On Monday, proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, included an article from researchers who isolated the active component of turmeric that could help in fighting Alzheimers. Accordingly, Dr. Milan Fiala of the University of California Los Angeles demonstrated that turmeric, a common ingredient of curries and curry powder, contains bisdemethoxy-curcumin. They demonstrated that bisdemethoxycurcumin can increase the number of immune cells called macrophages. The macrophages in turn clear a protein called amyloid beta, which clogs the brains of Alzheimer's patients and kills brain cells. This furthers research from that Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science that demonstrated that curcumin has anti-amyloidogenic effects in-vitro.

The image of the turmeric powder comes from Alibaba.com, which is an online retailer for everything from spices to apparel.

Researchers, however, warn that the required dose for humans to achieve an appreciable level of activity is not known. That is, though the components has been identified, the research does not identify how much turmeric a patient needs to consume before benefits can be realized.

Bisdemethoxy-curcumin belongs to a group of compounds called polyphenol curcumin (or curcuminoids). Other research has shown that related curcuminoids also have antioxidant properties as well. It has been demonstrated to help prevent tumors from forming in the laboratory and in rats.

The discovery is heralded as a breakthrough, because it could change the treatment for Alzheimer's. It could be used to develop treatment approaches to stimulate increased natural immune response against amyloid beta. Effectively, it presents new therapeutic opportunities.

If ever anyone wondered how not to make baozi, please refer to a news article from yahoo.com. Accordingly, an undercover investigation by a Chinese TV crew found that baozi sold in a Beijing neighborhood include a rather unsavory ingredient: treated and flavoured cardboard. The investigation surreptitiously filmed workers taking squares of cardboard, soaking them to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), mincing the pulp with a cleaver, and flavoring the resultant mixture with fatty pork and powdered seasonings. This mixture was then used to make baozi. Happily, police closed down the paper baozi operation soon thereafter.

The image comes from yahoo.com.

Baozi, or steamed buns, are a popular snack food that is served in restaurants and from street vendors in China. They consist of a rice and wheat flour dough and a filling. Normally, the filling varies from a savory meat and vegetable mince to a sweet milk and egg yolk paste. They are steamed in bamboo steamers and are a staple on dim sum menus. Char-siu Bouzi, otherwise known as barbecued pork steamed buns, are probably the most recognizable preparation to North American palates.

If you want to know how to make the meat for a proper Char-siu Baozi filling, refer to the Barbecued Char-Siu Pork recipe I posted sometime ago.

To travelers to mainland China, take care what you eat.

Update:
According to a news article from CTV.ca, the report about the paper-filled baozi may have been faked. A free-lance reporter from the Beijing television station that released the allegedly "hidden" video of workers manufacturing the baozi has been detained by police. A Chinese newspaper, called the Beijing Youth Daily, has published an article, stating that the reporter, brought meat, flour, cardboard and other ingredients to a downtown Beijing neighbourhood and had four people make the buns for him while he filmed the process.

According to yahoo.com , a 20 kg (41 lbs) white mushroom was picked in a forest near a coffee farm in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Mexico. Cheapas borders Guatamala. The mushroom, belonging to the macrocybe titans taxon, measures approximately 70 cm in height. Several other giant specimens of this recently accepted genus of mushroom have been found. These ginormous mushrooms are common to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Martinique.

The image comes from yahoo.com.

Anyone else thinking about having sauteed mushrooms as a side for dinner tonight? If you are, Alton Brown has a great recipe for sauteeing mushrooms. I've used this recipe many-a-time with all sorts of mushrooms. Just be aware that if you cook with the door to your apartment open as I once did, neighbors will visit remarking on that wonderful butter smell emanating from your kitchen.

As an aside, I guess mozilla will have to update the spelling dictionary to firefox. The word ginormous is now recognized my Merriam-Webster.

To everyone who wants to get your fix of chocolate, beware of Hershey chocolate products, particularly bars of chocolate. Take note of batch numbers from 6417 to 6455. These batches of chocolate were originally recalled due to potential salmonella contamination at Hershey's Smiths Falls, Ontario, factory. According to the recall, the implicated Hershey products include the following:

• Hershey Chipits Milk Chocolate Chips, 270 g
• Hershey Creamy Milk Chocolate With Almonds, 43 g
• Hershey Creamy Milk Chocolate, 45 g
• Oh Henry! 62.5 g; 62.5g/4 bars, 145 g
• Oh Henry! Bites, 130 g
• Oh Henry! Peanut Butter, 60 g
• Hershey Chipits Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, 350 grams, 2 kg
• Hershey Chipits Semi-Sweet Mint Chocolate Chips, 300 g
• Hershey Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, 300 g
• Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate, 45 g
• Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate with Almonds, 43 g
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 51 g, 68 g, 51 g/4 bars
• Lowney Cherry Blossom, 45 g
• Glosette Peanuts, 45 g
• Glosette Almond, 42 g
• Glosette Raisin, 50 g; 145 g
• Hershey's Chocolate Shell Topping, 177 ml
• Eat-More Dark Toffee Peanut Chew, 56 g; 56 g/4 bars
• Lowney Bridge Mix, 52 g; 340 g
• Hershey Assorted 16 count, 728 g
• Hershey Assorted 50 count, 2.5 kg
• Hershey Chipits Mini Chocolate Chips, 300 g, 10 kg (bulk), 175 g, 500 g
• Hershey Chipits Chocolate Chip Bulk, 10 kg (bulk)
• Nut Roll, 5 kg (bulk)
• Hershey Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, 10 kg (bulk)
• Chocolate-coated almonds sold between Oct. 23 and Nov. 10 at the Hershey Chocolate Shoppe at the factory

The image comes from snowflake-designs.com. Snowflake-designes is not implicated in this issue. I just needed a picture of Hershey chocolate products.

For those of you who remember, several batches of potentially contaminated Hershey's chocolate were implicated in a recall last fall, on November 9, 2006. However, according to several news sources including cbc.ca, canada.com (National Post), and theStar.com (The Star), some may have made it back into the retail supply chain and ended up on store shelves. Apparently, chocolate that was destined for disposal at a recycling depot because of the recall was stolen. The theft was discovered Tuesday (June 12, 2007) morning when police arrested two men, a 39 year old and a 32 year old, who unloaded 40 000 chocolate products from a van in downtown Toronto (River St. and Queen St. E. are). In total, police recovered 8 skids of recalled shrink wrapped Hershey products from October and November. The suspects have been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 and theft over $5,000. The National Post article further states that approximately 12 bars maybe missing, which may have been consumed by the two suspects. Other articles are not that specific about what the palettes contained or what was missing.

To my readers, take care when purchasing Hershey chocolate. You may want to check your pantries as well.

A news article came out a couple months ago stating that the majority of people use the World Wide Web to search for recipes. This phenomenon was loosely demonstrated on digg.com today when an article about how to purchase groceries for a week's worth of meals ended up top "dug" with 2222 digs since its posting 1 day and 8 hours ago. The article is entitled "Shop Once, Eat for a Week."

The article comes from menshealth.com. It explains how you can eat well and nutritiously by forgoing take-out and shopping but once a week. For approximately $47.96 (USD), you can purchase enough ingredients for 10 meals (lunch and dinner). The article includes a shopping list and easy-to-follow recipes for 10 dishes (entrees for lunch and dinner). The recipes include some popular dishes such as wraps, fajitas, quesadillas, and a stirfry or two. The article also correlates the percentage of men that spend little to no time preparing their own meals (64%) to the percentage of men that are overweight (64%). Please note that I am assuming that the second statistic involves overweight men. The article is not so specific.

Here at foodiePrints, I encourage everyone to make your own meals. Between the heavily chemical components of processed foods and the outright cost of take out, it can be more advantageous to spend some time in the kitchen. Besides, to you guys, I'm told that some culinary aptitude is considered sexy in men.