Food

Restaurant Week New Hampshire To Highlight Granite State Chefs

Brady Carlson — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:26:27 +0000

Friday is day one of Restaurant Week New Hampshire, aimed at showcasing Granite State cuisine and the people who produce it.

Amy Traverso is Senior Lifestyle Editor at Yankee Magazine. She joins All Things Considered host Brady Carlson with a preview of the event.

Why We Love Tiny Packages Of Treats

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:13:23 +0000

You know those individually wrapped chocolates that you find in office candy jars and Halloween sacks ? Turns out, the troublesome need to unwrap chocolates makes them hard to eat in certain settings, like the car, which is why some years back, Hershey released Reese’s Minis, small, resealable bags of candy designed to be snarfed on the go.

What If You Couldn't Taste Or Smell?

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:54:59 +0000

Impaired sight often requires glasses – impaired hearing, a hearing aid. But what about people who suffer from an impaired sense of smell or taste? Depending on the source, somewhere between two and five million people suffer in varying degrees from anosmia, the loss of the sense of smell. Here to tell us more is rhinologist Dr. Carl Philpott – Director of the Smell and Taste Clinic at James Paget University in Norfolk, the only clinic devoted to smell and taste disorders in the United Kingdom.

We read about his work in New Scientist, and invited him on the program to tell us more.

The Land Grabbers

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:40:10 +0000

Large-scale acquisition in developing countries to secure food, natural resources and even altruistic motives is nothing new, but it’s grown exponentially in recent years. Recent estimates of how much land has been snapped up run from 120 to 560 million acres.

What's For Dinner?

Logan Shannon — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:24:00 +0000

My mother loves to cook, and as a result she raised an entire family of food obsessed children who also love to cook. My father rarely cooked but was a big fan of eating and proclaimed after every meal, “Dear, this is the best [insert main course here] I’ve EVER had!” She would roll her eyes at his genuine but exaggerated praise and I would chime in with, “Mom, this was the worst dinner ever.” A big grin would spread across her face as she leaned over to pat my head; my mom gets me. Because she cooked an amazing, well-balanced meal nearly every night, my siblings and I were consistently robbed of what we felt was the holy grail of eating: the frozen TV dinner.

Is Michael Pollan Sexist?

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:09:01 +0000

Wander the aisles of your favorite grocery store and you’re likely to see produce marked as locally grown, meat that is trumpeted as grass fed and hormone-free, and canning kits to help you preserve your own garden’s bounty. The explosion of these products has largely been credited to the femivore movement, which has many women returning to the kitchen.

Bacteria Lurking In Unlikely Places

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:35:54 +0000

Nearly 10 million cases of food poisoning occur in the United States every year. Moreover, one in five outbreaks of food-borne illnesses are caused by food that people eat in their homes. A new report looked at the parts of the kitchen most and least likely to harbor bacteria and the results might not be what you’d expect. Here to discuss the matter is Lisa Yakas, Microbiologist and Manager of NSF International's Home Product Certification Program and co-author of the report.

When "Mad Men" Met Wonder Bread

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:27:19 +0000

For most of the twentieth century, Americans got between a quarter and a half of their daily calories from uniform loaves of factory baked white bread. It was a symbol of an industrial food revolution that inspired national pride; a dough so emblematic of a successful democracy that the book White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf was written not by a baker, but a professor of politics; the author, Aaron Bobrow-Strain, teaches politics at Whitman College in Washington. He also wrote about his own attempt to prepare the perfectly rectangular cloud-like loaf in The Believer magazine. We spoke to Aaron when his book was first published about the deeply symbolic place of white bread in American identity; the book is now out in paperback.

Poisonous Potatoes

Rebecca Lavoie — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:22:33 +0000

A good potato is hard to find – at least for potato chip makers, who require the exactly the right balance of sugar, starch, and color to produce a perfect chip. In the late 1960’s, chip companies aimed to engineer these tricky variables to their liking using conventional plant cross-breeding. Researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture, Penn State University and the Wise potato chip company embarked upon a scientific quest to create the perfect potato for chips – and ended up with poisonous results. We spoke to Maggie Koerth-Baker, science editor at Boing-Boing and columnist for the New York Times magazine, about the failed quest.

Addressing Global Food Scarcity

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:00:00 +0000

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

Is Organic Food Any Healthier Than Conventionally-Grown Food?

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: There’s been a lot of coverage on the topic of organic foods and how they aren’t actually any healthier than conventional foods. Is this true? -- Gina Thompson, Salem, OR

Is A Gluten-Free Diet Good For Everyone?

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:18:57 +0000

Celiac disease is a serious autoimmune disorder caused by a reaction to a gluten protein affecting one in one-hundred Americans. Despite the low percentage of those intolerant to wheat products, more people are experimenting with the anti-gluten diet and claim to enjoy health benefits like better skin and fewer allergies. But is this fad just that...or is there some medical substance behind these claims?

People Choose High Calorie Food When Stressed

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:41:06 +0000

Research from the University of Miami provides an alternative to commonly held beliefs on why we are drawn to high calorie foods and insight into the continued popularity of high fat food since the great recession. Stress, not piggishness, may trigger the choice of the double cheeseburger instead of the grilled chicken salad. We talk to Tony Salerno, a PhD candidate and co-author of the paper “Life-History Strategy, Food Choice, and Caloric Consumption” to get the skinny on the link between stress and food choices.

Healthy As A Horse, But Is It Safe To Eat?

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:49:47 +0000

Americans largely oppose the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Despite the cultural taboo, the United States is a key exporter of live horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada. Each year, more than 100,000 American horses are killed in North America for consumption abroad. Many American horses are given drugs that are carcinogenic to humans, putting consumers’ health at risk.

Organic Food On Trial! (Rebroadcast)

Laura Knoy — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

A recent study found little evidence of health benefits from organic foods, challenging organic’s reputation as the healthy alternative to conventional agribusiness. But others say researchers did find some vital differences around pesticide levels and that the study was too narrow, ignoring vital environmental and ethical reasons for eating organic. Today we'll look at the arguments on both sid