Why is America so fixed on food fads?
Last week, the New York Times announced that the Korean taco was going to be the next big thing riding into the East Coast, white-hot from its domination of Los Angeles -- another episode in America's...
View ArticleHorse as main course
As a child, the closest I got to horses was a coin-operated mustang in the grocery store. I was mostly indifferent to them, boyhood cowboy phase excepted, until a history professor described the Mongol...
View ArticleOur national love affair with food on sticks
Now that state fair season, aka summer, is drawing to a close, let us look back at the months-long joust between fairs from Minnesota to Texas, and the rough rivalries therein, vying every year for the...
View ArticleHow has gluten-free become so popular?
Gwyneth Paltrow gushes over gluten-free. Chelsea Clinton's wedding cake was baked without it. The new Old Spice guy avoids the ubiquitous protein to help stay buff. In fact, odds are good you too have...
View ArticleNew York hopes to ban spending food stamps on soda
New Yorkers on food stamps would not be allowed to spend them on sugar-sweetened drinks under an obesity-fighting proposal being floated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson.Bloomberg and...
View ArticleSchool cafeterias to try psychology in lunch line
Federal officials are turning to psychology in a new approach to get kids to choose healthier foods in the school lunch line.The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving $2 million to food behavior...
View ArticleThis is what it’s like to eat only potatoes for 60 days
First there were hunger strikes to protest brutal injustices. Then there was "Super Size Me," an all-McDonald's regimen captured on film to show us what fast food is doing to us. But now Chris Voigt is...
View ArticleWhy airplane dining has always been awful
Airplane food has been a punchline for so long that it's almost shocking to remember that it used to be a striking symbol of class. It was the meal with the flavor of a remade world, a globe suddenly...
View ArticleWhat it’s like to eat only potatoes for 60 days, Part 2
When we last left our hero/culinary guinea pig Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, he was nearly halfway done with his 60-day all-potato diet, a feat intended to...
View ArticleThe next diet fad: Imagine yourself pigging out
Psychologists at Carnegie Mellon, led by the excellently named Carey Morewedge, just published a study in Science demonstrating the Mother of All Ironies: that if you imagine yourself eating something,...
View ArticleThe Easy-Bake Oven loses its soul
First things first: Rumors of the death of the Easy-Bake Oven are greatly exaggerated. Rumbling through the Internets yesterday were worries that the federal ban on incandescent light bulbs, due to...
View ArticleThe squirmy ethics of breast milk ice cream
When London-based ice cream maker Matt O'Connor launched "Baby Gaga," a flavor made with human breast milk, he was hoping to start a conversation."I come from a family of Irish dairy farmers," he said....
View ArticleIs the rise of food prices all bad?
Slayers of elitists and other warriors of the downtrodden: Look! I bare my throat to you, fleshy and fat and ripe for the kill. But before you draw your blade, let's talk about this for a minute. Is...
View ArticleNatalie Portman quits veganism. Good for her
In 2009, Natalie Portman read Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals" and turned vegan. Not just any vegan, though. The kind of vegan where you feel the need to make an announcement on the...
View ArticleThe five most ridiculous defenses of Ronald McDonald
McDonald's is under attack again for force-feeding our nation's children greasy, delicious fries. A group called Corporate Accountability International took out full-page ads today in several prominent...
View Article911 called over botched Chinese food order
How many times has this happened to you? You go home and try to enjoy a nice dinner of Chinese food delivery. But when your meal arrives, they've got the order completely wrong!Do you:A) Call back the...
View Article“Freaky Eaters’” JJ Virgin on shock therapy and french fries
JJ Virgin has one of the stranger jobs out there: After spending 25 years studying health and fitness, she now spends her time on TLC, turning around the lives of food addicts on "Freaky Eaters." (No,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How comfort foods work like Prozac
When the recession hit, you could hear the words buzzing from the cell phones of every restaurant consultant in America: "It's time for comfort food." But under the mashed potatoes and meatloaf lies a...
View ArticleGwyneth Paltrow prefers crack to canned cheese
Everything in moderation, especially moderation. That was the truism passed down to me from my father when we would turn into the McDonald's drive-thru and order our occasional Big Macs and Happy...
View ArticleHumans reveal dark side in turtle experiment
An unnerving number of people swerve in order to kill small animals when driving, according to the findings of a student at South Carolina's Clemson University. As the AP reported, Nathan Weaver, 22,...
View Article
