health – Page 2 – The Science of Food

July 28, 2025

Quick Bite: How to avoid death by Listeria

An outbreak of Listeria in Ireland is a good reminder of how dangerous this particularly nasty bacteria is to our food supply. The species that infects humans, Listeria monocytogenes, is abundant in soil, stream water, sewage and on plants which means it can easily contaminate our food and become a real danger in items that Continue reading

bacteria, food safety, Listeria

#cooking, Food, food poisoning, food safety, food science, health, Listeria, nutrition
July 17, 2025

Vitamin D and human individuality

In a world that seems hell bent on pigeon-holing us into convenient advertising demographics it is worth remembering that almost every single one of us is completely unique. Thanks to sexual reproduction and genetic recombination each of us is an experiment in what can be achieved with the raw clay of the human gene pool. Continue reading

genetics, nutrition, vitamins

diet, dietary supplements, epigenetics, Food, food science, genetics, health, nutrition, rickets, sunlight, vitamin D, vitamins
July 14, 2025

Bacterial growth or how not to kill your dinner guests

There is an old Indian parable of a king who wanted to reward a wise man who had invented chess. The wise old man asked for rice but had an unusual stipulation when was asked how much rice he wanted. He requested a single grain of rice to be put on the first square of Continue reading

bacteria, food safety, meat

bacteria, bacterial growth, death phase, diet, Food, food poisoning, food safety, food science, health, lag phase, log phase, meat temperatures, nutrition, stationary phase, wellness
July 8, 2025

Oxygen, electrons and Scottish chefs: How understanding redox reactions could save you from a bollocking

Many years ago I was working in a restaurant in Scotland and in an effort to save myself some time I prepped a stack of apples we were using as a garnish hours before we needed them. Thinking I’d done something clever I was radiating smugness until a coworker pointed out that the apples would Continue reading

antioxidants, chemistry, redox reactions

antioxidants, biology, chemistry, food chemistry, food science, free radicals, health, iron, oxidation, oxidative stress, oxidising agent, redox reaction, reducing agent, reduction-oxidation reactions, Science
June 18, 2025

Pork, another red meat

Fear is a great motivator and, being in the business of motivation, advertising has always been very quick to take advantage of human uncertainty to build demand. An example of this is the famous “The other white meat” campaign for pork that ran in the States in 1987 and was copied here in Australia during Continue reading

chemistry, meat, pork, proteins, steak

biochemistry, chemistry, chicken, chicken breast, cooking, diet, fast twitch muscle, fitness, Food, food science, haem, health, muscle, myoglobin, nutrition, pork, red meat, slow twitch muscle, steak, white meat
June 10, 2025

Bananas, uniformity and catastrophe

I’ve been reliably informed by influencers, billionaires, failed comedians, politicians, Twitter pundits and assorted spite-filled meat-puppets looking to build an audience that diversity is a bad thing. Now I’m not one to disagree with the new intelligentsia but as a scientist, a member of the old intelligentsia I guess, I can’t help but feel, deep Continue reading

bananas, genetics, infectious disease

agriculture, allele, bananas, biology, Cavendish, chromosome, evolution, food science, genetic diversity, genetics, Gros Michel, health, inheritance, Science
May 29, 2025

A requiem for bacon

On October 26, 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) broke my heart. I know this sounds dramatic and maybe even a little silly. International research agencies don’t go around breaking peoples’ hearts. How can I justify this outrageous statement? Well it was on this day that the IARC issued a press release Continue reading

bacon, cancer, cell biology, chemistry, health, nutrition, processed meat, steak, vegetable

bacon, bowel cancer, cancer, chorizo, colorectal cancer, diet, DNA, Food, food science, haem, health, IARC, N-nitrosamines, N-nitroso compounds, nitrates, nitrites, nitrosation, nutrition, processed meat, S-nitrosothiols, wellness
May 20, 2025

Stewing like a medieval peasant: How to deal with the the tougher cuts

Of all the wonders of the modern world I think that a supermarket would be the thing that would inspire the most awe in a time-travelling medieval peasant. The availability of spices would be one thing. Our vast range of ultra-processed ready-to-eat meals would be another. But the ability to walk into a supermarket and Continue reading

proteins, steak, tough cuts

actin, braise, brisket, collagen, connective tissue, Food, food science, health, meat, myosin, nutrition, slow cooking, stew, tough cuts, travel
May 11, 2025

What are ultra-processed foods and why are they coming to get me?

Anyone with even a cursory interest in food and nutrition must have noticed that ultra-processed foods are having a big moment in the media. Barely a day goes by why without some article like “Every Bite of Ultra-Processed Foods May Increase Risk of Early Death, Study Says” or “Ultra-processed foods are silently altering your metabolism, Continue reading

nutrition, salt, ultra-processed foods

diet, Food, health, insulin, insulin resistance, junk food, microbiome, Nova classification, nutrition, ultra-processed foods, wellness
May 1, 2025

Everything you ever wanted to know about cream (the food not the band)

Today I want to get back to dairy. In particular I want to get back to milks sexy cousin: cream. Cream comes from milk and we already know that milk is an emulsion of fats dispersed in a watery continuous phase. We also know that the fats in milk are packaged into a globule called Continue reading

chemistry, dairy, emulsifier, emulsions, fats, fermentation, milk, pasteurisation, raw milk

#cooking, baking, butter, clotted cream, cream, creme fraiche, dairy, fats, Food, health, medieval, milk, milk fat globules, milk snow, sour cream, triacyglycerol, whipped cream