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Cheerios, Honey Nut, Frosted Flakes; Which one to choose?

29 Jun 2022

Breakfast of champions. This phrase might make you think of a hearty, greasy bacon platter. Or even a martini if you’ve read the Kurt Vonnegut book with the same title. But it was first coined by...

Harvard Psychiatrist Makes Inflated Claims About Food’s Power to Fight Mental Illness

28 Jun 2022

Looking through a microscope will make something tiny look big. It blows the teeny-weeny out of proportion. As it turns out, you don’t even need a microscope to do that.

Sniffing Benzedrine Inhalers

21 Jun 2022

In 1943, the Smith, Kline and French pharmaceutical company added hot pepper extract to Benzedrine, its popular decongestant inhaler. The fiery taste of capsaicin, the compound responsible for the ...

A Carcinogen in Bread?

7 Jun 2022

I ventured into homemade bread-making at the start of the pandemic two years ago. My first try failed miserably. The bread turned out to be a shapeless, mushy mess. What ingredient was missing?...

Does honey have any value as a preservative?

26 May 2022

Yes, in a limited way. Honey is a concentrated solution of various sugars in water. The main sugars are fructose and glucose with smaller amounts of sucrose (table sugar) also present. Of course,...

Chocoholics: A True Addiction or a Funny Word?

25 May 2022

In the third novel of the Harry Potter series, the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry encounters the “Dementors” for the first time -- creatures that feed on hope and happiness. When he is left with a...

Assessing Reports Linking Espresso and Cholesterol

19 May 2022

This article was originally posted in the Montreal Gazette....

Think Twice About Opting Out of Sauerkraut

6 May 2022

If you’ve ever lined up for a classic hot dog on a hot day on campus, you may have reached for the yellow-white sauerkraut perched on the toppings table. The fermented cabbage sure dresses up that...

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