"fat" news and stories

Australian scientists claim they've stumbled upon a sixth sense -- but not the kind where you see dead people. No, researchers down under have found a new flavor sense: fat.

Everyone knows that fat is an excellent vehicle for food flavors and has a highly appealing mouthfeel. A new study, however, suggests that along with sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (essentially, the ability to detect protein), we can also actually taste fat itself.

Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, "This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat." In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree.

America: the land of the free... and the fat. In the nation's more-is-more eating culture, three in five Americans are officially considered overweight -- and kids are no exception, one in three of whom reportedly eats fast food on a daily basis. But waistline-watchdog MSNBC has culled a list of "20 Worst Kids' Foods in America," to shed light upon some particularly fattening kids'-meal culprits.

Categories range from "worst homestyle meal" (Boston Market's Kids' Meat Loaf with Sweet Potato Casserole and Cornbread, which packs a whopping 890 calories into a tiny TV dinner), to "worst beverage" (the super-saccharine SunnyD Smooth Style, which boosts 60 grams of sugar into one measly cup -- triple that of a cup of Tropicana), to the "worst kids' meal in America": Uno Chicago Grill's Kid's Combo with French Fries, a monochromatic carb-fest cramming kids with cheese sticks, chicken nuggets and fries, a monster of a meal weighing in at 1,250 calories and 2,850 milligrams sodium.

It's no wonder that 16 percent of today's youth, aged 6 to 19, is overweight or obese with the gut bombs like those listed in the regular meal rotations, according to the report. Shockingly, "today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents" because of obesity-related health problems, Michael Pollan writes in "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

What do you think is to blame for the rise of childhood obesity -- is it fair to blame fast-food providers or the parents?

[Via MSNBC]

Polenta Pizza. Photo: The Brown-Eyed Baker.

There are few combinations more satisfying than starch and fat. It's why hamburgers and macaroni and cheese always seem to please even the most picky eaters. Add a few colorful vegetables to the mix and you have a meal that covers the food groups and catches the eye, like this pizza from the Brown-Eyed Baker.

But this is not your typical slice. In addition to the square Sicilian cut, what you may not see right away is that the crust is made of crispy polenta and topped off with deliciously rich bacon and Fontina cheese, as well as a healthy dose of vegetables (cremini mushrooms, baby spinach and a Roma tomato).

[Via The Brown Eyed Baker]

Check out this delightfully disgusting new blog, This is Why You're Fat (subhead: "Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks"). Readers are encouraged to send in pictures of their most grotesque fat-on-fat food creations: Corn dog pizzas, seven-pound breakfast burritos, Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers. Some actually look rather tasty - candied bacon ice cream, Frito pie, nacho burgers.

Others border on post-modern art - the Tower of Babel-like "Mega Double Stuff Oreo" with the creme fillings of three dozen or so regular Oreos stuffed precariously between two cookie halves, the "Turboconucken" - a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. Wrapped in bacon. A commentary on the gluttony and greed of contemporary American society. Or just delicious?

Source

Your recipe calls for butter or another fat. Depending on the quantity called for, there are different times you should add it.