/oss/taxonomy/term/337/all en /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/processing-information-about-processed-meat <p>The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization lists processed meats in its “Category 1,” reserved for substances known to cause cancer in humans. There is really nothing all that noteworthy here except for the official classification. Unofficial advice about minimizing processed meat has been dispensed by nutritional scientists for a long time. And for good reason.</p> Tue, 08 Oct 2024 22:06:53 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10104 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-environment/we-are-exposed-thousands-and-thousands-chemicals <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-we-are-exposed-to-thousands-and-thousands-of-chemicals">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>“Three thousand six hundred food packaging chemicals detected in human bodies: How reheating food is killing us.”</p> Fri, 04 Oct 2024 20:53:47 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10102 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-may-just-be-hot-air-many <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-may-just-be-hot-air-for-many">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 27 Sep 2024 23:03:19 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 10098 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-technology/genetic-engineering-has-been-applied-cheese-making-no-reason-be-cheesed <p>Cheese producers were cheesed off.  People were just not eating enough veal.  Slaughterhouses were running short of calf stomachs and the cheese industry was feeling the pinch.  There was not enough rennet to meet the demands of turophiles (that's "cheese lovers" from the Greek “turo” for cheese) around the world.</p> Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:33:42 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10093 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-student-contributors-health-and-nutrition/real-gold-or-fools-gold-controversies-bee-pollen <p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10045447/">earliest evidence</a> of human consumption of bee products can be traced back to a painting from between 8000-5000 B.C. in Spain. The Greeks considered pollen to be the food of kings. There is a reference to bee pollen in the Bible. Ancient philosophers such as Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, and Pythagoras believed in the therapeutic potential of bee pollen. So, it seems only natural that we, in the present day, would take a fascination with bee pollen.</p> Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:03:05 +0000 Daniela Padres 10083 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/what-does-health-canada-issued-natural-product-number-npn-supplement-mean <p>Prescription drug sales in Canada amount to roughly $50 billion a year. That’s a lot of money, but the $13 billion pulled in annually by the natural health products industry isn’t small potatoes either. The question is what consumers are getting for that money.</p> Wed, 18 Sep 2024 22:07:09 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10081 at /oss /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition/another-bullet-fired-highly-processed-food <p>Elie Metchnikoff drank sour milk every day. He believed that the lactic acid bacteria found in fermented foods like yogurt, especially the <i>Lactobacillus bulgaricus</i> strain, helped to promote longevity by preventing potentially disease-causing bacteria from proliferating in the intestines. He attributed the long life of Bulgarian peasants to their daily consumption of yogurt.</p> Wed, 11 Sep 2024 16:54:56 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10071 at /oss /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition-general-science/should-you-be-worried-about-eating-burned-toast <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/the-right-chemistry-should-you-be-worry-about-eating-burned-toast">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 06 Sep 2024 21:30:09 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10065 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/no-tolerance-igg-food-intolerance-tests <p>“But where’s the harm?” we are so often asked. When your baby dies and has to be resuscitated in the emergency room, I’d say the harm has a Vegas-sized neon arrow above it.</p> <p>An infant boy in Hong Kong had a really bad reaction to being introduced to cow’s milk at eight months of age: vomiting, difficulty breathing, and a generalized skin rash. The doctors performed an allergy test by pricking his skin and sure enough the boy was allergic to a protein in cow’s milk. Hurray for modern science.</p> Fri, 30 Aug 2024 02:02:34 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10050 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/waxing-lyrical-about-fruit-wax <p>Apparently Snow White's wicked stepmother knew something about chemistry and toxicology. She brewed up a remarkable poison to put the anemic young lady into a state of suspended animation. But how to get her to ingest it? Who, thought the evil queen, could resist a bright, shiny apple? Certainly not Snow White. And you know the rest of the story. </p> Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:15:59 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10042 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/doc-detox-tries-rewrite-all-medicine <p>If you are desperate enough, there is someone out there willing to rewrite all of medicine and relieve you of your savings. A former nurse with multiple sclerosis lost over $10,000 in this way, according to a CBC Marketplace investigation. To whom did she give this money, you may wonder? To Darrell Wolfe, who calls himself Doc of Detox.</p> Fri, 09 Aug 2024 02:14:41 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10021 at /oss /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition/coffee-brain <p>Most nutritional studies are observational meaning that researchers observe what happens in a given population as a result of consuming a food or beverage without any sort of intervention on their part. Such studies usually depend on participants filling out questionnaires about the amounts of specific foods consumed as well as the frequency of consumption. This is problematic because of faulty recall, inability to estimate amounts, and a tendency to report what the subject thinks should have been eaten as opposed to what was actually consumed.</p> Wed, 07 Aug 2024 14:25:36 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10019 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/many-mistakes-johnny-harris <p>Media literacy is not faring well. If we look at OECD countries, most of whom are described as high-income economies, do you know how many of their fifteen-year-olds can distinguish between a fact and an opinion in a text?</p> Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:04:22 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10015 at /oss /oss/article/student-contributors-health-and-nutrition-did-you-know/are-your-refrigerator-habits-inviting-unwanted-bacteria <p>As a kid I grew up being told that I had to let food cool down before putting it in the fridge. I was under the notion that placing warm food directly in the refrigerator could cause the other foods in the refrigerator to warm up. I had also been told that placing warm food in the refrigerator was a waste of energy as the fridge would have to work harder to maintain a cool temperature. I was shocked when I learned that leaving leftovers to cool on the countertop posed a potential risk for my health.</p> Fri, 02 Aug 2024 14:39:35 +0000 Daniela Padres 10014 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/sea-moss-chili-peppers-and-broccoli-soup <p>Some of the nutritional advice that flashes across my computer screen every day is outright nonsense, much of it is speckled with smidgens of science that have no practical relevance, and in a few rare instances, there may be some points of interest that merit a further look. Let me illustrate with a few examples that cropped up on a single morning.</p> Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:19:35 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10007 at /oss