CLICK TO ENLARGE !!Here is an interesting example of either human psychology or process engineering, depending how you look at it.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Another Chemical We Don't Need in Our Food
New Stealth Chemicals Hidden in Your Food
If you pick up a can of soup and find that the sodium levels are lower than you expected, or that a food item advertises it has “less sugar” or “no MSG” ... then there may be cause for alarm.
A relatively young company, Senomyx, may be responsible for the sodium and sugar levels falling in various grocery store items. They may be putting chemicals into your food right now, without telling you and without you even realizing. Under the law, they don’t have to.
Senomyx has contracted with Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, and Campbell Soup to put a chemical in foods that masks bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on your tongue. The companies can then reduce sugar and sodium levels by approximately half without affecting the flavor.
All of the companies declined to identify which foods and beverages the chemical additives have been or will be added to. These chemical compounds are not required to be listed separately on food labels; they are grouped into the general category of "artificial flavors.
"Senomyx was able to obtain FDA approval and a “generally recognized as safe” classification from the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in less than a year and a half, based on a safety study of rats conducted for just 3 months.
Food items that are most likely to contain these new chemicals include soups, juices (fruit and vegetable), ice cream and sauces.
Sources:
Natural News April 10, 2008
Say What?
Perhaps one day we can all simply eat cans of mush, and it won’t matter because they’ll contain chemicals to block and alter all of our taste receptors! This is an example of reverse engineering gone awry.
Processed foods, by their very nature, do not taste good unless they have loads of artificial colors and flavoring agents, salt, sugar and often MSG added to doctor up the flavors.
In fact, most processed foods would taste incredibly bitter if they weren’t doctored up because of things like their extremely hot cooking processes and added caffeine (in soft drinks).
So what do food companies like Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, and Coca-Cola do? They hire Senomyx, a biotech company that can skillfully manipulate your taste buds with synthetic chemicals.
The company has already developed several chemicals that, although they contain no flavor of their own, activate or block receptors in your mouth that taste. The chemicals can mimic or enhance savory, sweet and salty tastes, and are intended to reduce the use of sugar, salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in processed foods.
One of Senomyx’s chemicals even causes a “cooling” taste, and we have only just begun to hear about the “innovations” that come from this company.Senomyx already has 113 patents, and 371 more pending, in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in the world.
A Lesson About Your Taste Buds
When you were in grade school, you were probably taught that certain areas of your tongue can taste different flavors. The “sweet” taste buds, for instance, were said to be at the tip of your tongue, and the “bitter” ones in back.This taste-bud tongue map is still being taught today, but it has been known for decades to be entirely incorrect. In reality, each one of your taste buds contains 50 to 100 receptors for each taste. This means that you can taste every flavor there is with every taste bud on your tongue.
And, along with the standard sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes that everyone has heard of, your tongue can also taste a fifth basic taste: umami (the taste of glutamate, which is found in many Japanese foods, bacon and also MSG).
It is also being debated whether or not there is actually a sixth taste receptor for fat on your tongue as well.Of course, your taste buds are not only there for pleasurable purposes. They also help you determine if a food is spoiled, unripe or otherwise unsafe to eat, which is why you’re probably better off leaving your taste buds as nature intended them to be: in fully functioning, tasting condition.
Your Taste Buds May Already be Deceiving You
Nestle is already marketing products that contain one of Senomyx’s savory enhancers.But you would never know it, because the chemical compounds are lumped in with an ingredient that’s already listed on most processed foods: “artificial flavors.”
A little digging and found that the first product sold by Nestle that includes these “savory flavor ingredients” is bouillon used as a base to make soups and stews.
So if you are using one of theirs that lists “artificial flavors,” I’d be very suspicious.Meanwhile, because the compounds are being used in small amounts (less than one part per million), Senomyx did not have to go through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval process typically necessary to release food additives. Instead of the lengthy FDA process, the company only had to be classified as "generally recognized as safe" by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association -- a task that took less than 18 months.
And as for safety, well there was that one three-month rat study. That’s right: one three-month long study is apparently enough for major food manufacturers to decide that a never-before-used chemical is safe for you and your family to eat.
Unfortunately, for now it appears that these taste-bud-altering chemicals are here to stay, as earlier this month both Coca-Cola and Nestle extended their research agreements with Senomyx.
If You Want Chemical-Free Food …It is becoming more important than ever to avoid processed foods. At the very least, boycott any product that lists “artificial flavors” as an ingredient.
You can tell a real food from a processed food because real foods are:
Grown, not processed
Messy, not neat and convenient
Of variable quality, not always the same
Prone to spoiling, not “forever” fresh
Vibrantly colored and textured, not dull and bland
Naturally flavorful, not artificially flavored
Strongly connected to the land and culture
Real foods have flavors that your taste buds won’t want to miss, so take a break from the grocery store and take advantage of your local farmer’s markets. There you’ll find fresh, whole foods that your taste buds will be happy to recognize
If you pick up a can of soup and find that the sodium levels are lower than you expected, or that a food item advertises it has “less sugar” or “no MSG” ... then there may be cause for alarm.
A relatively young company, Senomyx, may be responsible for the sodium and sugar levels falling in various grocery store items. They may be putting chemicals into your food right now, without telling you and without you even realizing. Under the law, they don’t have to.
Senomyx has contracted with Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, and Campbell Soup to put a chemical in foods that masks bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on your tongue. The companies can then reduce sugar and sodium levels by approximately half without affecting the flavor.
All of the companies declined to identify which foods and beverages the chemical additives have been or will be added to. These chemical compounds are not required to be listed separately on food labels; they are grouped into the general category of "artificial flavors.
"Senomyx was able to obtain FDA approval and a “generally recognized as safe” classification from the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in less than a year and a half, based on a safety study of rats conducted for just 3 months.
Food items that are most likely to contain these new chemicals include soups, juices (fruit and vegetable), ice cream and sauces.
Sources:
Natural News April 10, 2008
Say What?
Perhaps one day we can all simply eat cans of mush, and it won’t matter because they’ll contain chemicals to block and alter all of our taste receptors! This is an example of reverse engineering gone awry.
Processed foods, by their very nature, do not taste good unless they have loads of artificial colors and flavoring agents, salt, sugar and often MSG added to doctor up the flavors.
In fact, most processed foods would taste incredibly bitter if they weren’t doctored up because of things like their extremely hot cooking processes and added caffeine (in soft drinks).
So what do food companies like Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, and Coca-Cola do? They hire Senomyx, a biotech company that can skillfully manipulate your taste buds with synthetic chemicals.
The company has already developed several chemicals that, although they contain no flavor of their own, activate or block receptors in your mouth that taste. The chemicals can mimic or enhance savory, sweet and salty tastes, and are intended to reduce the use of sugar, salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in processed foods.
One of Senomyx’s chemicals even causes a “cooling” taste, and we have only just begun to hear about the “innovations” that come from this company.Senomyx already has 113 patents, and 371 more pending, in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in the world.
A Lesson About Your Taste Buds
When you were in grade school, you were probably taught that certain areas of your tongue can taste different flavors. The “sweet” taste buds, for instance, were said to be at the tip of your tongue, and the “bitter” ones in back.This taste-bud tongue map is still being taught today, but it has been known for decades to be entirely incorrect. In reality, each one of your taste buds contains 50 to 100 receptors for each taste. This means that you can taste every flavor there is with every taste bud on your tongue.
And, along with the standard sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes that everyone has heard of, your tongue can also taste a fifth basic taste: umami (the taste of glutamate, which is found in many Japanese foods, bacon and also MSG).
It is also being debated whether or not there is actually a sixth taste receptor for fat on your tongue as well.Of course, your taste buds are not only there for pleasurable purposes. They also help you determine if a food is spoiled, unripe or otherwise unsafe to eat, which is why you’re probably better off leaving your taste buds as nature intended them to be: in fully functioning, tasting condition.
Your Taste Buds May Already be Deceiving You
Nestle is already marketing products that contain one of Senomyx’s savory enhancers.But you would never know it, because the chemical compounds are lumped in with an ingredient that’s already listed on most processed foods: “artificial flavors.”
A little digging and found that the first product sold by Nestle that includes these “savory flavor ingredients” is bouillon used as a base to make soups and stews.
So if you are using one of theirs that lists “artificial flavors,” I’d be very suspicious.Meanwhile, because the compounds are being used in small amounts (less than one part per million), Senomyx did not have to go through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval process typically necessary to release food additives. Instead of the lengthy FDA process, the company only had to be classified as "generally recognized as safe" by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association -- a task that took less than 18 months.
And as for safety, well there was that one three-month rat study. That’s right: one three-month long study is apparently enough for major food manufacturers to decide that a never-before-used chemical is safe for you and your family to eat.
Unfortunately, for now it appears that these taste-bud-altering chemicals are here to stay, as earlier this month both Coca-Cola and Nestle extended their research agreements with Senomyx.
If You Want Chemical-Free Food …It is becoming more important than ever to avoid processed foods. At the very least, boycott any product that lists “artificial flavors” as an ingredient.
You can tell a real food from a processed food because real foods are:
Grown, not processed
Messy, not neat and convenient
Of variable quality, not always the same
Prone to spoiling, not “forever” fresh
Vibrantly colored and textured, not dull and bland
Naturally flavorful, not artificially flavored
Strongly connected to the land and culture
Real foods have flavors that your taste buds won’t want to miss, so take a break from the grocery store and take advantage of your local farmer’s markets. There you’ll find fresh, whole foods that your taste buds will be happy to recognize
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Mysteries of Sleep
New Information on the Science of Sleep
Human beings sleep through one-third of their lives, yet why we sleep is one of the biggest unanswered questions of science. In the fascinating article from 60 Minutes, linked below, Lesley Stahl explores all of the latest scientific findings about the reasons for -- and functions of -- sleep.Here is a sampling of what she found after talking with sleep researchers from across the United States:
You can die from sleep deprivation, just like you can die from being deprived of food.
Sleep can actually enhance your memories.
A single night of sleeping just four, five or even six hours can impact your ability to think clearly.
Sleep deprivation can cause changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders.
Sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.
Sources:
CBS News March 16, 2008
It is just an amazing thing that for something we spend so much of our time doing, there is no strong consensus as to exactly WHY we do it. Sure we are rechargin, regenerating but what is the science behind this?
What is known is that humans are the only animals that continually push the limits of sleep -- and try to function without enough of it.As Stahl’s report so clearly revealed, skimping on sleep is a recipe for disaster. For instance, too little sleep can:
1. Make you fat: People who sleep less than seven hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI) than people who sleep more. This could be because sleep deprivation alters metabolism. Leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, falls while ghrelin, which signals hunger, rises -- and this boosts your appetite
.2. Harm your brain: Lack of sleep may cause your brain to stop producing new connections
among the trillions of cells is your brain.
3. Increase your risk of cancer: How well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This can then disrupt your sleep/wake cycle, also called your circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep.
4. Increase your risk of diabetes: Too little sleep may reduce levels of leptin, possibly causing you to gain weight and then develop diabetes.
5. Accelerate aging: Regularly catching only a few hours of sleep can hinder metabolism and hormone production in a way that is similar to the effects of aging.Studies have also linked sleep deprivation to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. And it’s during sleep that your body does most of its repairs, so not getting enough of it can impair your immune system and leave you less able to fight off diseases.Yet, in today’s society, the ability to get just five hours of sleep a night, or less, is touted like a badge of honor. Well, you may think that you can function on just a little bit of sleep, but you cannot fool your body. All of the caffeine in the world cannot make up for a good night’s sleep.
How Much Sleep Do You Need?Generally speaking, adults need to get between six and nine hours of sleep a night. But there are definitely exceptions. Some people can, in fact, function well on as few as five hours a night, while others need up to 10.You may also need more sleep during times of illness or emotional stress, or during the winter months. And pregnant women often need several hours more sleep than usual during their first three months of pregnancy.A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you feel tired when you wake up, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep. Most of us have set times that we need to wake up in the morning, so getting more sleep, for most of us, means going to bed earlier.
Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep
which include:
Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.
Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible. If there is even the tiniest bit of light in your room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin.
No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even out of the house, completely. It is too stimulating to your brain and it will take longer to fall asleep.
Wear socks to bed. Due to the fact that they have the poorest circulation, your feet often feel cold before the rest of your body. A study has shown that wearing socks reduces night wakings
Get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly our adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11PM and 1AM.
Keep the temperature in the bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F. Many people keep their homes and particularly the upstairs bedrooms too hot.
Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan need to produce melatonin and serotonin.
Human beings sleep through one-third of their lives, yet why we sleep is one of the biggest unanswered questions of science. In the fascinating article from 60 Minutes, linked below, Lesley Stahl explores all of the latest scientific findings about the reasons for -- and functions of -- sleep.Here is a sampling of what she found after talking with sleep researchers from across the United States:
You can die from sleep deprivation, just like you can die from being deprived of food.
Sleep can actually enhance your memories.
A single night of sleeping just four, five or even six hours can impact your ability to think clearly.
Sleep deprivation can cause changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders.
Sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.
Sources:
CBS News March 16, 2008
It is just an amazing thing that for something we spend so much of our time doing, there is no strong consensus as to exactly WHY we do it. Sure we are rechargin, regenerating but what is the science behind this?
What is known is that humans are the only animals that continually push the limits of sleep -- and try to function without enough of it.As Stahl’s report so clearly revealed, skimping on sleep is a recipe for disaster. For instance, too little sleep can:
1. Make you fat: People who sleep less than seven hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI) than people who sleep more. This could be because sleep deprivation alters metabolism. Leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, falls while ghrelin, which signals hunger, rises -- and this boosts your appetite
.2. Harm your brain: Lack of sleep may cause your brain to stop producing new connections
among the trillions of cells is your brain.
3. Increase your risk of cancer: How well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This can then disrupt your sleep/wake cycle, also called your circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep.
4. Increase your risk of diabetes: Too little sleep may reduce levels of leptin, possibly causing you to gain weight and then develop diabetes.
5. Accelerate aging: Regularly catching only a few hours of sleep can hinder metabolism and hormone production in a way that is similar to the effects of aging.Studies have also linked sleep deprivation to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. And it’s during sleep that your body does most of its repairs, so not getting enough of it can impair your immune system and leave you less able to fight off diseases.Yet, in today’s society, the ability to get just five hours of sleep a night, or less, is touted like a badge of honor. Well, you may think that you can function on just a little bit of sleep, but you cannot fool your body. All of the caffeine in the world cannot make up for a good night’s sleep.
How Much Sleep Do You Need?Generally speaking, adults need to get between six and nine hours of sleep a night. But there are definitely exceptions. Some people can, in fact, function well on as few as five hours a night, while others need up to 10.You may also need more sleep during times of illness or emotional stress, or during the winter months. And pregnant women often need several hours more sleep than usual during their first three months of pregnancy.A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you feel tired when you wake up, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep. Most of us have set times that we need to wake up in the morning, so getting more sleep, for most of us, means going to bed earlier.
Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep
which include:
Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.
Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible. If there is even the tiniest bit of light in your room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin.
No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even out of the house, completely. It is too stimulating to your brain and it will take longer to fall asleep.
Wear socks to bed. Due to the fact that they have the poorest circulation, your feet often feel cold before the rest of your body. A study has shown that wearing socks reduces night wakings
Get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly our adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11PM and 1AM.
Keep the temperature in the bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F. Many people keep their homes and particularly the upstairs bedrooms too hot.
Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan need to produce melatonin and serotonin.
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