Comments on: Actually, turns out that’s toxic and really, really bad for you

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:48:42 +0000

Girl Guide cookies were awesome until they switched to a recipe without trans fats.

Cookies need trans fats.

By: joser

joser — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:53:54 +0000

The Boy Scouts recommend boiled eggs in baggies for campouts.

I always suspected the Boy Scouts were trying to kill me. It’s bad enough the girls keep stalking me with those horrible cookies.

By: joser

joser — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:52:37 +0000

Seattle being the home of REI and The Mountaineers, Iâ€™m a bit surprised that so many people are taken aback by the technique.

So many people are taken aback by exposing themselves to carcinogens? Or so many backpackers are going to be taken aback when they discover they have cancer?

By: joser

joser — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:50:52 +0000

The ones that are safe (at least for microwave use, I’m not sure about dropping them in boiling water) are called “Zip’n Steam”

I have to say, this post and comment thread is one of my favorites ever. The entire thing is made of win (kind of the opposite of the Mariners, and their hitting).

By: Ralph_Malph

Ralph_Malph — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:19:33 +0000

And don't use ziploc bags for this.

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:25:53 +0000

Yes. You can sous vide safely, but not with household baggies.

By: Jeff Nye

Jeff Nye — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:22:51 +0000

So, if you want to do the sous vide thing, you need special bags for it?

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:10:39 +0000

This isn’t a myth.

Household bags aren’t designed to be boiled, especially to be exposed to the extremely-hot fat-rich eggs/cheese of an omelet. They can and sometimes will melt in the boiling, which means you get omelet fixings everywhere and/or melted plastic bag in your breakfast. There’s an actual disclaimer up on SP Johnson’s website, if I remember, saying “don’t do this”

If you want, there are two assertions here, really:
1. The bag can melt with ill results (how often this occurs/what happens/etc I can’t know)
2. Eating delicious melty plastic is bad for you (is it? how bad?)

By: Gilgameche

Gilgameche — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:07:48 +0000

[long link]

By: Kunkoh

Kunkoh — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:28:02 +0000

This sounds like the coffee cup was myth/urban legend. You know the one where the guy drinks coffee from a shop all the time, and eventually starves to death. During the autopsy, they pull out a 5pound ball of wax from his stomach that had gathered there from melting off the coffee cups when he drank coffee.

So, I’m calling baggie eggs are toxic in the same myth. (maybe we should write in to Mythbusters?)