like ligaments and cartilage and such.

Apparently this is all of the sudden unacceptable, even though it's basically hot dog meat, or some other kind of processed sausage. I guess that once it's made into a nugget or burger patty, that's somehow deceptive and evil.

Then there's the ubiquitous 'bugs in my food' freakout every time some freshman journalist discovers that there are government standards for how much bug we allow in our processed food. A story as old as me. Or older, since I probably "re-discovered" these truths in the same way people are now.

Today I read an article from CBS News about how awful it is that Starbucks has crushed beetles in it. The same beetles that people were in a uproar over in the 90s when they found out that Snapple Watermelon has crushed cochineal beetles in it.

Credit: Frank Vincentz

 

These bugs have been used for color since before this country was founded. The color was first recorded used by Mayans in the 15th century. Our first stamps used ink made with these bugs. Carmine rose, carmine and carmine lake, all from the carminic acid found in the beetle.
In fact, this is one of the tools forensic art historians use to determine if a painting is authentic or not. There aren't many paints still made with this color, as the process to get the color is slow and expensive. Alizarin Crimson came along and supplanted it. Forgeries often fail to take this into account and use modern pigments.

Wikipedia: "Cochineal is one of the few water-soluble colorants that resist degradation with time. It is one of the most light- and heat-stable and oxidation-resistant of all the natural organic colorants and is even more stable than many synthetic food colours. The water-soluble form is used in alcoholic drinks with calcium carmine; the insoluble form is used in a wide variety of products. Together with ammonium carmine, they can be found in meat, sausages, processed poultry products (meat products cannot be coloured in the United States unless they are labeled as such), surimi, marinades, alcoholic drinks, bakery products and toppings, cookies, desserts, icings, pie fillings, jams, preserves, gelatin desserts, juice beverages, varieties of cheddar cheese and other dairy products, sauces, and sweets."

Curse You, Anthony Bourdain

I've been craving real food so badly the last few weeks. I sit and watch Food Network and Travel Channel shows to torture myself. Anthony Bourdain's Cajun episode replayed and I had to watch it. Actually, they serve a good purpose, I guess. They make me so hungry, I can force myself to pour another can down my tube and hopefully gain back some weight. My pre-surgery weight was around 180, which was down from my average 185 to begin with. Right now I'm at 157. Almost 30 lbs lost over the last four months.

But the craving... I've tried scrambled eggs, soup, mashed potatoes, and for the most part, I can swallow it without too much trouble. It hurts and doesn't go down perfectly but it's doable. Last night I made chocolate pudding in the hopes that chocolate, being the last thing I could really taste, might be the first taste to come back. Nope. And the complete lack of taste makes eating it so much more difficult than the physical pain and discomfort. It makes me a little queasy, eating something with no flavor, like I'm doing it wrong or something. I really feel that if they could develop a pill that kills people's sense of taste, they could market it as a diet drug. 5 bites and I'm done.

On the other hand, I opened a Diet Coke and tried to drink it. I was surprised by the fact that I could kinda taste it, but more surprised at how much it burned the inside of my mouth. Like acid tearing through my skin. Oh wait, it is acid... I still managed to drink about a quarter of the can and the burning lessened with each try.

I'm finally feeling less fatigued. Hopefully I can get stuff done today. Like shipping the paintings people were kind enough to buy from my Etsy shop. Up until this week it's been difficult to do much more than sit and click a mouse. Even typing is tiring. But, my mouth is almost healed, the dead skin has finally started peeling off my neck and I was able to sleep through most of the night without waking to clear my throat. Slowly but surely.

Slowly But Surely

I think I'm finally turning a corner. The burns in my mouth are starting to heal finally and I don't feel as tired as I had been. The burns on my neck are much better. I haven't really been out since my parents left, except to go to my doctor's appointment. Had no energy to do much and driving is tough because of the muscle issues in my neck and shoulder.

I tried to eat a few times. Tonight I tried a scrambled egg. I got most of it down before the lack of flavor made it nasty. It's amazing how hard it is to eat when nothing has flavor. If they could make a pill to do this temporarily, they could market it as the ultimate diet pill. I still crave something real, like a hamburger or something. Kevin bought chocolate popsicles but they taste like unflavored ice. Maybe chocolate will be the first taste to come back, it was the last to leave.