The Science of Food

Mushrooms - A Good Source of Vitamin D

The Problem... Vitamin D Levels Are Too Low In Millions Of US Children, Latest Analysis Confirms.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2009) — Millions of children in the United States between the ages of 1 and 11 may suffer from suboptimal levels of vitamin D, according to a large nationally representative study published in the November issue of Pediatrics, accompanied by an editorial.[MORE]

A Solution... Light-zapped mushrooms filled with vitamin D - Bringing 'shrooms out of the dark packs them with sunshine nutrient 

Mushrooms may soon emerge from the dark as an unlikely but significant source of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin that helps keep bones strong and fights disease. Researchers found that a single serving of white button mushrooms will contain 869 percent the daily value of vitamin D once exposed to just five minutes of UV light after being harvested.[MORE]

Similar to the way that humans absorb sunlight and convert it to vitamin D, mushrooms contain a plant sterol–ergosterol–that converts to vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Check out the resources below for more information on vitamin D.

The American Mushroom Institute (AMI) has information on Vitamin D and the latest research on increasing the amount in mushrooms here. 

And here's the data from Penn State University...Post-harvest Vitamin D Enrichment of Fresh Mushroom.

The Inside Scoop on Ben & Jerry’s

Yep, the Penn State folklore is true. Ben & Jerry’s got its start at Penn State through a $5 correspondence course on ice cream making. Founder Jerry Greenfield gave the inside scoop on the business during a recent lecture at Penn State Altoona.

After completing the Penn State correspondence course on ice cream making in 1978, Jerry Greenfield and friend Ben Cohen opened Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Scoop Shop in an old gas station in downtown Burlington, Vt. Two years later, the pair upgraded their digs to an old spool and bobbin mill and began packing their ice cream in pints. Today, Ben & Jerry’s is a producer of specialty ice cream with 64 flavors available in 31 countries. The company now has almost 200 franchised shops. [MORE]

http://www.benjerry.com/

http://creamery.psu.edu/

Penn State Ice Cream Short Course   

Better BBQ through chemistry

WASHINGTON — As summer winds to a close, backyard grillers may be looking back on their last barbecue and asking some rather pointed questions: Why was the grilled chicken so dry? Does eating charred meat really cause cancer? Why did Uncle Fred pucker and cringe after each sip of beer? [MORE]

Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

Link to full screen version of talk here

Organic Nutrient Quality

May 14, 2009

Current data from on and between farm comparisons conducted over several growing seasons suggest that there is no simple answer to the organic vs. conventional comparison. The effects of the cultivation system are often obscured by other environmental and genetic factors. However in all the research reported, the organic cultivation system performed as well as the conventional system. Thus, organic produce is not likely to be inferior to that produced by conventional methods [MORE].

J. Lynne Brown, Professor of Food Science, Penn State University 

More on nutritional aspects of organic food from the Institute of Food Technologists: Scientific Status Summary - Organic Food

Organic Food Not Nutritionally Better Than Conventionally-produced Food, Review Of Literature Shows. ScienceDaily (July 30, 2009) — There is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a study published July 29 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Burning issues in food science - Freezer burn!

The scope of the term freezer burn varies widely in both scientific and lay literature. In the narrowest use of the term, freezer burn describes only the loss of moisture (also termed as dehydration or desiccation) from the surface of frozen foods over time during frozen storage, yielding an opaque dehydrated surface. In the broadest use of the term, freezer burn describes both the dehydration and associated degradation in color, texture, and flavor that can occur on the surface of frozen foods, over time during frozen storage. These undesirable quality changes are exemplified by the toughening and discoloration of the surface of meat and poultry products, such as color changes in beef from red to brown and in skinless chicken breasts from pink to tan; the shriveling of the surface of frozen foods, shown in for frozen green beans; and the occurrence of lipid oxidation, which negatively impacts food flavor. Freezer-burned food is safe to consume from a microbial perspective, but is of poor eating quality. If the freezer-burned area is not too extensive, you can simply cut the affected portions off before or after cooking. [MORE]

Trans Fat: When Zero Isn't Really Zero

NPR Morning Edition, March 26, 2009

Here's a question to challenge your nutrition literacy: How much trans fat is likely in a package of cookies that are labeled as having zero grams per serving?

"I would say zero!" said Joanna Robinson, of Washington, D.C., who was grocery shopping this week during her lunch break. "I'd trust the label."

But other shoppers were more skeptical. "More than zero," said Guy Powell.

How To Spot Trans Fat

The way to know if a packaged food contains trans fat is to scan the ingredient label for oils labeled as "partially hydrogenated."

Food manufacturers have relied on hydrogenated oils to add shelf life to products and also to make ingredients stick together better. The process of adding hydrogen molecules to vegetable oils makes them thicker [MORE]

Audio version [Listen Now]

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils and Trans Fatty Acids
Prepared by J. Lynne Brown, Penn State professor of food science.

Other Penn State Food Science Department health and wellness fact sheets.

Fish Health Claims May Cause More Environmental Harm Than Good, Researchers Say

ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2009) — The health benefits of fish consumption have been over-dramatized and have put increased pressure on wild fish, according to a new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). In an innovative collaboration, medical scientists from St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto have teamed up with researchers from the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre and author Farley Mowat to closely examine the effects of health claims with regard to seafood [MORE].

The joy of soy: The controversial history of the soybean – and the uncertain future of tofu

Though it was domesticated more than 3,000 years ago, the editors of the recently published "The World of Soy" state that  hardly any other food plant is as modern as the soybean - or as controversial [MORE].

Did Marco Polo bring pasta from China?

Long before paper, gunpowder and the compass, the Chinese had invented yet another staple of human civilization. A coil of dry noodles, preserved for 4,000 years, sat beneath an overturned earthenware bowl at an archaeological site in northeastern China. In 2005, archaeologists discovered the spaghetti-like tangle, effectively settling the score about whether the Chinese, Italians or Arabs began producing pasta first. But as any gourmand worth an ounce of orzo will quickly tell you, there isn't a grain of truth to Polo as the pasta pioneer.

Read the article from How Things Work here