A troublesome crystal

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A while ago we were talking about kidney stones. One of the variety of things that kidney stones can be comprised of is Struvite. To the chemically inclined, it is ammonium magnesium phosphate.

But today I want to mention one of struvite's other incarnations.

Tinned fish.

Struvite crystals will grow in tinned fish, especially salmon. Looking for all the world like pieces of windscreen glass after a crash, the crystals will come in for testing as "glass found in a tin of fish".

But it is not glass. And it is not harmful.

Should you swallow some it will dissolve in your gastric juices.
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Flavoured e-Cigars

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Chairman Bill said "Instead of smoking, I vape in my e-cigar propylene-glycol with nicotine that has flavourings added - banana, vanilla, etc.

Of late I have been 'cutting' the e-liquid with BP glycerine to make it go further, which does tend to dry out the mucous membranes a tad. However, my question is about added flavourings.

Given the e-liquid is vaporised prior to inhalation, what chemicals that commonly appear in food flavourings should I keep well clear of. I believe caramel bungs up the works of the e-cigar due to the sugars, but I'm led to believe that food flavourings can also have some added chemicals that can undergo a transition when vapourised and could be dangerous.

Blowed if I know, Bill.

It's not that a particular flavouring is dangerous. I am assuming that they are not burnt in the normal cigar/cigarette sense. If that is the case, they are all dangerous.

If the vaporisation is not at a particularly high temperature, they should all be OK.
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Kidney Stones

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Kidney stone crystals.

Kris Loves Chocolate asks: "Could there be any truth to drinking pickle juice to dissolve a kidney stone? "

First let me say that I am a food chemist, not a pharmacist. By rights, I have no right to answer medical questions and any answer is based more on logic than medical knowledge.

Now, having said that, let me say this:

Kidney stones are things that have deposited, crystallised, from your urine. There are several types of kidney stones, so no one thing will cure them all.

For something like pickle juice, basically vinegar, to dissolve them it would need to get past your stomach and intestinal system and have an influence on the composition of your urine. Not impossible, by all accounts something in cranberries makes the passage and has a remedial effect with regard to urinary tract infections. But I am not convinced that acetic acid, the acid in pickle juice, will do that. Most body fluids are pretty tightly controlled for their pH.

More plausible is that drinking more fluids may lower the concentration of the salts in the urine that lead to the stones and then they may redissolve.

May.

I see no reason why pickle juice cannot be this fluid but water would be more palatable.

For more informed information, visit the Mayo Clinic site.
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Do birds burp?

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Chairman Bill asks "My son keeps wanting to feed seagulls with bread laced with baking soda. Does it blow them up?"

I don't think so.

See here.

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Grey Egg Whites

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Anonymous asked "I whipped egg whites in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl & they turned a greyish color with a grey liquid. What kind of reaction was that? And is it still safe to eat? "

I can't be sure about a Kitchen Aid bowl but whipping egg whites in an aluminium bowl will produce a grey result as small particles of aluminium are rubbed off the bowl by the beaters.

Safe? Probably but best to avoid it if you can.
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Alkaline Water

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Anonymous (and Honest Abe) asked: "Can you comment on the current fad of drinking alkaline water. People are spending thousands of dollars on machines that use electrolysis to make alkaline water. I can't see how this is real, nor can I understand how any alkaline water could be useful in the acidic environment of the stomach. "

Well, no, not really, not much. The mouth is alkaline and the stomach is acidic. The advantage of this is that, having an alkaline mouth, your teeth don't dissolve.

Beyond that, I can see no advantage of alkaline water.
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Curry Powder

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Sara asked about curry powder.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with curry powder. It has been safely used for many centuries, following time honoured and well proven practices.

But what if those practices are not followed?

First, let's look at what curry powder is. It is the ground mixture of spices, seeds of a variety of plants. Seeds that have been exposed to the environment. There is nothing abnormal in that but, because of their origin, the seeds that go into curry powder will bring with them a variety of organisms from the environment. Notably Salmonella.

Now, how is curry traditionally prepared? You heat oil in a pan and cook the powder in this oil. Ostensibly to 'bring out the flavour' but, by a happy coincidence, it also sterilises the powder. You then add meat, vegetables, whatever and continue with making your curry.

What happens if you deviate from this long proven, survival enhancing, cooking practice? What if you are a new age cook and make a curried pasta salad where you just mix the warm (!) pasta, mayonnaise, vegetables, cream and curry powder and stir? Nothing much if you eat it straight away. But bacteria will double roughly every 20min at room temperature; what if you make your salad early and leave it for a few hours before eating? Not a good idea - the salad is warm, moist and protein rich - happy times for the bacteria.

Because of the risk, spices are one of the few things that are permitted to be irradiated to sterilise them. But this does not teach people safe handling practices for a potentially dangerous food. People will just be ignorant of the dangers and at risk from spices that are not irradiated.
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