Kids With Allergies Get Bullied

It's tough enough having to avoid products with peanuts and other ingredients as a kid with severe food allergies. It's tougher when someone at school waves a granola bar in your face at the peanut-free lunch table.

That's what happened in September 2012 to a Pennsylvania fifth-grader. The boy had experienced allergic reactions to merely touching peanuts or breathing peanut particles in the past, so the act of granola-waving was more serious than for other allergy sufferers.

This week, a look at the disturbing trend in children getting picked on for not being able to eat certain foods.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, it calls me on and on." – The Beatles, "Across The Universe" (Lennon-McCartney)

Kids + Allergies = Bullied

Motion Sickness

Kinetosis, better known as motion sickness, is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement.  But why does it happen?  The most common hypothesis for the cause of motion sickness is that it functions as a defense mechanism against neurotoxins.  Really, would I kid you?

The "area postrema" in the brain is responsible for inducing vomiting when poisons are detected, and for resolving conflicts between vision and balance. When feeling motion but not seeing it (for example, in a ship with no windows), the inner ear transmits to the brain that it senses motion, but the eyes tell the brain that everything is still. As a result of the discordance, the brain will come to the conclusion that one of them is hallucinating and further conclude that the hallucination is due to poison ingestion. The brain responds by inducing vomiting to clear the supposed toxin.

Great...now I feel sick.  This week, a look at motion sickness and how to cure it.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find peace of mind is waiting there." – The Beatles, "Within You Without You" (Harrison)

Motion Sickness

Being Nice Helps You Make Friends

You've been told to be nice since you were a child.  Nice can be rather vague.  What exactly does it mean to be nice?  In my mind it means being kind, generous, agreeable, pleasant, respectable, friendly, forgiving and tactful.  It means going out of your way to treat others in the way that you want to be treated.  But that's just me.

There are, of course, lots of reasons to be nice, and now we have one more: the data support it.

This week, a look how science has proven that being nice helps you make friends.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "I never needed anybody's help in any way, but now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured." – The Beatles, "Help" (Lennon-McCartney)

Being Nice = Friends

They Say Tomato. We Say Tasteless

Plant geneticists say they have discovered an answer to a near-universal question: why are store-bought tomatoes usually so tasteless?  Yes, they are often picked green and shipped long distances and likely refrigerated, which destroys their flavor and texture. But now researchers have discovered a genetic reason that diminishes a tomato’s flavor even if the fruit is picked ripe and coddled.

The unexpected culprit is a gene mutation that occurred by chance and that was discovered by tomato breeders. It was deliberately bred into almost all tomatoes because it conferred an advantage: It made them a uniform luscious scarlet when ripe.

Whatever the color, I only eat them in tomato sauce or soup.  The Kitchen Manager at Amy's in Medford can attest to my reaction to eating fresh tomatoes; it is not a pretty sight.

This week, a look at the improving flavor of tomatoes.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see." – The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Lennon-McCartney)



They Say Tomato, We Say Tasteless

The Color of Beer

We've talked about beer and its mineral content, how beer was one of the six drinks that shaped the world, about studying really old beer and how beer is better for post-workout replenishment.  But have we talked about the two basic chemical reactions responsible for beer being "beer-colored" rather than clear like water?

One reaction couples amino acids to sugars; the other spurs sugars to decompose. In addition to adding color to beer, the products of these reactions also add significant flavor to the resultant brew.

This week, a look at the color of beer.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive; you were only waiting for this moment to be free." – The Beatles, "Blackbird" (Lennon-McCartney)


Color of Beer

Dissolving Islands

If you've ever considered an island getaway to Hawaii, time is of the essence: the mountainous tropical paradise of Oahu will erode, according to new research, with the biggest losses coming from within the island itself.

To be accurate, you do have some time to book that vacation before Hawaii's Oahu flattens from an island into a low-lying sea mount...likely another 1.75 million years, give or take a millennia. After that, however, the forces working to eat away at Oahu from the inside out will begin to triumph.

This week, a look at dissolving islands.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Try thinking more, if just for your own sake." – The Beatles, "Think For Yourself" (Harrison)

Hawaii Dissolving

Mouth Feel

In most cultures, people ingest a variety of astringent foods and beverages during meals, but the reasons for this practice are unclear. Many popular beliefs and heuristics exist, such as high tannin wines should be balanced with fatty foods, for example “red wine with red meat”.

Finally, science tells us why.  This week, a look at the principle underlying the international practice of palate cleansing.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." - Benjamin Franklin (US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer, 1706 - 1790)

Mouth Feel