mmmm...mold

I was flipping through Eat This, Not That 2013 yesterday and while most of it does not apply to me, i found a few charming tidbits worth sharing.

Did you know the average American eats 79 pounds of corn annually? Their point was that we only eat 1lb fresh yearly, but this made me giggle regardless because corn is one of my two major food groups (potato is the other). I can only imagine how much corn I eat. Plus there's all kinds of sources of corn in food people don't even think/know about--maltodextrin, for one, can be made from corn, and is in almost everything.

Here's the kicker:

"The FDA legally allows up to a 60 percent mold count in canned or frozen blackberries and raspberries. Canned fruit and vegetable juices are allowed to contain up to 20 percent mold."

MMMM hooray. no wonder I can't drink fruit juice without feeling weird! It explains why that raspberry tea I was drinking the other day gave me terrible abdominal pain (while driving home from a day trip which made it all even more charming) despite the fact that i'm not allergic to raspberries. (Was I checked for raspberries? I don't think so. I'm contemplating the fact that it seems that any fruit that you eat the skin with gives me problems while any fruit that you skin doesn't...that's where the mold is, on the surface).

I tried to get on the FDA's website to figure this out but it was rather baffling to find anything on their site. I did find a study showing this: Certain foodborne molds and yeasts may also elicit allergic reactions or may cause infections.

No duh! :)