POSTUM, a follow-up report

In 2008, I noticed that Postum had been pulled from the Wal-Mart shelves. It was an unpopular drink, and there were never more than three or four glass jars of the stuff. I liked it, because it didn't have caffeine, and it tasted like cardboard. I like the taste of cardboard.

It filled me up, and only had 5 calories.

I was bitter when they pulled it. But yesterday I had some time on my hands and decided to do follow-up research to see if any other information had come out as to why the Post company had pulled the product. It turns out that Postum had a massive amount of a cancer-causing agent in it called Acrylamide. I had never heard of this substance before. There is a long list of food that has this substance in it. Popcorn has about 185. 5000 for Postum, three thousand more points than for any other item in the list.

http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/law/pdf_zip/acrylamideintakeReport.pdf

It was fairly disturbing. Apparently, anything that is baked hard develops these acrylamides. I still don't know precisely what it is that happens. Some people claim that because of acrylamides you should only eat raw vegetables, and never use the microwave. Online you get these scary sites that say if you microwave food it's like dropping a nuclear bomb on it and eating the fallout. The USDA says that the microwave is safe.

I had heard that you shouldn't grill food because even a touch of black crust and you have a carcinogen. But now almost everything that is fried or baked seems to have these acrylamides. And Postum topped out all other items. Which is probably why the substance was quietly pulled in 2008. Geez, I was quietly patting myself on the back for drinking something healthy even though it was terrible to taste. I had gotten used to the goop.

Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists also liked it, as a caffeine alternative hot drink. I felt I had solidarity with these outfits through this antiquated drink, and thought I was on to something.

I'm drinking licorice tea this morning. As the kids play with all their new toys, and we open up our packages and get the jigsaw puzzles going, it's important too that we be careful what we eat and drink if we wish to have more mornings like these with our families.