Medicine
Dandelions—From Lawn to Lunch
Depending on your perspective, the little dandelion flowers that dot green lawns with yellow this time of year can be a cheerful sign of warmer days, a pesky weed to be destroyed or, once they've transformed into downy orbs, wish-fulfillment predictors.To others, they represent free lunch. Dandelio...
April 22, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Give Sardines a Chance
As you may have heard, America's last sardine cannery closed down last week in Maine (though it may get a second life as a processing plant for other seafood).I was startled and a little confused by this news, because sardines seem to be so trendy these days, showing up on menus at both fine and ca...
April 20, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Inviting Writing: Manners, Scrapple and Fake Vegetarians
This is the beginning of an experiment. Hypothesis: Everyone's got at least one good story to tell. And everyone eats, so I suspect many of you are harboring some wonderful food-related tales. Let's hear them!Here's how it works: Once a month, I'll give you a prompt—a word or general theme to use a...
April 06, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
The FDA Cracks Down on Food Health Claims
If you’re like one of my college roommates, who would probably eat tar if it was labeled “low-carb,” you might want to think again before you grab a product based on what it says on the box.Today, as the Washington Post reported, the Food and Drug Administration sent letters to 17 food producers be...
March 04, 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
Decoding Expiration Dates
Last week Nadia Arumugam in Slate validated my long-standing skepticism about food expiration dates. I have always operated on the assumption that if food looks okay, smells okay and tastes okay, it should be fine. I have been known to cut mold off a block of cheese and eat the rest.As Arumugam wri...
February 22, 2010 |
By Abby Callard
Eating Snow
It's been an unusual winter here in Washington, D.C., with dozens inches of snow so far in a region that usually escapes with a mere dusting. I grew up in Vermont, so waking up to white-washed views still makes me smile (at least, until I remember that I no longer live in the shadow of a ski resort...
February 04, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Agave Nectar in Your Tea?
My roommate recently asked me to pick up a few bottles of agave nectar for her at the store. She works at a restaurant and was using it for a signature cocktail. Not wanting to seem ignorant, I agreed. I had no idea what the stuff was. When I got to the store, I found it sitting innocently next to ...
February 01, 2010 |
By Abby Callard
Turmeric as Health Food?
Amanda recently wrote about cinnamon having a reputation as a good food for healthy eyes, and it got me thinking about spices. I tend to think of them merely as flavor, but cinnamon isn't the only spice that people are investigating for its possible health benefits. I was looking for a recipe for s...
January 26, 2010 |
By Abby Callard
Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells
Journalist Rebecca Skloot’s new book investigates how a poor black tobacco farmer had a groundbreaking impact on modern medicine
January 22, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Five Ways to Eat Pomegranates
Post-holidays, most people take at least a passing interest in eating healthier. I know I do, anyway. That's what motivated me to pick up a whole, fresh pomegranate at the grocery store a few days ago—I'd heard that this round, red fruit is a "superfood," packed with antioxidants and vitamins. Neve...
January 04, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient
An accident with a tamping iron made Phineas Gage history's most famous brain-injury survivor
January 2010 |
By Steve Twomey
Are Americans Stuck to their Cubicles?
After a debilitating bicycle accident kept her inactive, Mary Collins toured the country studying Americans’ sedentary lifestyle
December 29, 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Does Santa Need to Go on a Diet?
In case you haven't noticed, obesity isn't exactly in these days. We've banished trans-fats from many places, given serious thought to a tax on soda, and applauded the First Family for planting an organic vegetable garden. We're reading books with titles like "Eat This, Not That" and "The Belly Fat...
December 22, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Caveman Cereal Raises a Question: Do Humans Need Grains?
According to an article in the latest issue of Science, our ancestors may have been more sophisticated eaters than we've been giving them credit for.After analyzing starch residue on dozens of ancient stone tools found in a cave in Mozambique, archaeologist Julio Mercader of the University of Calga...
December 17, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Whether, and What, to Feed a Cold
Is it "feed a cold, starve a fever" or "feed a fever, starve a cold"? If you're like me, you can never keep the adage straight. No matter, though, since doctors say it's probably more folklore than solid medical advice either way.According to Cecil Adams, the know-it-all who writes the syndicated c...
December 02, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Learning to Love Olive Oil
Olive oil has never been a particular passion for me, although I cook with it almost daily. Its main appeal is utility—creating texture and moisture; browning without sticking—more than taste. But after attending a recent Smithsonian Resident Associates event about Italian foods, I won't be taking ...
November 30, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Cinnamon as Health Food
The chatty coffee-shop employee's comment confused me. I had paused at the condiment station to add a sprinkle of cinnamon* to my cappuccino, and he was wiping down the counter in front of me."Ah, yes, for your eyes?" he asked, gesturing at the cinnamon shaker."My...eyes?" I fumbled in response. "N...
November 09, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
Eat Your Carrot Greens
Last weekend, I picked up some beautiful carrots—the kind that Bugs Bunny would drool over; classic orange cones topped with plumes of greenery—at an organic farmstand. From childhood experience, I already knew that the sweet crunch of garden-grown carrots tastes far better than those mass-produced...
November 03, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
The History of Health Food, Part 3: The Birth of Dieting
This is the third in a three-part series about the history of health foods, from antiquity to medieval times to the present day.If we don't count the Diet of Worms in 1521, which sounds like it would certainly induce weight loss but in fact has nothing to do with food (or creepy-crawlies), the mode...
October 15, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
The History of Health Food, Part 2: Medieval and Renaissance Periods
This is the second in a three-part series about the history of health foods,
from antiquity to the present day.
Medieval concepts of a healthful diet were largely based on theories from antiquity, especially the idea that the body's four humors, or bodily fluids—blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black...
October 13, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
