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[scrdest]

Thing is, these carcinogens don't increase the odds of cancer all that much.

Massive percentage increases of tiny amounts produces...

Tiny amounts.

'Course, if you're eating carcinogens, smoking, getting X-rays every few weeks and so on, you're gonna have your odds increased to actually appreciable levels.

There's even more to it than that. Your cells aren't defenseless, there is a number of different mechanisms for fixing the DNA damage, and it would be strange if there wasn't - your DNA is being attacked by mutagens pretty much all the time, probably most commonly by light (or more accurately UV radiation). In small amounts, you can handle carcinogens pretty well.

The thing is, if your organism would fix 999 out of 1000 mutations back to the original state with no errors, if you splash it with 1000 there still be one mutation missed. Which most of the time is not that big an issue, most of the time, but it adds over time, and you can be unlucky and get the defenses damaged, increasing the likelihood of damage later on.

On top of that, add the fact that while DNA is pretty stable thanks to those, other components are far less so. RNA does not have any error-checking enzymes, nor does mitochondrial DNA, and thus your defense erodes with age, so amounts you could shrug off at the age of 18 might cause mutations at 80.

Although, generally, should a mutation occur AND be unfixable, the cells will do autolysis.

The main thing that actually causes cancer is the proto-oncogene turning into an oncogene, so it stops responding to the tumour suppressor genes. More rarely, both of the tumour suppressor genes will be rendered useless (there are two to reduce the likelihood of cancer in the first place), so the cells begin dividing out of control. Again, generally when either happens, you get autolysis, but if the gene that causes autolysis is damaged...

Pendantism: you mean apoptosis. Apoptosis involves autolysis, but there's more to it than that. Although I suspect it might just be the good old 'everything melting into an unholy mess of biochemical names' syndrome, are you studying for a test or something? I noticed you've mentioned you had to learn Krebs, so...

I have finally tried out quinoa. It's not cheap, but some friends keep praising it, so I finally gave in.

It's awesome. I made a bowl of it for breakfast and it's fantastic all on its own. No extra flavorings, ingredients, or cooking required.

I had leftovers from the bowl I made for lunch today, so I threw it in the fridge. Now I'm eating a nice fresh garden salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrot, and red onion with olive oil and balsamic vinegar) and just dumped the remainder on top. Conclusion: it's awesome with salad, too!

Looking forward to making more varieties. I'm already running out, so I'll have to stop at the market and get more tomorrow.

Any suggestions for how to use it?

Damn, now I feel like eating a salad. But I cannot buy little enough veggies to use them all up before they spoil and/or I get utterly sick when thinking of eating a salad.

[Sappho]

One of my favorite things about living in Europe... You buy exactly the amount of food you're going to eat. I can go to the supermarket and buy 2 carrots, 4 potatoes, a tiny red onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 yellow onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic... When I was visiting my family in the states I was shocked to realize you have to just buy a big ol' sack of everything in the supermarkets there. I mean, I want to choose which potatoes I get! So I can make sure I get good ones!

[scrdest]

One of my favorite things about living in Europe... You buy exactly the amount of food you're going to eat. I can go to the supermarket and buy 2 carrots, 4 potatoes, a tiny red onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 yellow onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic... When I was visiting my family in the states I was shocked to realize you have to just buy a big ol' sack of everything in the supermarkets there. I mean, I want to choose which potatoes I get! So I can make sure I get good ones!

...I live in Poland >.<

[penguinofhonor]

I live in America and I can get the vast majority of my fruits/vegetables individually if I want. I regularly buy a single banana, a single bulb of garlic, a single onion, etc.

[GiglameshDespair]

I only do that selectively. Most of the time it's a lot more expensive to pick out stuff that isn't already bagged.

Though I don't believe in small portions, so I wouldnt get a single onion or whatever anyway.

[Sappho]

One of my favorite things about living in Europe... You buy exactly the amount of food you're going to eat. I can go to the supermarket and buy 2 carrots, 4 potatoes, a tiny red onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 yellow onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic... When I was visiting my family in the states I was shocked to realize you have to just buy a big ol' sack of everything in the supermarkets there. I mean, I want to choose which potatoes I get! So I can make sure I get good ones!

...I live in Poland >.<

Oh, yeah, ha. So why can't you get a small enough amount of veggies that you eat them before they go bad?

[scrdest]

One of my favorite things about living in Europe... You buy exactly the amount of food you're going to eat. I can go to the supermarket and buy 2 carrots, 4 potatoes, a tiny red onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 yellow onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic... When I was visiting my family in the states I was shocked to realize you have to just buy a big ol' sack of everything in the supermarkets there. I mean, I want to choose which potatoes I get! So I can make sure I get good ones!

...I live in Poland >.<

Oh, yeah, ha. So why can't you get a small enough amount of veggies that you eat them before they go bad?

The main problem is the salad/rocket, it gets dry quickly and is only available in one amount, that being 'too damn much'. There are some salad mixes, but I had the bad luck of getting one that was absolutely atrocious, and so I shied away from those.

[Telgin]

So, I was making a mango-flavored cake for my brother's birthday, as per his request.  One recipe I found had this mango filling instead of putting mango inside the cake itself.  The filling consists of mango puree, sugar and cornstarch.  I cooked it as per the instructions, and to my shock and mild horror, it smells exactly like mashed potatoes.

How can this be?  There is not a potato to be found in it.  The only thing I can figure is that it's the cornstarch that does that, or maybe cooked mangoes smell like cooked potatoes?

It takes okay at least.  This cake is overall hideous, but it should taste okay.  The frosting has mango put in it too, and it looks so much like pickle relish that it's a little frightening.

[Sappho]

One of my favorite things about living in Europe... You buy exactly the amount of food you're going to eat. I can go to the supermarket and buy 2 carrots, 4 potatoes, a tiny red onion, 1 small red pepper, 2 yellow onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic... When I was visiting my family in the states I was shocked to realize you have to just buy a big ol' sack of everything in the supermarkets there. I mean, I want to choose which potatoes I get! So I can make sure I get good ones!

...I live in Poland >.<

Oh, yeah, ha. So why can't you get a small enough amount of veggies that you eat them before they go bad?

The main problem is the salad/rocket, it gets dry quickly and is only available in one amount, that being 'too damn much'. There are some salad mixes, but I had the bad luck of getting one that was absolutely atrocious, and so I shied away from those.

Ah. I use about 1/2 of one head of romaine lettuce in a salad, so I only need to eat 2 salads to use it up. Or sometimes there are "baby" lettuce heads available which are even smaller than 1/2 a normal one. I suppose lettuce is the one vegetable that I do occasionally let go bad, though, because sometimes I only want one salad and then forget it's in the fridge. Still worth it, I think. Salad is awesome.

So, does no one have any quinoa recipes then? Time to ask Google, I suppose!

[Yoink]

Just made scrambled eggs... But realised halfway through that I was out of milk.
Used iced coffee instead. O.o Surprisingly enough it tasted fine, but the consistency was quite different.

[scrdest]

Just made scrambled eggs... But realised halfway through that I was out of milk.
Used iced coffee instead. O.o Surprisingly enough it tasted fine, but the consistency was quite different.

Huh, you scramble eggs with milk?

[majikero]

If you want it soft and fluffy.

[acetech09]

Many people can get it soft and fluffy with water too. I prefer mjölk though - I can taste a slight dilution when using water/nothing.

[scrdest]

If you want it soft and fluffy.

Yeah, I know, but it is still surprising for me.

[MorleyDev]

Maybe it's a British thing, or maybe it's just my family, but I was always taught to make Scrambled Eggs with milk (or if you want to be really extravagant, cream). Was actually news to me when I learnt that people make them without some form of dairy or dairy substitute. I mean, it makes sense but it was just never something I considered.

Nowadays the only time I don't bother with the milk is if I'm making egg fried rice. Then I just crack the eggs over the rice and scramble it in the pan.