WEBVTT - From the Vault: Dangerous Foods: Adverse Additives 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.920 Hey, Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.360 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:13.560 Time to go into the vault for a classic episode. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:17.120 This was Let's see, was this from last year? Yeah, 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.760 I guess it was. This was one of our Dangerous 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.800 Foods episodes where we talked about Oh oh, I think 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.160 this is the one with killer beer in it. Yeah, 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.480 this one had concerned adverse additives in foods as part 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.280 of our long running Dangerous Food series. I don't know 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.760 if we're gonna if we're gonna have any anything to 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.720 discuss this year, if there'll be another Dangerous Foods episode, 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:43.360 or if this was essentially the finale. Yeah, I don't know. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.479 We'll see what we turn up. All right, let's jump in. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.879 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of I 0:00:51.920 --> 0:01:00.560 Heart Radios Hows to work. Hey are you welcome to 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.640 Stuff to Blow Your Mind? My name is Robert Lamb 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.760 and I'm Joe McCormick in his feast time. That's right, 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.000 Thanksgiving season here once again and in the United States 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.840 at any rate. So we're continuing a tradition, a tradition 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.200 of dangerous foods in which we highlight foods that at 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:19.399 least can be dangerous or deadly under the right conditions. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.920 I mean, we were trying not to alarm anyone, but 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:23.600 we find that there's there's a lot of a lot 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.800 of fun to be had in exploring the dangerous side 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.720 of our culinary creations and our culinary instincts right now. 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:35.959 This can range from such a strange exotic chemical adventures 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.360 in the past as the hallucinogenic seabream of the Mediterranean, 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.360 or or like toxic honey that was chronicled in the 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.280 ancient world as leading to victories in battle when when 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.160 one side ate the honey and the other could take 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.560 advantage of that. But it also goes into the mundane 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.280 world where we're just like normal food items that we 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.960 all take for granted. If not prepared the right way, 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.120 could go very bad for you. For example, normal dried beans, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.000 kidney beans, and so forth. You need to boil those, 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.200 you don't just soak them and eat them, and if 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.359 you do, you can experience some some extreme gastro intestinal problems. Yeah, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.200 a lot of it comes down to, Okay, here's the 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.640 thing that human beings can eat, but under what circumstances 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:18.760 can humans eat it? What do they have to do 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.919 to it first? Do they have to remove certain parts 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.440 of it? Are only certain parts edible? Is it only 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.840 in and then or those parts only edible after the 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.080 content has been cooked a certain way? Likewise, is there 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.320 a certain time during which a particular vegetable item should 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.680 be harvested? And is it dangerous to harvest it or 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.639 and or consume it at another time? Or do you 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.120 leave it sitting around too long? As we talked about 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.480 cases with potato poisonings in the past, where potatoes were 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.239 just left in the sack for got a little too 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.640 wisened and then they made some schoolboys sick in England, 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.000 they get that unhealthy green color, right, Yeah, But of 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.160 course humans don't just eat this vegetable or that invertebrate. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.040 We we also combine all of these things. We add 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.400 a small dosage of various spices, for instance, spices which 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.600 in their natural form are chemical weapons and might prove 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.160 very uncomfortable or dangerous to consume, you know, especially if 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.320 you're consuming them, and a quantity beyond that that which 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:21.120 is advisable when when cooking, and the culinary palate becomes 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.440 quite vast. This way and out of this complexity many 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.240 of the most magical of culinary possibilities emerge. Yeah, I 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 was just your note here made me think about the 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.519 fact that, of course I love spicy food. I think 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.440 you like spicy food too, right, Yeah? Uh that that 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.480 so many of these compounds that we so desire in 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.320 our foods to liven them up are of course defenses there, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.280 as you say, you know, their chemical weapons. That what 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.480 makes the garlics so hot and wonderful. It's got these 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.640 compounds that come together when it's sell walls or ruptured 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.680 and produce this pungent odor and flavor that we love. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.240 But this mention of spice was also making me wonder 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.160 a question I don't think we've ever addressed on the 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.640 show before. Maybe you got into it many years ago, 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.920 which is can you be killed by hot peppers? You know, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:06.960 I'm not sure we may have covered a little bit 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.080 of that in the past. I know we did an 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.680 episode on nutmeg once. It was really interesting that got 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.160 into a little bit of you know, the question of 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.160 what is a lethal dose of nutmeg? What happens when 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.120 you consume too much nutmeg? Um and and one of 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.520 the things that was really emerged in that research was that, yeah, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.760 most spices, most household spices, if you consume too much 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.520 of it, you will hurt yourself. Right, Um, that's just 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.520 that's just kind of a fact no matter what you're 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.520 grabbing out of the spice cabinet. But with a lot 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.080 of these things, you would have to consume an amount 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.720 of it that is not a reasonable amount that would 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.159 ever be used in cooking, right. It would be the 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.800 food would become inedible, Like you would have to really 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.040 force yourself to choke it down. It would have to 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.919 be a very deliberate act. Yeah, And I think this 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.839 actually turns out to be the case with this question 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.479 about hot peppers, as a lover of spicy food and 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.440 as somebody who has taken a bite out of a 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.760 raw Carolina Reaper pepper for an on camera experiment, which 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.000 I mean that was a horrible experience. Is that what 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.640 you're calling a YouTube challenge? Is that it wasn't a 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.640 YouTube challenge. It was just it was just Rachel videoing 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.880 me with her phone. Her dad showed up at the 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:12.560 house with one of these. It was one of the 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.440 spiciest peppers in the world. One of you did something here, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.200 No no, no, no no, it was. It was in Tennessee. 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.559 It was like, you know, so one of these uh 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.640 like ten billion Scoville units peppers. He showed up and 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.600 he was like, he knows I like spicy food. He's like, 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:28.119 you want to try it? So I took a bite 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.080 of it on camera, and yeah, that was like, I 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.560 love spicy food. But that became a problem. It was 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.119 just more like I had a disease for the rest 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.240 of the day. Uh. And I tried to fix it, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:39.880 as you know, one thing you can do if you've 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:41.800 eaten too much spicy food is you can try to 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.400 neutralize it with some milk in your mouth. But then 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.039 I ended up drinking some spoiled milk, so that made 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.359 it even worse. It sounds like a comedy bit. The 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.159 comedy was all in my body. But yeah, so I 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.600 was wondering, well, okay, so that felt pretty bad, even 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.760 though I love really spicy food. Is it possible to 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.000 eat food so spicy it kills you? Technically yes, but 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.880 under practical circumstances not really. Uh. The active compound in 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.760 chili peppers that makes them spicy is called cap sasan. 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.440 Eating large amounts of capsasan can cause. Of course, you know, 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:17.520 all the symptoms were familiar with gastro intestinal distress, even vomiting, sweating, flushing, irritation, 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.200 and the mucous membranes and all that which those symptoms 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.839 themselves could potentially harm someone maybe if they're saying a 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.360 very sensitive cardio pulmonary state. But as for just like 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.480 somebody in normal health being poisoned by too much peppers. Uh, 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.160 I did find some cases where people had aspirated peppers, 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.000 and and that was dangerous. But normally you're not like 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.000 breathing in peppers, uh, when you're eating them, you're just 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.400 swallowing them. So I found one article by someone named 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.280 Catherine Gammon, who consulted no less an authority than Paul Bosland, 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.240 a professor of horticulture at New Mexico State University and 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.800 director of the Chili Pepper Institute. They've got this whole 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.799 chili pepper lab there where they like breed new strains 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.240 of chili's um and bosl sites of study from nineteen 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.040 eighty on the acute toxicity of cap sasan. So how 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.039 much does it take to just kill you? By his estimation, 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.840 the research revealed that to kill a one hundred and 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.080 fifty pound person with cap sasan you need to serve 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.280 them about three pounds of the powder form of one 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.800 of the spiciest peppers known to human kinds, such as 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.440 the boot jill Lochia or the ghost pepper. Uh. And 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.160 this would need to be all in one sitting. So 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.440 you get them to eat three pounds of the powdered 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.560 form all at once. Uh. And he notes that your 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.200 body just probably would not allow this. Some things would 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.760 happen to stop you on the on the course of 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.360 the suicide mission. Yeah. That Yeah, you would have to 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.120 be an act of madness to really eat that much 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.320 much of the pepper. Yeah. So, unless you're already in 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.320 very delicate health or you're doing something very unusual and extreme, 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:52.840 eating spicy food, even really really spicy food is perfectly safe. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.120 But hey, that's all. That's all the organic world. Well, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.360 I mean, I guess it's actually not, because we're breeding 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:01.040 these peppers hotter and hotter. That is sort of agricultural technology. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.120 But still, you know this is coming from a plant, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.720 right right. Yeah, So we get into this situation where 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.640 we're taking these plants, we're taking spices, we're taking other 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.800 things the vast palate of things from our natural world 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.800 and then using them to create food. And it's one thing. 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.160 If we're creating that food within the household or within 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.960 say a close tight knit community, uh such as you know, 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.760 it would have been more or less the you know, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.000 the archaic normal for for humans. But of course we 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.720 ascend past that, right we we begin developing much larger groups, 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:40.240 and we begin specializing the creation of various things, various 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.600 food products, especially various technologies, and we end up engaging 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.920 in trade, uh and the stockpiling of foods as well. 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.480 So given this, you know, there's this increased complexity allows 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.800 us to work kind of a dark magic here as well. 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.120 Not only can we enhance the flavor of our ingredients, 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.880 but we can also hide ending smells, not nearly in 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.480 a you know, in a household sense, like well, this 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.760 fish is a little off, but we need to eat 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.000 it more in the this fish is bad, but I 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.960 really need to sell it way right. But they are 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.120 all kinds of tricks like that. I mean, another thing 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:16.679 you could do if you've seen one of those crime 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.480 movies where somebody's like they cut the dope, you know, 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.240 putting baby powder in the brick of heroin or whatever. 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.640 People do that with food products too, Yeah, and we'll 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:29.119 get into some some wonderful, wonderful examples of that. Uh yeah. Basically, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.000 it opens the door for all manner of cuts and 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.400 shortcuts and cheets, all predicated on the fact that in 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.480 an industry of food, the maker doesn't have to consume 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.760 their own food product, right, and perhaps they'll be down 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.120 the road by the time somebody does. Now, So we 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.320 are going to be talking about food adulteration and food 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.480 adjectives today. But I don't want to contribute, as we 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.440 always do in these episodes. We don't want to contribute 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.880 to food panic, and I don't want to contribute to 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.600 additive panic. I think there are some people who have 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.400 this attitude like I don't allow any chemicals in my 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.280 food or something, which I think we've discussed that attitude 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.880 on the show before. It doesn't really make sense. I mean, 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.439 your food already has chemicals and it is native chemicals. Uh. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.199 Just looking at a something with a synthetic sounding name 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.360 doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hurt you, right. And 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.920 we'll touch a little bit, very very briefly on sort 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.320 of the current state of additives in the in the 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.760 future of additives, and and just the level of like 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.040 legitimate concern and sometimes panic that that comes with discussion 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:37.800 of these things. But for the most part in this episode, 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.200 we're gonna be talking about older additives, additives that we 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.840 can safely say we're a bad idea, that it's not 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.240 a matter a matter of opinion, uh, you know, regarding 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.840 whether you should put this particular ingredient and say a 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.360 candy or not. Um. Yeah, we're and we're largely talking 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.720 about the deliberate adulteration of food. And this has actually 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.360 been with us since ancient times. Uh. There are ancient 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.640 laws and rules that that there that govern how we 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.800 handle our food, how we prepare food in order to 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.360 ensure food quality. This almost seems to me like it 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.920 would be one of the earliest concerns of civilization. You know, like, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.320 once you're no longer making your own food or having 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.360 your own food made by a family member, your food 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.640 is being made by somebody maybe that you don't even know, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.679 you don't even know their name, it's being made in 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.720 some place you can't see. You would naturally, I think, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.440 have people start to worry and wonder, like what's in 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.560 my food? Yeah, yeah, So I was looking at a 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.679 source on this from on Marcia a Ecoles, who have 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.840 food safety the interplay of culture and science, of culture, 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.640 science and technology, and the author points out a number 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.520 of cool facts about sort of the ancient history of 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.680 of food safety. So the Assyrians established weights and measures 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.920 for grains because and we're getting this one of the 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.600 guess one key way that you can you can cheat 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.120 assus hm of weights and prices based on weights is 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:07.440 to put something in with your grain to weight it down. UM. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.840 As early as two b c. E In, residents of 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.880 India punished economic adulteration of grains and oils. During the 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:19.520 same era, the Chinese combated consumer fraud. The ancient Athenians 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.280 had purity standards for both beer and wine. The Romans 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.360 had a system to control fraud and bad produce, and 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.120 there are various other ancient laws, religious or otherwise that's 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.439 governed the handling of meat in ways that we're concerned 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.760 ultimately with with purity, which of course is we've discussed 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.840 many times in the shows. It's a tricky concept because 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.360 in purity you're getting ideas of sort of hygiene mixed 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.079 up with with with less um a matter of fact 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.280 statements about a food. But you know, as we discussed 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.800 with pork recently on the show, there's always this argument 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.120 that the purity is at least partially grounded in health concerns. Sure, 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.800 and you can maybe make arguments like that about the 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.120 mixing of different types of foods that are forbidden in 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.959 some religious customs. Maybe not that there's actually anything wrong 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.080 with mixing those types of foods, but perhaps there was 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:12.320 a perception in the ancient world that it could be dangerous. Now, 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.240 another source that I was looking at here is is 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.280 a wonderful right up by Adam Burrows J. D Uh 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:23.440 And it's titled Palette of Our Palettes Clever. A Brief 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.880 History of Food Coloring and its Regulation from Comprehensive Reviews 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.160 and Food Science and Food Safety, And this is from 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.720 two thousand nine. Uh. Burrows points out that the ancient 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.319 Egyptians wrote of drug colorance, but archaeologists think food coloration 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:42.040 itself dates back to roughly c. Saffron, for example, is 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.079 mentioned in the Iliad, and plenty of the Elder wrote 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.760 of colored wines and four hundred b C. And I 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:50.600 looked into this little more and it seems like he's 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.400 possibly talking about the use of squid inc uh in 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.480 the wind. I guess, you know, give dark in it 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.440 and may give it this thicker appearance. Squid inc is 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.840 still used as a food additive today. Yeah. Yeah, Like 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.760 if you ever have squid ink pasta, that's right. Yeah, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.760 they're beautiful like charcoal black color in the food. Um, 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.880 I don't know if it really contributes a flavor. I've 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.800 never looked into that. Yeah, And likewise, I don't know 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.040 if putting squid ink in your wine is I'm sure 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.160 it's it would be frowned upon at a rolling restaurant today. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.600 But saffron, of course, contributes both color and flavor. It's 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:24.840 got a distinctive kind of aroma. But yeah, you put 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.160 a little bit of saffron and say a pot of rice, 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.720 and it takes on this beautiful golden hue. Yeah. In 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.600 addition to saffron, a few other spices and elements that 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:37.440 have long been used to color food. Paprika um fabulous, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.480 tumeric beat extract is a big one, because you know, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.120 you get that bright red coloration. Long used food dyes. 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.880 All of these, but one that was particularly popular in 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.360 the past Tyrian purple was derived from several species of 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.800 predatory predatory sea snails. Oh yeah, And if you want 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.720 to learn more about the way that the Roman Empire 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.720 and particularly made use of natural occurring substances, check out 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.880 our previous episode on Roman extinctions. Oh yeah, there we 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.640 talk about the cultivation of like silphium and things like that. Now, 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.400 another source that we looked to here was Deborah Bloom's 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.080 book The Poison Squad, and Bloom points out that as 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.360 the Industrial Revolution washed over the world of foods during 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.040 particularly during I think the eighteen Seventies's pointing out here, 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.480 new food processing approaches provided even more new ways and 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:31.760 new ingredients to commit just lavish food fraud. And this 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:36.640 included artificial flavors, artificial coloring, and chemical preservatives. And in 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.080 this book she she makes a case for the importance 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.040 of U. S d. A chemist Harvey Washington widely in 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.480 his white Hat efforts to use our advancing knowledge of 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.360 chemical science to stay on top of these many frauds. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.280 This all in advance of the Meat Inspection Act and 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.800 the Pure Food and Drug Act of nineteen o six, 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.880 which widely helped to bring to fruition. Yeah, he's sort 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.000 of the central character in this book. And it's funny 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.880 that I feel like some of the main chemicals and 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:08.240 preservatives that he investigated with his famous Poison Squad, which 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.920 was a group of men who would who would essentially 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.400 meet to eat meals together that were contaminated deliberately with 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.680 certain common additives used in food to see how their 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:24.360 health fared from repeatedly eating things like borax or boric 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.080 acid or whatever, that kind of thing that was used 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.960 to produce stuff. I feel like some of the things 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.640 that the Poison Squad investigated, the jury still kind of 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.760 out on exactly how harmful they were. Maybe they weren't 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.240 as harmful as he thought they were, but clearly at 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.760 this time some food additives were harming and killing people. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.320 I think especially there was some danger from certain dies. Yes, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.320 and by the way, the Poison Squad, it sounds like 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.720 it would make a wonderful television series, you know. I mean, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.760 the public loves a good police procedural, right, This is 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:57.920 kind of like a little bit police procedural, also a 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.440 little bit you know, the flavoring of say the Nick, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.760 except with with a food um focus. So I really 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.040 hope it's been optioned one thing audiences love is people 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.760 in the past not knowing things that we know now. 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.480 It's like the scene and Mad Men where the kid 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.920 is playing putting the dry cleaning bag over their head, 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.239 and like the scenes in The Nick where people are 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.240 just like sitting in front of an X ray machine. 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.800 Why does that give us such pleasure to see the 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.760 people of the past punished by their ignorance. I don't 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.080 know one thing I will I think that the Nick 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.600 did a great job with it because they were able 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.800 to They had those moments, for sure, but at the 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.679 same time, they had plenty of moments where they I 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:40.600 think we're able to effectively convey this sense of modernity 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.080 in in the show that showing you that that even 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.399 if we can look back in hindsight on these various 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.640 techniques in the show in the time frame, they're occurring 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.600 at the just the bleeding edge of our understanding of 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.720 the human body, and it's like retro science fiction. Yeah, 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.359 so obviously, I guess it's you know, it's it's a 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.000 delicate balance to maintain in a show. But like I would, 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:04.399 I would love to see the same people who did 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.280 the Nick, like do the Poison Squad at least for 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.199 one season, maybe many limited series maybe, but still so. 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.960 The frauds during this time were many. But I think 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.000 one of the more terrifying examples to discuss, just to 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.280 kick things off here is u something that just on 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.720 the face of things will seem like a terrible, if 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.879 not a nefarious idea, and that is lead colored candy. 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.359 So in our past episode on the lead um, I 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.919 believe it was Cupid's leaden arrow. It was a Valentine's 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.080 Day special. We pointed out that even though lead is 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.960 quite poisonous h it tastes. Its taste is also sometimes 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.240 described as sweet, and the ancient Romans used lead salt 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:49.879 as a sweetener in their syrup. This was known as sapa, 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.600 I believe, and plenty of the Elder once again describes 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.440 the use of lead in vessels with sappa to sweeten 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.120 the taste. Right, Yeah, You've got to boil down your sapa, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.680 which was like it was a syrup made by reducing 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.919 some kind of wine product I think, um. And so 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:06.879 you boil it down to make it sweet, and it 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.840 takes on the lead from the pot that it's boiled 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:11.800 and to become sweeter. He says, don't boil it in 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.040 the copper pot, that's gonna taste bitter. You've got to 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.080 boil it in a lead pot so it tastes nice 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.320 and sweet. So when it comes to candy, obviously, candy 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.639 is generally sweetened through a much more conventional means, namely 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.600 sugar or or some sugar substitute. But during the time 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.800 of Wiley's Wars against Dangerous Foods, children's candy was routinely 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.360 laced with lead and other heavy metals to color it. Yea, 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.560 to impart this kind of you know, the often describes 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:43.159 a kind of an orange coloration, which is just, you know, 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:45.560 terrifying to imagine, because I'm just imagining like one of 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.520 these red suckers that you get at the supermarket nowadays, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.480 and just imagine that being laced with lead and being 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.159 handed to a child right now. It's the CDC points 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.359 out lead was, and in some parts of the world 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.520 still is added to foods not only to impart in 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:02.639 inviting orange color, but also indeed to sweeten it or 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.040 to increase its weight. Again, getting back to the idea 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.560 that oftentimes food, especially in bulk, is price based on weight. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.320 That you cut the dope of candy but it's with lead. 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.760 So so that's like three different levels of poisonous deception. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.880 They're possibly in play in any given piece of lead 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.840 laced candy. Make it cost more via way, make it 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.320 look more attractive via color, and artificially enhanced the flavor 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.159 to some extent as well. Uh and this applies not 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.480 just to candy, but to other food stuffs with lead, 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.840 often introduced via a spice blend. Now, of course, there 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.760 are other ways that lead can get into candy as well. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.840 Uh and still can get into candy. There's a there 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:45.239 was case I was looking at in which a six 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.959 year old boy was allegedly poisoned by lead containing uh 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.480 tamarando candy jam products purchased on a visit to Mexico 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.320 with his aunt. However, it seems like a case in 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.159 which the lead contamination was linked to the fact that 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.640 it was quote candy packaged in ceramic jars from Mexico 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.920 at the time, and as the California Department of Health 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.679 points out, it is quote not entirely clear where the 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:10.840 lead in many of the products is coming from. But 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.120 products containing tamarind, chili powder or salt that is mine 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.560