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Crepe Cafe

My new favorite restaurant is KC's cafe at 8320 Lincoln Blvd, about a ten minute walk from our house. I ate there for the second time with Gary, Ari, and my Dad a couple nights ago. They mostly serve coffee drinks and crepes. They have the traditional french style crepes, most of which aren't that heathly, with alot of sugar and butter. They also have healthy "sandwich style" crepes that are crisper and have various vegitables and lettuce in them. And like my old local favorite restaurant in Silverlake, they are a little hole in the wall, run by a family, and only take cash. It is fun to discover new eateries in my neighborhood and I'm happy to support small "mom and pop" stores.

ACMG meeting

Thursday through Sunday I was in San Diego at the Annual Clinical Medical Genetics (ACMG) conference. It is mostly for genetic doctors, but since the conference was close, and I'd get to visit Ari, I decided to go. Alot of it was not that applicable to stuff I do, but I learned a few things. The strangest thing I learned was of a case of "fetus in fetus." As you might imagine, this in when one baby has another baby in side it - often in the abdomen or chest area. Very wierd.

Sodas and health

Phosphoric Acid

I had an interesting debate with my family this morning about the health risks of phosphoric acid in soda leading to bone loss.

I decided to do some research, but I did not delve into the contraversy surrounding artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

It is generally noted that drinking soda pop is bad for health. The biggest health risks come from the high amount of sugar in soda (leading to obesity, tooth decay and diabetes), the high amount of caffine, and the fact that the individual is drinking a soda instead of something with alot of nutrients, like milk.

Phosphoric acid is an ingredient in some sodas added for a tart flavor, historically added to colas. When ingested, phosphate becomes phosphoric acid in the stomach which is neutralized by calcium.

"Coke and other soft drinks are acidified with phosphoric acid (see the list of ingredients on the side of the can/bottle ). When food passes from the stomach to the small intestine, bicarbonate is added (by the digestive apparatus ) to raise the pH. Under the acid conditions of the stomach, the calcium in food is available, but when the pH goes up in the small intestine, the calcium reacts with the phosphate from the soda and precipitates. In that form, calcium phosphate, it is not available for absorption." -From a ultra runner website.

Pepsi says this about phosphoric acid...
"A small amount of phosphoric acid is added to our soft drinks. However, it is greatly diluted and is fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in soft drinks. Phosphoric acid provides tartness, essential to a well-rounded flavor.

Although some published articles have suggested a link between phosphorus intake and calcium loss; studies have shown that even a high phosphorus intake has no effect on overall calcium balance. In fact recent reports suggest that if large amounts of calcium are taken, for example by taking calcium supplements, it is necessary to increase phosphorus intake to maintain bone health.

Phosphorus, like calcium, is an essential mineral in bone. It is widely distributed in the food supply, including fish, milk, meat, eggs and cereal grains. Soft drinks, however, are not a significant source of phosphorus in the diet, generally contributing only two to four percent of the daily dietary phosphorus intake. For example, one cup of milk contains 250 mg of phosphorus while an equivalent amount of cola contains no more than 48 to 56 mg. The U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance of phosphorus for adequate nutrition is 800 mg per day."

This statement from Pepsi of course only talks about the effects of phosphorus, not phosphoric acid.

I looked it up and Phosphoric acid IS an ingredient in Coke, Vanilla coke, Cherry coke, Diet coke, Mr. Pibb, Barq's root bear, ginger alePepsi, Diet pepsi, Vanilla pepsi, and Lemon pepsi.

It is NOT in Mountain Dew, diet mountain dew, Mug root beer, Sierra Mist, Diet Sierra Mist, Tropicanan Twist, Sprite or Diet Sprite.

To summarize, there is some controversy over whether phosphoric acid in soda is bad. Phosphoric acid in the stomach is neutralized by available calcium. The amount of phosphoric acid needed to significantly delplete the body of calcium is debatable. However, phosphoric acid is generally only added to cola type sodas for flavor and is not found in other types of soda.

Conclusion - In our house, since we almost exclusively drink diet, non-caffinated, fruity sodas - the known and potential health risks of sugar, caffine, and phosphoric acid should not apply to us.

Here are a few other websites I found that were helpful.

http://www.jamesbeard.org/old/eatTheseWords/words/phosphate.html

http://www.ameribev.org/health/bonehealth.asp

Rashi's daughters US news

Congratulations to Maggie Anton, AKA my mother, for getting her book into the main article in US News and World Reports. Oddly, she and her book, Rashi's Daughters, are not mentioned anywhere in the actual text of the article, but there is a big photo of her novel with a brief caption underneath. In any case, good for her.

2006 Academy Awards

I enjoyed watching the Academy Awards last night. I love watching all the stars on the red carpet. Also, I think Jon Stuart did an okay job - the fake Oscar politcal adds were funny.

I was rooting for Brokeback Mountain - it definitely was the best movie I'd seen last year, but I have to admit I haven't seen most of the other Oscar contenders. We watched Crash last weekend and I liked it, but not nearly as much as Brokeback. They say that most of the nominee's for the Academy Awards aren't necessarily the ones normal folks like, but I find my tastes in films run more with the critics and Oscar choices than the average American.

I hope to catch up on the Oscar winners that I didn't see with Netflix. Although I said that in previous years and I still haven't caught up with the 2004 and 2005 winners. Thank goodness for Netflix.