Variety encourages eating. People eat significantly more if you hand them a bowl with ten rather than just six colors of M&M’s. If you give them a plate of spaghetti, they eat a certain amount and stop, but if you then present them with more pasta in a different shape, such as tortellini, they eat…
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Instant noodle inventor Momofuku Ando loved golf so much that he dreamed of dying on the golf course. When he passed away in 2007, the number eighty-six billion circulated in his obituaries. That was the number of servings of instant noodles we consumed on earth the previous year. It comes to nearly twelve bowls for…
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Ikaria in Greece is sometimes described as the place where people forget to die. Like the other blue zones, the island has more centenarians than anywhere else in the world. According to explorer Dan Buettner, who first set out on a quest in 2000 to identify places where people lived longer, there are five such…
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Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarins book from 1825 is famous for the aphorism “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are.” He believed that food defined the nation. Perhaps less known is that he’s one of the earliest proponents of a low carbohydrate diet for weight loss. He recites a dialogue when dining with the stout…
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There’s a very famous Time magazine cover with a plate of bacon and eggs forming a sad face. Inside the magazine, there’s an article called “Hold the Eggs and Butter.” It speaks about the evils of cholesterol. The year of the article is 1984. Everywhere we demonized animal fats as we made way for healthier…
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Diet is related to brain size. While navigating the food aisle in the supermarket is simpler than surviving in nature, humans still spend a lot of brainpower on food selection. Omnivores, like rats and humans, have significantly larger brains than folivores. That is the herbivores that specialize in eating leaves, like pandas and koalas. Contrary…
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What can you eat on the ketogenic diet? From my point of view, it’s a lot. Others, like the bear, would say it’s very restrictive. After a week of ketogenic eating, he lost the will to live, and an endless stream of complaints followed. As he put it, the keto diet is great for weight…
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I’m following the 16:8 diet (again), which means eating all your meals within an eight-hour window. While I’d love to take off a few kilos of my post-pandemic weight, I’m more interested in the fasting part. If there’s anything I’ve taken away from all the diet books I’ve read, it’s that fasting is good for…
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Yesterday my mum sent me a recipe from one of her women’s magazines. As she told me on the phone: “It looks delicious and must be perfect for your diabetic needs, darling.” The recipe was for a diabetic loaf. I stopped reading on the second ingredient, which was 700 ml of oats. When I pointed…
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I’ve been reading The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fyfe. The clue is in the title. Coconuts are great for everything. Not only do the medium chain fatty acids have antimicrobial properties, but they can also protect against western diseases and replace your commercial skin lotion. At least that’s what the author claims. Coconuts, together…
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