So. Diet Coke kills sperm on contact. We thought you should know.
We feel sort of shocked, and also sort of remarkably unshocked.
Scientist Deborah Anderson and her team have been awarded one of this year's Ig Nobel Awards from Improbable Research for their work on both Coca Cola Classic and Diet Coke's contraceptive qualities.
Will this knowledge ever come in handy? Well, with a desperate situation and a little yoga, anything is possible. Never say never, right? Okay, yeah, maybe this once.
Other things we bet kill sperm: Jagermeister, Ramen Noodle broth, Tang, and everything at Taco Bell.
Burning your hand is a painful experience. Instead of running to the medicine cabinet next time, check out this alternative pain reliever found right in your kitchen!
If you know someone who has suffered a stroke, now might be the time to parley the wonders of soy and chickpeas. The BBC reports that a new study conducted at the University of Hong Kong might have found a new stroke fighter -- isoflavone.
The chemical, which is found in soy products and chickpeas, was used in a new trial studying 102 stroke patients. They were split into two groups -- one getting isoflavone in a dietary supplement and one getting merely a placebo. The flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery (in the arm) was studied, and after 12 weeks, they found that there was significant improvement in those taking the supplement.
Lead researcher Professor Hung-Fat Tse said it was too early to recommend taking supplements, but it certainly sounds like another reason to add some soy and chickpeas into your diet. Anti-cancer benefits, nutrients ... they're good stuff.
Do you find the traditional nutrition label on food packaging a tad confusing? I sometimes do, and I'm an avid nutrition-label-reader. A new system aims to simplify everything with one score.
The NuVal Nutrition Scoring System will debut in a few national supermarkets some time in the near future. The system uses a score called the ONQI (Overall Nutritional Quality Index), which will give each food item a score based on its micro-nutrients, macro-nutrients, and other "nutritional properties". The goal is for the one number to be an overall indicator of the nutritiouness of the food in question.
The score is out of 100, with 100 being the healthiest. The system wants to give consumers a quick overview of healthiness without absolute terms like "good" or "bad". There's no information on which supermarkets will be the first to adopt the sytem, but the website says to look for updates by the beginning of October.
It's a dangerous world out there, folks. Should we add food blogging to that list of things to watch out for? That's the question posed by Leslie of The Weighting Game.
Leslie got a letter from a reader who originally asked this question about food blogging being addictive and possibly some kind of eating disorder. The reader had started a food blog, but soon realized that it made her obsess about food and actually "hide what (she) was eating from the internet." She has since stopped blogging.
Although I follow plenty of food blogs myself, I've never run across the type of blog that The Weighting Game and its commenters are talking about, the kind that is more of a food journal than a food blog. I personally think there's nothing wrong with sharing photos and recipes and having serious or fun discussions on food related topics. I do think this a great question to ask ourselves, though, so what is your opinion on food blogging as an eating disorder?
While I love bread, and feel so lucky to be pretty much allergy free, I know it can be tough on those who do have a serious food allergy. I once had a friend with coeliac disease. I remember how careful she had to be with what she ate and all the questions she asked at restaurants before ordering. I made a gluten free cake for her, but now I can't remember what kind of flour I used (of course).
It shouldn't be too hard for my friend to find good gluten free goodies now, though. According to the Orlando Sentinel there's such a demand now that it would be foolish for producers to ignore it. Apparently most health experts thought of coeliac as a European disease, but after a 2003 study by the University of Maryland which found that 1 in 133 Americans suffered from it coeliac disease jumped into the spotlight.
It used to be that there were only a few products at health food stores, but now you can find gluten free products anywhere.
Last week, ABC News revealed in an article that a baby formula from China was made illegal in the U.S. after the death of a Chinese infant was traced to its food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials believe there is reason to be concerned that some formula from China may have slipped into markets serving Chinese consumers in the United States even though its sales are prohibited.
This concern is based on an FDA probe in 2004 that found this Chinese formula on the shelf of Chinese grocery shops. Do you remember that, in 2007, deaths and illnesses of hundreds of cats and dogs were linked to pet food ingredients from China? FDA officials believe that the Chinese baby formula may be tainted with melamine, the same ingredient found in that pet food. The FDA relieves concerned parents by affirming that U.S.-approved baby formula is safe.
In July, I wrote a post about gummi bears being good for your teeth. They're not the only candy that promote dental health. It turns out that sugar-free chocolate may actually prevent tooth decay. Over the past years, medical research has proven that cocoa contains an anti-bacterial enzyme which helps to prevent plaque formation.
8 years ago, the BBC News had an article about a study done by researchers at Osaka University in Japan. The scientists discovered that the outer part of the bean, the cocoa bean husk (CBH), has an anti-bacterial effect on the mouth. But, before you run to your nearest chocolate shop, bear in mind that this part is usually discarded in chocolate production. They suggest putting CBH back into chocolate and possibly using it to create a mouthwash and tooth paste.
Just last year, Science Daily released news about research conducted at Tulane University by Arman Sadeghpour. Their research results showed that cocoa extract was even more effective than fluoride in fighting cavities. Now, I'm wondering what kind of chocolate we should purchase in order to reap these dental benefits.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigates the possibility of the presence of cloned beef's existence in the nation's meat supply. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
I just found out that I may have dined on meat from the progeny of a cloned cow. You may have, too.
In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decreed that meat and milk from cloned livestock was safe to eat. Last week, the agency went a step further and said that it was "theoretically possible" that the meat from the offspring of cloned cattle was already in the food supply.
The obesity epidemic in the US has been well documented, but could it be caused, at least in part, by thinking? There's a new study out that indicates thinking could contribute to an expanding waistline.
Researchers split participants into three groups: one group just rested, one had to read, the last one had to complete mental tests on a computer. Then all the participants were allowed to eat whatever they wanted to. Even though they only used about three more calories, the groups who were using their brains ate 200 (the readers) and 250 (the computer test takers) more calories. Through extensive blood sample-taking (before, during, and after the experiment), the researchers found wide variations in blood glucose levels from different phases of the experiment.
They concluded that "the body reacts to these fluctuations by demanding food to restore glucose, a sugar that is the brain's fuel. Glucose is converted by the body from carbohydrates and is supplied to the brain via the bloodstream. The brain cannot make glucose and so needs a constant supply. Brain cells need twice as much energy as other cells in the body. "
They cautioned that people who have intellectually demanding jobs should keep this in mind when they're choosing what and how much to eat. I think we all need to keep this in mind, as well as get out of the office to go for a walk.
Food manufacturers are always looking for ways to improve the nutritional content of their products, as well as ways to lower the calories. Scientists may have found a new way to do just that with an innovative new ingredient: banana flour.
They've developed a flour from unripe bananas, and adding it to pasta has been one of the first applications. Pasta makers have experimented with adding other ingredients, but everything they've tried so far makes the pasta shrink too much when it's cooked. Banana flour, on the other hand, doesn't seem to cause any additional shrinkage.
The banana flour looks promising for manufacturers. Not only does the new flour add antioxidants and tannins for a nutritional boost, it also boosts the amount of resistant starch by 12%. That allows the potential pasta to claim to be a lower glycemic index food because the resistant starch is not digestible and works in your system like insoluble fiber.
The pasta makers say that the results they've gotten with the banana flour yield a good quality product but that more testing is required regarding the taste of the product. So you may see banana flour as an ingredient in the future, but it may take a while for it to get there.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that the latest nutritional studies are at odds with what some manufacturers' campaigns might have us believe. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
Nothing spoils a good marketing campaign as surely as solid, scientific facts. So I imagine the folks over at the Corn Refiners' Association-who have recently spent a fortune on PR and advertising to convince "moms and healthcare professionals" that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was no better or worse for us nutritionally than sweeteners such as table sugar and honey-were shocked when they opened the latest issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
It contains a paper by a group of researchers at the University of Texas who report that fructose, the primary sugar in HFCS (which finds its way into just about every non-diet soft drink sold), made subjects of a study fatter than glucose, another sugar.
"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," said Elizabeth Parks of the Southwestern Medical Center.
It also may explain why the current obesity epidemic in this country dates back to 1980, the year HFCS entered our diet. Starting from zero, Americans now gulp an average of 66 pounds of the stuff each year.
It is no longer news that Tuna is dangerously high in mercury. But, what's worth remarking is that tuna has remained off consumer watch lists for mercury toxicity due to the influence of the tuna industry on the FDA. The eco-blog Treehugger just commented on an article from Mother Jones uncovering why toxic tuna is still legal.
The article explains that tuna is a huge business in the U.S., and that it's the country's second most popular seafood. The FDA and US Department of Agriculture actually encourage school lunch programs and the federal food program for poor women and children to eat cans of tuna. They promote the fact that it's low in fat, high in protein, and contains lots of omega-3 fatty acids. If some canned tuna receives the American Heart Association seal of approval, can the fact that it has high levels of mercury be so bad?
The issue is that the doctors who flaunt the health benefits of tuna work within the industry. And, the truth is that the health benefits can not outweigh the health hazards of mercury, which over the long-term include damage to the heart, nervous system, and kidneys. The Mother Jones article tells the story of Deborah Landvik-Fellner, a woman who had been eating a can of albacore tuna for 12 years and ended up with shaky hands and a staggering gait. The scary thing about her lawsuit is that the FDA posed the biggest obstacle. After not eating tuna for a year, her symptons went away.
According to canada.com, it seems that a simple typo in a Swedish magazine led to four people being poisoned. See, a recipe for apple cake was posted, and "Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg, it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed." The error was spotted after printing, letters were sent to subscribers, and inserts were added to store issues. But these warnings didn't reach everyone. One group of people still tried out this horrifically over-nutmegged recipe, and the four suffered poisoning symptoms like dizziness and headaches.
How can anyone choose to make that recipe and not question that amount, or not be turned off by it? One sniff of nutmeg is hint enough that it's way too strong to imagine 20 nuts in one cake. So, even if you don't come to the conclusion that there was a typo, one would think that the recipe would just seem, well, gross. I can only imagine that those who ate it have taste buds that don't measure sickening amounts of nutmeg.
With so many food recalls recently, wouldn't it be nice to have that information sent to you rather than just happening across it?
If you're a reader of food blogs, you probably don't have to look too hard for information on the latest out break of food borne illness. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has got something better for you. You can sign up to receive email alerts for any new Class I food recall, which is one where food has been determined to be the cause of human illness and is therefore unfit for consumption. According to MDA, there was a 56% rise in Class I recalls from 2006 to 2007 that affected Michigan consumers.
You can sign up for the email alerts here. I'm pretty sure the alerts will be geared toward Michigan's citizens, but there doesn't seem to be any restrictions on the sign-up page. Something like this could definitely be worth it. Do you think this should be offered nationally?
So. Diet Coke kills sperm on contact. We thought you should know.
If you know someone who has suffered a stroke, now might be the time to parley the wonders of soy and chickpeas. The 
It's a dangerous world out there, folks. Should we add food blogging to that list of things to watch out for? That's the question posed by 
With so many food recalls recently, wouldn't it be nice to have that information sent to you rather than just happening across it?
New York Times Magazine's food issue
Chicken McNuggets frolic at New York City pet store
Eat your broccoli orbs! 
