"food science" news and stories

There's a new Nestle formula in the works, and it's quite a trick: Design food that will make us feel fuller quicker and stay feeling full longer. Given the high obesity rates in America, this might sound like a good thing, but listen to how it works.

Scientists of the Swiss chocolate company are trying to understand how your "gut brain" works by learning the language of digestion, reports the Wall Street Journal. To figure this out, they've designed a million-dollar see-through model of the human stomach. Then they fed it foods like regular olive oil and olive oil with monoglycerides, and found that the latter, while making you feel more full could also prove more difficult for the stomach to digest. So they're tinkering with this knowledge to come up with what they hope will be the best of both worlds -- foods that tell your brain you're full and your stomach to feel healthy and satisfied.

New products could hit shelves within the next five years, in many forms other than chocolate. Nestle also produces drinks, bottled water, cereal, coffee, frozen foods and pet food. While we have to admit it's interesting to be able to track how our bodies respond to food at every stage, tricking it might be a slippery slope we're not prepared to handle. Candy bar, anyone?

Sugar makes your kids hyper. Eating carbs for lunch makes you crave a nap by 3 p.m. True or false? False, according to a Los Angeles Times story, "The Food-Mood Connection." It's not the candy that gets the kids all worked up, reports writer Marni Jameson. It's just the excitement of the sweets and the events, like Halloween, that surround them. In fact, in a 1995 study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, kids and adults who were given sweets with artificial sugar behaved no differently than the folks who got the genuine-sugar deal. Sorry, Mom and Dad. Can't use the old "it's makes you too hyper" excuse anymore.

And another thing: Don't blame your lunchtime pasta primavera for making you want an afternoon nap, psychologist Robin Kanarak, director of the Tufts University nutrition and behavioral laboratory, tells the Times. It's your natural circadian rhythm. Just have a healthy snack and you'll perk up.

Who would refute that chocolate makes us happy? Visit the L.A. Times to find out if it's the candy bar that's making you feel all warm and fuzzy.

NYU chemistry professor Kent Kirshenbaum. Photo: Jeff Potter

Like many inquisitive scientists, Kent Kirshenbaum regularly scans the ingredient list of prepared foods to uncover the chemical composites lurking within. The substance that most recently piqued the New York University chemistry professor's curiosity is liquid smoke. "My immediate thought was that it was a horrible mix of chemicals," he told us.

After distilling the concentrated smoke and liquid mix (often sold at the grocery store by the bottle to enhance barbecue) down to its roots of water and more than 400 chemical compounds, the scientist (who in person comes across as one part Einstein, one part Malcolm Gladwell) learned that liquid smoke is actually "safer [for human ingestion] than untreated wood smoke."

Kirshenbaum discussed his discovery last week during a monthly gathering of the Experimental Cuisine Collective -- food nerds who love to make things like edible foam. We caught up with him to chat smoke, bongs and homemade liquid smoke.

What is liquid smoke?
Liquid smoke is very simply smoke in water. Smoke usually comes as a vapor, but there are ways to condense it and turn it into liquid and that liquid can then be carried in water.

Do you want to save the world? Dr. John D. Floros, President of the Institute of Food Technologists, believes that if that's the case, you should look into becoming a food scientist. In his opinion, in the coming years food scientists are going to play a huge role in figuring out how to feed the ever-growing world population.

However, the number of food scientists is declining worldwide. According to an article in Confectionary News, numbers are down in Australia, South Africa, the UK, and elsewhere. In the U.S., it is a common misconception that food scientists are the same as chefs.

The Institute of Food Technologists has a plan to turn things around though. They have devised a "three-pronged attack" in which they get information to high school students, urge food science students to more actively recruit their peers, and to build an association or community of young food science professionals.

Their efforts must be working, because food science was recently placed at number three on a recent CNN list of nine well paying cool jobs. At a staring salary of around $53,000, I think that food science may just get some people's attention. Would you consider becoming a food scientist?

Y'know what I love about Ted Allen? Everything. His carefully sculpted coiff, his evasion of the Queer Eye curse, his smug yet disarming way of knowing so much more about everything than I ever will. And now, as if I needed another reason to worship the damn man, he is hosting the genius new Food Network series Food Detectives.

As if granting my TV prayers, Food Detectives is described as the epicurean answer to Mythbusters. The upcoming primetime show, debuting on July 29th, will feature Allen working with a team of culinary and technical scientists to verify or debunk famous food myths. Slated thusfar: the five-second rule, the gestation of gum digestion, and an apple-a-day's effect on doctors.

Additionally, viewers can submit their own culinary queries. First on my list: Can eating too many carrots turn your skin orange? 'Cause I'd sure like to see Ted all tannined. Which food fables would you like to see tested?

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