Cancer, optical mouse and Knorr liquid seasoning
10/01/2007 by Connie Veneracion · Filed under The Mommy Journals
I am subscribed to Small Potato’s site (I like his work tremendously) and I was surprised to find a very pink entry earlier today. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and some web designers are offering free pink Wordpress themes.
No pink templates for me, thank you, but I do have a new pink optical mouse. Bought it yesterday not knowing how “in” it would turn out to be.
I wrote a full article about cancer awareness and it will be published tomorrow as my op-ed column in Manila Standard Today.
Meanwhile, in the previous entry, Feng mentioned 3-MCPD in soy sauce and oyster sauce. Fully intending to include the 3-MCPD angle in tomorrow’s column, I read up and came up with a list of products banned in some countries when the first findings on 3-MCPD came out.
Knorr seasoning “from Hongkong” was in the list. Unilever again — as though the formaldehyde in Sunsilk was not enough.
Wow, we have that at home. Speedy won’t survive without it and Alex has inherited his taste buds’ preference.
But, you may say, the list says “Knorr liquid seasoning from Hong Kong” — why should that concern us?
Unilever is a multinational company. It sells the same products in countries all over the world by establishing child or satellite companies.
Question: Is the formula (ingredients and their proportions) for making Knorr liquid seasoning in Hong Kong any different from the formula for making Knorr liquid seasoning in the Philippines?
To answer that question, think of a fastfood like Jollibee. Is the Chickenjoy sold in Baguio any different from the one sold in Quezon City? Of course not. The only way that a chain retains control over the quality of its products is to make sure that every branch follows the same formula.
A multinational company — whether engaged in the manufacture of drugs, food or flip-flops — is just a larger fast food chain.
Now, there’s nothing conclusive about 3-MCPD because the testing was conducted on animals. That would irk animal rights advocates but that’s another issue altogether. The 3-MCPD in Knorr liquid seasoning “from Hong Kong” is, of course, food for thought (irony intended).
Jon Limjap on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 3:55 pm
Hmmm.
I remember having boneless bangus in Chowking Dagupan, and the bangus there is eons away from the boneless bangus that I have in Manila. I guess that’s an exception, considering the location.
ruth on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 4:23 pm
I wouldn’t be too sure that products produced in different countries necessarily follow the same formula. Minsan kasi the taste is vastly different. Minsan, a factory would also have a different line meant for a specific market. Some instant noodles meant for export to Europe, for example, have different ingredients para pumasa sa regulations. Some chocolates made for the Asian market are also formulated differently, taking the climate into consideration. Minsan naman, like in the recalled Mattel toys, may country-specific hocus-pocus na nagyayari.
Ideal would be if the Philippine FDA could regularly screen the products available in the local market, and ban those that don’t meet the standards.
Haaay, asa pa.
Connie on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 6:14 pm
For our sake, I hope we’re using a different formula.
Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce and chicken marinade are listed (no local varieties of Lee Kum Kee) and they have never been unavailable in supermarkets.
kotsengkuba on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 9:21 pm
nakakainis na naman ‘yang mga ‘yan. minsan konting mapuna sa iba isesentionalize na lahat. sira-siraan lang siguro yan ng mga competing companies tapos ang media, over-acting at ang mga tao hysterical. katagalan nyan hindi na kakain ang mga tao dahil sa takot.
Lorena C. Marzan on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 9:49 pm
masyado tayong influenced by the Chinese cooking, I’m pretty sure you can flavor your food using fresh herbs, basil, marjoram, rosemary, mint, oregano, (mint & oregano, I remember plucking this in our garden and use it to garnish my tea ) saffron (a bit pricey), although the look and taste may be a little different, I think it would be more healthy.
Lorena C. Marzan on Mon, 1st Oct 2007 10:01 pm
with regards to Breast Cancer Month, here in the US, we are being taught how to do self-breast exam since it is one illness that can be cured. End of July, my best friend and childhood playmate was diagnosed with Stage 4, I was so stressed as my Mom also just underwent surgery for another case and was not really taking it well. My friend tried Dr. Arabia, Dr. Tam, goji, attended Father Faller’s healing masses and is now geting chemo. I’ve read about the Pink Kitchen in the Philippines, is it really reaching out to the poor sector of our kababayan?
rhodora on Tue, 2nd Oct 2007 12:55 pm
We seldom use seasoning on the dinner table. If at all, the most common seasoning we have is toyo or bagoong sauce or alamang with calamansi.
My concern now is - I’ve become afraid to buy food products that come from China. How about those Fuji apples which I used to be very fond of because of their crunchiness and juiciness? They come from China. Miss ko na ito, matagal na akong di bumibili, afraid it might be unsafe.
Sayang, itong mga apples na ito pa naman ang malaking tulong sa akin when I go on fiber diet to detoxify.
Connie on Tue, 2nd Oct 2007 2:05 pm
Okay, the column is up and my sentiments, exactly, kotsengkuba.
Lorena, I’m all for self-exam too.
Rhodora, before getting too scared, remember that a lot of these scares are marketing gimmicks of competitiors.
someone commented in the other blog that after making hypochondriacs of us all, one of these competing companies will come out with the proper medication for hypochondria hehehe
auee on Thu, 4th Oct 2007 3:45 pm
Naku hubby likes those knorr seasoning, too! In fact nahawa na ko sa kanya.
Just a side note, the toys recalled by Fisher Price (I got contacted last month) were from one specific Chinese factory… These guys were using the banned lead component. La lang Hongkong-China, ewan.
Lorena C. Marzan on Thu, 4th Oct 2007 9:35 pm
Filipina women here in the US are fortunate enough to have health insurance if they are employed, we get our breast exams yearly and colonoscopy exam when we reach 50.
I’ve insisted that my Auntie get health insurance even if it is a little bit pricey there in the Phils, this will give us all peace of mind since she already had some lumps removed 2 years ago.
copied from ABC news:
A New Hope For Breast Cancer PatientsOct.3 2007 (KGO) - You may not be aware of one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. It’s called inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, and it accounts for only one to five percent of all breast cancers and it’s the most deadly of all. However, a new treatment may help improve patients’ odds against fighting inflammatory breast cancer.
October is breast cancer awareness month — a great time to remember the importance of self breast exams and yearly mammograms for women older than 40. The easiest cancer to cure is cancer caught early.
When Janice Freed was told she had inflammatory breast cancer, she had never heard of the disease — she wasn’t alone.
“As I went through the process of finding doctors, talking to nurses and talking to people, I found more and more and more — even people in the medical profession — have never heard of inflammatory breast cancer. And that frightened me a great deal,” says Janice.
Inflammatory breast disease is very different from most other breast cancers. There is rarely a tell-tale lump so a breast self-exam won’t usually detect it.
“It’s quite an extensive tumor”, says Dr. John Link, M.D. Oncologist.
Typical signs of IBC may include rashes, nipple discharge, redness, swelling, bruising, thickening, or dimpling and usually in only once breast. It is often misdiagnosed.
Inflammatory breast cancer is such an aggressive form of the disease, that doctors typically treat it using all modalities– surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Even then, half of patients do not survive. Now, a drug used to treat metastatic breast cancer in women who have failed herceptin therapy is offering some hope.
The drug Lapatinib, sold under the brand name Tykerb, is now in phase two clinical trials.
“This is a home run. It’s a whole new form of therapy,” says Dr. John Link, M.D. Oncologist.
Lapatainib works by interrupting the signal that tells cancer cells to divide, instead causing cell death.
“It’s interrupting that message that’s telling the cell to be cancer,” says Link.
In a study of the drug on 35 patients with IBC, 30 of them or 86-percent had their tumor shrink by at least 50-percent.
Dr. John Link hopes “that we’ll be able, in a few years, to say that toxic chemotherapy stuff we used to use is, is gone.”
It’s a daily oral pill — which makes it easier for patients.
“The statistics for inflammatory breast cancer are not good but the only two that matter is zero and 100 percent and I intend to be that 100 percent,” says Janice.
Now she has a chance.
For more information and research on this topic click here.
feng on Fri, 5th Oct 2007 2:30 pm
agree with Ruth on specific regulations of foreign countries. for RP’s export markets like EU countries for example, they’d require RP products to be HACCP and GMP certified first. in the US naman, products such as peanut butter, among other food products requires labeling of the trans-fat content and certain allergens, while HALAL certification in Muslim countries is a requirement for entry in ports .
in short, there’s really this growing consciousness of our export markets on the impact on health, environment etc of what goes into their market. sana, here in Pinas, our regulators do the same too so that consumers’ welfare are well-protected.
BTW, ang ganda ng pink mouse mo Connie