In Antwerp I had Indian sweets [maybe a date-based item - I forget] wrapped in silver foil, and I think gold foil, at an international food function at Antwerp International School 20 years ago]
It seemed strange and I distrust such things because I prefer my food uncontaminated [normally]. Since there is zero taste advantage and no metabolic merit and possible metabolic problem with the silver, [due to hydrochloric acid and other metabolites on the loose in the guts], it seemed a pointless exercize in wastrelism and exhibitionism.
But I had a go anyway, just for fun. It's apparently what the wealthy in India do for kicks. It doesn't seem any worse than other displays of wealth. Bits of gold and silver bubbling in champagne would no doubt look quite pretty. There might be some galvanic action on mercury if the gold and silver stick around by biting it, thereby setting up galvanic action:
<Mercury levels are often over 1000 ppm near a gold cap on an amalgam filling due to higher currents when gold is in contact with amalgam (8,9c,11,12,13). Similar levels as high as 5000 ppm have been found by German oral surgeons in jaw bone under large fillings or gold crowns(37). These levels are among the highest levels ever measured in tissues of living organisms, exceeding the highest levels found in chronically exposed chloralkali workers, those who died in Minamata, or animals that died from mercury poisoning(29). The FDA Action Level for mercury in fish or food is 1 ppm. Warnings are given at 0.5 ppm, and the EPA health criterion level is 0.3 ppm. > flcv.com
Eating the sweets would be worse than swallowing the champagne with gold in it. I admit I didn't think of it at the time.
Mqurice |
