CABOT CHEESE

I was so happy when I found these cheeses at Sam's Club. Now a new Costco is open in our neighborhood and they also carry Cabot Cheeses. They have a few variety like Vintage Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar, Pepper Jack... They only use vegetable rennet and are Halal Certified. You can get more information from their website.
www.cabotcheese.com

I know that not every Muslim is concerned about pig sourced enzymes in cheese but I want everybody know that we have more options today and more and more cheese companies are starting to use non-animal enzymes in their products. I am planning to start a poll on enzymes in cheese products. Please vote and also leave a comment on what you think about consuming food products that contain animal sourced enzymes.

VANILLA EXTRACT POLL RESULTS

Here is the results for the "Vanilla Extract Poll".

52% said it should not be consumed because of the alcohol content.

40% said it should be avoided because it is doubtful.

7% said it can be used because the alcohol content is very minimal.

INGREDIENTS

Annatto Extract: A natural, vegetable dye from a tropical tree, gives yellow to pink color. It is used in dairy products, cheese, ice creams, baked goods, margarine, and cereals. It is also used to color some meat product casings as bologna and frankfurters. Annatto is produced from the reddish pulp which surrounds the seed of the achiote (Bixa orellana L.). Annatto is commonly found in Latin America and Caribbean cuisines as both a coloring agent and for flavoring. Central and South American natives use the seeds to make a body paint, and lipstick. For this reason, the achiote is sometimes called the lipstick-tree. It was probably not initially used as a food additive but for other reasons, such as body painting, to ward off evil, and as an insect repellent. In the United States, annatto extract is listed as a color additive “exempt from certification” and is commonly considered to be a natural color. Annatto has been linked with many cases of food-related allergies, and is the only natural food coloring believed to cause as many allergic-type reactions as artificial food coloring. Because it is a natural colorant, companies using annatto may label their products "all natural" or "no artificial colors". However, consumers with food dye sensitivity or intolerance may wish to avoid products containing annatto.
Processing:Fruits are dried and seeds extracted from them are crushed. The seeds have a coating of an oily paste that contains bixin. Bixin is a yellow orange carotenoid. It is extracted using aqueous alkaline solution and vegetable oil solvent.

Oleoresin: A natural plant product consisting of essential oil and resin extracted from a substance, such as ginger, by means of alcohol, ether, or acetone. Certain spices are extracted as oleoresins for color rather than for flavor. Such as paprika oleoresin and turmeric oleoresin.

Lard and Lard Oils: Pork fat and oils. It is the purified internal fat from the abdomen of a hog. It is used in packaging and in chewing gum bases. Easily absorbed by skin and it is used as a lubricant, emollient, and base in shaving creams, soaps, and various cosmetic creams. When lard was fed to laboratory animals in doses of from 2 to 25 percent of the diet, the male mice had a shortened life span and increased osteoarthritis. It is GRAS, generally recognized as safe, by FDA.

IS FISH SAFE OR NOT TO EAT?

Click to enlarge

Source

Fish is generally healthy to eat. But because of the comtaminants found in the oceans, lakes and rivers, eating fish that are contaminated with toxins and chemicals can pose considerable health risks. As we know HALAL has to be healthy so we should be extra careful when it comes to consuming seafood because of the contaminations.

Contaminants may include:

metals such as mercury and lead,
industrial chemicals such as PCBs, and
pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin.

What are the risks of eating seafood contaminated with mercury and PCBs?
Contaminants such as mercury, PCBs and dioxins build up in your body over time and may result in health problems, ranging from small, hard-to-detect changes to birth defects and cancer.

Key facts about the risks include:
It can take 5 years or more for women in their childbearing years to rid their bodies of PCBs, and 12-18 months to significantly reduce their mercury levels.
Mothers who eat contaminated fish before becoming pregnant may have children who are slower to develop and learn. Developing fetuses are exposed to stored toxins through the placenta.
Women beyond their childbearing years and men face fewer health risks from contaminants than children do.

What about mercury in canned tuna?
The two most popular types of canned tuna – white and light – vary greatly in their average mercury content. Overall, it’s best to exercise caution in how much tuna you (or especially your children) consume.
Canned white tuna consists of albacore, a large species of tuna that accumulates moderate amounts of mercury. Therefore, Environmental Defense recommends that both adults and children limit their consumption of canned white tuna.
Canned light tuna usually consists of skipjack, a smaller species with approximately one-third the mercury levels of albacore. Therefore, Environmental Defense recommends only that young children (ages 0-6) limit their consumption of canned light tuna.
A word of caution: Some canned light tuna reportedly contains yellowfin tuna, which has similar mercury levels to albacore. These products are sometimes (but not always) labeled ‘gourmet’ or ‘tonno’, and their consumption should be limited by adults and children.

Do the health benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks associated with contaminants in seafood?
Fish is generally healthy to eat, but there are some types you should eat infrequently, if at all. Consider the following:
For young children and women of childbearing age, consumption of mercury-contaminated fish can severely impact a child's development.
Older women and men may find it an acceptable tradeoff to exceed recommended seafood meal limits to increase their omega-3 intake.
People at high risk of cardiovascular disease must weigh the cancer risk of eating fish high in PCBs with the benefits of eating fish high in omega-3s, in which case the benefits of omega-3s may outweigh the cancer risk (1 in 100,000 - the level recommended by the EPA). However, these chemicals are known to cause serious health problems besides cancer, so the tradeoffs are not simple.
The good news is that there are several low-contaminant, high-omega-3 seafood options available (see the list above) so there’s no need to risk eating contaminated fish.

Where do contaminants come from?
Contaminants end up in water in a variety of ways:
Industrial and municipal discharges, agricultural practices, and storm water runoff can all deposit harmful substances directly into the water.
Rain can also wash chemicals from the land or air into streams and rivers. These contaminants are then carried downstream into lakes, reservoirs and estuaries.
Fish take in these substances in several ways, and their contaminant levels depend on factors like species, size, age and location.
Mercury, for example, is naturally converted by bacteria into methylmercury. Fish absorb methylmercury mostly from their food, but also from the water as it passes over their gills. Generally, larger and older fish have had more time to bioaccumulate mercury from their food and the water than smaller and younger fish. In addition, large predatory fish (like sharks and swordfish) near the top of marine food chains are more likely to have high levels of mercury than fish lower in marine food chains due to the process of biomagnification.
Fish can also absorb organic chemicals (such as PCBs, dioxins and DDT) from the water, suspended sediments, and their food. In contaminated areas, bottom-dwelling fish are especially likely to have high levels of such toxins because these substances run off the land and settle to the bottom. These organic chemicals then concentrate in the skin, organs and other fatty tissues of fish. Wild striped bass, bluefish, American eel, and seatrout tend to be high in PCBs, since they are bottom-tending fish often found in contaminated rivers and estuaries.

These are the reasons why we should eat some kinds of fish less frequently if at all. The chart above has the lists for best, OK and worst choices of fish to eat.

Also below is a chart that shows how many servings of certain kinds of fish are safe to eat per month.

Click to enlarge

Source

All information from http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521

HONEY

Dr. Mahmoud Mousa, a pharmacist, has his own company and produces halal, natural hair and skin products. We have used some of his products and they really work. I am especially amazed by his skin products. Main ingredients that he uses are honeybee products, herbal oils and extracts. You can find more information in his website.
http://www.honeyderm.com/

Here is an article from him about honey:

Honey: Universal Cure for Mankind
Written by DR. Mahmoud Mousa

My story started in the school of pharmacy where herbal and plant remedies were a major subject during a 5 year of under­graduate studies. The safety, simplicity, and effectiveness of the herbal and plant reme­dies was very fascinating. These products have been safely used for thousands of years without loosing their effectiveness. If you look back at ancient civilizations, you notice that all remedies were only natural like honeybee prod­ucts, olive products, fig products, date palm prod­ucts, citrus products, garlic, onion, pomegranate, ginseng, ginger, licorice, nutmeg, cloves, coconut, fish oil, cod-liver oil, and many other herbs, plants and animal derived natural products. Honeybee products themselves were the main components of most remedies in old Egyptian medicine. These prod­ucts were mentioned about 500 times in a total of 900 Egyptian remedies. It was only in recent civilization where science has clashed with traditional medicine for economical reasons. However, there is a strong movement now among members of the scientific community to seri­ously reemploy these forgotten treasures specially after the danger of using artificial remedies has become more evident.
I became interest in utilizing and discovering the secrets of the natural products especially those products mentioned in the holly Quran and Hadith of prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him. After finishing my Ph.D., I focused on the investiga­tion of the medicinal and biological activities of some of these products. In chapter 16 of the holly Qura'n, verses 68 and 69, honeybee products were explicitly described as a universal cure for mankind, "And your Lord inspired the bee saying: habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they (people) build; then eat of all the fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord made easyplants which are mentioned in the Holly Quran may include all or any of the different parts of the plants including leaves, wood, roots, (for you): there come from within their bellies a fruits and flowers; all these parts drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for mankind: verily in this is indeed a sign for those who give thought". Chapter 19, verse 25 and 26 the dates were mentioned as the only food for Mary, mother of prophet Isa (Jesus) during here pregnancy, "and shake the trunk of the date-palm toward you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you. So eat and drink and be glad". In chapter 95, verse 1, Allah swears by the Figs and olives "By the fig, and by the olive............ Verily we cre­ ated man of the best stature (mould)". This is a strong evidence for the importance and potential benefit of the fig and the olive. Other products like cucumber, garlic, lentle and onions have been also mentioned as food items in chapter 2, verse 60. Another interesting natural product is the black seed which has been described by prophet Mohammad peace be upon him as a uni­versal cure. The honeybee itself produces sever­al products which possess remarkable biological activities. Among these products are honey,propolis, bee pollen, bees wax, bee food and royal jelly all of which have been a landmark in the traditional remedies over the history of mankind as given in the example of old Egyptian remedies.

We became interested in investigating the benefits of these products, and in order to discover the secrets in these products, we proposed several assumptions. (1) The medicinal value of these must be tested for their medicinal and biological value; (2) The med­icinal value of the different prod­ucts of the honeybee must be evaluated based on their floral and geographical origin; in other words, the same product of the bee coming from different floral source or different geographical origin could be useful for different ailments; (3) Using the right dose is critical to the expected results; therefore when testing any products, opti­mizing the dose is very important to the intended results; for example not taking enough amount of black seed probably will not be enough to obtain the needed effect. In the mean time excessive doses are not recommended in some cases, e.g., if you use too much garlic, it may cause gastrointestinal discomfort. During our course of experimental investigations, we discovered that the addi­tion of diluted honey to the urinary bladder tis­sue prevents the attachment of pathogenic E. coli to that tissue. This bacterial species is a common cause of the urinary tract infection. Bacterial attachment to the target tissue is the first step in the infection process and if prevent­ed then the infection will not happen. We also noticed that the peristaltic movement of a urinary bladder ring was diminished when incubated with dead E. coli, while in the presence of honey, the contractility was maintained and the bladder tis­sue was fully responsive to external stimuli. We have also identified a profound anti-microbial activity for honey and propolis. Such activity is unique in being a wide spectrum, i.e., works against all sorts of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi and viruses irrespective of their resistance or susceptibility to conventional anti­biotic treatments. We have also discovered that extracts from honeybee products demonstrated distinctive superior activity in tissue regeneration and we used such extracts to heal wounds, burns, and ulcers faster while leaving minimal scars as compared to conventional treatments. Several other studies have demonstrated that honeybee products also exhibit several activities like inhibition of cancer promotion, anti-inflam­matory, tissue preservation, treatment of peptic ulcers, treatment of respiratory disorders and many other activities. Actually, this is a whole new field of safe and guaranteed remedies which needs focused researches to discover all the secrets lying in these products and their applica­tion in medicine and human health.

At B.C. Cosmaceuticals, Inc., we have extracted very effective fractions from honey­bee products and combined them with highly effective herbal and plant components in a synergistic ratios to effectively stop hair loss within 2-3 applications and grow new hair in 6­8 weeks. We developed several other products to cure wounds, acne, psoriasis and to regen­erate and maintain healthy skin. Alhamdu­Lellah we have been granted 2 patents and 2 more are still pending. We are working so hard to uncover these best and most effective nat­ural ingredients.
If you have any question or to get more information about our line of natural prod­ucts, please utilizing the most effective and the safest ingredients, please call Dr. Mousa at 1(800)424-7710.