Video: How Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Are Made

Krispy Kreme makes over 20 million doughnuts a year. This video shows how these doughnut are made in their shop in Burbank, California. This location alone makes over 50,000 doughnuts a day.

Watch video at You Tube (3:07 minutes) . . . . .

Vegan Popover with Home-made Tofu Sausages

Ingredients

Tofu Sausages

2-1/2 cups wholemeal (whole-wheat) breadcrumbs
9oz smoked tofu, drained
1/2 small onion, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp fresh parsley, thyme, sage or rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp dried herbs
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp coconut oil

Onion Gravy

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2-1/4 lb large onions, thinly sliced
7 tbsp red or dry white wine or balsamic vinegar
1-1/4 cups vegetable stock
small bunch fresh thyme, woody stems removed, chopped (optional)
1 tsp yeast extract

Batter

1 cup self-raising flour
2/3 cup canola oil
1-1/4 cups soya milk
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
sea salt and ground black pepper

Method

1. Put all the sausage ingredients in a food processor, season and process until a thick paste forms. Divide the mixture into eight and roll to form sausage shapes with your hands. Arrange in a single layer on a plate, cover with clear film (plastic wrap) and chill until required.
2. Drizzle the sausages with olive oil and cook under a preheated grill (broiler) for 6-8 minutes or until pale golden brown, turning frequently.
3. To make the onion gravy, heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until beginning to turn golden. Reduce the heat to low, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the wine or vinegar, stock, thyme and yeast extract and bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
5. To make the batter, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and season with salt and black pepper.
6. Make a well in the middle, then add the canola oil and balsamic vinegar. Mix the ingredients well. Gradually stir in the soya milk, mixing until fully incorporated, then beat until the batter is smooth.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F. Oil a shallow ovenproof dish, then arrange the vegan sausages in the base in a single layer, leaving a little space between each.
8. Pour the batter into the dish, ensuring that it is spread evenly around the sausages. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until the batter is well risen and golden brown.
9. Serve the popover cut into portions with two sausages for each diner. Place the onion gravy in a jug (pitcher) and serve alongside the popover so diners can help themselves.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Vegan Cooking

In Pictures: Foods of The Bowl in Tokyo, Japan

Organic Vegan Dishes

The Restaurant

Even at ‘Safe’ Levels, Air Pollution May Boost Diabetes Risk

Add another health harm to air pollution: New research suggests it might increase the risk of diabetes, even at levels considered safe.

Cutting air pollution could reduce diabetes rates in countries with both higher and lower levels of air pollution, the researchers said.

“Our research shows a significant link between air pollution and diabetes globally,” said study senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly. He’s an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

“We found an increased risk, even at low levels of air pollution currently considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization,” Al Aly said in a university news release.

“This is important because many industry lobbying groups argue that current levels are too stringent and should be relaxed. Evidence shows that current levels are still not sufficiently safe and need to be tightened,” he added.

But the findings did not prove that air pollution causes diabetes.

In the study, the researchers estimated that air pollution contributed to 3.2 million new diabetes cases worldwide in 2016, or about 14 percent of all new cases that year. They also estimated that 8.2 million years of healthy life were lost worldwide in 2016 due to pollution-linked diabetes.

In the United States, air pollution is linked with 150,000 new cases of diabetes a year and 350,000 years of healthy life lost each year, according to the report.

Diabetes affects more than 420 million people worldwide and 30 million Americans. The main causes of type 2 diabetes include an unhealthy diet, inactivity and obesity, but this study highlights the significance of outdoor air pollution.

It’s believed that air pollution reduces insulin production and triggers inflammation, preventing the body from converting blood sugar into energy that the body needs to maintain health, the study authors explained.

The study was published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

Previous research has linked air pollution with heart disease, stroke, cancer and kidney disease.

Source: HealthDay

Superbugs Found in More Than Three-Fourths of U.S. Supermarket Meat

Nearly 80 percent of meat in U.S. supermarkets contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit environmental research organization.

The bacteria — often called “superbugs” — were resistant to at least one of 14 antibiotics tested for in 2015 by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, a federal-public health partnership.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found on 79 percent of ground turkey samples tested; 71 percent of pork chops; 62 percent of ground beef; and 36 percent of chicken breasts, wings and thighs, the findings showed.

Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to health and food security, according to the World Health Organization.

“Consumers need to know about potential contamination of the meat they eat, so they can be vigilant about food safety, especially when cooking for children, pregnant women, older adults or the immune-compromised,” the report’s author, nutritionist Dawn Undurraga, said in a news release from the organization.

Dr. Gail Hansen, a public health consultant and veterinarian, elaborated on the danger.

“Bacteria transfer their antibiotic-resistance genes to other bacteria they come in contact with in the environment and in the gastrointestinal tract of people and animals, making it very difficult to effectively treat infections,” Hansen said in the news release.

Even though antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to human health, the U.S. government allows meat producers to give antibiotics to healthy animals, the authors of the new report noted.

“When one person or group misuses antibiotics, they cause resistance to the antibiotics to spread, hurting everyone in society,” said Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center.

“It’s not acceptable for one group of people to profit by hurting everyone else in society,” he added.

Undurraga suggested that consumers can help reduce the amount of antibiotics used in farm animals and slow the spread of drug resistance by choosing organic meat and meat raised without antibiotics.

Along with release of its report, the Environmental Working Group wrote to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to take action.

“The public shouldn’t have to wait until 100 percent of the bacteria found on meat are untreatable with antibiotics before the FDA takes strong action,” Undurraga said. “Now is the time for the FDA to get medically important antibiotics off factory farms.”

Source: Environmental Working Group

---

Today’s Comic