It’s fairly common knowledge that Starbucks Frappuccinos are laden with sugar and calories, with few healthful nutrients or protein. As a result, the coffee franchise has seen Frappuccino sales dip as consumers turned to more health-conscious beverages. To help turn this trend around, the company is attempting to push…
Studies either pro- or anti-alcohol seem to churn out with alarming frequency, but this latest report may be the most terrifying of all. A new study started sweeping the news last Thursday, ruining everyone’s weekends, with the news that the only safe amount of alcohol is none at all. The heady study, titled “Alcohol…
So, a Chipotle in Powell, Ohio made a bunch of people sick recently. Health officials in the county had received 518 inquiries as of Wednesday evening; per CBS, 200 people have been interviewed, and “food and samples from people have been sent to a state laboratory to test for salmonella, shigella, e.coli and…
This is one of those news stories apparently designed to make me feel like a grade-A sucker: Science Daily reports today that a new study by Ben-Gurion University Of The Negev debunks the popular diet trick “based on the Delbouef illusion” that encourages people to eat their food off smaller plates because it will…
This news comes, as so many good things do, from the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. A brain-imaging study has revealed what Forbes calls a “hack for making healthier portion choices,” and it’s straight from the school of “yeah, no shit”: turns out we make healthier portion size…
This story is quite a journey.
In the latest round of food recalls, fortunately, things have been pretty mild. While the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak earlier this year did claim a casualty, and there have been many salmonella cases tied to Honey Smacks, the latest voluntary recall tied to whey powder is merely a precautionary measure. So Kraft…
We may figure when we go out to eat at Cheesecake Factory or Chili’s that we’re not necessarily eating the healthiest food in the world. But the annual Xtreme Eating Awards, put out by the Center For Science In The Public Interest, highlight exactly just how unhealthy that food can be. This year’s “winners” were just…
I read with interest this story about a Memphis mom whose teenage daughter had to have her gallbladder removed. The mom is blaming the copious amounts of spicy snacks, like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Hot Takis, that the girl would eat, taking large bags of chips to school with her. The PR arms of those companies were…
The National Endowment for the Arts announced earlier this month that its annual Survey of Public Participation in the Arts shows more American adults are reading poetry than at any other time in the survey’s 15-year history (a whopping 12 percent!). Pacific Standard digs into the reasons why, noting that movements…
Japanese work culture is so stringent that some workers have actually died from karoshi, or chronic overwork. These workers die from heart failure or even suicide, in a culture that can see 100-hour workweeks with very little time off or vacation. While Japan is reportedly trying to loosen that culture to be less…
Look hard enough at any diet plan, and its true motive becomes clear. Is it trying to sell you manuals and seminars on how to adhere to the lifestyle? Or maybe it’s hawking snack bars and pre-packaged dinners that fall into their narrow definition of a square meal? Or, in the case of Whole30 (whose popularity has…
All parents have lofty goals before the baby actually arrives. These future kids will only listen to cool music, they will never watch Elmo, they will be open to a variety of different foods. Then the baby arrives and Kidz Bop, “Elmo’s World,” and an all-beige diet featuring chicken nuggets all manage to surface…
We reported earlier on KFC’s goals to have healthier menu options available in Britain by 2020, with a decrease of 20 percent in average meal calorie counts by 2025. Some of the options bandied about included sugar-free-only drinks, healthier sides, and vegetarian options. There, we were stumped: vegetarian options?…
Hope you’re back to enjoying Caesar salad after the recent romaine lettuce scare, because your summer fruit salads may now be in peril. Food Safety News says that the “FDA reports fresh-cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and fresh-cut fruit medley products containing any of these melons” that came from the …
It’s already been established that your kitchen is a bacterial hellscape, with E. coli and staphylococcus infections lurking around every corner. Since we recently wrote that sponges contain numerous “nooks and crannies” where bacteria love to hang out and grow, you might have been tempted to switch over to the…
Under the category of restrictive diets, there might be one even strict than veganism: the world of the fruitarian. Steve Jobs was one, as was Ashton Kutcher, until he wound up in the hospital with pancreas trouble. Even Gandhi lasted on the diet for five years, before going back to vegetarianism (less notable…
Did you ever notice that all the really delicious food is beige? Grilled cheese. French toast. Baked potatoes. Doughnuts. Turns out there’s a reason for that, as some carbs are worse for you than other carbs. Some low-carb dieters are also set on cutting down on the carbohydrates in fruit and vegetables as well. But…
Yes, we all should be eating five to seven servings a day of fruits and vegetables, but do you know anyone who actually does that? Me neither. So in a possibly desperate effort to get people to absorb those much-needed nutrients, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organization and Hort…
The U.K. continues to crack down hard on its obesity problem, as organizations like Public Health England suggest limitations of 1600 calories a day for the average adult diet. The nation also is concerned about the health of its youngest citizens, since the BBC asserts that “almost 60 percent more children in their…
