CHEATS. Oh how American Business Rulers love those cheats. Better living through the Chemical Feast

Cheating, It's not just Tom Brady and a little gas, or the incredibly slow and seemingly stupid lineman back in high school biology copying answers from you so he could pass and go on to make 3 mil a year in the NFL; it's pretty much the American way of life. Cheating encompasses just about every aspect of our existence and is widely accepted by our political leaders, CEO's of every major (and even most of the minor) producers of foods and drugs, and yes, even every single individual consumer. Yeah, it's true, our government has legitimized cheating. And we as consumers, for the majority anyway, don't care. It's all right there, all you have to do is be aware of what you buy and eat, read the ingredients. You'll see it. Most of the processed foods on the shelves will tell you that they are cheats. And most of America, don't care. 

Cheats come in a number of categories. I know this sounds weird, but a lot of foods that we consume as traditional staples in our diets, contain large amounts of added salt, sugar, or fat. These are natural cheats. The addition of these into any recipe by the manufacturer are for the purpose of increasing mouthfeel and taste perception. Yikes, that's a tough one. They don't always increase taste, they increase the perception of flavor. And there is a difference there. Adding larger amounts of these (what are perceived as natural) ingredients increases that perception of flavor. And as we all know, flavor actually is about 80% sensed within our sense of smell. Food processing pretty much

removes most of the natural scents intrinsic within the foods we eat so the addition of basic sensory flavors salt and sweet have a greater perception for consumers. And of course some of the big agrigiants take that concept to the extreme. Here we see the ingredients to peanut butter Cap'n Crunch. If you look at the first line, we see that the amount of sodium is actually above the amount of 2300 mg that the USDA recommends daily. And there is a significant amount of sugar. Over 30% of the cereal by weight, is sugar. But that much sugar is needed to mask the huge amount of salt. And let's not forget that these figures are for a standard serving size of three quarters of a cup of cereal. When I was a kid, I filled a cereal bowl with stuff like this, it wasn't any three quarters of a cup. 

Well, let's get past that, and go on to other flavor cheats. Flavor enhancers. Simple ones we have known about for a long time now are MSG and it's family of derivatives. There is a lot of controversy about MSG, scientists all over the world are publishing findings that show it to destroy nerve cells and interfere with normal brain function. And the manufacturers of the stuff and those agrigiants that use the stuff to enhance whatever flavor is left after processing, cite the US FDA (that does ABSOLUTELY no testing itself on ingredient safety) states that MSG and any product made with concentrated glutamate compounds, is safe to use. (Okay, a side note, the FDA approves the use of azodicarbonamide for food use. The EPA declares it too toxic for use in food. ((FDA and poison)) and only to be used in the US for industrial purposes.) I know, just because the feds say it's safe, I personally don't believe them. Science, being the highly subjective discipline it is and dependent on funding from manufacturers for the most part really will never have any specific definitive opinion on anything. 

But then there are a whole family of other flavor enhancers that are coming into vogue. I've talked about them before, back when I did the "What's in your food" series a few months ago. But they are related, some bad, some not so bad, like the Disodium twins - guanylate and inosinate. Which are not specifically seen to be mutagenic or carcinogenic. At least there haven't been any research done yet on the stuff. Inosinic acid, a whole family of ribonucleotides and the most expensive (therefore rarely used) but probably the safest, Guanylic Acid. And lesser known and used because it is less effective are the Maltol and Ethyl Maltol, which comes from larch tree bark or pine needles. All these compounds and additives are available to food manufacturers and are known collectively by the title of this article, cheats. They have one function, to alter the perceived flavor profile of the manufactured food product in which they are added. Cheats. Cheating. Prestidigitation. Sleight of hand, or perhaps, your food dollars.

Sometimes I think that I'm the only person in America that believes this is wrong.

Depending on your point of view, whether it be that of one of those placing their faith on evolution, or of one that believes that we, the planet and all living things on it were created in one swift wave of the hand, or command of the almighty; none of the cheats were included as standard fare for consumption by humans in any scenario. They all are, created by men specifically for one purpose, to make dull crappy foods bright and vibrant tasting. With as little cost as possible and with few detectable side effects. And of course, to be able to achieve regulatory approval easily. In today's world, that's a big one. The FDA right now has a three year backlog for reviewing new applications for NEW food additives. The EAFUS right now has over 10,000 entries in it. However the scary part is that only 3,500 of those are considered GRAS (EAFUS Everything Added to Food in the US and GRAS Generally Recognized as Safe) So, even the FDA is confused about GRAS, you can go here, and go to item 16 and see how the CFR is disjointed and does not contain a complete list of GRAS ingredients as they just are unable to maintain the database (FDA on GRAS) And the companion piece (EAFUS)

Now I'm all about science, for the most part science gives us a very reasonable view of the universe we live in. Food science though is a bit different, especially the parts about adulterating the food products presented to Americans, and the world, so that they give the APPEARANCE of being wholesome healthy and wondrous. Now I understand the constraints of the socioeconomic system that we live under that forces most families to work more than would be possible for them to be at home and cook healthy food items for themselves and families. I understand that. We've allowed that to happen to us, and this piece isn't about any sort of revolution or anything, it's about trying to torture you with the concept that the food presented to you isn't healthy and in fact, may be damaging to your health over time. Let me see if I can explain that.

Back some time ago, businesses learned of a new process for rice called polishing. They took brown rice and polished it to make it white. The new product was pretty cool. It was easier to cook, it had greater texture appeal, it could be warehoused for years instead of the normal 10 to 12 months that plain brown rice suffered, and of course, it was absolutely lacking in most nutrients. If you ate it, it didn't hurt you. You could eat it for years, and you and your kids would grow to have spindly bones and rotting teeth. But it didn't kill you when you ate it. A little after that some scientists built this really cool high speed roller mill that could take wheat and grind it into very very fine flour and at the same time, remove the bran and the germ. The resulting white flour was a miracle to bakers and business men. It could store for years, it could make incredible products and of course, it made everyone money. It was of course, denuded of all the nutritive value and those that ate it as a steady diet got sick. Well scientists are a willing lot. What they destroy they are willing to fiddle with and find a fix to the problem. Which they did, enhancements of vitamins and minerals helped. And yes, I understand that this was a long time ago, and it isn't the exact same thing as adding chemicals to foods today, but the principal is nearly the same, business leaders and their paid minions, scientists, tell us things are safe without really doing long term testing or as so often has happened, even thinking about the consequences of what they have done.

Now we come to the cheating part. Scientists have created all of these wondrous cheats, flavor enhancers, fillers, emulsifiers, and on and on, chemicals to do so many things. And they test them, and find them to be wondrously safe and proficient at making money for their users. And we get to consume them. Now comes the hard part. Just as in the past, it might take decades to harm us. We all know that apples contain arsenic. At small amounts, it won't kill you. It builds up in your kidneys, liver and brain, but a major part of the stuff you ingest in the form of apple juice or almonds, is excreted in your urine. But we all know that if you concentrate arsenic, and put a small amount in your rich husband's coffee everyday, he will die. The thing is, we don't really and truly know what will happen to people that consume these chemicals on a daily basis after ten, twenty, thirty years. Scientists say they know. 

They are paid to say that.

Football Food my crazy version of pigs in a blanket

Last Saturday the group of friends that were kind enough to allow me to play in their Fantasy Football League, had the team draft. I know virtually nothing about football. But I like my friends, so I made food for the event. My version of Pigs in the Blanket. Started with a basic whole wheat bread dough, the usual, warm water, yeast, a tablespoon honey

and one of sea salt. Add a half cup olive oil and mix in wheat flour until stiff batter forms, then knead on medium for ten minutes. Add in a cup of diced green chilis. 
Make some chorizo, I soak my chorizo spices in a half cup of beer then mix in two pounds ground pork. Form it into little

football shapes and brown in olive oil.

Set them aside to drain. Here you can see them as they start to cook and then as they get a bit brown they give off the color from the

spices. 

I bought a bunch of Spicy Italian sausages and cooked in the broiler. Hey, it was over a hundred outside, I wasn't going out to use the grill. Anyway, nice and browned.

Then I also took some Mozzarella cheese and cut into long pencil sized pieces. Then It was easy, take a golf ball sized piece of dough, flatten it out on the counter and add a piee of cheese, a split sausage, then a chorizo. Pull the sides together and pinch on the top.

Let them rise until double, bake at 400 until golden. And I also added some cheese to the tops to give them a nice crunch

yup

Some Cajun Delights

I guess the pictures didn't come out all the well, but they tasted fantastic.
Potato and Spinach cakes. Grate using fine grater on food processor four Yukon Gold potatoes. Place into a dish towel and twist it to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Then in large bowl, beat two eggs with a tablespoon Cajun seasoning. Add the potatoes and break the ball of shredded potatoes up into the individual shreds and toss well. Oops, before all that, take six cloves garlic sliced and add to large skillet with a tablespoon olive oil, cook a minute then add a pound of washed spinach. Turn over a few times, and cover, reduce heat to low and cook a few minutes until all completely wilted. Cool. put the spinach into a towel and squeeze to dry. Chop roughly the ball of spinach. Add to the potatoes and toss well. Wipe out the big skillet and add a quarter cup olive oil and bring up to smoking point. Then plop big half cup portions of the mix into the pan and sort of spread out. Brown well, turn and brown the other side. Remove and set aside to allow to drain. Make the sauce by starting with small dicing a red pepper, four celery stalks and a small onion. Sweat in olive oil and cook until starting to brown. Toss in some diced smoked mushrooms, or for those that eat meat, choose whatever you want. The smoked mushrooms are incredible, I thought they were bacon pieces. Anyway, add a quarter cup unbleached flour and a quarter cup Cajun seasoning and stir well until beginning to brown. Then add two cups or so of some stock. I used vegetable stock I made from trash in my freezer trash bag. (tops of celery, onion skins and whatever stored in the freezer for when you need stock)  Bring to boil, simmer about ten minutes or so. Now take a pack of sour cream and add a package of my Jalapeno Cilantro Dip Mix, set aside. In a nice clean hot pan, add some butter and then fry a couple eggs per person. Take one potato patty, place an egg on it, top with the sauce and then a dollop of that spicy sour cream. Yikes that will wake you all up.  Cajun seasoning recipe at bottom

Cajun Spice Blend - Mix together 2 oz. Cayenne pepper, 2 oz. sweet basil, 2 oz. ground thyme, 2 oz. garlic powder, 2 oz. onion powder, 1 oz. ground chili, 1 tsp. ground mustard, 1/8 tsp ground clove.  When using this mix, always add plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Chef Roy The Great Food Guy

Hi. My name is Roy Marshall, Chef Roy. I have been in the food manufacturing business since 2001. My first business was called The SalsaKing Fine Southwestern Foods. I designed and created nearly a 100 unique products. Many of those products have gone on and competed in national competitions where my creations have won 8 Scovie awards(6 firsts), 3 Golden Chilis, 3 first place Americas Best Awards, and one of my salsas was named Official Salsa of the International Salsa Festival in 2005. A lot has changed, and now I'm sort of semi retired and living in Sun City Arizona. To keep from dying from boredom, I started a new company, Frantic Foods. Yeah, I know, stupid name. So I changed it to Chef Roy, the Great Food Guy. I have a lot of fun making great and wondrous things to eat, and to use in cooking for the creation of your own spectacular, Great Food.

Buy my products online at Square Marketplace

Dip Mixes - or use as spice blends to create wonders in the kitchen

all my dip mixes are vegan, with no added salt, no MSG and packed with flavor

listed below from mild to spicy

Mesquite Smoke Onion

Garlic and Herb

Southwestern Sun Dried Tomato 

Tuscan Sun (Italian themed)

Real Bacon and Horseradish

Green Chile Christmas

Spicy Chipotle

Garlicky Jalapeno

Buffalo Blue Cheese

Jalapeno Cilantro

Habanero and Garlic

Burnin' Both Ends

and 

Now my Spicy Taco or Garlic Taco blends

Salsas

Eat with chips, or cook extraordinary meals

 Garlic Heaven

Cactus (with nopalitos)

Pineapple Mango

Chipotle Black Bean and Corn

Pepitas y Camarones

Salsa de Vera Cruz

Passion of the Garlic

Chef Roy's Green Habanero

Kiss of Fire 

Hot Sauces

Howling Coyote Cayenne 

Tequila Chiptle

Kiss of Fire Habanero

Buy my products online at Square Marketplace

I also create some very cool Artisinal Cheeses

available only at the Farmers Markets

RoadRunner Market 51 and Cactus -Saturdays

Ahwatukee Market 48th St and Warner- Sundays

Sun City Market 99th St and Bell -Thursdays

Depending on my mood and how creative I am, I make different things all the time. Some past items

Real Smoked - Smoked Almonds

Red Chili dark chocolate pecans

Smoked Jalapeno or Green Chili Mozzarella

Habanero Brownies 

Email me at ChefRoyMarshall@Gmail.com

Human Evolution, it's all about Acceptable Losses

I'm sure most everyone, well those my age or thereabouts, have watched war movies. Or even M.A.S.H. the episode with the General that wanted to take a hill and he decided that 20% casualty rate was acceptable. It has always been a very real and frightening concept, Acceptable Losses. To get anywhere, to get anything done, people are going to die. Dead. Deaths. Or perhaps just permanently disabled. It's a fact of war, the calculation of the number of human lives needed to achieve a particular objective. The lives of real live human beings converted into the abstract representation of a number. But that's war. Lives are expected to be lost. Hills need to be taken, young men need to die to get that done.

That same concept however exists elsewhere in our modern world run by those that themselves never get their hands dirty. Pretty much everything within our modern society has been developed using those same statistical functionalities of Acceptable Losses. Granted, manufacturers and our government bureaucracies all work to attempt to limit the final evaluation of total Acceptable Losses, that's why there are safety features on cars, occasional inspections of bridges and transportation infrastructures. Along with the safety testing of drugs, food additives, food manufacturing processes, air quality, and water quality. And yes, even vaccines. The thing is, EVERYONE will agree that the human body is in itself a miracle. Each and every single person out there reacts differently to differing stimulus, foods, drugs and whatever. We are all humans, but we all are very different.

That's where the problems lie. It is impossible to test the safety and effectiveness of anything on the population as a whole as individuals react differently and therefore drugs, foods, cars, and everything else can only be designed to be beneficial for a statistically significant majority of the population. Those that don't quite fit into that large majority become, Acceptable Losses. It's inevitable, there will always be people that die from something within everything that modern society offers, be it processed foods, cigarettes, drugs, vaccines, and yes, especially cars. They can make them safer, but they can't make those that drive totally cognizant of everything. Therefore, some die.

The concept is sound, it is always going to be with us. Our government and the Elite of industry tell us they are all working hard to lower that magic number of Acceptable Losses all the time. Well, they tell us that. It isn't always true. In 2010 two researchers, senior researchers, went to the Feds to expose how their employer, Merck, was defrauding the world with their portion of the MMR vaccine that was ineffective, dangerous and that Merck knew about it and sold it anyway. (Merck)  One case? No, not really. This is just one case of whisteblowers that most have never heard about and shows the tactics that the company and yes, even our government is fighting to cover up. It is not the only case of malfeasance. Pretty much every single drug manufacturer has been in court with the FDA and accepting fines for doing the unthinkable, falsifying data to get their products approved. (Forbes on FDA Fines) (The FDA on banning) (The Justice Department on Fraud in the drug industry)

Yikes. Not everyone seems to be honest about making money. Perhaps there is a reason for it all. And here, this is all pure speculation. But it is a very real and viable concept that explains the actions of the leaders of our world. In order to eliminate the majority of those that don't fit into the well defined medium that has been established wherein safety measures for food, drugs, vaccines, and yes even cars are effective; they are allowed to just die off. Not unlike those leaders of the past that attempted genocide for particularly personal prejudices, today's rulers are practicing genocide on a much grander scale with what they consider more noble ideals. Anyone that doesn't fit into those parameters where their chosen food additives, drugs and vaccines are viable and effective, need to be eliminated from society so that society as a whole can exist without the need for continuous monitoring and testing of products for safety. The safety will be built into the existing population. The survivors that now populate the world will still exist because their ancestors survived the introduction of GMO's, food additives, McDonald's and drugs and are now a homogeneous blend of a specific genotype that reacts similarly to the outside stimulus in statistically predictable ways. With Acceptable Losses being a thing of the past...

Science versus Nature, The Dawning of a new era in food science, NATURE

It's been a long time coming, and the road to get where we are has been hard fought; but we aren't there yet. There, is the place where all processed foods are made with healthy natural ingredients. There, is an ideal, a concept, a wish, a dream. But, every week it seems that more and more big food companies bow to the pressure that consumers exert with their spending dollars and conform to that ideal of cleaner safer foods. For the last five years the largest growth in the food industry has been in organic foods. Double digit growth. In a few instances, triple digit. Sales amongst the traditional food processors has been stagnant, or in so many cases, declining. Big business can't survive when small industries show the giants that they can make big money by making clean products designed to encourage the growing mass of consumers that desire better foods for themselves and their families.

Last week, Campbell's Soups announced that they will stop adding MSG and artificial colors to their soups.
Earlier this year there have been a number of announcements to break the traditions of money over health.
Chipotle Restaurants announced they will not use any products that contain GMO ingredients
Kraft foods acquiesced to consumer pressure and announced the removal of all coal tar dies from Mac and Cheese products
Subway Restaurants announced they would remove Azodicarbonamide from all their breads
White Wave and Horizon Dairies agreed to remove carragenan from all their products
Panera Restaurants announced they will remove all artificial ingredients from their products
Papa John's and Taco Bell both announced the removal of all artificial ingredients including corn syrup
Chik-Fil-A will remove High Fructose Corn Syrup from the buns used for sandwiches.
And yes, even McDonald's has pledged to REDUCE the amount of antibiotics used in production of chickens, nothing else, but hey, it's a start
And finally, Nestle Corporation. Nestle is the largest food manufacturer in the world. They recently announced that they would remove the artificial colors in about 250 of their candies. Three years ago they stunned a very very very small part of the world with the announcement that was not carried by any major or minor media outlet, that they would no longer, er, well, encourage, the use of child slavery in the production of cacao in the country of Ivory Coast. Now again, Cote de Ivory only produces twenty percent of the chocolate for Nestle and so far they have not announced any plans to enforce the ban on child slavery anywhere else, but hey, it's a start.

All of these things have come about because of consumer demand. Some from actual petition drives with hundreds of thousands of people signing petitions to show these giant companies that a few cents difference in price to make a healthier product is where they will spend their food dollars. The rest are just big companies realizing that it's the right thing to do. And then there's Papa John, jumping on the bandwagon because his chain is in last place and maybe it will help. But for whatever reason, it's a start. 

Oh, and one of the biggest news items ever, the FDA has officially removed partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, from the GRAS list and all food manufacturers have until 2018 to remove them from all processed foods. Now that's something to celebrate. It took fifty years for the FDA to react, but it shows the food industry that some things do indeed, get done.

MONEY! There's a sucker born every minute

Everyone wants money. It's the basis of life in the worldwide society. Everyone needs money to exist. And they need ever more and larger amounts of money to live better lifestyles. Working hard for your money is one way to get ahead, but there are ways to get more money and to let others do the hard work for you and you can reap the rewards of their labors. Professions like politicians, bankers, insurance sales, lawyers all make money off the work of others. Well, bankers also make mistakes then take money offered to them from the government for doing their jobs poorly. But that's all another story. What we want to look at are those that want money, and don't believe that the laws or plain civility apply to themselves. Those are the thieves in the world. And the con men. The Bernie Madoff complex. People that devise ever more complex ways in which they can make suckers believe that if they give them money, they will be repaid with huge dividends. There have been quite a few of these people like the guy whose name has been used as the defining nomenclature for the process, Charles Ponzi.

I have a friend back in Austin. She has been a great fan of these get rich quick schemes for some time now. Years. Every year, often with more frequency, she has a new scheme and attempts to get me to invest. No matter how much I try to explain how the pyramid works, she disputes me and tells me that there are other people  out there that have reaped riches beyond their wildest dreams. Well, yeah, there are a lot of people hired to do such things and even if not hired to say that, the whole pyramid only works if those at the top recruit people below them. They won't recruit unless they can see money coming out of the scheme to pay them for their investment. No payouts, why recruit, no recruits, the whole thing fails and the ring leader is stuck with only the money they bilked out of the very few first time investors.

Here's the problem though, there are a whole lot of people out there that understand how that works. And they are constantly on the prowl for new and ever more exotic and complex Ponzi pyramid schemes. If you get in first, if you're a fast talker and can sell, then you will reap the rewards that are promised. Here's how these schemes work.

If you start at the top at the beginning of a scheme, then you are in prime real estate. If you put in your 3k bucks and find three people that also invest 3k and each of them finds three, well you can see how the pyramid works. And if all you do is promise a 20% return, then that leaves a whole lot of money for the Bernie Manof wannabee running the scheme with a ton of money.

My friends newest scheme, Options Rider. This guy claims he has secret software that allows him to purchase options on monetary tradings in international money exchanges. These trades net him 88% return DAILY!!!!!!!!!!  Click here to go see the stuff (OPTIONS)  Honestly, these guys actually find people that give them money. Let me repeat that, they GIVE the creators of these schemes their own MONEY. GIVE!! If you are at the top, you might, again, might get some of it back. The rules for getting your money out of this scheme, and really most schemes, are incredibly unrealistic. Loss of up to 20% of earnings for withdrawal of not just what is claimed you earned on your investment, but also on your original investment as well. And the big one, none is guaranteed. The big disclaimer is that past performance is not an indication of what your investment will earn. So, you give them 3k, they invest 5% daily, and hope that you earn. If you do, and your money grows, you can't remove it unless you want to pay them a hefty chunk of change. And although the man claims to have been in business doing this for 5 years, the website is only a few months old. And the address of the company is non-existent.

People want money to work for them and earn them more than they can earn by working hard. That's why these schemes are so common and attract so many people. But think about it. If this guy in this scheme or most of the schemes out there, had a way to make that much money, why do they need your money to invest for you? They need you to recruit. If you do a great job for them, they reward you. If you don't, you get squat. My friend, she has gotten squat. But she is ever hopeful that the next one will be the real deal and make her a billionaire.