Hacker News Reader

Comment by embedding-shape | Hacker News Reader

The very next sentence from that quote sounds a lot worse and harder to explain away though:

> In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell.

View on HN

An amount of soda sufficient to make you ill would be very VERY detectable in food. Speaking as someone who makes their own honeycomb toffee and soda bread, it's really easy to mess up the ratios and end up with an excess that tastes nasty, and that excess is pretty small.

A small amount won't make a different, it'll just stimulate a bit more H+ production from your stomach's proton pumps.

Edit: The article I read claims the scam involved baking powder, which makes even less sense given that it's even more noticeable, bitter and metallic.

I have to agree. A handful of times during my life that I had some bad heartburn but no antacids I used the tried and true method of a teaspoon of baking soda mixed in a shot of water and slammed it back. It tastes horrible. Even a teaspoon is so strong in taste I guess I would describe as salty. And no I did not feel unwell but my heartburn got better. And as a kid I once mistook 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and added 1/2 cup to a batch of cookies. The taste was so noticeable and disgusting the only option was to throw out the cookies. So a teaspoon is a home remedy, a half cup is impossible to ignore, I just don't understand how this report about it in the food could be true.

Ahhhh! Mystery solved. About 40 yrs ago I came to work to taste the most foul cookie (pretty cookie at that!). This is what they must have done. Nobody admitted to making the cookies. I always thought it was a gag. LOL

In Nepal, my parents always warned me before eating at some rest stops because they said the food was doctored with baking soda to make you feel fuller, guess it was true after all and not just an urban legend heh.

I've heard the same from South Indian friends, so I guess it's pretty widespread.

I've sometimes used baking soda to accelerate softening of beans, and I imagine the effect is more appreciable at higher altitudes perhaps? Some of the usage of baking soda could be innocent enough.

Alkalinity softens the husk of legumes. Look up nixtamalization. It’s what the Aztecs invented.

Try using it on meat. Turns it into pink slurry.

You're using too much! Its commonly used to improve meat texture, especially in Chinese cuisine. It's called "velveting".

you're thinking of corn starch

Both are used, for different reasons, but it's a pretty loose term. Can also use enzymes or other alkaline things. With or without a marinade. Pass through oil or water, or just stir fry with a little extra oil.

No reasonable person would be confused by use of baking soda as an ingredient in cooked food (reasonable) vs the addition of baking soda after cooking as an adulterant.

Did we discover a new diet hack?

A few thousand years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

Reply on news.ycombinator.com