Ratatouille

AFTER Chef Anthony Bourdain's feature on Philippine cuisine, here's another Pinoy food story for you. Goat's head I can take, rat parts, I don't think so! People w/ delicate tummies should not read. Ick!

The Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) is now investigating a complaint filed by an employee of the network giant ABS-CBN who claimed that the tomato sauce that his wife used in cooking contained what appeared to be a “heart of a small mammal” suspected to be that of a rat.

The complaint filed by Mario Bautista of Bacoor, Cavite, and an employee of the ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, is now being heard by the Bfad in Quezon City.

Bautista said the entire family was traumatized after discovering that the tomato sauce they used to cook spaghetti last year was contaminated with rat parts. (Click here for the rest.)

No idea why this story was only published now when this happened last year. Imagine how many people may have gotten ill from consuming contaminated tomato sauce from this well-known food brand. Yikes!

Vitamin C pills don't combat colds – researchers

LONDON – Vitamin C supplements are practically useless in a bid to avert colds, researchers concluded in analysis published Wednesday.

Branding the widely-held belief a myth, they found that only individuals under extreme stress, such as soldiers and marathon runners, benefited at all from the supplements.

They were 50 percent less likely to catch a cold if they took vitamin C daily, the Finnish and Australian scientists said.(Click on blog title to take you to the news link.)

Now you're telling us!

I've been taking Vitamin C supplements (Ascorbic acid) for years...sometimes as high as 1,500 mg during the cold season. All I know is, if I stop taking those pills even for two days (sometimes I forget or am too busy with assignments), I'm sure to get a cold.

I'm pretty sure chicken soup will be next on these researchers' list of myths.