WEBVTT - Dangerous Foods: Adverse Additives 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:13.960 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.160 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.120 Joe McCormick in his feast time. That's right, Thanksgiving season 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.640 here once again, and in the United States at any rate. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.160 So we're continuing a tradition, a tradition of dangerous foods, 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.200 in which we highlight foods that at least can be 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.879 dangerous or deadly under the right conditions. I mean, we 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.559 were trying not to alarm anyone, but we find that 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.199 there's there's a lot of a lot of fun to 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.320 be had in exploring the dangerous side of our culinary 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.640 creations and our culinary instincts right now. This can range 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.520 from such a strange exotic chemical adventures in the past 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:54.279 as the hallucinogenic seabream of the Mediterranean, or or like 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.520 toxic honey that was chronicled in the ancient world as 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.040 leading to victories in battle when when one side ate 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:02.959 the honey and the other could take advantage of that. 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.399 But it also goes into the mundane world where where 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.319 just like normal food items that we all take for granted, 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.320 if not prepared the right way could go very bad 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.160 for you. For example, normal dried beans, kidney beans and 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.720 so forth, you need to boil those, you don't just 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:20.800 soak them and eat them, and if you do, you 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.520 can experience some some extreme gastro intestinal problems. Yeah, a 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.440 lot of it comes down to, Okay, here's the thing 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.080 that human beings can eat. But under what circumstances can 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.479 humans eat it? What do they have to do to it? First? 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:34.360 Do they have to remove certain parts of it? Are 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.880 only certain parts edible? Is it only in and then? 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.520 Or those parts only edible after the content has been 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.800 cooked a certain way. Likewise, is there a certain time 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:48.000 during which a particular vegetable item should be harvested? And 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.480 is it dangerous to harvest it or and or consume 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.640 it at another time? Or do leave it sitting around 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.480 too long? Is that we talked about cases with potato 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.400 poisonings in the past where potatoes were just left in 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.360 the sack for got a little two wisened, and then 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.240 that they made some schoolboys sick in England at that 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.360 unhealthy green color. Right. Yeah, but of course humans don't 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.920 just eat this vegetable or that invertebrate. We we also 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.200 combine all of these things, we add a small dosage 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.240 of various spices. For instance, spices which in their natural 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.760 form are chemical weapons and might prove very uncomfortable or 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.920 dangerous to consume, you know, especially if you're consuming them 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.720 at a quantity beyond that. What that which is advisable 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.959 when when cooking and the culinary palate becomes quite vast 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.760 this way, and out of this complexity, many of the 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.680 most magical of culinary possibilities emerge. Yeah, I was just 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.799 your note here made me think about the fact that, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:46.800 of course I love spicy food. I think you like 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.080 spicy food too, right, Yeah? Uh that that so many 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.040 of these compounds that we so desire in our foods 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.520 to liven them up, are of course defenses there, as 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.720 you say, you know, their chemical weapons. That what makes 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.240 the garlics so hot and wonderful. It's got these compounds 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:03.800 that come together when it's sell walls or ruptured and 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.679 produce this pungent odor and flavor that we love. But 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.400 this mention of spice was also making me wonder a 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.840 question I don't think we've ever addressed on the show before. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.120 Maybe you got into it many years ago, which is 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.360 can you be killed by hot peppers? You know, I'm 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:20.120 not sure. We may have covered a little bit of 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:21.519 that in the past. I know we did an episode 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.040 on nutmeg once. It was really interesting that got into 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.320 a little bit of you know, the question of what 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.440 is a lethal dose of nutmeg? What happens when when 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.200 you consume too much nutmeg? Um, and and one of 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.600 the things that was really emerged in that research was that, yeah, 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.840 most spices, most household spices, if you consume too much 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.600 of it, you will hurt yourself. Right. Um, that's just 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:43.600 that's just kind of a fact no matter what you're 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.600 grabbing out of the spice cabinet. But with a lot 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.200 of these things, you would have to consume an amount 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.760 of it that is not a reasonable amount that would 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.240 ever be used in cooking, right. It would be the 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.880 food would become inedible, Like you would have to really 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.120 force yourself to choke it down. It would have to 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.840 be a very deliberate act. Uh. Yeah, And I think 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.520 this actually turns out to be the case with this 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.240 question about hot peppers. As a lover of spicy food 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.440 and as somebody who has taken a bite out of 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.560 a raw Carolina Reaper pepper for an on camera experiment, 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.960 which I mean that was a horrible experience. Is that 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.640 what you're calling a YouTube challenge is that it wasn't 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.200 a YouTube challenge. It was just it was just Rachel 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.880 videoing me with her phone. Her dad showed up at 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.560 the house with one of these. It was one of 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:27.920 the spiciest peppers in the world. One of you did 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.359 something here, No, no, no, no, it was it was 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.600 in Tennessee. It was like, you know, so one of these, uh, 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.600 like ten billion Scoville units peppers. Uh. He showed up 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.440 and he was like, he knows I like spicy food. 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:40.800 He's like, you want to try it? So I took 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.200 a bite of it on camera, and yeah, that was 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.360 like I love spicy food. But that became a problem. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.760 It was just more like I had a disease for 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:50.960 the rest of the day. Uh. And I tried to 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.640 fix it. As you know, one thing you can do 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.600 if you've eaten too much spicy food is you can 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.160 try to neutralize it with some milk in your mouth. 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.720 But then I ended up drinking some spoiled milk so 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.160 that it even worse. This sounds like a comedy bit. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.120 The comedy was all in my body. But yeah, so 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.440 I was wondering, well, okay, so that felt pretty bad, 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.760 even though I love really spicy food. Is it possible 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.960 to eat food so spicy it kills you? Technically yes, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.839 but under practical circumstances not really. Uh. The active compound 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.839 in chili peppers that makes them spicy is called cap sasan. 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.520 Eating large amounts of capsasan can cause. Of course, you know, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:30.600 all the symptoms were familiar with gastro intestinal distress, even vomiting, sweating, flushing, irritation, 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.240 and the mucous membranes and all that, which those symptoms 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.880 themselves could potentially harm someone maybe if they're saying a 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.440 very sensitive cardio pulmonary state. But as for just like 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.560 somebody in normal health being poisoned by too much peppers. Uh. 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.240 I did find some cases where people had aspirated peppers, 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.040 and and that was dangerous. But normally you're not like 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.080 breathing in peppers, uh, when you're eating them, you're just 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.480 swallowing them. So I found one article by someone named 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.360 Katherine Gammon, who consulted less an authority than Paul Bosland, 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.320 a professor of horticulture at New Mexico State University and 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.880 director of the Chili Pepper Institute. They've got this whole 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.880 chili pepper lab there where they like breed new strains 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.320 of chili's um and Boslin cites a study from nineteen 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.120 eighty on the acute toxicity of cap sasan. So how 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.120 much does it take to just kill you? By his estimation, 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.880 the research revealed that to kill a one hundred and 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.120 fifty pound person with cap sasan, you need to serve 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.320 them about three pounds of the powder form of one 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.880 of the spiciest peppers known to human kinds, such as 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.520 the boot Jill Lochia or the ghost pepper. Uh. And 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.240 this would need to be all in one sitting. So 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.520 you get them to eat three pounds of the powdered 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.640 form all at once. Uh. And he notes that your 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.279 body just probably would not allow this. Some things would 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.839 happen to stop you on the on the course of 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.440 the suicide mission. Yeah that. Yeah, you would have to 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.039 be an act of madness to eat that much much 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.760 of the pepper. Yeah. So, unless you're already in very 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.400 delicate health, or you're doing something very unusual and extreme 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.880 eating spicy food, even really really spicy food is perfectly safe. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.200 But hey, that's all that's all the organic world. Well, 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.440 I mean, I guess it's actually not, because we're breeding 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.120 these peppers hotter and hotter. That is sort of agricultural technology. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.000 But still, you know this is coming from a plant, right, right, Yeah, 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.280 So we get into this situation where we're we're taking 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.760 these plants, we're taking spices, we're taking other things, the 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.400 vast palate of things from our natural world, and then 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.000 using them to create food. And it's one thing. If 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.560 we're creating that food within the household or within say 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.040 a close, tight knit community, uh such as you know, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:39.840 it would have been more or less the you know, 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:44.040 the archaic normal for for humans. But of course we 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.760 ascend past that, right we we begin developing much larger groups, 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:53.320 and we begin specializing the creation of various things, various 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.640 food products, especially various technologies, and we end up engaging 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.000 in trade, uh and and the stockpiling of foods as well. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.560 So given this, you know, there's this increased complexity allows 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:07.880 us to work kind of a dark magic here as well. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.200 Not only can we enhance the flavor of our ingredients, 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.960 but we can also hide, defending smells, not merely in 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.560 a you know, in a household sense, like well, this 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:19.840 fish is a little off, but we need to eat 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.040 it more. In the this fish is bad, but I 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.040 really need to sell it way, right. But they are 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.200 all kinds of tricks like that. I mean, another thing 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:29.760 you could do if you've seen one of those crime 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.560 movies where somebody's like they cut the dope, you know, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.320 putting baby powder in the brick of heroin or whatever. 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.679 People do that with food products too. Yeah, and we'll 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.560 get into some some wonderful, wonderful examples of that. Uh yeah. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.839 Basically it opens the door for all manner of cuts 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.880 and shortcuts and cheats, all predicated on the fact that 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.080 in an industry of food, the maker doesn't have to 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.520 consume their own food product, right, and perhaps they'll be 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.719 down the road by the time somebody does. Now, So 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.960 we are going to be talking about food adulteration and 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.480 food adjectives today. But I don't want to contribute as 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.080 we always do in these episodes. We don't want to 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.880 contribute to food panic, and I don't want to contribute 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.480 to additive panic. I think there are some people who 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.320 have this attitude, like I don't allow any chemicals in 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.839 my food or something, which I think we've discussed that 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.680 attitude on the show before. It doesn't really make sense. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.959 I mean, your food already has chemicals and it is 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.520 made of chemicals. Uh, just looking at a something with 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.079 a synthetic sounding name doesn't necessarily mean it's going to 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.800 hurt you, right, And we we'll touch a little bit, 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.960 very very briefly on sort of the current state of additives, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.440 in the in the future of additives, and and just 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.160 the level of like legitimate concern and sometimes panic that 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.959 that comes with discussion of these things. But for the 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:51.800 most part in this episode, we're gonna be talking about 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.920 older additives, additives that we can safely say we're a 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:00.679 bad idea, that it's not a matter a matter of opinion, uh, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.480 you know, regarding whether you should put this particular ingredient 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.560 and say a candy or not. Um. Yeah, we're and 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.000 we're largely talking about the deliberate adulteration of food. And 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.760 this has actually been with us since ancient times. There 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.280 are ancient laws and rules that that that that govern 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.480 how we handle our food, how we prepare food in 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.120 order to ensure food quality. This almost seems to me 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.400 like it would be one of the earliest concerns of civilization. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.600 You know, like, once you're no longer making your own 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.400 food or having your own food made by a family member, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.040 your food is being made by somebody maybe that you 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.199 don't even know, you don't even know their name. It's 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.040 being made in some place you can't see. You would naturally, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.000 I think, have people start to worry and wonder, like 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.080 what's in my food? Yeah? Yeah, So I was looking 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.120 at a source on this from one Marcia a. Ecoles, 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.960 who have Food Safety the Interplay of culture and science, 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.319 of culture, science and technology, and the author points out 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.840 a number of cool fact about sort of the ancient 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:06.160 history of of food safety. So the Assyrians established weights 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.439 and measures for grains because and we're getting this is 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.560 one of the I guess one key way that you 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.160 can you can cheat a system of weights and prices 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.959 based on weights is to put something in with your 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.280 grain to weight it down. UM As early as two 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.199 b C. In uh residents of India punished economic adulteration 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.400 of grains and oils. During the same era, the Chinese 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.840 combated consumer fraud. The ancient Athenians had purity standards for 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.080 both beer and wine. The Romans had a system to 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.199 control fraud and bad produce, and there are various other 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.440 ancient laws, religious or otherwise that governed the handling of 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.080 meat in ways that we're concerned ultimately with with purity, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.720 which of course is we've discussed many times in the shows. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.800 It's a tricky concept because in purity you're getting ideas 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.319 of sort of hygiene mixed up with with with less 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.560 um a matter of fact, statements about out of food. 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.240 But you know, as we discussed with pork recently on 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.400 the show, there's always this argument that the purity is 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.760 at least partially grounded in health concerns. Sure, uh, And 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.600 you can maybe make arguments like that about the mixing 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.320 of different types of foods that are forbidden in some 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.160 religious customs. Maybe not that there's actually anything wrong with 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.240 mixing those types of foods, but perhaps there was a 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.400 perception in the ancient world that that it could be dangerous. Now, 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.320 another source that I was looking at here is is 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.360 a wonderful right up by Adam Burrows J d uh 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.520 and it's titled Palette of Our Palettes Clever, A Brief 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.920 History of Food coloring and its regulation from Comprehensive Reviews 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.200 and Food Science and Food Safety, and this is from 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.760 two thousand nine. Uh. Burrows points out that the ancient 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.400 Egyptians wrote of drug colorance, but archaeologists think food coloration 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:55.079 itself dates back to roughly C. Saffron, for example, is 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.160 mentioned in the Iliad, and plenty of the elder wrote 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.840 of colored wines and four D B C. And I 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:03.679 looked into this little more and it seems like it's 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.240 possibly talking about the use of squid incu in the wind. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:08.760 I guess, you know, give dark in it and may 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.160 give it this thicker appearance. Squid ink is still used 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.160 as a food additive today. Yeah, yeah, Like if you 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.720 ever have squid ink pasta, that's right. Yeah, they're beautiful, 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.240 like charcoal black color in the food. Um, I don't 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.400 know if it really contributes a flavor. I've never looked 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.280 into that. Yeah, And likewise, I don't know if putting 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.480 squid ink in your wine is I'm sure it's It 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.280 would be frowned upon at a roll restaurant today. But saffron, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.960 of course contributes both color and flavor. It's got a 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.200 distinctive kind of aroma. But yeah, you put a little 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:40.360 bit of saffron and say a pot of rice, and 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.160 it takes on this beautiful golden hue. Yeah. In addition 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.760 to saffron, a few other spices and elements that have 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:51.040 long been used to color food paprika um, fabulous, tumeric. 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.640 Beat extract is a big one because you know, you 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:57.360 get that bright red coloration. Long used food dyes. All 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.319 of these, but one that was particularly popular in the past, 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.640 Tyrian purple, was derived from several species of predatory predatory 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.120 sea snails. Oh yeah, And if you want to learn 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.479 more about the way that the Roman Empire and particularly 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.280 made use of naturally occurring substances, check out our previous 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.439 episode on Roman extinctions. Oh yeah, there we talk about 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.720 the cultivation of like silphium and things like that. Now, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.440 another source that we looked to here was Deborah Bloom's 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.160 book The Poison Squad, and Bloom points out that as 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.440 the Industrial Revolution washed over the world of foods during 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.440 you know, particularly during I think the eighteen seventies, she's 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.560 pointing out here, new food processing approaches provided even more 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:43.280 new ways and new ingredients to commit just lavish food fraud. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:49.280 And this included artificial flavors, artificial coloring, and chemical preservatives. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.400 And in this book she she makes a case for 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.800 the importance of U. S D. A chemist, Harvey Washington 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.160 widely in his white Hat efforts to use our advancing 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.640 knowledge of chemical science to stay on top of these 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.360 mini frauds. Yeah. This all in advance of the Meat 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.960 Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.520 nineteen o six, which widely helped to bring to fruition. Yeah, 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.240 he's sort of the central character in this book. And 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.040 it's funny that I feel like some of the main 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:21.080 chemicals and preservatives that he investigated with his famous Poison Squad, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.200 which was a a group of men who would who 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.200 would essentially meet to eat meals together that were contaminated 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.400 deliberately with certain common additives used in food to see 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:36.880 how their health fared from repeatedly eating things like borax 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.840 or boric acid or whatever that kind of thing that 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.760 was used to produce stuff. I feel like some of 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:46.320 the things that the Poison Squad investigated, the jury still 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.400 kind of out on exactly how harmful they were. Maybe 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.440 they weren't as harmful as he thought they were, but 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.200 clearly at this time some food additives were harming and 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.720 killing people. I think especially there was some danger from 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.800 certain dies. Yes, and by the way, the Poison Squad, 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.040 it sounds like it would make a wonderful television series, 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.040 you know. I mean the public loves a good police procedural. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:10.560 This is kind of like a little bit of police procedural, 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.960 also a little bit you know, the flavoring of say 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:17.480 The Nick, except with with a food um focus. So 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.440 I really hope it's been optioned. One thing audiences love 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.280 is people in the past not knowing things that we 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.280 know now. It's like the scene in Madmen where the 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.000 kid is playing putting the dry cleaning bag over their head, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.320 and like the scenes in The Nick where people are 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.320 just like sitting in front of an X ray machine. 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.880 Why does that give us such pleasure to see the 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.840 people of the past punished by their ignorance. I don't 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.160 know one thing I will I think that The Nick 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.680 did a great job with it because they were able 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:46.840 to They had those moments, for sure, but at the 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:48.760 same time, they had plenty of moments where they I 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:53.680 think we're able to effectively convey this sense of modernity 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.160 in in the show that showing you that that even 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:01.000 if we can look back in hindsight, these various techniques 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.720 in in the show, in the time frame, they're occurring 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.679 at the just the bleeding edge of our understanding of 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.800 the human body, and it's like retro science fiction. Yeah, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.080 so obviously I guess it's you know, it's a it's 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.320 a it's a delicate balance to maintain in a show. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:16.800 But like I would, I would love to see the 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.199 same people who did the nick like do the Poison Squad, 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.760 at least for one season, maybe many limited series maybe, 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.240 but still so. The frauds during this time were many. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.880 But I think one of the more terrifying examples to discuss, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.520 just to kick things off here is UH is something 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.560 that just on the face of things will seem like 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.600 a terrible, if not a nefarious idea, and that is 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:44.639 lead colored candy. So in our past episode on the Lead, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.199 UM I believe it was cupids lead in arrow it 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.480 was a Valentine's Day special. We pointed out that even 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.920 though lead is quite poisonous, UH, it tastes uh. Its 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.719 taste is also sometimes described as sweet, and the ancient 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.719 Romans used leads salt as a sweetener in their syrup. 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.840 This was known as soap, I believe, and plenty of 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.600 the Elder once again describes the use of lead in 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.679 vessels with sappa to sweeten the taste. Right, Yeah, You've 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:12.919 got to boil down your sapa, which was like it 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.720 was a syrup made by reducing some kind of wine 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.840 product I think, um. And so you boil it down 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.320 to make it sweet, and it takes on the lead 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.760 from the pot that it's boiled in to become sweeter. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.840 He says, don't boil it in a copper pot. That's 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:27.639 gonna taste bitter. You've got to boil it in a 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.720 lead pot so it tastes nice and sweet. So when 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.480 it comes to candy, obviously, candy is generally sweetened through 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.280 a much more conventional means, namely sugar or or some 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.040 sugar substitute. But during the time of Wiley's Wars against 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.199 Dangerous Foods, children's candy was routinely laced with lead and 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.639 other heavy metals to color it. Yea to impart this 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.000 kind of you know, often describes a kind of an 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:57.280 orange coloration, which is just you know, terrifying to imagine, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.560 because I'm just imagining like one of these red suckers 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.360 that you get at the supermarket nowadays, and just imagine 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.080 that being laced with lead and being handed to a child. Now, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.720 as the CDC points out, lead was and in some 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.399 parts of the world still is added to foods not 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.680 only to impart an inviting orange color, but also indeed 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.240 to sweeten it or to increase its weight. Again getting 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.240 back to the idea that oftentimes food, especially in bulk, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.000 is price based on weight. That you cut the dope 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.600 of candy, but it's with lead, So so that's like 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.200 three different levels of poisonous deception. They're possibly in play 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.480 in any given piece of lead laced candy. Make it 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.280 cost more via way, make it look more attractive via color, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.600 and artificially enhance the flavor to some extent as well. 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:44.600 And this applies not just to candy but to other 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:49.439 food stuffs with lead, often introduced via a spice blend. Now, 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:51.800 of course, there are other ways that lead can get 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.960 into candy as well. Uh and still can get into candy. 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.919 There's a there was case I was looking at in 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.200 which a six year old boy was a led really 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.400 poisoned by lead containing uh Tamarando candy jam products purchased 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.280 on a visit to Mexico with his aunt. However, it 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.840 seems like a case in which the lead contamination was 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.000 linked to the fact that it was quote candy packaged 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.560 in ceramic jars from Mexico at the time, and as 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.399 the California Department of Health points out, it is quote 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.560 not entirely clear where the lead in many of the 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:26.639 products is coming from, but products containing tamarind, chili powder, 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.359 or salt that is mine from certain parts of the 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:33.000 world may have a higher likelihood of elevated levels of lead. 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.360 Lead may also be introduced into the candy through improper drying, storing, 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.760 or grinding of the ingredients. Now, as we know from 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.320 our our our old alchemist friend Paracelsus, it is of 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.280 course the dose that makes the poison, and this applies 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.280 in multiple ways. It can apply to some things, can 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.640 be can accumulate in the body and their effects over 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.840 time with chronic exposure. Sometimes it also just has to 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.159 do with an acute dose. It's possible that, you know, 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.240 lead compounds have been used in many food products over 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.800 time that if they're in small enough concentration, there's not 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.680