$35 bowl of pasta, spicy Malaysian fish, Korean BBQ feast and more

Seafood Tom Yum Soup at Penang Malaysian & Thai Cuisine in Lodi.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've been food shopping, preparing meals at home and eating out, and reporting all about it on my new blog, The Sasson Report.

Here are links to those reports:

Spicy Malaysian fish

Kinara in Tenafly, Fish Dock in Closter

Armenian takeout in Hackensack

Food tastes sweeter when on sale

$35 bowl of pasta, no charge for agita

Korean barbecue around a wood-charcoal fire

Hidden dangers of eating fast food

Sanducci's takeout, fish tacos and more

Explore other food posts at  The Sasson Report

Top doctors list best ways to stay healthy for the new year or any year

Organic tomatoes at the new Whole Foods Market in Closter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

AARP has been far from consistent on just what people 50 and older should do to stay healthy.

But the AARP Bulletin sent to members this month lists leading health professionals' guidance on nutrition, fitness and making smart everyday choices.

You'll find "Best Advice from Top Docs" on Pages 24-25 of the December 2016 bulletin.

Daily living

The everyday lifestyle adjustments most important for general health:

• Take a daily 30-minute walk (the only choice selected by every doctor surveyed).
• Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night.
• Spend time each day with a friend or loved one.
• Reduce your consumption of junk food, such as cookies and chips.
• Cut back on refined carbohydrates (white bread, pasta, white rice).

100% organic whole wheat spaghetti, available at ShopRite, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, is a healthy alternative to regular pasta and other refined carbohydrates.

 Eating habits

Change these harmful eating habits to improve your long-term health:

• Drinking soda at most meals and for snacks.
• Eating several fast-food restaurant meals each week, eating two or fewer servings of vegetables each day; and bingeing on pizza, hot wings, nachos or other 'social foods' a few times per week.
• Eating ice cream, cake, doughnuts or other sweets every day.

Lifestyle choices

Lifestyle habits or patterns most harmful to a person's long-term health:

• Smoking cigarettes.
• Not exercising
• Feeling perpetually lonely or socially isolated
• Ignoring health problems or symptoms.
• Taking painkillers every day; and being angry, worried or stressed more often than feeling happy.

A survey of some of the nation's leading health professionals is published on Pages 24-25 of the AARP Bulletin, a sister publication of AARP The Magazine.

"I would argue for 'Eat less meat and more plants,'" says Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.

Ignore 'Eat This/Not That!'

An example of AARP's bad advice on nutrition was published in the non-profit group's April/May 2016 issue of AARP The Magazine.

"Eat This/Not That!" listed only fast-food and chain restaurants that serve low-quality meat and poultry raised with big doses of harmful antibiotics, and recommended unhealthy meals with lots of unwanted sugar, cholesterol or saturated fat.

AARP is the former American Association of Retired Persons.

Organic Spanish rice, Australian beef, blue-fin tuna boycott

Moist, filling and delicious, and a great bread substitute: Organic brown rice with organic chicken stock, organic diced tomatoes, peeled garlic cloves and saffron.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss an easy recipe for organic Spanish rice, share an e-mail from a woman whose family raises beef in Australia, and urge you to boycott the annual blue-fin-tuna cutting demonstration at a Japanese supermarket.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Here is another easy electric rice-cooker recipe that requires you to do little more than measure, pour the ingredients into the appliance and plug it in.

I used three cups of organic brown rice, twice that in liquid (organic chicken stock or water), a can of organic diced tomatoes with their juices, a lot of peeled garlic cloves, a few ounces of extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and a few threads of Spanish saffron.

Most of the ingredients came from Costco Wholesale.

Doubling the amount of liquid in relation to the rice results in a moist dish with creamy garlic cloves.

A few days later, after enjoying the rice for breakfast and dinner instead of bread, I prepared pretty much the same dish using organic quinoa and organic lentils, in addition to the liquid, diced tomatoes and garlic cloves.

Organic quinoa with organic diced tomatoes, organic lentils and garlic cloves, all from Costco. I served it for breakfast with a wedge of egg-white frittata made with chopped garlic, black olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and topped with Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto.

Grass-fed Nature's Reserve Australian beef pan fried with cabbage, sweet peppers, onions and garlic.

Australian beef in the U.S.

In recent years, I've noticed a subtle shift in the promotion of Australian beef that no longer mentions whether the cattle were raised without animal antibiotics, which some experts say are harmful to humans.

ShopRite Supermarkets, where I buy Nature's Reserve whole beef tenderloins for filet mignon, also has added another line of Australian beef, Clayton's Organic Beef.

Organic beef can't be raised with antibiotics, growth hormones or feed with GMOs.

Here is a note from Diane Carter, who is in the cattle business in Australia:

"Here are a few thoughts and facts about Australian beef.  

"My family have been in the cattle business in Australia for 100+ years. A lot has changed.  I won’t go into all the history but, over the last 5-10 years there has been a resurgence of grass-fed and finished beef.

"While the domestic market accounts for the largest share of Australia’s beef production, overseas markets are extremely important, often taking beef cuts that are not as popular with Australian consumers.  

"The USA is currently the biggest overseas market, having just overtaken Japan.  

"The USA takes large quantities of 'manufacturing' beef (read hamburgers), whereas Japan and South Korea, the next biggest, import a lot of prime cuts as well as steak for stir fry and hot pots.

"China is now emerging as a rapidly growing market for our beef.

"The question of antibiotics is a bit complicated.  

"Nature’s Reserve is not a single source supplier. They buy their meat from a large number of producers.  It is all grass fed and finished but they cannot always get enough supply to meet their demands by insisting on antibiotic-free meat.  

"Their suppliers generally will not be using antibiotics as growth promotants, but will treat individual animals when necessary.  

"You would have to go organic to be sure of being completely antibiotic free. Clayton’s, being organic, can make this claim.  

"As for kosher and halal, their meats would be like all others, i.e., if they are lot fed they will almost certainly have had antibiotics, grass fed may or may not, organic will not.

"I hope this sheds some light on the subject for you and your readers."

Time to boycott Mitsua tuna cutting

The giant blue-fin tuna is one of the most magnificent creatures in the sea, but it has been over-exploited for sushi and shashimi.

A few years ago, Mitsuwa Marketplace, the big Japanese supermarket in Edgewater was selling the prized belly meat for $60 a pound.

This fast-swimming fish is even being farmed to meet the demand from Japan and other countries.

Every year, Mitsuwa stages a two-day tuna cutting demonstration, where a small army of workers reduce previously frozen blue-fin tunas weighing hundreds of pounds into thousands of packages of raw fish.

The heads of the fish are usually put on display.

I have been boycotting the demonstration since 2010, and urge you to do the same this weekend.

Blue-fin tuna may be delicious, but the red flesh also contains an unusually large amount of harmful mercury.

Consumption by children and women of child-bearing age isn't recommended. 

Perdue Farms can't shed scarlet letter

Image via Wikipedia

It takes a tough consumer to see through Perdue's claims.

Perdue Farms has a new TV ad campaign that tries to convince consumers its chickens are "better," but the spots are silent on its use of antibiotics to make them grow quickly and keep them healthy in crowded conditions.


I saw one of the ads this morning on the TV mounted on my exercise bicycle at the gym, and antibiotics were never mentioned. 


They earn Perdue the scarlet letter "A."


I once saw a PBS documentary that showed a chicken growing so big on antibiotics, it could not stand and constantly fell over in a crowded chicken house.


The ads claim Perdue gives its chicken an all-vegetarian feed, with no added animal by-products, and never administers "steroids or hormones."


But the government bars the use of steroids and hormones, so that claim is meaningless.


Here is a story in the Huffington Post on the new campaign.


Perdue tries to improve perception of chicken


Most supermarkets, including ShopRite and Stop & Shop, carry fresh chicken raised without antibiotics.

Video: Humane Society sues Perdue Farms

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the United States.

If you continue to buy and eat Perdue chicken after seeing this video, you have a strong stomach.

The Humane Society of the United States filed suit in New Jersey against Maryland-based Perdue Farms late last year after labels on chicken sold at a warehouse store claimed the poultry had been "humanely raised." It is seeking class-action status.

The suit was brought on behalf of a New Jersey woman who bought chicken at a BJ's Wholesale Club bearing the Harvestland label, a trade name used by Perdue for birds raised in Kentucky and marketed as "purely all-natural" and "humanely raised."

The suit alleges that the poultry producer's marketing violates New Jersey's consumer fraud law. The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against Perdue, as well as an injunction barring it from making claims that it treats its birds humanely.

The label is similar to those you see in the supermarket that omit any mention of Perdue's use of antibiotics to raise chickens. The Humane Society says Perdue processes 3 billion pounds of chicken a year.

Warning: The content of this video is graphic. Here is the link:

Humane Society sues Perdue 

Food shopping in Italy and North Jersey

I had a chance to shop at an Italian supermarket and browse in a local butcher shop-deli, and compare them to my favorite food stores in North Jersey.

I was told the Billa supermarket on Lido di Venezia that I visited was part of a chain owned by Austrians, who once ruled Venice. (Lido is a beach resort on the Adriatic Sea, and one of the islands that make up Venice.)

This Billa market wasn't as big as a ShopRite, but all the promotions and sales going on gave the impression it is the low-price leader in Italy, just as ShopRite makes that claim here. But Billa is behind some ShopRites when it comes to providing antibiotic-free poultry and meat, and preservative-free cold cuts. I didn't see any fish.

I also couldn't find any organic milk, and in fact, no item I saw was labeled organic. That surprised me, because the Slow Food movement began in Italy and agriturismo is well-developed, with organic farms offering overnight stays and meals of naturally raised food.

At the checkout counter, one man was buying a dozen liters of Italian extra-virgin olive oil, which were on sale for about $4 each. The price of the large, plastic bottle of mineral water I had was cut in half, to 22 euro cents ($1 was worth 70 euro cents).

As I do in a ShopRite or other supermarkets here, I  had to make sure the item near a price or sale sign was, in fact, the item described on the sign. And the checkout counters moved as slowly there as they do here. If you want a plastic bag, Billa charges 6 euro cents for one.

A few days later, I visited Varese and walked through a crowded butcher shop. Chickens were being sold whole with some of the feathers still in place, and that seemed intentional rather than the result of a poor cleaning job.

In Gallarate, outside a cheese shop, I saw a vending machine selling plastic and glass bottles and unpasturized milk (latte crudo). The price was 1 euro per liter (3.8 liters make a gallon).

Back home, I went to Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Tuesday, and found large, whole whiting for $4.99 a pound. The store was having a one-day sale on wild-caught coho salmon for a low price of $7.99 a pound.

At H Mart in Little Ferry the next day, I bought fresh spinach and baby bok choy, and watched the fishmongers set up the counter, which usually has about 20 selections of whole and filleted fish on ice, labeled with country of origin and whether it is farmed or wild-caught. I also picked up prepared Korean food: stewed tofu, stewed Alaskan pollack and japchae or noodles.

At Jerry's in Englewood on Thursday, I limited myself  to Italian wine at $4.99 and $5.99 a bottle.

Although my exposure to shopping in Italy was limited, North Jersey food stores appear to be both bigger and better.

(Photo: The window of a butcher shop in the city of Monza, Italy.)

Long trip, low price

Image via Wikipedia







All-natural Australian beef is on sale again at ShopRite Supermarkets, and this time, it's boneless rib-eye steaks for $4.99 a pound or $3.99 with a store card. 

The beef, sold under the Nature's Reserve label, is described in the flier as free range and grass fed, but there is a limit of 5 pounds. The sale runs through Saturday (Aug. 21). 

Conventionally raised U.S. beef rib steak costs more, even on sale ($5.99 and $6.99 with the Price Plus Card).

Naturally raised Australian beef and lamb can be raised for less and sold here for less, even when factoring in transportation costs. Too bad we don't see Australian pork here. Pork reportedly is raised with more antibiotics than other animals. 


ShopRite sells Certified Angus Beef rib steak, which is raised with antibiotics and growth hormones, but not Certified Angus Beef Natural, which is raised without them. 

Nail-biting Chef Bobby Flay uses the former line of beef in the hamburgers he sells at his so-called palace in Paramus.  I guess his profits come before his customers.
 

ShopRite answers competitors

Image by joshuapaquin via Flickr

The ShopRite sales flier delivered with my newspaper this morning answers the beef sales of three competitors, noted in my previous post, How low can they go on beef prices?

USDA choice, top round London broil is on sale for $1.49 a pound and Certified Angus Beef London broil is going for $1.99 a pound, both with a Price Plus card. This is conventionally raised beef, so you'll also be eating antibiotics, growth hormones and, probably, animal byproducts (bits of dead animals, kitchen scraps and so forth in cattle feed).

We're not eating beef right now, but if we were, I'd go to ShopRite and check out its price for Australian free-range, grass-fed filet mignon, which is raised without any of the nasty stuff and sold here at lower prices than U.S. beef.

More information about Costco seafood

Image via Wikipedia

Dear Victor:

"We appreciate you taking the time to e-mail Costco Wholesale.


"Our farmed seafood are only treated with antibiotics, if it's absolutely needed. If they need to be treated, we have to make sure that our suppliers follow strict FDA [Food and Drug Administration] guidelines.  We also test for antibiotics in our fish as well, to make sure that suppliers follow guidelines imposed."

Thank you,

Melisa
Costco Wholesale Corp.

The farmed Black Tiger shrimp we had for dinner last night were sold at Costco under the SEAMAZZ label. Here is more information from the company's Web site:

"Mazzetta Co. is accredited by the Aquaculture Certification Council for best management practices in food safety and traceability. Mazzetta Co.’s shrimp is harvested without endangering the habitat of the sea turtle or other marine animals.

"Sweetly flavorful and firm textured, SEAMAZZ® raw shrimp is a delicious addition to a healthy diet. With no carbohydrates, saturated fat or trans fat, SEAMAZZ raw shrimp is a nutritious source of protein with fewer calories than chicken, turkey, or beef. SEAMAZZ raw shrimp is one of the most versatile additions to any menu. It can be broiled, grilled, stir fried, sautéed, or steamed and is ready to eat in minutes."

That sounds good, but there is no mention of whether antibiotics are used in the raising  of this shrimp.

Letter rejected by AARP The Magazine

Image by Civil Rights via Flickr

Here is the letter that was rejected by AARP The Magazine about two food articles in the January & February 2010 issue (the benefits of fish and saving money at the supermarket):

"The article on saving at the supermarket could have alerted shoppers to the use of antibiotics in chickens that can affect human health, and advised them to watch for the occasional sale on birds raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics, priced between conventional and organic poultry.


"Australian lamb and beef are free range and grass fed, contain no antibiotics or growth hormones, and are usually priced below U.S. cuts.

"Your article on the safety of fish omitted the mighty little sardine, which is low in mercury and versatile. It's equally at home in a sandwich or with pasta. Just add two to three cans of sardines for each 32 ounce jar of sauce, enough for one pound of pasta."

Victor E. Sasson
Hackensack, N.J. 07601

Author of  http://doyoureallyknowwhatyoureeating/

The magazine, which calls itself the world's largest, responded by saying "space limitations restrict us from printing all of the comments we receive."

Whose supermarket guru?

Image via Wikipedia

All of us want to save money when we shop for food, but we also want to avoid poultry and meat from factory farms, some farmed seafood and produce treated with a lot of pesticides.

However, none of this is discussed in "Save at the Supermarket," an article in the January & February 2010 issue of AARP The Magazine. The author is Phil Lempert, identified as the Supermarket Guru, who appears regularly on the Today Show and The View.

Lempert doesn't mention the antibiotics, hormones or animal by-products used to rush the growth of chickens, cattle, pigs and other animals; he doesn't discuss the merits of wild v. farmed seafood, which could be artificially colored or carry contaminants; and he doesn't recommend Australian beef and lamb, free-range, grass-fed products that are usually cheaper than their conventionally raised U.S. cousins

So whose Supermarket Guru is he?

I wrote a letter pointing out some of these omissions, and AARP The Magazine informed me it did not have room to publish it.

This is the same issue with an article on fish that omits the benefits of sardines.

Whole Foods Market discusses the use of antibiotics in animals on its blog: No antibiotics -- ever

Peddling hype at the supermarket

Premium is a word some supermarkets love to use, even though it is meaningless. All natural is a phrase favored by food producers who are trying to hide the unnatural things they do to the animals they raise.

You'll find lots of similar words and phrases in the sale circulars of North Jersey supermarkets, including A&P and Pathmark. (A&P owns Pathmark.)

Pathmark says its marinated top round London broil, sliced chicken breast and rotisserie chicken are "gold quality." So is the domestic Swiss cheese it sells. There's no indication that the beef or poultry are raised on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics or growth hormones.

At A&P, 1855-brand boneless center-cut pork chops are "all natural, premium." The Angus boneless top round London broil is "premium gold," but only USDA Choice, the middle grade of three used to classify beef. Marinated meats are "gold quality" and Plumrose sliced bacon is described as "premium." Again, we are told nothing about how the animals were raised or whether the bacon has harmful preservatives

A&P's circular trumpets "See Red & Save," referring to "Red Tag Savings." Circulars that are filled with hype are just making me see red.

Twenty rules about eating?

I'm passing along an article in The New York Times on rules about eating from readers. It cites author Michael Pollan's 20 favorite rules and asks readers to submit more.

The rules are folksy and lighthearted. None of the rules say you should try to avoid eating animals that are raised on factory farms, on a mixture of  antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products, additives that have an impact on human health. Here's the link to the Times piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/11/magazine/20091011-foodrules.html

Pork has less fat than chicken breast?

In reviewing old issues of Consumer Reports On Health, I came across an item suggesting that pork has less fat than an equivalent amount of skinless chicken breast.

"Evidence suggests pork is 16 percent leaner and has 27 percent less saturated fat than it did 15 years ago," the September 2006 newsletter said.

"A U.S. Department of Agriculture analysis (funded in part by the National Pork Board) found that a 3-ounce serving of pork tenderloin contains 2.98 grams of fat, compared with 3.03 grams in a 3-ounce serving of skinless chicken breast."

There's no mention of how most pork is raised with antibiotics and growth hormones and fed who knows what. In fact, I've read that pork receives more antibiotics than any other animal raised for human consumption. So if you love pork, be sure to buy the drug- and hormone-free variety sold at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market and some supermarkets.

Trader Joe's has St. Louis-style ribs from the Niman Ranch and at least two brands of drug- and preservative-free bacon. Whole Foods has the biggest selection of naturally raised pork, beef, lamb and poultry of any market in North Jersey. Super Stop & Shop carries Nature's Promise, a line of organic and naturally raised food, including drug- and hormone-free pork chops. See previous post, "Kudos for Stop & Shop." (This post was revised.)

Fairway Market's latest sales circular

Fairway Market in Paramus, grand opening (Wikipedia)

There isn't much of interest to me in the Fairway Market sales circular I got with today's Record. Prices are good from today through Sept. 11 in Paramus.

USDA Choice beef brisket is selling for $2.99 a pound -- no extra charge for the antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products that were probably used to raise the animal. Yummy. 

If you want kosher brisket, the price is $9.99 a pound, but there is no mention of whether the animal is raised the same way as for the cheap stuff..

Want some kosher, artificially colored farmed salmon? Only $6.99 a pound, compared with $8.99 for fresh wild sockeye salmon at Costco. Artificially colored, smoked farmed salmon is selling for $16.99 a pound, compared with $13.99 for a pound of Costco's smoked wild salmon.

Refrigerated Sabra hummus is $1.99 for 7 ounces and $3.99 for 17 ounces. I'll stick with the canned Libano Verde brand hummus I get at Fattal's in Paterson, $1.09 for 15 ounces. (You add olive oil, powdered garlic and lemon juice.)

Fairway does have good prices for organic milk: $2.99 for a half-gallon of kosher, grass-fed milk and $5.99 for a gallon of Organic Valley milk.

You'll also get a deal on a Murray's rotisserie chicken for $5.99 (weight not specified). Whole Foods Market in Paramus charges $7.49 for a similar rotisserie chicken, though it is probably larger.

Murray's poultry is hormone- and antibiotic-free and is raised on a vegetarian diet, and takes less time to cook than ordinary chicken. Let's hope the Paramus store doesn't overcook them, as the Harlem store did when I first tried a Murray's rotisserie chicken years ago.

U.S. seeks ban on antibiotics in farm animals

http://www.organicvalley.coop/newsroom/organics-in-the-news/browse_news/1/

Check out this Organic Valley Web site (above), which reviews news about organic food, the use of antibiotics in farm animals and related subjects.

One item, taken from The Washington Post on July 13, 2009, reports that the Obama administration wants to ban antibiotics given to farm animals to make them grow rapidly, in a bid to reduce the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. The bacteria are resistant to many treatments. Hooray for the Obama administration!

If antibiotics are banned, chicken producers such as Perdue will no longer be lying when they put the words "All Natural" on their product. (Revised Saturday, Aug. 8.)

A poor job of food journalism

The Record of Hackensack carried a column today by its restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, who criticizes "silly cliches" on menus. In a previous column, Ung highlighted typos, misspellings and other language problems on the menus of the places she has reviewed.

Unfortunately, her supervising editor and copy editors do a poor job of catching and fixing the typos, errors and wordy prose in her own columns and stories. In a restaurant review data box this past Friday, she listed $21.95 as the top price for entrees, but panned a paella for two at $41.95. On June 5, she noted "a casual relaxation from an easy dinner out." Once, she said a room in a restaurant was "chandelier-clad." In a story about Bobby Flay's hamburger restaurant in Paramus, she was just plain wrong on the type of ground beef used.

Ung is a woman in her 30s who demonstrates her limited knowledge of food and language with every column she writes. Rarely does she discuss how menus omit the origin of food and whether poultry and meat were raised with antibiotics and growth hormones. It is no longer enough to say a steak tastes good and was cooked to a customer's order. What I and many others want to know is whether the animal was 100% grass fed or confined in a feed lot and given grain, animal by-products and hormones to speed up its growth. And we also want to know whether the seafood we are ordering is wild-caught.

The $24.07 lunch menu Friday at Del Posto in Manhattan said the tomatoes were heirloom and the pork loin came from a breed of black pigs that are vegetarian-fed and raised without antibiotics and growth hormones. Other items were described similarly, as in the free-range chicken listed. Ung should start writing about whether the menus she sees in New Jersey show the same sensibility. (Revised Monday, Aug. 3, and Tuesday, Aug. 4.)

To all you bacon freaks

Here is a comment I sent today to the Web site relish.com. Relish magazine comes with my local newspaper once a month (this allows the newspaper to do less food writing, not more):

I went to baconfreak.com, mentioned on Page 4 of your April 2009 Relish magazine, and it seems the vast majority of bacon sold there is cured and filled with antibiotics and preservatives such as nitrates. To call it natural, as you do, is a real stretch. It may be lower in fat, but I have read that pigs receive more antibiotics than any other animal raised for food. What's wrong with antibiotics? People who eat lots of poultry and meat raised with antibiotics are becoming resistant to antibiotics they get from doctors. There is no discussion On the Web site baconfreak.com of cured vs. uncured, antibiotics or growth hormones and whether the bacon sold there has them.

The Web site refers to people who want to avoid nitrates as "health nuts." It does offer a small selection of bacon without nitrates, but there is no mention whether this bacon contains antibiotics and growth hormones.

There is lots of uncured bacon without antibiotics, growth hormones or nitrates sold at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Markets. This is the bacon you should feature in Relish magazine.

Hear me, Oprah!

Did you see the Oprah Winfrey show the other day, when three celebrity chefs visited families that basically threw money at the problem of cooking meals at home? One family bought virtually everything from the frozen food aisle in the supermarket. Another spent lavishly to have meals delivered -- more than $51 on dinner for two.

The celebrity chefs, including Cat Cora and Tyler Perry, showed the families how to buy food for far less and prepare delicious meals at home. But there was no mention of the quality of the ingredients or how the chicken, pork and so forth had been raised; of whether the poultry and meats were filled with antibiotics or growth hormones.

Of course, the pan-roasted, jerk-flavored pork chops looked and tasted great, but did the family eating them know pigs received more antibiotics than any other animal raised for human consumption? The problem with eating animals raised on antibiotics is the growing human resistance to antibiotics prescribed by doctors. The silence on this subject by the celebrity chefs and Oprah -- and the general silence of most food writing -- is why I started this blog.