Vegetarian Means Vegan, Right?

Actually vegetarians tend to differ from what Vegans consider themselves to be. The exact reasons for why, evade me at the moment.

I eat plenty of vegetables but also enjoy eggs so I think this means I may be a vegetarian but I am not a vegan because eggs are not on their menu. I need to watch my calories and weight.

Veganism, if I may, seems to be more like a religion than just a healthy eating regime. I think the term is applied to not only eggs but even to wearing things that may have once been alive, like leather.

I have no feelings on this one way or another and think our life choices are just that, our life choices.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Poppy Seed Myths: How True Are They?

By George ONeil

If you are a great fan of culinary arts, perhaps poppy seeds are quite familiar with you. For the benefit of all, poppy seeds are minute kidney-like seeds that are harvested straight from the seedpods of a plant known as opium poppy. For many centuries, poppy seeds for sale have been used by various civilizations mostly on medical purposes. But these days, poppy seeds have become more popular as a fine ingredient that adds delicious taste and good nutrition on various recipes.

Recently, there have been some beliefs going around regarding the use of these seeds. These misconceptions are nothing more than just myths with no firm evidence supporting its speculations.

One popular myth about poppy seeds is its significant role on positive results for a drug test. Such speculation was drawn out of the fact that the poppy seed resin is one of the basic components or ingredients in the massive production of illegal drugs like heroin, morphine, and codeine. Before, a lot of people were baffled of such myth, which made them refrain from eating commercial foods with poppy seeds as its main ingredient, and even stopped using them for their home cooked meals. This is primarily because they once thought that ingesting poppy seeds could lead to a positive drug result for Opiates. But then, it still strictly remains as a myth and nothing more.

To clear out your mind, ingestion of poppy seeds is very far from leading to a positive drug test result. With the help of drug testing laboratories utilizing GC/MS or Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrmetry, poppy seeds now have a safer reputation. There are many types of drug testing processes and the previous one is mainly for confirming the Opiod class consisting of morphine, heroine, and codeine. With such test a 300 ng/ml result is expected from a person who has been eating poppy seeds. But then, the cutoff level for the Opiate Class is at 2,000 ng/ml set by the Department of Health and Human Services. In this guideline, positive results only show for persons who have been truly taking in codeine, morphine, and heroine and not those who are just fond of eating poppy seeds based products.

In most times, drug tests are needed to fill in a vacant slot for a job. This is one of the many security measures that most hiring companies do every time they go out looking for a new member of their empire. Another particular myth which is directly related to the previous one is the potential of poppy seeds in taking away your job opportunity. This myth suggests that eating foods that contain poppy seeds by any amount can definitely result to a positive drug test making you loose the chance of landing on a good job. Much worse, it can label you as a drug user. This may have been true and have been a misfortune to some back when the cut off level for the Opiate class was still at low 300 ng/ml. As ingestion of poppy seeds can provide the same result, the Department of Health and Human Services raised the cutoff level to 2,000 ng/ml.

Nowadays, such misleading beliefs on poppy seeds are nothing but mere distractions. With a more efficient guideline, you can freely enjoy the health benefits of eating poppy seed based foods. As what most myths are, the ones mentioned above are nothing but unproven theories.

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