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USDA Demolishing the Food Pyramid
The 2005 food pyramid design, to be retired this Thursday. Image courtesy of the USDA. Some of the information I learned in school isn’t holding up so well. Pluto is no longer a planet; the basics of...
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Insects as a Food Source
What foods can't you get on a stick these days? Image courtesy of Flickr user Aaron T. Goodman. Earlier this month, an ice cream shop in Columbia, Missouri decided to take advantage of the summertime...
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Recipes for Disaster: Food For Emergency Situations
Hurricane Dean, a category 5 storm, rampaged through the Caribbean in 2007. Image courtesy of Flickr user -eko-. We here in D.C. got a bit of a shakeup Tuesday afternoon when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake...
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Is Home Economics Class Still Relevant?
Perhaps it's time to start teaching kids useful kitchen skills in home economics classes. Image courtesy of Flickr user cafemama. What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “home economics”? Perhaps...
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The Gestational Diabetes Diet: Taking Carbs from a Pregnant Lady
Gestational diabetes is a risk for older pregnant women. Image courtesy of Flickr user 05com When I decided, at age 40, that I wanted to try to have a child, I knew I faced a few elevated risks over...
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The Shangri-La of Health Food
In 1933, James Hilton, a British novelist who read about travels in Yunnan Province in National Geographic magazine, wrote a novel called Lost Horizon, which describes a mythical kingdom set far, far...
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Energy Drinks: Wassup With Supplements?
What puts the buzz in energy drinks? Photo courtesy Flickr user Like_The_Grand_Canyon Beating the lazy, mid-afternoon summer heat with a cold energy drink? Energy drinks are a staple among active...
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Is America a Nation of Soul Food Junkies?
Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s father died at age 63 from pancreatic cancer. To the end, Hurt says, his father loved soul food, as well as fast food, and could not part with the meals he had known since...
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No Salt, No Problem: One Woman’s Life-or-Death Quest to Make “Bland” Food...
Salt is only one spice in the cabinet, and not the only one that matters. Photo by Ross Heutmaker. In the culinary world, it’s clear that the last decade has been a fairly salt-centric one. In the...
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Can Chemistry Make Healthy Foods More Appealing?
Photo: holtmi Give a baby her first spoonful of mashed spinach or blended brussell sprouts and you can likely watch her face pucker up in shocked torment. Veggies tend to be a dreaded childhood bane...
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Tip of the Iceberg: Our Love-Hate Relationship With the Nation’s Blandest...
Photo by Flickr user Tavallai. These days, the classic wedge salad—wherein the chef smothers a chunk of crisp Iceberg lettuce with creamy blue cheese dressing, and crumbles bacon all over the top—is...
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What Makes Whole-Grain Bread So Hard to Bake?
A display of whole wheat bread at the Washington State University-Mount Vernon Bread Lab, in Blue Hill, New York. Photo courtesy of Stephen Jones and Jonathan Bethony-McDowell, WSU. Though most people...
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Why the Avocado Should Have Gone the Way of the Dodo
Image courtesy of Flickr user Elsa4Sound. The avocado is a fruit of a different time. The plant hit its evolutionary prime during the beginning of the Cenozoic era when megafauna, including mammoths,...
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Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to...
Franken Berry cereal was originally released in 1971 by General Mills with his monster-buddy Count Chocula. Photo by the author. In 1971, Walt Disney World had just opened in Orlando, Florida. Led...
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It’s the Umami, Stupid. Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow
Would you use these crystals in your kitchen if they were called “super delicious umami crystals?” Photo via Wikipedia. In 1908, over a bowl of seaweed soup, Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda asked a...
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