My Food! My Peanut Butter!

Darn it, my grocery store is going out of business.

Johnnie's Foodmaster (how can you not love a grocery store named "Foodmaster"?), which we liked to support because it was a small, family-owned local chain, is closing up after selling 6 of 10 locations to Whole Foods and apparently not feeling very attached to the other four.

Whole Foods has its charms and all, I guess, but a small, family-owned local chain it is not. And Shaw's, the small-ish, slightly local chain with a store I used to like to walk to, is no longer within walking distance.

I understand that grocery stores are a tough business, and maybe the owning family just felt like getting the heck out, so good for them for managing it if that's the case. I hope all their employees do OK in the new stores or find good jobs elsewhere.

And I suppose we'll just have to drive to Shaws. Even though we don't like their store brand peanut butter as well.

What about our store brand peanut butter? Nooooooooooo!!!!

Sadder Food Thoughts

As attentive news perusers may have observed, another salmonella-based peanut butter recall has the nation in its sticky grip, with about 240 products (not all even peanut-related: some other nuts have also been effected) on the FDA's list.

I don't see the generic store brand we tend to buy around here on the list, but the fact that the recall has expanded to so many different brands and products makes me less confident that this means my own peanut butter is safe. There, in the cupboard, even now, it could be seething with bacteria.

In case you're wondering, and have forgotten how to type a word into a search engine yourself, here's some info about salmonella. I must say, it sounds like a real fun time.

Since I live mostly on peanut butter (slight exaggeration only), this hits close to home for me. Come to think of it, since I try to keep peanut butter in my home at all times, this hits me right where I live: my house.

Sigh. It's a sad thing when you can't trust your peanut butter. I'll tell you right now, though, I'm not going to stop eating it. Not until they recall every jar on every shelf in this great nation!

And if they do that, I'll go to Canada. Don't push me on this.

Uh-Oh

Peanut butter, which is roughly half my diet (I've eaten it no fewer than three times today, although that is slightly unusual), is going to be more expensive due to poor peanut crops. Noooooooo!!!!!

This was in Time near the beginning of the month, but I'm just now noticing it (courtesy of Why Evolution Is True). At this point it may be too late to stock up, since the piece says to expect higher prices "by the end of October"--which end, I notice, is now upon us.

Well, I guess I'll have to dedicate more money to the peanut butter fund. Not eating as much peanut butter? It doesn't bear thinking on.

Today in News I Like

I am pleased to see in Salon a resurfacing of a story I read somewhere else a bit ago, about a study comparing children's peanut allergies in the U.K. (where pregnant women and young children are advised to avoid peanuts) and Israel (where no such concerns are common).

It turns out that avoiding peanuts is correlated with higher rates of peanut sensitivity, not lower. Of course (say it with me), correlation is not causation, so this doesn't necessarily mean we should all run out and ply pregnant women and small children with peanuts (although that is precisely what I personally intend to do).

Still, it makes sense in a "familiarity breeds desensitization" model of substance-sensitivity. This would also be the model that advises not trying to keep too antiseptic a house, on the theory that the immune system needs something to practice on. 

Eat a little dirt, kids! It's good for you!*

Since I subsist largely on peanut butter and clean the house maybe twice a year, I am highly in favor of this model. 

I am further encouraged by this report from the American Academy of Pediatrics noting that "Current evidence does not support a major role [in protecting against development of allergies] for maternal dietary restrictions during pregnancy or lactation" or delaying the introduction of certain foods for more than 4-6 months.

Pregnant women and small children, come on over to my place for some peanut butter cookies. Don't mind the dust. (This offer is mainly symbolic: you'll have to let me know before you come over, since I don't actually have the cookies right this minute. The dust I've got, though.)

*A PB&D (peanut butter and dirt) sandwich is especially good for you.

In Other Pressing News--

I am deeply concerned about this peanut butter issue. Sure, at the moment it's just products made with peanut butter, but I fear for the safety of the peanut butter itself.

Peanut butter is one of the several food groups for me. I depend on peanut butter! 

Also today, I enjoyed a high-tech (though rather low-quality) viewing of the inauguration via streaming video from various sites. I particularly appreciated CNN's link with Facebook, which allowed viewers of the video feed to also post Facebook status updates that showed up alongside the image. 

It was like a little online party, with back and forth comments about what people were seeing. Or not seeing. The video feed, clearly overloaded, was patchy at best for me, so I missed most of the actual swearing in.

Still, it was a fun way to do it, sharing the event with friends. Maybe next big event, livestreaming TV will have come into its own and we'll do this again.