Once again, I am postponing my segue to the CRP post. Too complicated for my fuzzy brain right now, even though I am feeling better today, and my sore throat is almost gone. But tomorrow I have classes, so I must concentrate on being perky for my students. 😀 One thing struck me when I reread yesterday’s post, though: I didn’t mean to slam specialists. We need specialists, of course. My point was another, and I hope that was clear…

Since I was (and am) not at the top of my mental abilities today, I ignored my increasing pile of medical and scientific studies, and instead read other lighter items such as an article titled “Add Color to Your Diet,” published today in the Tyler Morning Telegraph (East Texas). It’s worth reading, since it explains in simple language what flavonoids €”quercetin, epicathechin (found in chocolate!), delphinidin, capsaicin, curcumin etc. €”are. Instead of posting a summary, here is the link for those interested in flavonoids: http://tinyurl.com/2d3br6

At the end of the article there is a link to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s database listing 26 selected but important flavonoids in 393 foods. How about that? I was very excited. Until I saw some of the items on the list, that is, then I was sort of amused. Here is the link, have fun! http://tinyurl.com/yvwdrm You will even find chocolate on this list, as follows: “candies, dark chocolate, purchased in the Netherlands.” Dark chocolate candies purchased in…the NETHERLANDS? But the first item that really tickled my funny bone was the ready-to-serve marinara pasta sauce. (No brand name mentioned, so I guess there is only ONE brand that makes this kind of sauce…). The sauce actually turned out to have a tiny percentage (less than 1%) of quercetin. Better than a zero, I suppose.

Another couple of items were canned sauerkraut and commercial condensed canned tomato soup. C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding. Who would go look for flavonoids inside a can??? A Popeye the Sailor Man aficionado? Okay, to be fair I checked the canned foods almost one by one, and it turns out that canned capers do have a high content of kaempferol and quercetin. But the rest of the canned items either turned up a big bunch of zeros or negligible quantities per edible portion. Edible (oh dear, I feel another tickle…)? Oh, I get it, I guess you are not supposed to eat the can part of canned foods like “sweetened canned cranberry sauce” (another item on this list). Just eat the cranberries and put the can in the recycling bin… 😉