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Wine, fast food, beer, a heavy meal: all things that make you crash right to sleep, right? New research shows that though these foods may help you fall asleep, they don't actually make your sleep any more restful.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget recently wondered if there were some magic food to solve sleep problems but found that it was more plausible to define which foods actually hinder sleep.

As it turns out, if you want to get a good night's rest, don't consume a ton of fat or alcohol before hitting the hay, as these both have the ability to disrupt the REM cycle, which is when your body actually rests.

Processed chicken nuggets, syrupy chocolate milk, heaps of salty French fries: It's no real secret that the state of American public school lunches is a mess. But things are even more depressing than you thought: Inmates – yes, actual criminals behind bars – are probably eating better than our kids.

In a recent article for the Tennessee's Herald-Tribune, reporter Tracey Hackett investigated what comes out of the kitchen at the state's Putnam County Justice Center. She found that each inmate gets two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. (Inmates can buy lunchtime snacks if they have an account, as many do). Hackett found that inmates were typically eating from-scratch, balanced meals -- a far cry from the frozen, chemical-laden processed food our kids are getting.

Sarah Parsons at Sustainable Food, a division of Change.org, makes no bones about it, writing that "When you take a look at the school lunches kids receive in America's cafeterias, jail food looks like a meal at a five-star restaurant."

There are plenty of signs that chefs and seafood lovers continue to wrestle with whether to serve and eat fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Many consumers have safety concerns, despite repeated assurances by the federal government and seafood promotion officials. Stories of illegal fishing haven't helped to bolster confidence either. According to FoodSafetyNews.com, more than a dozen catches have been dumped at sea because fishing had been taking place in closed waters. The result? Once bustling restaurants like Snapper's Seafood in Biloxi, Miss. are now painfully short on customers.

But many say that Thursday's move by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will go a long way to ease the safety concerns of eaters.

NOAA announced it was reopening over 26,000 square miles of the closed Gulf area to commercial and recreational fishing. Why? Because according to their data, no oil spill has been observed in the area since mid-June. Additionally, fish caught in the area and tested by experts have shown no signs of contamination. The reopened area is approximately 190 miles southeast of the Deepwater/BP well, with most fishing occurring 220 miles from the BP site.

There are those of us who run to eat. After all, topping off a three-course dinner with molten chocolate cake doesn't induce so much guilt when you think back to the five miles that you jogged that morning. But one Dallas woman is running so others can eat.

Martina Crevecoeur has been running for three years, and in that time she's completed a number of marathons, including Boston's. So when she began training for a half marathon this year, she was looking for some extra motivation.

But instead of goading herself on with self-made promises of a splurge after she crossed the finish line (a decadent meal at her favorite bistro, say), she decided that her reward would be helping others instead. From now until the race on November 7, Crevecoeur is donating 50 cents for every mile she runs to the North Texas Food Bank, and she's challenging others to do the same.

Avoiding being left in the dust of the new health wave, as propelled by Mrs. Obama's meeting with major food markets in May, Kraft announced Monday that it will be pumping up its whole grain content in more than 100 of its products over the next three years.

This move comes after four years of development, the company says, in an effort to increase the use of whole grain without sacrificing the taste consumers have come to know. Despite industry skepticism, Kraft and other major food companies, including ConAgra and Del Monte, recently claimed they've made reductions in sodium; others, in sugar. Last June, Kellogg claimed it would increase fiber by the end of 2010 and last week introduced a line of FiberPlus cereals.

The term "whole grain" signifies an unadulterated product of wheat, something that became less common as major food companies realized that stripping the grain's kernel of its bran, endosperm and germ (all of its nutritional fiber, iron and vitamin content) would produce a finer texture and increase shelf life.

For our sweet-toothed readers, we have some bad news to report: Baskin-Robbins announced that it's shelving five of its 31 signature flavors including the classic staple French Vanilla, which was with the company since it started in 1945, Caramel Praline Cheesecake (1970), Campfire S'mores (1975), Apple Pie a La Mode (1976) and Superfudge Truffle (2007). This has happened before, but never to such magnitude.

The tragic exits, though, will make room for five brand-new flavors in honor of Baskin-Robbin's 65th anniversary and the National Ice Cream Month (July), says a Baskin-Robbin's media representative. More details to come on the new additions, which will be introduced this fall.

As for the old flavors? The final tubs have already been sent out to your local outposts, and are only available while supplies last. (Why am I picturing Seinfeld's Newman running for a big pot to fill up on the Soup Nazi's last batch? Pace yourselves.)

Then they're headed into what the company calls their "Deep Freeze," an online archive for retired flavors and those that have had a limited run.

Join our effort on Facebook -- our mission is to gather enough support to convince Baskin-Robbins that they must keep French Vanilla around! Wondering what's the difference between vanilla and French Vanilla? We've got your answer.

If you believe the ads, the probiotic-lined straw in Boost Kid Essentials drink would "prevent upper respiratory infections, strengthen the immune system and reduce absences from school." Wow, does it do windows, too? Making wild claims is nothing new in the food industry, but it looks like the government is starting to crack down. The Federal Trade Commission went after Nestle, the maker of the drink, claiming the ads went too far.

The company agreed to stop making the claims. The straws contained a dose of L. Reuteri Protectis, a probiotic culture marketed by a company called BioGaia. The popularity of probiotics has skyrocketed in the past few years, with consumers finding doses of the "good" bacteria in yogurts, juices, and powders. Manufacturers claim the products help regulate internal flora, improving health and digestive function.

Evidently, though, the government wasn't impressed with Nestle's ads, and sent them a warning letter late last year.

The big question: Is Gulf seafood safe? There seems to be many layers to this answer.

On the one hand, 35% of the Gulf waters have been deemed tainted and therefore have been closed to fishing, as last reported by The New York Times. This means that 65% of the waters are still open, and this area, officials say, is where the testing for food safety is being done; no tainted seafood has entered the market. So unless your purveyor illegally dove into red-taped waters to catch your dinner, trust that it's already gone through extensive testing.

But to the bigger question -- is the Gulf safe? Can its waters bounce back, its market survive? There's no telling yet how the spill will affect the Gulf's entire ecosystem, especially as the spill has yet to be capped, and the oil has affected different species in different ways. Oysters, the Times notes, can't move through oil and have been crippled against the spill, as evidenced by the last shucking of P&J's Oyster House.

News of the Securities and Exchange Commission's take down of Travis L. Wright has set the financial media abuzz, but it's not so much the alleged crime itself that has them chattering. After all, the $145 million that the Utah-based money manager allegedly bilked clients out of is small potatoes compared to the likes of, say, Bernie Madoff.

Instead, what has the chroniclers of capitalism chortling is what Wright was actually investing the money in. Not commercial real estate, as he told clients, but in the Candwich.

Read more about the Candwich after the jump.

With the safety and ethics of new food technologies causing concern across Europe, the European Parliament asked Wednesday for a ban on the sale of foods from cloned animals and their offspring, the New York Times reported. The group also called for a suspension of foods containing ingredients created with nanotechnology.

The parliament is looking to create legislation that deals specifically with cloning because of concerns over the process and animal cruelty, the Times reported.

"Although no safety concerns have been identified so far with meat produced from cloned animals, this technique raises serious issues about animal welfare, reduction of biodiversity, as well as ethical concerns," said Corinne Lepage, a French member of the European Parliament.

In 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said there were no inherent safety problems with meat or milk from cloned animals -- specifically cows, goats or pigs -- or their offspring, Slashfood reported. It also lifted a moratorium on the sale of meat from cloned animals or their kin.