Phosphate Preservative Problems

[tummyache]

I am wondering if any one else is having problems with preservatives in foods...especially phosphates. After 3 years in a row getting sick at Thanksgiving from frozen Butterball Turkey Breast Roast and then doing a food diary, it's became abundantly clear that it is sodium phosphate that is causing me problems in many foods. I need to eliminate it and read all labels now carefully before buying anything. Adolase B fructose - bisphosphate [ALDOB] is involved in HFI...and part of our chemical process affecting our liver, etc. So, are phosphates in foods a problem for anyone else? Or am I weird?? Now I am concerned about getting the infusion for Reclast for Osteoporosis which contains zoledronic acid, a bisphosphonic acid. I'll have to ask the doctor about that one.

[colormist]

I've never noticed a problem with a food that listed phosphates. I'm not saying that's not your problem (as I don't see a confirmed HFI diagnosis in your signature and I can't recall what your medical history is so far), but I was concerned when you said you cooked a Butterball turkey. I haven't been able to find a Butterball turkey (or most other grocery store turkeys) that didn't have suspected fructose in it.

I'm going off the assumption that this is the turkey you buy: www.butterball.com/products/turkey-roasts-and-whole-breasts/breast-meat-roast

These are the ingredients:
Turkey Breast. Contains up to 20% of a solution of Water, Contains 2% or less of Salt, Dextrose, Natural Flavor, Modified Food Starch, Sodium Phosphate to enhance tenderness and juiciness.

There's that blasted Natural Flavor again. Pretty much everything is defined as a natural flavor. It can include all manner of Onions, Carrots, or Sugar. I've found myself getting sick (HFI reaction) off of foods that had perfectly safe labels, but listed "natural flavor". If you're having a HFI-reaction (clamminess, lethargy, nausea, low blood sugar), then it might be something included in the natural flavor special ingredients.

The last time I cooked a turkey, I had to pay $30 for an organic one at Whole Foods because it was the only one I could find that didn't have a brine or "natural flavors" added. My mom has a hookup with a Amish store and they get her a special additive-free turkey.

[tummyache]

Yip! That's the critter! Like you, in Texas I always got a fresh, unfrozen organic bird to cook...the largest one that would fit in the oven. But here in Panama there's not a lot of choices and only us two "oldies but goodies" to eat it. Next year it will be chicken instead! I always throw out the flavor packet for gravy anyway--it's nasty stuff. I haven't been diagnosed "HFI" in the conventional sense...if you can count being diagnosed by medical history + blood work via a group of researchers in the early 1980's as having "Fructose Intolerance"...then that's my criteria. I've never had a liver biopsy--refused to have one--and the DNA tests recently by 23andMe for the 4 big genomes came back negative. At this late date in life, I've had it with doctors and trying to get a specific answer. The DNA thing was my last shot at it! In 1942, when I was born, I had a very rough beginning, sickly childhood, underweight most of my life with major digestive problems that no one could diagnose, etc. You know how the story goes. I'm healthier now than I have ever been in my life with dietary changes.

[charlie]

The other thing certainly in the UK is the cheaper meats can be injected with sugar water to plump them up and stop them drying out while cooking but not enough for them to declare it, mind you I have noticed for the first time this Christmas ready basted turkeys had sugar listed as an ingredient.......

[ukbill]

Charlie is right Phosphates are usually used to keep brineing water in the meat.
If a Joint contains Phosphates it will also contain added water.
In the UK producers are allowed to add 10% water by weight to meats without declaring it so if the packet of meat says it contains 10% added water then it will have 20% in reality.. that amount of water can be squeezed out of meat and will leak out if not kept in with something.. hence the poly-phosphates and added sugar.. that much added water takes all the taste of the meat away.. so they stuff it full of sugar and other flavour enhancers to make the meat edible.. (to them).
Un-brined meats need slightly better (more careful) cooking, over cooking will make the meat dry up very quickly.

I had a discussion some years back with an American gentleman who was always ill after thanksgiving.. one year he had a unbrined turkey but over cooked it and found it too dry to eat.

I always start cooking my Turkey breast side down for the 1st 30 min then turn it over and cover the breast with strips of streaky bacon which protects the breast meat from drying out.
I then use a meat thermometer to check the temp of the bird and stop cooking when its reached a safe temperature deep in the breast and leg regions. The meat is then juicy and tender and very flavoursome!

Enjoy !