Mustard Mania: The Urgent Need for Mustard-Tasting Parties and Mustard-Theme Recipe Books and Research on Medical Benefits from Consumption of Mustard

Mustard as a condiment can truly be a lifesaver, since it contains no cholesterol and only a minimum of calories.

This Holiday Season, I find myself craving an invitation to a Mustard-Tasting Party or Mustard-Tasting Festival here in Austin, Texas.

Even though I have never been invited to a Mustard-Tasting Party or Mustard-Tasting Festival, I remain hopeful that I will be.

That party or festival would give me the opportunity to sample each and every one of the various brands of mustard that are being offered for sale in retail stores throughout Austin, Texas.

That sampling of mustard-brand options will help me to decide which brand of mustard is the one that I myself choose to purchase on a regular basis here in Austin.

I already know that the mustard I'll agree to buy will be spicy or otherwise flavorful; I could not bare a bland mustard.

The question, for me, is simply this: Which particular brand or line of spicy or very flavorful mustard product available at a nearby retail store is, in fact, the most appealing to my own tastebuds?

I'm also hopeful that this Holiday Season I will enter a bookstore and find a Mustard Mania Cookbook. It will be a cookbook exclusively containing recipes for a wide variety of dishes that feature either dry mustard as an ingredient or a commercially prepared "wet" mustard condiment as an ingredient.

One of the recipes I'd like to find in that recipebook is a recipe for "Honey Mustard Salad Dressing" (or "Jalapeno Mustard Salad Dressing" or "Ginger Mustard Salad Dressing") that actually contains lots of dry mustard or prepared "wet" mustard in that salad dressing and is very low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Also on the subject of mustards, I find myself eternally hoping that some non-profit organization or university will sponsor or pursue scientific research that attempts to determine whether year-round consumption of mustard helps prevent cancer in human beings.

Scientific research identifying other specific medical benefits to human beings from year-round consumption of mustard as part of their dietary lifestyle would also be invaluable.

I myself have never heard of any scientific study that attempted to identify specific medical-health benefits to human beings from year-round consumption of mustard.

Among the questions I would like those studies to address are: Which variety or type or category of mustard condiment is the best for one's medical health? Also, are any of the mustard condiments currently being sold in retail stores rich in healthful antioxidants?

I have heard some people comment that consuming certain very spicy and hot German mustards or hoseradish, for that matter, can "clear your sinuses." Does this possibly suggest that human beings with colds or nasal congestion should consume more mustard?

If there were an American Mustard Council that helps promote consumption of mustard, possibly that type of admirable organization could offer an authoritative response to questions of that type.