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.
replyI've heard the same from South Indian friends, so I guess it's pretty widespread.
replyTotally an urban legend. What do people think Alia seltzer is made from? You know the thing you take to feel better after eating too much?
replyI'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.
replyAlkalinity softens the husk of legumes. Look up nixtamalization. It’s what the Aztecs invented.
replyDid we discover a new diet hack?
replyA few thousand years ago:
replyTry using it on meat. Turns it into pink slurry.
replyYou're using too much! Its commonly used to improve meat texture, especially in Chinese cuisine. It's called "velveting".
replyyou're thinking of corn starch
replyBoth 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.
replyNo 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.
replyAn 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.
replyA 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.