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Chocolate Rocks! But What Kind?

Thank you, Business Insider, for exploring more deeply the claim that chocolate munching or  imbibing will improve memory function in older adults. 

Mars Bars? Hershey's? The finest of Belgian dark choc? 

It's all about "flavanols," which function as anti-oxidants. And these elements are found …

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Nixing the Feeding of the Homeless

"According to a report released Monday by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 21 cities have passed measures aimed at restricting the people who feed the homeless since January 2013. In that same time, similar legislation was introduced in more than 10 cities. "

NPR reports that that as cit…

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Whole Foods Intros Ranking System

"Whole Foods plans to start rolling out a system that ranks fruits and vegetables as “good,” ‘’better” or “best” based on the supplier’s farming practices."

According to The Guardian, "To hold onto customers, executives have said they plan to more clearly state what makes Whole Food…

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The National Center for What?

The National Center for Food Production and Defense is in Minneapolis-St. Paul, at the University of Minnesota. Ever heard of it? It comes under the vast, well-funded umbrella that is Homeland Security.

They're holding a webinar tomorrow on "cargo theft" of foodstuffs. They hosted a Food Defense …

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How Does 3D Printing Work, Exactly?! Food Prep Gets Wild and Crazy

Astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) can look forward to packing something extra for food: not another frozen lunch pack, but a 3D printer that can produce a full-on pizza in seven minutes. In meeting NASA’s need for “something that had longer shelf life, that offered personalized nut…

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A Native American Foods Restaurant in MN

Yes, the US seemingly has few restaurants serving American Indian food.  We know of one, brand new, in Tampa, called Ulele. And the cafeteria at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. features a range of foods from across the country. Now MIC reports another to open in Decemb…

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Kale Lovers Dig Veggies More

Science is beginning to reveal that those who like "bitter" tend to eat more veggies. According to a report from scientists at Penn State and the University of Connecticut, there's a "bitterness" gene, and if you have it, you will not curl your lip at kale, or, beer.

There's more here.

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"Ketchup" is Fish Sauce?!

According to Stanford University linguist Dan Jurafsky in his book, The Language of Food, just published by WW Norton, the words we use for everyday foods contain clues to the food’s origin and evolving use around the globe. Take ketchup for instance, a word dating back to 200 BC, apparently.  “..…

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Flying Fare in Germany

Maybe this is Meals on Wheels for Germany? No, Meals on Wing. Anyway, according to a report in HuffPost, if you live in Dusseldorf or Cologne, you can order home delivery of freshly prepared airline food, as in Lufthansa business-class-esque meals. 

“A new service called Air Food One is currently …

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Comfort Foods? Bah Humbug! (Not.)

Many people may see ice cream as the perfect mood-lifter, but a recent study in Health Psychology claims that “comfort foods” aren't really comforting at all. “Results showed that there were no significant effects of food type (including comfort, non-comfort, and neutral foods) on mood, sugges…

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Buh-Bye to Summer, But Not ( Yet) to Ice Cream and Tomatoes

Salem, NJ, was home both to Lewis Bassett, founder of Bassetts Ice Cream in Philly, but also to Col Johnson who did NOT stand on the steps of the courthouse eating a tomato....Read on.

Another in our food heritage postings at Mother Earth News.

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Repurposing a "Food" Building for Food

Check out our recent post on Mother Earth News.   A group in Chicago is turning a 1925 meat packing plant into a food hub, rich with entrepreneurship activities. This is on-going food heritage!

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What People are Eating and When: Do We Care?

Ever wondered what’s the most popular food, drink or condiment in the world at any given hour? Probably not! But--consumer technology company Jawbone—famous for its fitness tracker and app that tells you about your daily habits—has put together such a list  from its global user base, even though you…

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Celebrating Chefs in the US

According to the Today Show, "the United States Postal Service has cooked up something new — stamps honoring five celebrity chefs. The set, which officially comes out next Friday (Sept. 26), spotlights James Beard, Julia Child, Joyce Chen, Edna Lewis and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi.

“These chefs ex…

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UN Lacking Funds to Continue to Feed Displaced Middle Eastern Refugees

According to a piece in The Guardian, "The UN  ( World Food Programme) warned on Thursday that it will be forced to cut food rations for more than 6 million Syrians from next month unless it received more funding."

"The WFP said it had no money for programmes in December."

“We have reached a cri…

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Eat Well as a Japanese Astronaut

To “enrich the variety of Japanese space food,”  the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has selected 33 Japanese dishes, including "wagyu beef keema curry, miso soup and hijiki seaweed salad, for development as future astronaut food,” according to a piece in The Wall Street Journal/Japan. Als…

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Food Styling Goes Real, Kind Of....

Gone are the days when raw chickens were painted to look just-out-of-the-oven and marbles were placed in condensed soups to make the solid ingredients rise to the top, today’s editorial food photography is taking a more natural approach. “Part of this is a legal issue—passing off fake food as real i…

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"Smart Chopsticks" to Detect Unsafe Food?

Calling its latest product the answer to food safety issues in China, Baidu presents a pair of “smart chopsticks” called Kuaisou.  Linked with a smartphone app, the chopsticks could be swirled in oil and a “good” or “bad” reading would appear on your phone to indicate whether the cooking oil is unsa…

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Hey, Gluten-Intolerants: Try Persian!

Having recently discovered she is both gluten and dairy-intolerant, Britain's Sally Butcher is delighted to discover the food she sells is also exactly what she should eat, according to Munchies.

"Sally Butcher married an Iranian, and has since become a cult figure of the British-Iranian food scene…

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Bringing Back Old Apples, Enticing with "New" Tastes

17,000 apple varieties were once widespread across the US, beginning in the 1600's. Today we are supposed to be delighted with the Delicious apples, sweet, often mushy, extremely ordinary.

Once orchardists went with one or  two varieties, instead of the many that were available, they were struck …

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20 blog posts