The constant barrage of ways to live a healthy life led A.J. Jacobs on a two-year quest to become the “healthiest man alive.” While he may not have achieved his goal, he was able to document his experiences in Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. Jacobs is a very entertaining writer and one not afraid to expose his fears and … Continue reading Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs

I apologize to my faithful readers for the recent pause in blogging. Two weeks ago, my family was preparing for the threat of Hurricane Irma. Later that week we fled the state of Florida for the friendlier environs of South Carolina. Our 19-hour trip up I-75 featured long traffic delays and the need to find gas. By the time we got to the GA/FL line … Continue reading Fast and processed food while fleeing from Irma!

During months with five Tuesdays I follow up on some previous themes in lieu of a normal post. Extending shelf life of unprocessed foods I ran across this statement earlier this month Amazon is developing new technologies to make ready-to-eat meals that are more nutritious than processed foods and have a longer shelf life. Anyone else catch the irony of this statement? The video actually clarifies the … Continue reading Back to the future

Bioactive compounds are ones that interact chemically with our bodies. Two such bioactive ingredients that are manipulated by humans and featured in Badditives are high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. Corn syrup which is almost all glucose is converted to high fructose corn syrup by adding an enzyme to change over half of that glucose to fructose. Hydrogenation adds hydrogen to vegetable oils … Continue reading Man-manipulated chemicals in our foods

This month I am directing my posts to a discussion of chemicals in our food—primarily those that are added. This week I am focusing on chemicals that are common in proteins. The additives described in Badditives derived from proteins are the artificial sweetener, aspartame, and the flavor enhancer, monosodium glutamate or MSG. Proteins are made up of amino acids. Aspartame is composed of two amino … Continue reading Protein-derived chemicals in food

Anyone into conspiracies and skeptical of mainstream media will embrace Badditives! The 13 Most Harmful Food Additives in Your Diet—and How to Avoid Them. Even the quotation at the top of the cover proclaims that the book will offer protection from “a sordid story of fake science and dirty politics [that] empower[s] us with the knowledge of what’s actually in our food.” How 2017! To … Continue reading Badditives! by Linda Bonvie and Bill Bonvie

Nothing is as rewarding for a professor as to see a former student graduate and do well after graduation. I can distinctly remember sitting down with Rebecca Creasy during summer orientation as we selected her courses as an incoming First-Year student. That day she told me that she wanted to study at the interface between food science and nutrition. As you will see in her … Continue reading Why foods are processed? Preserving nutrients

Foods processed to extend shelf life. Food scientists are obsessed with extending the shelf life of foods. Next to protecting the safety of foods, food scientists want to prevent fresh foods from rotting. Although some writers appear to praise fresh foods that rot, not everyone thinks that rotting is such a good idea. Throughout history rotting has claimed crops and claimed lives. In an era … Continue reading Why are foods processed? Extending shelf life

Food scientists are obsessed with the safety of foods. A fundamental difference between food scientists and everyone else in the world is that food scientists believe that food poisoning comes from natural sources that must be contained while most others believe that food processing is the cause of safety hazards. From the introductory course in their major, food-science students are warned about the danger of … Continue reading Why are foods processed? Making food safe

  My three favorite reading topics are history, religion and food. Rachel Laudan’s book Cuisine & Empire: Cooking in World History provides insight into all three of these topics. Unlike most books on the history of food, this one is definitely NOT boring. From the opening page Cuisine & Empire engages the mind. I am not sure what I was expecting when I picked it up, but I … Continue reading Cuisine & Empire by Rachel Laudan