Food for Thought
- Health & Medicine
Perk Up Food Flavors with. . .Black Plastic? (with pesto recipe)
Pesto, a zesty sauce for pasta and spread for crusty breads, typically derives much of its flavor from basil. The fresher this herb, the richer the pesto’s flavor–which is why many people with a pesto passion keep a basil patch outside the kitchen door. USDA scientists compare the yield and quality of identical crop cultivars […]
- Health & Medicine
Soy Land, Soy Land
Field of soy in the American Midwest. Having grown up in the heart of the Corn Belt, I can remember childhood visits to kin requiring car rides for hours past fields planted with razor-sharp rows of maize. Even as a preschooler, it was reassuring because I could relate to corn. It was that delicious stuff […]
- Health & Medicine
Academic Impacts of Vegetarian Childhoods
Teens are always looking for creative excuses for late homework, low test scores, and waning attention in class. Any who stumbled onto a copy of the September American Journal of Clinical Nutrition may have uncovered the basis for a particularly novel rationalization: “My parents made me a vegetarian.” Plants do not make vitamin B-12, also […]
- Health & Medicine
Unexpected Sources of Peanut Allergy
Attention new moms: Some lotions and creams for soothing scaly or irritated skin run the risk of triggering immune reactions in your infant that could lead to a serious food allergy months later. Or so conclude the authors of a new study in England. U.S. products explicitly marketed for use on a baby’s skin, such […]
- Health & Medicine
Scarce-Banana Scare—But don’t kiss that banana good-bye yet
Headlines have been blaring that the banana will be extinct within 10 years but crop specialists say that’s not likely. The furor has called attention, however, to a problem of worldwide banana supply and to the possibility that we’ll be peeling things a little different in 2013. The fuss started with the Jan. 18 New […]
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria-Stocked Beverage Clears Pathogens from Nose
Dangerous bacteria often take refuge deep inside peoples noses, where they can remain dormant until they find an opportunity to invade other parts of the body. Perhaps the most important of these stowaway nasal microbes is Staphylococcus aureus, which can spread to wounds and surgical incisions and cause life-threatening blood infections. As many as a […]
- Health & Medicine
Tipsy Times
Literally hundreds of studies over the past decade have reported evidence that regular, moderate drinking–downing one to three drinks a day–can offer people significant health benefits by cutting their risks of heart disease and probably diabetes. What such studies usually fail to emphasize is that benefits from a little alcohol show up almost exclusively in […]
- Health & Medicine
‘Don’t Drink Alone’ Gets New Meaning
In what may be bad news for bars and pubs, a European research consortium has found that people drinking alcohol outside of meals have a significantly higher risk of cancer in the mouth and neck than do those taking their libations with food. Luigino Dal Maso of the Cancer Referral Center in Aviano, Italy, and […]
- Health & Medicine
Diet Tip—Close Your Eyes
How many times has your resolve to eat prudently been sabotaged by the sight of a buffet table, Mom’s Thanksgiving specialties, or pastries on the dessert cart? Just because a plate is full of food doesn’t mean one has to finish it all. For many of us, new data show, listening to the way our […]
- Health & Medicine
Dietary Inflation
“Finish what’s on your plate!” Thus has a multitude of well-intentioned moms exhorted millions of children, in an attempt to ensure good nutrition. Unfortunately, dieticians now find, too many grownups still feel compelled to empty their plates–even when those plates contain substantially more calories than our bodies need. Add to that the fact that modern […]
- Health & Medicine
Curbing Cancer? Low-Fat Diet During Adolescence Cuts Hormones, Possibly Breast Cancer Risk
Cutting back on cheeseburgers and French fries could spare girls more than extra pounds. A low-fat diet also reduces young girls’ sex hormone concentrations, a new study finds. What’s more, researchers say, the adolescent drop in hormones that are known to spur breast cancer in adults might stave off the disease later in life. More […]
- Health & Medicine
C-Minus—The Fallout of Parents’ Smoking
Children who live with smokers may need more oranges and other rich sources of vitamin C, a new study concludes. It finds that exposure to even a little secondhand smoke significantly depresses concentrations of this important vitamin. Oranges are usually the first food that most people think of when asked to name sources of vitamin […]
