Movie Popcorn Still A Nutritional Horror, Study Finds

A worker makes popcorn at a Denver theater. A Center for Science in the Public Interest study found that 20 cups of one chain's popcorn contains 1,200 calories, 60 grams of saturated fat, and 980 milligrams of sodium. (Matthew Staver, Bloomberg / October 16, 2009)

From The L.A. Times:

A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation's largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group's second look at movie theater concessions -- the last was 15 years ago -- found little had changed in a decade and a half, despite theaters' attempts to reformulate.

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Four Ways To Feed The World

From New Scientist:

IT IS humanity's oldest enemy. Despite all our science, a sixth of people in the developing world are chronically hungry. At a summit in Rome this week, world leaders reaffirmed a pledge to end hunger "at the earliest possible date".

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) wanted them to promise to end hunger by 2025, but the delegates declined. They said instead that they would keep trying to meet their previous goal: to halve chronic hunger from 20 per cent of people in developing countries to 10 per cent by 2015 (see graph). But can they? Based on their performance so far, the FAO considers it "unlikely".

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Sustainable Salads

What foods can be grown with the least environmental impact?

From Slate:

Which fruits, vegetables, and other crops have the smallest environmental footprints?

I know you can buy local or buy organic, but I've heard that some crops are simply more resource-intensive than others, regardless of how or where they are grown. So what's the key to picking foods that have the smallest environmental footprint?

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It's Time Fruit Juice Loses Its Wholesome Image, Some Experts Say

From L.A. Times:

Compared with soda, juice carries more calories and as much sugar. There's also evidence that high consumption increases the risk of obesity, especially among kids.

To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise.

That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health authorities step up their efforts to reduce the nation's girth.

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Drinking Eight Cups Of Tea A Day 'Reduces Heart Attack And Stroke Risk'

Regular tea drinking could help lead to "reduced mortality, a lower risk of
heart attack and lower cholesterol." Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Drinking up to eight cups of tea a day offers "significant health benefits", including a lower risk of heart attack and stroke, according to research.

Caffeinated drinks including tea, coffee and cocoa have a positive effect on mental function, increasing alertness, wellbeing and short-term memory, according to the study.

Dr Carrie Ruxton, a dietician who conducted a review of 47 published studies, found that an intake of 400mg of caffeine a day – or eight cups of tea – delivered "key benefits in terms of mental function and heart health" without any adverse consequences.

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Coffee Brims With Health Benefits, Researchers Say

From Sci-Tech Today:

Although caffeine might be considered the "active ingredient" in coffee, coffee is only two percent caffeine and 98 percent "other stuff," including more than 1,000 different compounds such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids. It even contains fiber. Each cup contains the kind that helps prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestines.

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20 Things You Didn't Know About... Sugar

From Discover Magazine:

We eat it, we love it, and it may have been a chemical precursor to life on Earth.

1 The average American eats 61 pounds of refined sugar each year, including 25 pounds of candy. Halloween accounts for at least two pounds of that.

2 Trick: Sugar may give you wrinkles via a process called glycation, in which excess blood sugar binds to collagen in the skin, making it less elastic.

3 Or treat: Cutting back on sugar may help your skin retain its flexibility. So actually, no treats.

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Aah... How To Make The Perfect Gravy (And Soy Sauce Is The Secret)

Photo: Roast of the town: Many would prefer to use gravy granules rather than risk ruining a traditional British dinner

From The Daily Mail:

It can make or break a Sunday lunch.

So much so that many will reach for the gravy granules rather than risk ruining a roast.

But scientists have come to the aid of home chefs across the UK with what they believe should be adopted as the 'standard British method' for making gravy.

The Royal Society of Chemistry turned its attention to the subject as part of its Food Year, a series of events to demonstrate the role of chemistry in providing healthy and sustainable food.

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My Comment: I am posting this story because I tried this recipe last night, and it was hmmm hmmmm good.

New Method To Help Keep Fruit, Vegetables And Flowers Fresh

Did you know that millions of tons of fruits and vegetables in the United States end up in the trash can before being eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture? (Credit: iStockphoto/Jack Puccio)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Did you know that millions of tons of fruits and vegetables in the United States end up in the trash can before being eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture?

A Georgia State University professor has developed an innovative new way to keep produce and flowers fresh for longer periods of time. Microbiologist George Pierce's method uses a naturally occurring microorganism -- no larger than the width of a human hair -- to induce enzymes that extend the ripening time of fruits and vegetables, and keeps the blooms of flowers fresh.

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'Double Food Output To Stop World Starving,' Say Scientists

From the Independent:

Royal Society wants green revolution to deal with global population rise of 3 billion.

Global food production needs to be increased by between 50 and 100 per cent if widespread famine is to be avoided in the coming decades as the human population expands rapidly, leading scientists said.

A second "green revolution" is needed in agriculture to feed the extra 3 billion people who will be added to the existing population of 6 billion by 2050.

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Study: Tingle of Carbonation Is Tasty, Too

From Live Science:

Fizzy beverages don't just tickle the tongue. They also rev up taste buds that can detect the drink's bubble-inducing carbon dioxide.

Though this discovery was made in mice, researchers say a rodent's sense of taste is similar to ours.

When a person, or mouse, devours a snack or downs a beverage, taste receptor cells on the tongue (which are clustered into taste buds) detect certain molecules in that food or drink. The receptor cells then send a message to the part of the brain involved in tasting.

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What's Inside A Cup Of Coffee?

Photo: Tim Morris

From Wired Science:

Caffeine
This is why the world produces more than 16 billion pounds of coffee beans per year. It's actually an alkaloid plant toxin (like nicotine and cocaine), a bug killer that stimulates us by blocking neuroreceptors for the sleep chemical adenosine. The result: you, awake.

Water
Hot H2O is a super solvent, leaching flavors and oils out of the coffee bean. A good cup of joe is 98.75 percent water and 1.25 percent soluble plant matter. Caffeine is a diuretic, so coffee newbies pee out the water quickly; java junkies build up resistance.

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10 Dirty Little Restaurant Secrets

Photo: travelbex, Flickr.

From Slashfood:

There's a reason most restaurants keep the kitchen doors closed -- and it's not just because it's so hot back there.

It can be tough for restaurateurs to turn a profit and Slashfood has uncovered some of the ultra-dirty deeds even the best restaurants commit in order to pinch pennies.

Read on for 10 true stories about the subtle, sneaky and sometimes downright disgusting ways restaurants cheat to save a buck -- and how you might be paying the price.

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Hat Tip: Geek Press

How Cooking Helped Us To Evolve

From Times Online:

The success of the human species is all down to our mastery of fire and cooking, a scientist claims. And hot food not sex was the basis for our relationships.

It is the ultimate domestic cliché: a woman, pinafored and dutiful, tending a stove all day in preparation for her husband’s homecoming. As soon as he walks in, the ritual can begin: family members take their seats around the table (he sits at the head, of course) and dinner is served. Our couple are reliving a scene that has played out billions of times in our history because gender roles — husband at work all day, woman as homebody — have been forged not by relatively recent social conventions but by our distant evolutionary past.

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America’s Food Revolution

Photo: Cutting-edge molecular gastronomy at Chicago’s Alinea: a sphere of grape foam injected with walnut milk and covered in frozen and powdered Maytag blue cheese. Lara Kastner/SIPA

From City Journal:

Urban revival, globalization, and some world-class chefs have created one of the world’s great culinary scenes.

In a 1769 letter to the naturalist John Bartram, Benjamin Franklin observed that while lots of people like accounts of old buildings and monuments, “I confess that if I could find in any Italian travels a receipt for making Parmesan cheese, it would give me more satisfaction than a transcript of any inscription from any old stone whatsoever.”

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Banana Diseases Hit African Crops

From The BBC:

Food supplies in several African countries are under threat because two diseases are attacking bananas, food scientists have told the BBC.

Crops are being damaged from Angola through to Uganda - including many areas where bananas are a staple food.

Experts are urging farmers to use pesticides or change to a resistant variety of banana where possible.

Scientists have been meeting in Tanzania to decide how to tackle the diseases, which are spread by insects.

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Popcorn And Cereals – The New Superfoods?

Popcorn contains high levels of antioxidants, according to a study by US chemical experts.

From The Guardian:

Scientists discover surprisingly high levels of health-boosting antioxidants in 'junk' food.

Popcorn and breakfast cereals, frequently derided as junk food, may contain "surprisingly large" servings of healthy antioxidants, according to chemical researchers.

Any nutritional value of snack foods was previously thought to rest on their high fibre content – a virtue regularly trumpeted by manufacturers on food packaging.

But a study presented today to the American Chemical Society (ACS) suggests the benefit of grain-based foods lies in the significant presence of antioxidants known as polyphenols.

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Trees Are 'Crucial Famine Food'

From The BBC:

Trees can serve as a vital "famine food" to keep drought-hit communities alive when all other food crops fail, according to campaigners.

Food insecurity is a routine fact of life for many of the world's poorest people, Miranda Spitteler, chief executive of Tree Aid told BBC News.

She said the West needed to recognize the important role trees could play in reducing the need for conventional aid.

She also called for support for a local tree-based solution to food shortages.

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Fate Of The Potato May Foretell The Future Of Food

From The Detroit News:

A tale from history offers us a prediction about the future of food.

The wonder crop is new and unfamiliar, lauded by scientists and politicians as having the potential to end famine and feed the poor. But the public is skeptical, regarding this new food as unnatural and dangerous. The reaction to genetically modified crops today? In fact, this is what happened when potatoes were introduced into Europe from the Americas in the 1500s and 1600s.

Scientists were enamored with this new foodstuff because it had several valuable properties. Potatoes thrive even in years when the wheat crop has failed, noted a committee of the Royal Society, Britain's pioneering scientific association, in the 1660s. Better still, potatoes can be grown in almost any kind of soil and take only three to four months to mature, against 10 for cereal grains. And potatoes produce two to four times as many calories per acre as wheat, rye or oats. The case for widespread adoption of the potato, the scientists argued, was obvious.

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