Food Science and Media

With easy access to food and ever-increasing portion sizes, one might suspect that we’ve acquired the skills needed to determine when we’re full. These five studies prove otherwise. Continue reading →

Understanding Our Attraction to the Chili Pepper

Accidentally burning one’s mouth on fresh-from-the-oven pizza and taking a bite out of a spicy chicken wing - though seemingly distinct sensations - activate the same pain receptors found on the tongue.

Capsaicin, the source of the heat in chili peppers, is the chemical irritant responsible for the bite. The most common of all spicy seasonings, one-quarter of adults worldwide feel its burn every day.

Capsaicin acts directly on the same pain receptors that detect potentially harmful heat. How did we, as a species, develop our perverse desire to suffer - and enjoy - chili’s painful burn? Are we masochistic gastronomes? Continue reading →

Imagine living in a world devoid of flavor.

Dr. Karl L. Wuensch spent years eating rotten foods, burning his cookware and forgoing the full appreciation of taste before finally seeking medical advice to treat his anosmia - the loss of one’s capacity to smell.

Those born with anosmia often insist that they have the same ability to taste as normal individuals. While we have a natural inclination to refer to the mouth as the sole source of taste and flavor, our understanding of odor is inexorably linked to our experience with food. Continue reading →

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 →