Medicine
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
Food Safety, and the Ten Most Dangerous Foods in the U.S.
Everyone's talking about food safety—or rather, the lack of it—in the American food system these days.The New York Times published a deeply disturbing account this week of the trauma inflicted on one young woman by E. coli-tainted beef. At age 22, Stephanie Smith was left paralyzed by the simple ac...
October 08, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
The History of Health Food, Part 1: Antiquity
We tend to think of health food as a modern invention, but humans have made the connection between food and well-being at least since the beginning of written history—although it's always been as much a matter of educated guesswork as solid science.Ancient Greeks believed that good health was depen...
October 07, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Frank Bruni on Being "Born Round"
Frank Bruni, who recently stepped down from what is quite possibly the world's best job---the New York Times' restaurant critic---was in town Tuesday night to discuss his new memoir, "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater."And as if he didn't already provide enough star power to pack...
October 01, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Fatal Consequences of Counterfeit Drugs
In Southeast Asia, forensic investigators using cutting-edge tools are helping stanch the deadly trade in fake anti-malaria drugs
October 2009 |
By Andrew Marshall
Can Eating Healthy Be Bad for Your Health?
First off, for all you semantics sticklers, the answer to the question in the title is, strictly speaking, no. (If it were bad for your health it wouldn't be healthy, right? And let's not get started on the healthy/healthful distinction.) However, contrary to the popular saying, you can be too thin...
August 26, 2009 |
By Lisa Bramen
Cooking with the Season
As I explained a few months ago, my husband and I have been participating in a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program for the first time this year.I can't recommend the experience strongly enough; if you have the chance to sign up for one in your area next year, do it! Our half-share worked ...
August 24, 2009 |
By Amanda Bensen
