Entries Tagged 'Food Science' ↓

Supertaste defined, supertaste as a predictor of diet and weight - and is one-size-fits-all food and wine criticism of any use?

Superman’s superpowers were numerous. Not only did he have super-strength and super-speed, Superman had a heightened sense of vision and hearing. Noticeably absent was a refined palate.

One might assume the restaurant scene in Smallville was severely lacking. Or perhaps it had something to do with his genetic makeup; as a male Caucasian, Superman stands only a small chance of being a supertaster.

While superheroes remain anomalous, supertasters - who live in a much more intense world of taste - are fairly common. In Asian and African populations, as many as 95% of individuals are supertasters. In others ethnic groups, like Eastern Europeans, the trait is fairly rare. Among Caucasians, it is estimated that only 25% of the population carries the genetic predisposition; Caucasian supertasting women outnumber supertasting men by two to one. Continue reading →

As a child (pictured here at two) I was a woefully picky eater - hot dogs, chicken nuggets and cheese ravioli factored prominently into my diet, to the exclusion of most other foods. My aversion to new things left my family bewildered and frustrated. My uncle once forced me to eat tri-color pasta blindfolded. It was a traumatic episode in my early youth; at the time I preferred foods that were white. My mother, constantly at her whit’s end, instituted “try new food days” to no avail. Continue reading →

An abbreviated history of MSG, its safety and use - and is it contributing to the obesity epidemic?

Discovering Supreme Deliciousness

MSG, the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid and a form of glutamate, has no distinct taste of its own, and how it adds flavor to other foods is not fully understood. Peas, mushrooms, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese are all high in free glutamate, the molecule responsible for MSG’s flavor enhancing properties.

According to Ken Hom, popular television chef and author of The Taste of China, “[MSG] seems to bring out the natural salt flavor of foods and can help revive or enliven the taste of bland food and old vegetables.” Continue reading →

A recent NY Times article ponders over the sudden down-sizing of the bee population. Quite frankly, I don’t see what the confusion is about. We look at bugs as pests and keep animals in cages, far from the sight of the human population - where we can’t see or hear what happens, only eat or ignore it. We’ve grown so far from the earth, that we’re no longer a part of it. We can’t even see that our own little beehives are victim to human embezzlement.

We are dependant on our “reliable” food system to provide us with the nutrients necessary to thwart disease and prolong our survival. We depend on this system - and are ENTITLED - to eat foods without having to worry about pesticides that may be carcinogenic, or cattle on antibiotic and growth hormones, or anything else that may damage our nervous and reproductive systems. Little do we know, we’re not just damaging our own thoraxes…

Note the dark brown thorax of a diseased bee on the left.

In the past 15-20 years, new bacterial strains have arrived. Virulent new infections that physicians struggle to treat. Do we really think that the modern-day body can birth the same wholesome child as did our great, great grannys from the alpine mountain forests, or the tropical wild jungles? They didn’t eat StarKist albacore tuna while pregnant! And their kids didn’t have ADHD or Autism.

People should know WHAT they are eating and WHERE it is coming from!

Why must we jump into the corporate industry’s ruthless approach to speed and volume? We must slow down and think logically about what is happening to the food we are eating, and the nature from which it is born. We must bypass the baloney in the stores. The brutality of our food system upon our health is inescapable. Not only will RDs and other medical professionals need to be cognizant about our interconnected bodily system/food system - everyone will. Clearly, our animals need to be fed grass and no more grain, corn, antibiotics, growth hormone… Clearly, the bees are vanishing because we’re inflicting the same disease-wrought life upon them for which we, too, are at risk.

Where can we eat but in our own backyards? There, we won’t find any ‘unearthed’ secrets. There, we know where our food grew, how it was grown, and never would we have to wonder if the strawberry we just ate had any “inerts” on it. Perhaps we are the real bees that need to make some buzzzzzzz.

By Marissa Beck (aka RissaRachel) - BlogSoop’s resident nutritionist.

BlogSoop’s resident nutrition expert Marissa Beck offers some guidance to those of you seeking to start a new exercise program.

MYTH: If you didn’t exercise as a kid, it could be dangerous to start when you’re older.

Exercise is advantageous at any age, regardless of prior training experience. The only “danger” in starting a new exercise program - whether an expert or a novice - is if it does not adhere to current safe training techniques.

Otherwise, the effects of exercise are too substantial to pass up. Since there is a tendency for the body to lose muscle as we age (sarcopenia), the American Heart Association (AHA) stresses the importance of physical activity throughout one’s lifetime. In a study investigating the influence of current and/or past physical activity on balance in older adults, current physical activity was the major determinant for postural parameters - not age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and past physical activity. The study went on to show that regular physical activity, even when started later on in life, allowed “…appropriate reorganization of the different components of postural control during sensory conflicting situations.” Thus, the study concluded that physical activity counteracts the age-related decline of postural control.

Furthermore, the purpose of another relevant study was to test the hypothesis that an increase in “vascular bed filtration capacity” demonstrated an adaptation to endurance training in the elderly. Indeed, they concluded that exercise influences muscular adaptation.

Losing muscle not only decreases mobility, but also makes the body more susceptible to chronic diseases, according to researchers at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University. They noted that various “biomarkers of aging,” such as muscle mass and strength, BMR and body fat percentage, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, bone density, and temperature regulation - can all be improved with physical activity.

Moral of the story: you can be a gym-rat at any age