If you're still feeling nervous about boxed mac and cheese, there's a great 3-ingredient mac and cheese recipe that we make all the time. Equal parts pasta, grated cheese, and evaporated milk (I usually fudge it and do 16oz pasta, 16oz cheese, 12oz evaporated milk so I can use whole packages without leftovers). In a big pot, barely cover the pasta in salted water and boil it on high heat until the water is almost fully evaporated, leaving just a film on the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat down to low and add the evaporated milk, stirring until it comes to a boil. Stir in the cheese and cook for a few more minutes to let the sauce thicken. The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes, not much longer than boxed mac and cheese.
I'm certainly not pro-chemical exposure or would want to suggest that anything goes in what is put in products and especially what gets into food - however, I don't think it is entirely fair to say that we don't see any benefits of chemicals. Many chemicals are used extensively because they are highly useful in creating products with the properties we as consumers are asking for. I think it is a good that as a society we are discussing whether the convenience of not having eggs stick to our pans is worth the lifetime of PFAS in our environment, but we shouldn't pretend there is no reward with certain chemicals in terms of enriching our lives when we do the risk benefit analysis.
I know manufacturing processes for PFAS chemicals are extremely damaging to the health of workers and the environment, ultimately affecting us all. For that reason, I try to avoid weather repellent clothing and non stick coatings even if there is no harm to my family individually. Wondering whether the manufacturing of phthalates are similar? (understanding that phthalates would be difficult to avoid)
About ultra-processed foods and ovarian cancer and now this article is about a very specific chemical.
When evaluated so narrowly, I think it’s no surprise that the findings keep coming out with a rather broad “these are probably harmful but it’s murky and the effects of this thing are small so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
The problem, in my mind, with these two articles is that they focus on a super-narrow behavior instead of addressing the fact that ultra-processed foods probably has a limited impact on multiple different afflictions that when aggregated is highly problematic the same way this chemical in isolation probably isn’t so bad but when inserted into a diet loaded with multiple chemical additives probably has an aggregated risk that is much higher.
And believe this question - the question of aggregated risk of these types of things the way they are actually consumed in the real world -- is much more helpful.
Can we get a post about PFAS in other things? Facebooks is telling me to throw all all my Thinx and most of my leggings and to spend thousands replacing them with a “better” brand.
I appreciate the informative, data-based summary. Does anyone know if the EPA’s threshold is an appropriate one, given that the US is behind many European countries for researching & taking action on chemicals like these and PFAS?
When I was researching diaper brands, phthalates came up over and over again. Some brands claim to be phthalate free, while others didn’t make this claim. The blogs were very concerned about this because “phthalates disrupt hormones” and “why would you ever put a phthalate diaper on your baby’s bottom?”
Based on this post, my suspicion is that no one is putting phthalates in diapers on purpose, but they probably exist at low levels in many (all?) diaper brands. Does anyone know if this is true?
This is my first time reading the Substack and I throughly enjoyed the focus on what I conceived as the right questions: is it cause for concern? And if it is so, is mac 'n cheese a particularly egregious culprit? Thank you for the good work.
Here in Brazil we had no specific discussion on that subject - I checked and the few articles are translations from US sources. Even so, I appreciate the added knowledge.
Phthalates or no, the only redeeming quality boxed mac and cheese has is the butter/ milk used in it (praying no one uses margarine). Low-quality fuel for the human in your care. Other than as a treat, I cant imagine the time savings being worth the price paid by my child's body.
Thank you for this, Emily. For some reason, my oldest kiddo (12) has really latched on to the issue of Annie's macaroni and cheese in particular. For over a year she has eschewed all boxed macaroni and cheese. I see that Greg (in the comments) has made a valid comment that it's not a particularly nutritious food choice but for a family with multiple kids who do multiple sports and activities it is almost always necessary to have a quick source of "dinner" at the ready. I haven't figured out how to have ALL the things (social, academic, athletic, cultural AND whole food meals) all the time.
We had initially talked to our kiddo about the fact that Annie's was probably targeted because it's a brand that tries to stand out as "healthful" and that all foods have things like phthalates in them and we don't even know it. For the record- that's not a very soothing response for an anxious child!
But the way that you have laid out the information is both realistic and reassuring. I'm hoping I can figure out how to print this and leave it out for her to read (if I seem too enthusiastic about it she will no doubt be suspicious :) Thank you!
If you're still feeling nervous about boxed mac and cheese, there's a great 3-ingredient mac and cheese recipe that we make all the time. Equal parts pasta, grated cheese, and evaporated milk (I usually fudge it and do 16oz pasta, 16oz cheese, 12oz evaporated milk so I can use whole packages without leftovers). In a big pot, barely cover the pasta in salted water and boil it on high heat until the water is almost fully evaporated, leaving just a film on the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat down to low and add the evaporated milk, stirring until it comes to a boil. Stir in the cheese and cook for a few more minutes to let the sauce thicken. The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes, not much longer than boxed mac and cheese.
I'm certainly not pro-chemical exposure or would want to suggest that anything goes in what is put in products and especially what gets into food - however, I don't think it is entirely fair to say that we don't see any benefits of chemicals. Many chemicals are used extensively because they are highly useful in creating products with the properties we as consumers are asking for. I think it is a good that as a society we are discussing whether the convenience of not having eggs stick to our pans is worth the lifetime of PFAS in our environment, but we shouldn't pretend there is no reward with certain chemicals in terms of enriching our lives when we do the risk benefit analysis.
Why hasn't the U.S. FDA adopted a threshold for levels of phthalates in food when the European Food Safety Authority has?
I know manufacturing processes for PFAS chemicals are extremely damaging to the health of workers and the environment, ultimately affecting us all. For that reason, I try to avoid weather repellent clothing and non stick coatings even if there is no harm to my family individually. Wondering whether the manufacturing of phthalates are similar? (understanding that phthalates would be difficult to avoid)
I love this newsletter; however, I feel like the issues are far to narrow to be helpful. Emily previously wrote an article:
https://www.parentdata.org/p/panic-headlines-a-new-series?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
About ultra-processed foods and ovarian cancer and now this article is about a very specific chemical.
When evaluated so narrowly, I think it’s no surprise that the findings keep coming out with a rather broad “these are probably harmful but it’s murky and the effects of this thing are small so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
The problem, in my mind, with these two articles is that they focus on a super-narrow behavior instead of addressing the fact that ultra-processed foods probably has a limited impact on multiple different afflictions that when aggregated is highly problematic the same way this chemical in isolation probably isn’t so bad but when inserted into a diet loaded with multiple chemical additives probably has an aggregated risk that is much higher.
I wrote an article about it here:
https://littlenuggets.substack.com/p/ultra-exposed
And believe this question - the question of aggregated risk of these types of things the way they are actually consumed in the real world -- is much more helpful.
Can we get a post about PFAS in other things? Facebooks is telling me to throw all all my Thinx and most of my leggings and to spend thousands replacing them with a “better” brand.
I appreciate the informative, data-based summary. Does anyone know if the EPA’s threshold is an appropriate one, given that the US is behind many European countries for researching & taking action on chemicals like these and PFAS?
When I was researching diaper brands, phthalates came up over and over again. Some brands claim to be phthalate free, while others didn’t make this claim. The blogs were very concerned about this because “phthalates disrupt hormones” and “why would you ever put a phthalate diaper on your baby’s bottom?”
Based on this post, my suspicion is that no one is putting phthalates in diapers on purpose, but they probably exist at low levels in many (all?) diaper brands. Does anyone know if this is true?
This is my first time reading the Substack and I throughly enjoyed the focus on what I conceived as the right questions: is it cause for concern? And if it is so, is mac 'n cheese a particularly egregious culprit? Thank you for the good work.
Here in Brazil we had no specific discussion on that subject - I checked and the few articles are translations from US sources. Even so, I appreciate the added knowledge.
Phthalates or no, the only redeeming quality boxed mac and cheese has is the butter/ milk used in it (praying no one uses margarine). Low-quality fuel for the human in your care. Other than as a treat, I cant imagine the time savings being worth the price paid by my child's body.
Wow, this was so informative and reassuring. I have had this on my mind for a while!
Thank you for this, Emily. For some reason, my oldest kiddo (12) has really latched on to the issue of Annie's macaroni and cheese in particular. For over a year she has eschewed all boxed macaroni and cheese. I see that Greg (in the comments) has made a valid comment that it's not a particularly nutritious food choice but for a family with multiple kids who do multiple sports and activities it is almost always necessary to have a quick source of "dinner" at the ready. I haven't figured out how to have ALL the things (social, academic, athletic, cultural AND whole food meals) all the time.
We had initially talked to our kiddo about the fact that Annie's was probably targeted because it's a brand that tries to stand out as "healthful" and that all foods have things like phthalates in them and we don't even know it. For the record- that's not a very soothing response for an anxious child!
But the way that you have laid out the information is both realistic and reassuring. I'm hoping I can figure out how to print this and leave it out for her to read (if I seem too enthusiastic about it she will no doubt be suspicious :) Thank you!