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peggyliu
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Joined: Sep 23, 2006
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Sep 23, 2006 - 10:27 PM |
 
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| Post subject: Nutrition and Food Safety Seminar- Oct 25 |
On the heels of my "Important Health Edition" of S.P.A.M (Shanghai Pops and Moms) newsletter, comes a luncheon seminar to discuss nutrition and food safety. Wed. Oct 25, 11am-2pm
To RSVP, go to this Evite: www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/peggyliu@alum.mit.edu/foodsafety
Part of a series of informational seminars that I organize for parents, this one is open to all who are concerned about health. Feel free to forward this Evite.
I’m going to try to bring in speakers such as organic groceries, big chain groceries, nutritionalists, a chef at a local school, organic farms…Sunshine Children’s Clinic, BebeMamie yogurt, Shanghai Better Meat Supply Co, O-Store are already signed up to speak.
I'm looking forward to sampling organic foods from our speakers and intense debate among our attendees.
LANGUAGE: mainly English, although some translation can be provided if necessary.
PRICE includes lunch: RMB 150
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Below is an excerpt of the "Important Health Edition" of S.P.A.M.
To get a version with hyperlinks that don't show up below and with attachments that are mentioned but not included here, send a request to peggyliu@alum.mit.edu.
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You Are What You Eat
After reading this issue on food safety in China, you might start thinking that raw monkey brains, raw bee larvae and bamboo grubs from Yunnan,
and braised Rabbit heads from Chengdu are starting to sound pretty good. At the very least, they could be considered organic and won’t poison you.
The Bad News
Read the attached article “China Food Fears” from China Dialogue. Don’t skip it. Read it NOW.
Don’t Be Scared, Be Mad
Isn’t it true that when people are scared, they usually stop in paralysis?
But when they’re mad, they take action— even if it happens to be in the form of revenge.
If you’re not mad yet, you didn’t read the attached article, did you?
Actionable Tips
My message here is not to stop eating (and certainly not to move out of China), but to take action to improve your environment. And consequently your chance of survival.
I’m not a food safety expert, but I’ve done my homework. I’ve embedded some links so you can start to do your own research.
1. Carefully select your suppliers and get to know them.
In France and Italy, people take the time to get to know their food suppliers. How many children they have, how’s their family, what are they doing for vacation? This ensures that they get the best cut of meat, the freshest veggies. In China, that’s smart guanxi. Ask where a fish or shellfish came from, when it is in season, if it was farmed or is wild.
2. Visit a farm to see where your produce comes from.
Last year, a group of us took our families to Nishikigawa organic farm and took a tour, picked our own carrots. What did I learn? They’re not 100% organic (e.g. the compost is not made on the farm), but they’re a good start.
O-Store now has a tour to their farm twice a summer.
3. Don’t give up on your favorite suppliers if something goes wrong. Let them know so they can fix it. (Kathy- that means your friend’s ayi should go back to Carrefour and tell them about the maggot-ridden beef.)
4. Get to know the chef of your frequented restaurants and ask politely for a tour of their kitchen. Even my ayi was disgusted by the state of the kitchen in the Suzhou Amusement Park restaurant we lunched at. Ask the chef if they use organic produce and meat.
5. Pay up for organic. You’re an expat- you can afford it. It’s an investment in the industry.
· The O-store in Gubei has various farmers markets throughout the city. You can also subscribe to weekly organic baskets of fruits and veggies for RBM700-1100 (shop online at www.ostore.com).
· American Garden, which grows American varieties, has a delivery service (email amgarden@sh163.net for the latest ordering form).
· Nishikigawa organic produce sold in groceries.
· Randi recommends www.eatingwell.com for a great source of FAQs, recipes, general tips.
6. Look for products with the Shanghai food safety certification “QS” (a square logo with a blue "Q'' and a white "S'') or the label “Green Food”.
7. Don’t buy frozen beef (thawed form is ok). Check for healthy color, lack of watery run-off, and texture.
In China, cattle is regularly injected with water prior to slaughter in order to increase slaughter weights. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report (Aug 2006), “Industry sources claim that cattle injected with water increase their weight by up to 20%. In some places, there is even public listed price based on different water injection percentages.”
Lo and behold, I went to a large wholesale meat market and asked several suppliers about this practice. They asked- is this for your personal use or for your restaurant? They would give me different slabs depending on my answer. When I finally picked a supplier, I brought the piece back home, it was still far inferior to imported beef.
If you go on Alibaba and search for “beef”, there are some ads for “guaranteed not injected with water”.
The 8000 tons of beef that enters Beijing markets each year from neighboring Tianjin Municipality is injected with about 1000 tons of water to raise the purchase weight, (Beijing Morning Post, March 17, 2006)
8. Buy imported beef or local beef from a supplier that is reputable. I haven’t heard the same concerns about local fresh pork and lamb (of course, you never know). Try shopping at The Pines, City Plaza (JiuGuong)’s FreshMart, City Supermarket, or Shanghai Better Meat Supply Company, Bauernstube in Hongqiao Sheraton Hotel.
9. Don’t buy pre-ground meat. You don’t know what leftover parts they are throwing in there. Always buy whole pieces of meat and have your ayi grind it in a food processor.
10. Avoid buying meat at local wet markets, especially in hot weather. I know you know this already, but for sake of completeness…
11. Don’t buy (local Chinese) prepared foods if possible.
(China Daily 30/05/2006) Bamboo leaves used to wrap zongzi dumplings, consumed in huge quantities during the Dragon Boat Festival, are dyed with copper-based chemicals to make the leaves look fresher and brighter. Normal leaves used to wrap dumplings for steaming are dark green and turn yellowish green or yellowish brown after a period of time. Heavy metal consumption has been associated with risk of cancer and liver problems.
According to food safety authorities in Yuyao, in East China's Zhejiang Province, the illegal practice of dyeing zongzi leaves is widespread.
The authorities found three out of four types of zongzi produced by three local factories to have green leaves containing excessive amounts of copper. The worst zongzi contained 34 times more copper than the national standard.
12. Be wary of anything bright red. Remember the red M&Ms controversy? Does anyone still think eating foods unnaturally colored is good for them?
Last year, the carcinogenic food colouring Sudan I was found in red peppers from the Hongfang Spice Company. Local farmers, based in Kunshan in East China's Jiangsu Province, regularly add the coloring to make the peppers more appealing. These peppers were made into chili powder that turned up in many foods, including the sauce for a couple KFC menu items (New Orleans roast chicken wings and chicken hamburgers), and Meiweiyuan, produced by the Guangzhou-based Heinz-Meiweiyuan Food Co. (China Daily 2005-03-17). But let’s not stop there. Sudan I was also found in soysauce and Tianfu brand chili oil and chili sauce as late as Dec. 2005.
13. Don’t eat mass produced pickled vegetables. (What??! You haven’t read the attached article yet?)
Loyal readers will recall that one of my ayi had her mom pass away of stomach cancer this August. What you don’t know is that one of my grandfathers also passed away of stomach cancer. The connection is that they are both Chinese. Chinese people have a much higher incidence of stomach cancer than westerners. Why? Because of the nitrates (and possibly other chemicals) in pickled vegetables and cured meats.
14. Buy Morton’s salt, not local salt.
15. Buy Taikoo brand sugars.
16. Buy imported Gold Flour from Metro, City Supermarket, Carrefour. Preferably the unbleached or organic types.
17. Omega 3s found in fish are good for you, but what fish is safe to eat? Read and memorize the list of mercury-heavy fish.
Ironically Norwegian farmed salmon, the kind sold at Carrefour, was contaminated (briefly) in 2005 by a batch of bad zinc sulphate from China which was used in fish feed.
18. Limit your intake of sushi. Not just because of mercury, but because distribution in China doesn’t ensure adequate refrigeration en route.
19. Local river fish isn’t great either because of our polluted waters.
(Sept 4, 2006) Tests carried out in southern China's Guangdong province found some fish had been contaminated with the male hormones methyltestosterone and chloramphenicol, which have been linked to liver cancer. The latest scare comes after samples of fish farmed in Guangdong were found in 2005 to be contaminated by an industrial dye, malachite green, that is linked to some cancers.
20. Don’t eat raw clams, mussels— they act as filters of the sea. 30% of sewage from Shanghai flows undisturbed and untreated into local waters.
21. Don’t eat raw snails. I really know you know this already, but for sake of completeness…
A friend of ours recently ate some raw snails at a Sichuan restaurant because all the other dishes were too spicy for him to eat. He ended up in the hospital for a month with parasites. He’s still recovering. Later, I found an article on apple snails poisoning 131 people in a Sichuan restaurant in Beijing and a Japanese restaurant near Olympic Village. These snails carried a parasite that can cause meningitis.
22. Eat “cao mi” organic brown rice, readily available at Carrefour in the organic greens section and at Fresh Mart.
23. Certain produce are more susceptible to pesticide contamination. Buy organic or avoid them. This includes strawberries (the worst), grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, spinach… Be sure to read it, then print out the entire list for your ayi.
24. Babycenter offers these helpful tips in kitchen preparation to reduce pesticide contamination.
· Peel fruits and vegetables, or remove the outer leaves (on lettuce and cabbage, for example).
· Serve a wide variety of produce. This will limit repeated consumption of the same pesticide.
· Trim the fat off meat and the skin off poultry. Pesticides are also found in these foods, and they're concentrated in the fatty parts and skin.
25. Only buy packaged tofu, with the exception of O-store’s San-Shui tofu (which can be delivered to your home). (See attached article.)
26. Don’t buy local milk. Stick to UHT (boxed) Australian or New Zealand milk.
“Bright Dairy was found to have post-dated expired milk and sold it to consumers. According to the article, a TV station covering the company’s production facilities “even showed milk with maggots, saying it would be reused.” On Friday, June 17, 2006 the China Daily reported that an “industry insider” claimed “recycling expired milk is the norm in the domestic dairy industry and more than 90 per cent of fresh milk has already been contaminated before entering processing procedures.” This came after the China Business Weekly reported in 2004 that a senior Dairy Association of China expert claimed Chinese dairies marketed reconstituted powdered milk as fresh milk.”
27. Import baby formula from the US. I buy Nestle Good Start Supreme with DHA/ARA, found to be the best tasting formula by a friend who actually did a taste test.
In early 2004, 45 types of fake baby formula killed 13 Chinese babies and left 229 infants suffering from malnutrition and alloplasia. An analysis of one particular formula found that it contained one sixth of the required amount of protein to sustain the average baby’s dietary requirements for development. Counterfeit formula with fake Nestle labels were also found widely available at stores.
28. Make your own yogurt at home, from UHT milk. Making your own is not that hard with a machine, and you have ayis that can do it for you. Or, get home delivery of homemade plain French-style yogurt from Bebemamie +86 21-6437-3717, +86 137-8897-0175 Nicolas, order@bebemamie.com (RMB80 min order, RMB10ea, RMB150 deposit).
An ex-marketing exec from Mengniu mocked the yogurt drink he hawked as “watered down sugary crap with no nutritional value”.
29. Make your own baby food (except for carrots which contain high nitrates), or buy Earth’s Best from City Supermarket. It’s ridiculously easy and you have an ayi, so there’s really no excuse not to—is there?
(14/3/2006) Greenpeace announced that non-approved genetically-engineered (GE) rice was been detected in Heinz's Baby Rice Cereal with a best before date of March 12, 2007.
30. New and expectant moms should read the attached article I wrote on Yuezi- the postpartum recovery month.
31. Teach your ayi to use separate cutting boards for meats and veggies, raw and cooked foods. In the US, I bought silicone boards with cute pictures on them to designate use. Make sure she washes them with hot water and soap between each use.
32. Teach your ayi to refrigerate foods, versus leave them out for hours on end.
33. Teach your ayi to wrap all foods in the refrigerator.
34. Ask your ayi to use hot water, not cold, when washing dishes. If you have a dishwasher, teach them how to use it properly. If you have an infant, teach her how to use a microwave steam sterilizer for your bottles and implements.
35. Tell your ayi not to buy MSG and prepared mixes with MSG in them. Train her to read the ingredients.
36. Ask your ayi to wash all eggs before they are stored in the fridge (helps with bird flu). Better yet, buy the eggs that have numbers stamped on them. The heat treatments inactivates the virus. Bird flu virus can survive freezing and chilling, and it can survive on your door handle for 48 hours.
37. Don’t assume basic hygiene. Ask your ayi to trim her nails short, wash her hands before touching your infant, wash her hands before preparing foods, and keep her long hair tied back neatly. (Nothing kills your appetite like a nail in your food. Right, Jessica?)
38. If you get bacterial food poisoning, try finely mincing up half a head of raw garlic, topping it off with hot water, and downing the entire thing. Why? Garlic is a natural antiseptic and even kills vampires. You will may throw it back up, but you’ve been throwing up continuously anyway, right?
39. Filter your air, and don’t skimp on your children’s lungs. And keep the filter on whenever you’re home. Turn the filter off when you open your windows to vent the air of carbon dioxide.
The best filter is IQAir from Switzerland, the same brand used in hospitals and semiconductor clean rooms. In fact, the HK Hospital Association chose IQAir as the only filtration solution for SARS patient rooms. Get the HealthPro from a HK distributor for USD1500, or schlep them from the US for USD800 plus a transformer. You need one for each floor, or every 305 sqm (open). The Multigas version is better and more expensive.
40. Get your house tested for air quality before you move in. “Currently, indoor air pollution has been listed one of the top ten threats to human health. Mainly through poisonous substances emitted from unqualified household finishing materials, in China alone the pollution causes a reported annual death toll of 111,000 people.”
· If you have new construction, wait a month for the fumes to subside before moving in. Or use your air filters full blast 24/7. Amy says that the building material they use here is not up to EPA standards.
· The Shanghai Indoor Renovation and Decoration Testing Standards have been implemented since March 2003. With the compulsory item on air quality, consumers have the right to ask property developers or renovation companies to provide air quality certificates. But, few are yet aware of this item.
· Haiyin used the Shanghai Quality Monitoring Institute. “They are the government agency monitoring and testing for food, renovation and all sorts of quality things. They have their own lab and claim to have all the state-level licenses (4 or 5 different licenses in all. they told me that there are cheaper alternatives in shanghai but most do not hold all the licenses). They normally do it for offices but can also work for apts. In Dec 04, I was charged 800rmb per room- they gave me a discount because I did it for all 4 rooms. Ms. Wei. 5521-0255.”
· Amy used the Xuhui District Air Quality Institute徐汇空气质量检测站. They charge by square meter. She paid RMB7500 to test her entire house, 7 items tested. Mr. 徐威毅test engineer 6422-5522.
41. Don’t drink tap water. With the news of an 80-kilometer slick of polluted water rolling down the Songhua River due to a chemical plant explosion, water quality is in the news.
· Even after water leaves a water treatment plant, lead and copper may leach into the water from old water systems (pipes, faucets). Cryptosporidium or Giardia cysts are hard to detect at the treatment plant due to evolving test methods. And they can get into the water supply at any stage.
· Our city water is chlorine treated, which is not good for our hair or skin. It also does not remove certain bacteria (cysts). Even if it does, slime can build up in pipes which then release more bacteria throughout our water system. Chlorination cannot get rid of all bacteria. It is not a sterilization process (i.e. no microbes). We should be worried about chemicals from pesticides and such in our water, which chlorine doesn’t remove.
· Just boiling your water can kill cysts, but is not good enough to remove chemicals.
42. Filter your own water, rather than rely on delivered jugs (which can often be contaminated en route).
· Rob has a friend that saw some jugs spill from the bicycle in front of him. The delivery man just topped the jug off with his own drinking water and recapped it. The used jugs are also not sanitized properly and used over and over.
· Bottles of water in rural areas are sometimes refilled locally and recapped. A friend on a cruise drank from a bottle at night and found algae floating in her water the next morning. Stick to higher quality brands like Nestle, NongFu. (I’ve seen a web recommendation by someone whose family is in the bottled water market for the local Nong Fu Spring Water as “the only decent-tasting bottled water”.)
43. Ask your ayi to only use filtered water in the kitchen when rinsing foods and boiling water. Even for your pasta water.
44. A little background on water filters:
· The things to look for when shopping are water flow rate, chlorine & chemical & cyst & lead removal, level of NSF certification, replacement filter cartridge prices, whether you want a countertop or below-the-counter installation.
· Reverse osmosis filters are out of fashion. They do work, but they also waste water and remove all the healthy minerals from your water.
· Carbon filters can filter out chlorine and some chemicals, but often leave dust fines (ever buy a brita pitcher?) To get rid of that annoying black dust, you need to buy an “extruded” carbon filter. These filters need to be replaced once a year.
· Ceramic filters filter out cysts, but not chemicals. They never wear out as long as you scrub them once in a while. But the tradeoff is that the water flow is decreased. A silver coated ceramic filters) can prevent slime from building on top of the filter over time.
· You can use any number of filters in a series (usually 1, 2 or 3 in a row) to achieve the affect you want. For example, you can use an extruded carbon (eg. MatriKX-PB1), then a ceramic filter (e.g Royal Doulton Imperial Sterasyl.
· I bought mine from www.pwgazette.com in the US. They have standard filter houses that you can then use with any brand of filter in the market with standard sizes, so you can shop for best prices. This is instead of proprietary filters that lock you into their high replacement filter prices. Locally, Everpure is widely available. Amy says Starbucks uses them, but do your research on the latest products.
· Note that many filters say they are “NSF certified”. But there are actually 2 specific levels of certification you want to check for.
· NSF Standard 42 treats ONLY for aesthetics (taste, colour and smell. non-health effects). It treats chlorine, zinc and particulate matter.
· NSF Standard 53 treats health-related contaminants. Depending on the filter, it can remove lead, mercury and copper.
45. Filter your shower water with Sprite filters. Up to 60% of your body is water, and your skin is porous. Not to mention how many chemicals you’re breathing in thru steam in those 7 minutes.
· Shower filters are formulated differently because they need to treat hot water, while countertop filters are only approved for room temp (to about 80F).
· I bring Sprite’s Universal hose filters from the US in a suitcase. They go between the shower hose and head. It’s convenient to install. You replace the cartridges every 3 months.
· All Sprite shower hose filters include Chlorgon and KDF to remove free and some combined Chlorine, Sediment, Hydrogen Sulfide, Iron oxide (rust), Odors, & it is pH balanced. See www.consumerhealthreviews.com/Reviews/ShowerHeadCompare.htm for comparison chart. KDF is a material that is usually combined with carbon to magically transform chlorine into a salt. In addition, many heavy metals such as copper, lead, mercury and others, are bonded to the KDF medium's surface, thus removing it from the water supply. KDF is frequently found in home showerhead filters because of its effectiveness at higher operating temperatures and flow rates.
· In general though, if we are ever faced in Shanghai with a similar situation as Harbin please remember that filters don’t exist for filtering well at high temps and high water flows. So the better choice, if you have that option, is to go with a whole house filtration system.
46. If you want to test your home water quality, Lisa says “I recently hired someone to come and test the water quality at my house. They were quite thorough. They started by examining the water heaters, pipes, etc. Then they took water samples to test for bacteria and other elements in their lab. It was RMB200 per sample. Contact the company at 800-620-4000 to request a visit.”
47. Find an alternative to salt-based water softeners. You must use a water softener here in Shanghai. If you don’t, the mineral deposits from hard water will eventually close up your pipes. Unfortunately, salt-based water softeners are commonplace in China, and they pollute our waters with life-killing amounts of salt. In fact, your water supply is actually divided into “utility water” (non-drinking) that is softened, and “drinking and gardening water” that cannot be softened for health reasons. In California, Texas, Michigan and Connecticut, salt-based softeners are now banned (at different levels). They also don’t remove existing scale build-up in your pipes and water heater.
· After extensive research, I found a company that offers durable, non-salt water based water softeners- Clearwater GMX. The CEO explained to me how their magnetic devices don’t use electricity, don’t require maintenance and addition of salt, are easy to install, and are the most durable of its type in the industry. And they act to remove existing mineral buildup in old homes. They don’t sell into China, so you’ll have to find someone to carry them over in a suitcase.
· You must be able to install them on the main water supply pipe, before and after your hot water tank. This may not be the case for apartments.
48. Don’t eat the ice. Unless you’re absolutely sure the ice is made from filtered water, don’t eat it. Chinese don’t believe in drinking cold drinks anyway- it doesn’t help with digestion. Here are a few quotes from the CDC:
· “Hepatitis A or immune globulin (IG). Transmission of hepatitis A virus can occur through direct person-to-person contact; through exposure to contaminated water, ice, or shellfish harvested in contaminated water; or from fruits, vegetables, or other foods that are eaten uncooked and that were contaminated during harvesting or subsequent handling.”
· “Food and waterborne diseases are the primary cause of illness in travelers. Travelers’ diarrhea can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites, which are found throughout East Asia and can contaminate food or water. Infections may cause diarrhea and vomiting (E. coli, Salmonella, cholera, and parasites), fever (typhoid fever and toxoplasmosis), or liver damage (hepatitis).”
49. Stockpile your medicine cabinet in the US. Be very wary of medicines you buy here.
While doing due diligence on a company recently, Rob was told that 200,000 people in china die every year of counterfeit drugs.
Someone-who-will-not-be-named-but-should-be-in-the-know told me that vaccines are sometimes delayed at customs and sit in the warehouse in heat, effectively destroying the vaccine. They are delivered to doctors who then administer these vaccines to rich expats’ children.
50. That said, get to know your local, trustworthy pharmacy. Two possibilities:
Hanghai Wu Yao Pharmacy (24 hours). Celebrity Garden, 201 Lianhua Lu, Changning District 021 - 6294-1403
Lei Yun Shang (5 floors- traditional, western, sex shop!, doctors) 719 Nanjing W Rd. across from JinAn Temple 021-62560432
51. We don’t have fluoride in our water, and filters would filter it out anyway. Give your kids fluoride tablets or treatments—see your dentist for more info.
Lisa found this in Dental Health: “As little as one fluoride varnish treatment a year can cut the cavity rate in half for infants and small children. The treatment is easy to administer and has no known side effects. At the end of a study, published in the February issue of The Journal of Dental Research, children who had no fluoride treatments were more than twice as likely to have had a cavity as those who had yearly treatments, and almost four times as likely to have one as those who had had treatments at six-month intervals.”
52. Look into getting worm tablets once or twice a year.
Sylvia says, “I took my daughter Jade to Worldlink for a checkup. Dr Terance asked me if we have taken the worm tablets here?? He explained that in Asia it is quite common to take the worm treatment once or twice a year. Some people do it every six months and he does it once a year. Jade who just turns 4 this June gets the same dosage as us the adults.” www.genhealth.com/hupara.htm , www.appliedozone.com/parasites.html, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041208095146.htm
On a more disturbing note, Sophia on a trip to a hospital saw a young girl in the waiting room with long white worms coming out of her behind.
53. Get a first aid kit from Costco (a US warehouse store) and teach your ayi how to use everything. Make sure the whole family knows where it is. Get an extra one for the car.
I saw my ayi cut her finger, then apply pressure below the wound, not on it. I had to teach her to wash the wound, apply antiseptic/antibiotic, put on a bandage.
54. Send your ayis and driver to Worldlink’s first aid class, available in Chinese. If you haven’t been already, go with them.
55. Put together an emergency contact list and give it to your close friends and family. (Thanks Sophia!) Teach your ayis and children how to use it.
110 burglary (bao4 jing3)
120 ambulance j(i2 jiao4)
119 fire (xiao fang2 shi1 huo3)
56. Build a relationship with some doctors, not just the hospital.
57. Get a health exam. Not the typical US checkups, but the extensive Taiwanese type. Especially if you have family history of cancer, etc.
My mother-in-law this year discovered she had early stage breast cancer. Her annual mammogram didn’t catch it. It was only after her doctor’s manual check spotted one lump (found to be harmless), that microcalcifications (which could not be felt) were discovered elsewhere with a more thorough diagnostic mammogram using ultrasound. She was very, very lucky.
Haiyin reports her positive experience with St. John's Health Clinic (景康门诊部). www.jingkang.net.cn/, 6304-7175 or 6304-0763.
She says, “I was very satisfied with the services and medical equipment, and found it well worth the money (5000rmb).
St. John is the leading health clinic in Taiwan and the Shanghai branch has been open for about 2 years.
1. I went there at 8am in the morning and stayed their till 3pm. There were nurses (the nicest in Shanghai) showing me to different doctors and rooms. All doctors were very professional and took time to talk and explain to me. And the place was very clean and spacious.
2.The clinic offers analgesic gastroenteroscopy (无痛肠胃镜). I was told that about 80% of the first few hundred people tested have had some problems identified. The whole procedure was painless because I was under anesthetic. The only unpleasant time was the night before the procedure, when I gulped 2 liters of water with medicine, and then spent the next 3 hours in the bathroom...but still, I highly recommend that you do it, esp. if you haven't done it before. If the test result is normal, you don't need to do it every year.
3. Other tests unique for this clinic are: 1)M-RNA Gene Analysis (癌症基因检测). It's a blood test to detect early stage cancer; 2)body fat and shape analysis. 3) Bone density test- you'll be under a big scanning machine for 15-20 minutes.
4. They also offer a range of classic health check items, e.g. ultra-sound, x-ray, two blood tests (one with empty stomach and one after lunch, btw, the light Chinese lunch was very tasty), but with better equipments and services.
5. After all the results were out, I met Dr. Hong (a health check expert who came to Shanghai 10 days a month), who summarized for me the results and gave recommendations. Within a week, I also received a CD-rom with the results.
A few recommendations:
1. Please check with customer service (in chinese, english, japanese and korean) and avoid the days when they do group check, so you don't have to wait in long lines;
2. I chose the standard check (incl. analgesic gastroenteroscopy) which costs 5500rmb (for men, it's 4500rmb). there's also a more thorough check at 20,000rmb. The best is to do the standard check first, then based on the results, you can choose later to do MRI or other more detailed but more expensive tests.
3. If you can find 5 people to do the test together, you will get a 10% group discount.
58. If you have RH negative blood, be sure to identify a reliable blood supply as it is extremely rare in China. What? You don’t know your blood type yet?
(Shanghai Daily) “According to the Shanghai Blood Center, the city is always lacking RH-negative blood, which is very rare among Asians.
Only three in every 1,000 eastern Asians have this type of blood. Excluding children, the elderly and sick people, the center estimates there are about 16,000 RH-negative blood carriers in the city that are able to donate blood. Roughly speaking, there are only some 4,000 people for each type: A, B, O and AB. The center normally keeps a supply of 4 liters of RH-negative blood with about 600 milliliters used on an average day.
To solve the shortage, the center has managed to set up a club with some 200 RH-negative locals, who are willing to donate blood in an emergency or during a shortage.”
59. When yet another life-threatening disease breaks out, you may feel the urge to don a face mask. Or, buy the masks with active carbon for wandering polluted streets. If someone would just make them in hot pink or checkered grey, they could be quite fashion forward.
· 3M makes two types of N95 surgical face masks, the type that has been recommended by USA experts as the best protection from SARS. Note: N95 is the USA equivalent of the European P2 and P3 masks, with P3 offering the higher protection.
· 3M’s N95 without active carbon: 5.8 rmb per mask
3M’s N95 with active carbon: 21.5 rmb per mask
you can get a 10% discount if you buy in volume.
· 3M: 86-21-6275 3535. The agent: Shanghai Lao Fang Company:86-21-6321 7249 Contact Person: Ms. Jin
The Good News
1. Due to all these food scares, food standards and safety controls are becoming stricter.
2. China's first organic milk dairy farm was certified on August 13, 2006 using international organic food and organic milk standards from the EU, US, and Japan.
· Beijing Guiyuan Ecological Agriculture Development Co.’s farm is in Huoshaoying village in Northwest Beijing's Yanqing County, 74 kilometres outside the city and is about 500 metres higher in altitude. Forest covers 68 per cent of the county, and air quality ranks No 1 in the 18 districts and counties of Beijing, while its population density is the lowest.
· A carton of Guiyuan contains 243 millilitres and will be sold at 5-6 yuan (63-75 US cents) in the market. The price of Bright Dairy, Yili and Mengniu with the same volume range from 1 yuan to 2 yuan (13-25 US cents).
Suppliers
Nishikigawa (Taiwanese run) organic farm, sold at retail. 5764 8527
American Garden produce delivery service. 5787-8304, 06 amgarden@sh163.net. See attached order form.
Bebemamie French yogurt delivery (Japanese company) 6437-3717, 137-8897-0175 Nicolas, order@bebemamie.com (RMB80 min order, RMB10ea, RMB150 deposit).
Shanghai Better Meat Supply Company- delivery service at Pudong’s Seasons Villas 6856 5249. See attached order form.
Organic produce supplier to major 5 stars hotels. 15 HuaShan Rd. 159 2110 2681 Minimum delivery is 7 boxes each 7 RMB for 50g.
O-store. Aetna Tower,107 Zunyi Road, 6237-5538. Store Hours:8AM - 10PM. Also at farmer’s markets throughout the city. Delivery service. www.ostore.com
City Supermarket- Sells Earth’s Best organic baby food. Has their own 1000 acre organic garden. 5 stores in Shanghai. Delivery service. www.cityshop.com.cn. 6215-0418, 6267-4248, 6477-9671.
FreshMart in basement of CityPlaza (JiuGuong). 1618 Nanjing Road West, next door to JingAn Temple.
Bauernstube in Hongqiao Sheraton Grand Tai Ping Yang Hotel (cold cuts, cheese, their own ice cream, bread). Zunyi Nan Road. 6275 8888. Sunday - Friday 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM; Saturday 9:30 AM - 8:15 PM
The Pines. The ultimate in imports. 3 stores. Jianhe Road, Puxi 021-52264137, 633 Bi Yun Road, Jinqiao Pudong, 021-50306971, Huamu Road, at Season Villa, Pudong, 021-58332204, www.pines.com.cn
St. John's Health Clinic (景康门诊部). www.jingkang.net.cn/, 6304-7175 or 6304-0763.
Hanghai Wu Yao Pharmacy (24 hours). Celebrity Garden, 201 Lianhua Lu, Changning District 021 - 6294-1403
Lei Yun Shang Pharmacy 719 Nanjing W Rd. across from JinAn Temple 021-62560432
Shanghai Quality Monitoring Institute. 5521-0255.
Xuhui District Air Quality Institute徐汇空气质量检测站. 6422-5522.
Clearwater GMX magnetic water softener www.clearwatergmx.com (Must ship to a US address)
3M N95 face mask: 86-21-6275 3535. The agent: Shanghai Lao Fang Company:86-21-6321 7249 Contact Person: Ms. Jin
Who is S.P.A.M’g me??*@*!
Mother of two, devoted wife, organic gardener. I grew over 67 varieties of fruits, berries and veggies in an organic garden in Los Altos on an 1/3 acre house lot. I was also co-president of the Los Altos Gardening Club. Motto #34: “What you don’t know will harm you.” |
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bread4show
Newbie
Joined: June 28, 2006
Posts: 1
Status: Offline
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Jan 09, 2007 - 12:17 PM |
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IQ air can now be found at Villa Lifestyles. Call their store at 51191310. They have all models available and can also do an air quality test for free for your entire home. |
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Michael
Moderator
Joined: Mar 22, 2002
Posts: 5288
Status: Offline
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Apr 24, 2007 - 09:34 AM |
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Good Post.. should save it |
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currychook
Rocker
Joined: Dec 21, 2005
Posts: 602
Location: Hong Kou, Shanghai
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Apr 24, 2007 - 11:33 AM |
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Currently using a Cleansui Polyethylene hollow-fiber membrane, antibacterial activated carbon- is this good enough? it removes residual chlorine, trichloroethylene, a few -chlromethanes, mold, lead, CAT. |
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horsemandk
StreetBeater
Joined: Mar 23, 2006
Posts: 2241
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Apr 25, 2007 - 01:43 PM |
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Don't live in China if you want healthy food, according to research 7% of the food in China is poison free!!! |
_________________
Those parts of the system that you can hit with a hammer (not advised) are called hardware; those program instructions that you can only curse at are called software. |
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