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Chew On This: Not sleeping makes you fat - 10 Mar 2010
If you're under 21, your brain is still developing. Only 5 percent of high school seniors are getting eight hours' sleep a night. Less than that, grades suffer. Not enough sleep is one of the causes of young driver car crashes. That fact might not convince teenagers who believe in their own invincibility to get to bed in good time.
So tell them, sleep loss also means weight gain. read more...
Chew On This: Omega-3s. Are they really that magical? - 2 Mar 2010
I noticed in my supermarket freezer a box of frozen fish fingers labelled 'Rich in Omega-3s'. Which made me wonder about whether this fishy oil hasn't become another fad nutrient promising more than it can deliver. read more...
Chew on This: No link between red meat and cancer? - 17 Feb 2010
You know that assertion that too much red meat comsumption can give you bowel cancer? It's come under attack from scientists. An Oxford based study that followed 65,000 people throughout the 1990s found that vegetarians, far from being protected from bowel cancer as you might expect from non meat eaters, actually displayed a slightly higher incidence of the disease. read more...
Chew On This: Cushioned running shoes - or Manolos? - 3 Feb 2010
Are you a runner with a pair of those pricey shoes that look like you're wearing an IHOP stack of pancakes? So wrong. You should be wearing your highest Manolos. read more...
Chew On This: Are we really being served? - 27 Jan 2010
Wesley Morton, this week's chef profile, was impressed by the service in London restaurants. It's an issue that Washington's European chefs jump on: the difficulty of training wait staff to the level that's the norm on continental Europe. Waiters are instructed in the US to act as the friends-for-the-evening of strangers who are paying for their services. In Europe, waiters are trained to melt into the background. Here are my personal beefs. read more...
Chew on This: Food resolutions for 2010 and beyond - 30 Dec 2009
We make far too much fuss about food. If only we could approach eating like our grandparents did - as an opportunity to sit together around a table and catch up on events over home-made, fresh-cooked seasonal food, life would be a lot healthier and more pleasurable. And less expensive. read more...
Chew On This: The French solution to obesity is - eat! - 21 Dec 2009
Trust les Froggies to come up with a sensible and appealing way to tackle obesity. Teach people to cook, the head of nutrition at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, Dr Arnaud Basdevant, says. "Enjoying food, variety in food, the culture of food are the best defences against obesity." His is a wonderful visually suggestive name for the project: it means, more or less, Below In Front. read more...
Chew On This: Foie gras for PETA people - 9 Dec 2009
Are you one of those people who protest the cruelty of foie gras production? Here's your chance to indulge without hurting birds and win some money. PETA is holding a competition to produce a wholely vegetarian foie gras. The winners gets $10,000. Glad to know they value foie gras that highly. read more...
Chew On This: US food waste boosting global warming - 3 Dec 2009
Do you realize that by chucking that half finished burger into the trash you're contributing to global warming? Americans waste around 1,400 calories worth of food per person each day. That's 40 percent of the total food supply.
What's that got to do with the environment? Well, food waste accounts for 25 percent of fresh water use in the US and 300 million barrels of oil. That's around 4 percent of the country's total oil consumption. read more...
Chew On This - A pain-killing tea - 25 Nov 2009
If you're one of those who sniffs at the efficiency of natural painkillers, listen up. Scientists have now found that everything the Brazilians have believed for centuries about the analgesic properties of a mint tea they brew to relieve pain is entirely justified. read more...
Viagra for women! Chew on That! - 18 Nov 2009
A poor sex life can make you fat, right? Those consoling Krispy Kremes? That vat of Jamoca Almond Fudge? So some of you might be thrilled to learn that an antidepressant that failed tests is being touted as "Viagra for women" after unexpected side effects. read more...
Chew on This: It's that ol' High Fructose Corn Syrup again - 11 Nov 2009
What rats do for our health! In a new study, their 'moderate' consumption over 10 weeks of fructose-containing sweeteners may have produced 'modest but significant changes' which could contribute to the development of Metabolic Syndrome.
It's that High Fructose Corn Syrup again - you know, the stuff the HFCS people have been campaigning to promote as your friendly sweetener unfairly accused of being responsible for causing obesity and ill health. read more...
Chew On This: Processed foods cause depression - 4 Nov 2009
If you needed any more reasons to keep off processed foods (fat content, high fructose corn syrup content, salt content, the fact they're not fresh, price...), a new study shows they may contribute to depression. read more...
Chew On This: Breast cancer from Western diet - 21 Oct 2009
You may have thought you've heard this before. But apparently it hadn't been proved: the Western diet may cause breast cancer.
It's the French who think they've come up with new evidence that what they call "Western-type" foods may be to blame. What we should stick to is a Mediterranean diet. read more...
Chew on This: Taxes on sodas tax our personal freedom? - 14 Oct 2009
I'm always astonished at the misinformation - if not downright 'pork pies' (this is Cockney rhyming slang. Clue: focus on rhyming the second word) I hear either from the Senate, from Congress or on NPR about the cost and poor quality of Britain's free National
Health Service. Opponents of the President's health care reforms might consider this: the US spends 16.2 percent of GDP annually on healthcare, around twice as much as what the NHS costs. Yet the life expectancy of the average American is lower than the average Brit. According to a UN list of length of life expectancy, the UK is ranked 21st and the US at number 38.
Opponents of the President's proposed health care reforms who cite the cost of overhauling the hugely expensive US system could easily reap a cent or two and help reduce the obesity problem that costs the system so much with one tiny move: Put that tax on sodas. read more...
Chew On This: Is High Fructose Corn Syrup really no longer a threat? - 7 Oct 2009
When I was writing a food column three times a week for United Press International, the one subject that would stir readers to block my email inbox was when I wrote about High Fructose Corn Syrup. USDA figures show the average daily consumption of calories from HFCS in the American diet has risen from 2 calories in 1970 to 205 calories in 2003. Yet the Center for Consumer Freedom has launched an ad campaign to try and turn around what it describes as "an urban myth" that HFCS is a more highly processed, less healthy ingredient than sugar. read more...
Chew On This: Weeds in your drink? - 23 Sep 2009
Have you noticed the high apple juice content of not inexpensive drinks like cranberry cocktails, punches and more? Well, a fruit I always thought was relatively cheap is obviously too expensive an additive for food and drink manufacturers. Sometime in the future, your fruit juice drink may no longer be flavored with apples. This wonderful fruit may be replaced for flavor by a - want to guess?
A weed. read more...
Chew on This: Wine and beer victims of global warming - 16 Sep 2009
Climate change may affect the quality of your booze. Grapes and hops are suffering from too much heat. read more...
Chew on This: Taxes on sodas don't deter kids - 9 Sep 2009
Guess what: taxes on sodas haven't had any impact on the high levels of obesity among young people. A study from the University of Chicago says so.
Probably any parent might have predicted that unless taxes on sodas went the way of taxes on cigarettes, nothing would happen to change drinking levels of adolescents. We're only talking a matter of 3 cents or so per 12-ounce can here. read more...
In March 2007, Mike Isabella started at Zaytinya. Just a few months later, the hip downtown mezzethes restaurant won a RAMMY award.
Chew On This: Not sleeping makes you fat
Cakes - to order or make beautiful
Apple Tarte Tatin
My favorite markets - Yasaman Persian Bakery
It may look like a Big Mac but it isn't.
Cerkez Salad
Shiraz Grocery
Make your own tahini
Olives
Mike Isabella - Chef of Zaytinya
Chew On This: Omega-3s. Are they really that magical?
Chew on This: No link between red meat and cancer?
Plaza Market
Veal Cheeks
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