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A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

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Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#41

Post by tarsinge »

d4mi3n wrote: post #18
asciimov wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an older coworker who used to do this, and had no qualms eating moldy food. He had some advanced biology degrees and worked in a lab. When asked why he ate moldy food, he would reply "Most of the time the mold (some mold type) and is mostly harmless to people. The trouble is knowing what is and isn't ok to eat. Besides, I'm not letting safe food go to waste." On the other hand, I knew a foreign student who disa…

The kind of mold is important here. Mold on cheese is often not harmful to people. Mold on meat is typically indicative of stuff that will peel out your insides.

Where I live there was recently the case of a woman that is now permanently disabled (botulism) after eating an expired commercial vegetables soup, it’s not mold but be careful with not meat = harmless.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#42

Post by throwawaywrench »

tluyben2 wrote: post #21
d4mi3n wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of mold is important here. Mold on cheese is often not harmful to people. Mold on meat is typically indicative of stuff that will peel out your insides.

Lot of people I know pay more for moldy french cheese. It obviously does not work for all cheeses, but for most you can just cut it off.

The rule of thumb I've picked up somewhere is that for hard cheese you can just cut mouldy bits off. For soft cheese you should throw it out.

This is of course talking about the kind of mould that grows on it while its in your fridge. Not the outer layer some cheeses acquire during production.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#44

Post by gnicholas »

Fun fact: the owner of the Twinkies was a tenured biology professor at Swarthmore College (a top-rated liberal arts college in the US) who left his tenured position after 14 years. It is pretty rare for folks to leave tenured posts in academia, given the decent pay, extraordinary job security, and relative enjoyability of the work.

https://colinpurrington.com/about/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nj7425-627a

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#45

Post by Smithalicious »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

I consider this totally normal. I think it's very wasteful to throw out food over a little bit of localized mold, especially things like bread which can form it very easily.

As long as it doesn't smell or taste off and it's not a known dangerous food I eat it. I have never had good poisoning in my life afaik.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#47

Post by jacobush »

richardfey wrote: post #31
tluyben2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My old-aunt (not sure if that is something in English but she was an aunt of my father) and her husband ate only expired food until they died (both over 95, aunt over 100); I was, as a kid, always disgusted as everything you got there was rotten (fruit etc) and/or had mold (bread) ; they just cut it off or even just ate it. Because they had a house close to my uni, I lived with them for a while as a student and it wa…

Fascinating story! Thanks for sharing it. Where would the ice form in your room?

I'm guessing under the windows

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#49

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

tluyben2 wrote: post #25
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

My old-aunt (not sure if that is something in English but she was an aunt of my father) and her husband ate only expired food until they died (both over 95, aunt over 100); I was, as a kid, always disgusted as everything you got there was rotten (fruit etc) and/or had mold (bread) ; they just cut it off or even just ate it. Because they had a house close to my uni, I lived with them for a while as a student and it wa…

I recognise this behaviour. It's common when people go through extreme hardship, they naturally understand that their world is not secure[0] so they try to buffer against it. Money and food typically.

[0] something who've had it easy don't learn, so they assume that everything will be alright, always. It won't.

Re: A disturbing Twinkie that has, so far, defied science

#50

Post by dunefox »

Smithalicious wrote: post #45
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

My Dad used to recommend removing mold from food. Said they used to do it when he was growing up. My sister the Nurse suggested "Dad, in the old days, people used to die for no reason." So I don't eat moldy stuff any more.

I consider this totally normal. I think it's very wasteful to throw out food over a little bit of localized mold, especially things like bread which can form it very easily. As long as it doesn't smell or taste off and it's not a known dangerous food I eat it. I have never had good poisoning in my life afaik.

As soon as there is mold it goes. I'm not risking anything.
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