Has China Reached Peak Spice?

Luo Yahan wrote . . . . . . . . .

If you were to ask someone to describe Chinese food, they might mention dumplings, congee, or classic dishes like kung pao chicken. One word that would almost surely come up is spice.

It wasn’t always that way. Historically, outside of a few inland regions, Chinese food was mildly flavored, with more emphasis on highlighting an ingredient’s natural taste than overpowering it with the numbing spice of Sichuanese mala or its fierier Hunanese counterpart. It was only with the vast migration of the 1990s and 2000s that spicy dishes became widespread along the country’s coast.

But there are signs that the tide is shifting. Two new surveys from the China Catering Industry Research Institute and delivery app Meituan have found that, while spice is still king, the milder flavors of Cantonese cooking are making a comeback. Here are some of the main takeaways from the reports, as selected by Sixth Tone.

Sichuanese supremacy

Chinese cuisine is remarkably diverse, with recipes for popular dishes sometimes varying from village to village. But the country’s culinary habits are generally broken down into what’s known as the “eight regional cuisines”: Shandong cuisine, Sichuanese, Hunanese, Cantonese, Fujianese, Jiangsu cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, and Anhui cuisine. (That traditional classification system leaves out a number of regional culinary traditions, including the sour-spicy flavor profile of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the lamb-heavy dishes of the northwest).

Far and away the most popular are Sichuanese and Cantonese. In 2021, Sichuanese and Cantonese food accounted for almost half of orders at restaurants specializing in one of the eight regional cuisines. Hunanese dishes came in third, with roughly 10%.

Interestingly, Cantonese restaurants remain concentrated along China’s eastern coast, with few options for dim sum lovers inland. Sichuanese, on the other hand, has gone national, accounting for between 6% and 9% of restaurants even in traditionally spice-averse regions like Guangdong and Jiangsu.

Peak spice?

That’s a remarkable shift from just a century ago, when chili-heavy dishes like Sichuanese hot pot were confined to China’s remote southwest. Today, thanks to waves of migrants from the inland to the coast, spice is the country’s most popular flavor profile. Over 40% of survey respondents listed spicy food as their top choice.

Yet there are signs that the wave might be cresting. In 2019, there were twice as many Sichuanese restaurants as Cantonese restaurants. Over the past five years, however, the number of Sichuanese restaurants has decreased steadily, while the number of Cantonese restaurants has risen.

This trend may reflect unmet demand for milder flavors. Roughly 44% of survey respondents said they preferred “mild” or “umami” flavor profiles the most — both defining characteristics of Cantonese cuisine, which minimizes the use of seasonings in favor of maintaining the original flavor of the ingredients.

Costly Cantonese

As with much of the rest of the world, the cost of a meal out is climbing in China — but the hikes have been especially steep for Cantonese cuisine. In 2019, 61% of meals at Cantonese restaurants cost less than 60 yuan ($8.70) per person. By 2021, that calculus had nearly flipped: 58% of Cantonese restaurant meals cost over 60 yuan per person.

Sichuanese restaurants have also gotten pricier, but more gradually than their Cantonese counterparts. By 2021, 51.6% of bills worked out to over 60 yuan per person, an increase of over 10 percentage points in just three years.

Source: Sixth Tone

 

 

 

 

Spice Up Your Meal to Avoid More Salt

Robert Preidt wrote . . . . . . . . .

Instead of adding salt to their meals, older adults can use spices to give their food more zip and keep their blood pressure under control, new research suggests.

“We were working specifically with a population of older adults to see if we could reduce the amount of salt in a product and then tailor it to their tastes,” explained study leader Carolyn Ross. She is a professor of food sciences at Washington State University in Pullman.

“This is important because the ability to taste and smell is known to weaken with age, and weaker perception of salty flavors may induce people to season their food with excessive salt, which may increase their risk of cardiovascular disease,” Ross said in a university news release.

For the study, 39 healthy people over 60 taste-tested a white sauce formulation commonly found in ready-to-eat Cajun chicken pasta meals. Participants were given versions of the sauce with varying amounts of salt and different spices and seasonings.

The researchers found that using both herbs and chipotle seasoning made it hard for the participants to tell the difference between sauces with low or high levels of salt.

But the addition of herbs alone — such as basil, garlic powder and coarse ground pepper — was less effective at masking the lower-salt samples, the findings showed.

The report was recently published online in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

The findings suggest that spice could play a significant role in reducing older adults’ salt intake.

“To date, a clear relationship between taste loss, and thus higher taste thresholds, and eating behavior remains to be established,” Ross said. “So, we are investigating a bunch of different possible factors.”

When it becomes feasible to recruit volunteers for in-person studies, the researchers plan a large follow-up to see how lower amounts of salt and different herb and spice concentrations affect how older adults perceive the taste of foods.

Source: HealthDay

Your Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead

The 40 herbs and spices that had worrisome levels of heavy metals in CR’s tests.

Lisa L. Gill wrote . . . . . . . . .

Open a drawer or cabinet in any kitchen in the U.S., and you’re likely to find several jars of dried herbs and spices.

Jessica Clark, a mother of two from Lincoln, Neb., says she uses them so often that she buys in bulk and mixes her own blends. Erica Burger of Carmel, Ind., says she became “hooked” on a 21-spice mixture—so much so that she now uses it in all sorts of dishes. “This is so flavorful, I use less salt in general,” she says. And Joey Davis, who grew up in San Diego, “where Mexican food is on every corner,” and whose Jamaican wife “puts habanero in everything, including cucumber salad,” says that in his home, “you can’t imagine any dish without spices and herbs.”

For many of us, herbs and spices play a large role in our cooking and in our family’s lives. A recipe may call for just a pinch or three of cumin, cayenne, and garlic powder, but what would your grandmother’s arroz con pollo be without them? And what about your secret Simon & Garfunkel fish rub—you know, the one with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme?

Yes, those seasonings really can add spice to our lives, filling our kitchens with tempting aromas and creating memories of people and places linked to special meals. But along with the flavor and memories, herbs and spices could add something less savory to your diet: potentially dangerous heavy metals.

That’s according to Consumer Reports’ tests of 15 types of dried herbs and spices used in a variety of cuisines. We looked at 126 individual products from national and private-label brands, such as Great Value (Walmart), La Flor, McCormick, Penzeys, Spice Islands, and Trader Joe’s. Read more about how CR tested herbs and spices (PDF).

Roughly one-third of the tested products, 40 in total, had high enough levels of arsenic, lead, and cadmium combined, on average, to pose a health concern for children when regularly consumed in typical serving sizes. Most raised concern for adults, too.

For two herbs, thyme and oregano, all the products we tested had levels that CR experts say are concerning.

In 31 products, levels of lead were so high that they exceeded the maximum amount anyone should have in a day, according to CR’s experts.

“When people think about heavy metals in their diet it’s probably the lead in their drinking water. But our tests show that dried herbs and spices can be a surprising, and worrisome, source.” – JAMES E. ROGERS, PHD, Director of food safety and testing at Consumer Reports

Also troubling: There was no single predictor of which products contained higher levels of heavy metals—for example, brand name didn’t matter, and neither did “organic” or “packed in USA” claims.

The good news? Many products performed well in the tests. In seven of the 15 types of herbs and spices tested, all the brands had heavy metal levels below our thresholds for concern. And in most others, we found at least one brand that fit into our No Concern category. And none of the tested herbs and spices were contaminated with salmonella bacteria, which may cause foodborne illness.

A single serving of any herb or spice CR tested is unlikely to cause harm, says James E. Rogers, PhD, director of food safety and testing at CR. And there ways to limit your risk by choosing and using spices carefully. Still, some products contain enough heavy metals, even in the small amounts used in cooking, to raise a concern when used regularly.

“When people think about heavy metals in their diet, if they do at all, it’s probably the lead in their drinking water or arsenic in their children’s fruit juices or cereals,” Rogers says. “But our tests show that dried herbs and spices can be a surprising, and worrisome, source for children and adults.”

The Threat of Heavy Metals

Frequent exposure to even small amounts of lead, arsenic, cadmium, and other heavy metals is dangerous, in part because it’s difficult for the human body to break them down or excrete them. And over time, exposure to those heavy metals can harm health. In children, it can affect brain development, increasing the risk for behavioral problems and lower IQ. In adults, it can contribute to central nervous system problems, reproductive problems, and hypertension, and can damage kidney and immune function.

“Since the risks are serious,” Rogers says, “it pays to limit your intake of heavy metals as much as possible.”

Heavy metals can show up in food if the water or soil where food is grown contains them naturally or is contaminated because of pesticides or industrial uses, says Tunde Akinleye, a CR chemist who oversaw the testing. Heavy metals may also get into food, including herbs and spices, during manufacturing—from processing equipment or packaging, for example.

Laura Shumow, executive director of the American Spice Trade Association, says it’s almost impossible to rid herbs and spices of all heavy metals because of “the unavoidable presence in the environments where they are grown.” She also says the amount of heavy metals absorbed from the soil, and the part of the plant where they can end up, differs from plant to plant. The trade group offers companies guidance on how to limit contaminants that they can implement with their suppliers.

Shumow says that according to a recent risk analysis by the ASTA, spices make up less than 0.1 percent of dietary lead exposure in children ages 1 to 6. And even for adults, she says, the ASTA believes the risk is low “in large part because spices are a very small component of the diet.”

But CR’s data underscore a broader problem. “People reach for the herbs and spices in their kitchens multiple times a day,” Akinleye says. And for certain spices, just one serving—¾ teaspoon or more—per day leaves little room for heavy metal exposure from other sources. For example, CR’s previous testing found that some brands of fruit juice, baby food, and rice contain troubling amounts of heavy metals.

And smaller amounts of certain products could be a concern if they are combined with others in a recipe. For example, a dish that has just ¼ teaspoon each of Great Value (Walmart) Chili Powder, Trader Joe’s Organic Cumin, and La Flor Oregano per serving would contain enough arsenic, cadmium, and lead to pose a concern.

Other research also suggests that herbs and spices can contribute to heavy metal exposure. For instance, a 2018 study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found high lead levels in 22 percent of food samples—mostly spices and herbal remedies—taken from homes of children with lead poisoning in North Carolina.

And a 2010 study linked a case of lead poisoning in a 12-month-old Massachusetts boy in part to turmeric used by the family. Five similar cases were later discovered in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York. And more than a dozen turmeric products have been recalled since 2011.

CR’s tests, however, demonstrate that it is possible for herb and spice companies to limit heavy metals in their products. “About two-thirds of the spices we tested did not have concerning levels of heavy metals,” Akinleye says. “So we know spices don’t have to have worrisome amounts of lead or arsenic or any other heavy metal.”

Herbs and Spices Grown Abroad

The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for the safety of herbs and spices. The agency hasn’t set limits on heavy metals in food, except in a few cases, such as arsenic in infant rice cereal and lead in candy. But spice companies are required to periodically conduct a food safety analysis, which includes controlling chemical hazards such as heavy metals, says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at CR.

“Heavy metal content testing is part of a wider risk assessment process the FDA may undertake if it determines that sample collection and analysis is warranted for a specific shipment,” an agency spokesperson said.

Importantly, the FDA can also test herbs and spices shipped to the U.S. and block products if it identifies a health risk. That’s important because most spices sold in the U.S. are grown abroad—in countries such as China, India, and Vietnam—and some research suggests that oversight of food production there is sometimes less rigorous.

However, while you might want to know where the herbs and spices you use are grown, that’s not easy to determine. CR’s food safety experts found many labeled as “packed in USA,” but no other information was listed. Other products listed multiple countries, which suggests the final product was a mixture from more than one source.

Currently, about two dozen spice companies from 11 countries are subject to import alerts for lead contamination, which signal to regulators that they can detain those products. But that represents a fraction of the herbs and spices shipped to the U.S. In addition, the limited testing the FDA has done on spices has been focused on harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, not heavy metals, Ronholm says.

Self-Policing

The lack of regulation leaves much of the monitoring of heavy metal levels to companies. CR contacted all the ones with products in our tests to see how they limited heavy metals.

Of the companies that replied to our questions—Al Wadi Al Akhdar, Costco, Bolner’s Fiesta, Gebhardt, Litehouse, McCormick, Roland Foods, Spice Islands, Target, and Whole Foods—a few said they require their suppliers to have a program for controlling or testing for heavy metals. But only three—Al Wadi Al Akhdar, Bolner’s Fiesta, and McCormick—specifically said they test products in their manufacturing plants for heavy metals.

Costco, Litehouse, and McCormick said their goal is to have heavy metals as close to zero as possible, but no company provided the thresholds they consider acceptable.

For years, California has required that products that exceed limits for substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm, including heavy metals, carry a warning label. But New York is currently the only state to have enacted limits for heavy metals in herbs and spices.

It set them after issuing recalls of more than 100 herbs and spices because of heavy metal contamination since 2016, says Jola Szubielski, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Once enforcement begins, the state can force a recall of products with elevated levels of heavy metals.

Season Safely

While the risk of heavy metals in herbs and spices is real, limiting your risk doesn’t mean dooming yourself to a life of bland food or giving up old family favorites. Follow these tips.

Choose products with the lowest levels of heavy metals. CR’s tests found at least one product that fit in our No Concern category for every herb and spice we tested except oregano and thyme.

Focus on herbs and spices that are lower in heavy metals. These were black pepper, coriander, curry powder, garlic powder, saffron, sesame seeds, and white pepper. That doesn’t mean that every brand of these herbs and spices is low in heavy metals, because we didn’t test them all. But it is easy to find low-risk versions of them.

Don’t assume some brands are safer than others. CR’s tests could not determine whether one brand was consistently better or worse than any other. And organic products did not have consistently lower levels than conventionally grown ones. While that might surprise some, CR’s Ronholm says the USDA’s organic standards don’t include heavy metal testing.

Grow and dry your own. That might be a particularly good idea if you use a lot of basil, oregano, and thyme; in our tests all or almost all the brands tested were high in heavy metals. Read more about how to grow and dry your own herbs and spices.

Think twice about bringing back herbs and spices from travel abroad. Heavy metal content can be much higher in those products, according to other research. U.S. companies may buy the highest-quality herbs and spices to import, Ronholm says, which could leave lower-quality versions to be sold in the country of origin.

Consider your total potential exposure to heavy metals. This is especially important if you have kids at home. Our tests are a reminder that you should take steps to limit your potential exposure from heavy metals from all sources.

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Read more at Consumer Reports . . . . .

Spicy Perfection isn’t to Prevent Infection

This is the chef’s kiss of scientific discovery

The next time you tuck in to a tikka masala you might find yourself asking a burning question: are spices used in dishes to help stop infection?

It’s a question many have chewed the fat over. And now thanks to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) we have an answer.

The quick takeaway is: probably not.

Professor Lindell Bromham and her colleagues asked why hot countries across the world tend to have spicy food? This pattern has led to what some have termed “Darwinian gastronomy” – a tummy-led cultural evolutionary process in countries with hotter climates.

To find out the answer to their question, the researchers feasted on a true smorgasbord of data, examining more the 33,000 recipes from 70 cuisines containing 93 different spices.

“The theory is that spicy foods helped people survive in hot climates where the risk of infection from food can have a big cost in terms of health and survival,” Professor Bromham said.

“But we found that this theory doesn’t hold up.

“Spicier food is found in hotter countries, but our analysis provides no clear reason to believe that this is primarily a cultural adaptation to reducing infection risk from food.”

The study instead shows that while use of spice is related to the risk of foodborne illness, it’s also associated with a wide range of health outcomes. In fact, spice use is even related to causes of death that have nothing to do with infection risk, such as fatal car accidents.

“So there is a significant relationship between life expectancy and spicy food,” Professor Bromham said.

“But this doesn’t mean that spicy food shortens your life span or makes you crash your car. Instead, there are many socio-economic indicators that all scale together, and many of them also scale with spice use.”

Professor Bromham said that because the spiciness of cuisines scales with many socio-economic factors, like gross domestic product per capita and life expectancy, it is difficult to tease apart the key causes. However, the researchers could rule out some possible explanations of why some areas use more spices in their cooking.

“Spicier foods are not explained by variation in climate, human population density or cultural diversity,” she said.

“And patterns of spice use don’t seem to be driven by biodiversity, nor by the number of different crops grown, nor even by the number of spices growing naturally in the area.”

Whatever the key drivers for the use of spice, one thing is certain – our palettes and plates are a lot better for it!

The study’s findings are published in Nature Human Behaviour.

Source: The Australian National University

Adding a Blend of Spices to a Meal May Help Lower Inflammation

Katie Bohn wrote . . . . . . . . .

Adding an array of spices to your meal is a surefire way to make it more tasty, but new Penn State research suggests it may increase its health benefits, as well.

In a randomized, controlled feeding study, the researchers found that when participants ate a meal high in fat and carbohydrates with six grams of a spice blend added, the participants had lower inflammation markers compared to when they ate a meal with less or no spices.

“If spices are palatable to you, they might be a way to make a high-fat or high-carb meal more healthful,” said Connie Rogers, associate professor of nutritional sciences. “We can’t say from this study if it was one spice in particular, but this specific blend seemed to be beneficial.”

The researchers used a blend of basil, bay leaf, black pepper, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, ginger, oregano, parsley, red pepper, rosemary, thyme and turmeric for the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Nutrition.

According to Rogers, previous research has linked a variety of different spices, like ginger and tumeric, with anti-inflammatory properties. Additionally, chronic inflammation has previously been associated with poor health outcomes like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overweight and obesity, which affects approximately 72 percent of the U.S. population.

In more recent years, researchers have found that inflammation can spike after a person eats a meal high in fat or sugar. While it is not clear whether these short bursts — called acute inflammation — can cause chronic inflammation, Rogers said it’s suspected they play a factor, especially in people with overweight or obesity.

“Ultimately the gold standard would be to get people eating more healthfully and to lose weight and exercise, but those behavioral changes are difficult and take time,” Rogers said. “So in the interim, we wanted to explore whether a combination of spices that people are already familiar with and could fit in a single meal could have a positive effect.”

For the study, the researchers recruited 12 men between the ages of 40 and 65, with overweight or obesity, and at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Rogers said the sample was chosen because people in these demographics tend to be at a higher risk for developing poorer health outcomes.

In random order, each participant ate three versions of a meal high in saturated fat and carbohydrates on three separate days: one with no spices, one with two grams of the spice blend, and one with six grams of the spice blend. The researchers drew blood samples before and then after each meal hourly for four hours to measure inflammatory markers.

“Additionally, we cultured the white blood cells and stimulated them to get the cells to respond to an inflammatory stimulus, similar to what would happen while your body is fighting an infection,” Rogers said. “We think that’s important because it’s representative of what would happen in the body. Cells would encounter a pathogen and produce inflammatory cytokines.”

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that inflammatory cytokines were reduced following the meal containing six grams of spices compared to the meal containing two grams of spices or no spices. Rogers said six grams roughly translates to between one teaspoon to one tablespoon, depending on how the spices are dehydrated.

While the researchers can’t be sure which spice or spices are contributing to the effect, or the precise mechanism in which the effect is created, Rogers said the results suggest that the spices have anti-inflammatory properties that help offset inflammation caused by the high-carb and high-fat meal.

Additionally, Rogers said that a second study using the same subjects, conducted by Penn State researchers Penny Kris-Etherton and Kristina Petersen, found that six grams of spices resulted in a smaller post-meal reduction of “flow mediated dilation” in the blood vessels — a measure of blood vessel flexibility and marker of blood vessel health.

Source: The Pennsylvania State University