Site of the Day for Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Looking to Junk Food to Design Healthier Options
Today's site from the outstanding journal of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in the US offers an eye-opening article on the
impetus to create healthy alternatives to the siren call of fast food. Gentle
Subscribers will find this scientific article relevant and of significant
interest to the general public.
" 'A range of foods, from burgers made from plant protein to nonalcoholic
beers, tap into design principles from the original food to make something new
and, in principle, improved. ...We're wired to like the tastes of sugar and
salt ...These chemicals are binding receptors in the tongue ... in the
[gastrointestinal] tract, and neuropathways ... to many areas of the brain ...
Sweet taste, in particular, is so pleasurable that rats consistently prefer it
over cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine in preclinical choice studies ...' --
fresh perspectives on science at a general level ... to advance understanding
of all aspects of science." - from the website
Presented in a scientific format with a sidebar outlining the article's
content, it also spotlights the allure of fast food with a tempting photo of an
Impossible Whopper. The report's sections cover how humans are Wired for
Flavor, and the ongoing research to remove fats, alcohol, and meat. Cutting
Back and Achieving the Impossible detail the efforts to implement the removal
of deleterious elements, yet still come up with foods that deliver the same
satisfying taste as the original products. Because this is a scientific
publication, the article concludes with the standard complement of Footnotes,
References, and Metrics.
NOTE: Although the PNAS journal is an academic, subscription-based publication,
many articles are free to view immediately, while all content is freely
available within 6 months of printing, going back to 1915.
Zoom over to the article to delve into the advances in creating healthy 'junk'
food at:
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/41/e2116665118
A.M. Holm
Comments? Suggestions? amholm@xxxxxxxxxxx
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