Don’t laugh. The way things are going, it could come to this.
What’s tasty, abundant and high in protein? Bugs! Although less common outside the tropics, entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs, was once extremely widespread throughout cultures. You may feel icky about munching on insects, but they feed about 2 billion people each day (Mmm, fried tarantulas). They also hold promise for food security and the environment. Emma Bryce makes a compelling case for dining on bugs.
Hungry yet?
Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo and cultural festival in Calgary, Alberta. Like some state fairs in the United States, it’s noted for exotic and innovative foods. When it is open this year from July 4-13, visitors will be able to taste at least 32 new foods, including this pizza covered with scorpions. That’s great because spicy food should sting you a little bit.
Why does Swiss Cheese have holes? The answer to one of the questions that keep me up at night.
Enjoy!
SciShow explains:
a) why Swiss cheese has holes
b) what Swiss cheese is called in Switzerland
c) what vested interest the U.S. government has in said cheese holes.Seriously, people.
No doubt some people are discovering freezer burn today.
Now that summer is here, people will again be filling their freezers with Popsicles and ice cream for a cool treat. But have you ever noticed that brittle layer of ice that builds up on foods sometimes when left in the freezer too long?
It’s pretty gross and basically ruins the food for good. But why wonders Minute Earth? Sublimation. The water moisture in the food actually exits and freezes on the outside. Kind of like freeze drying your food.
A plant nursery has become the first in Britain to grow BLACK tomatoes. The unusual fruit, which has a jet black skin, is among the first in the world to contain anthocyanins, an antioxidant thought to have a number of health benefits. Its unusual colour stems from pigments in the skin which develop when exposed to sunlight.
Ray Brown, 66, who runs Plant World Seeds, first came across the unusual fruit when a customer sent him a mystery package entitled “black tomato”. Disbelieving the label, he sowed the product and was stunned by the outcome.
The ‘Indigo Rose’ is a new, strangely-colored variety of tomato. The fruit is jet black on the outside and juicy purple-red on the inside. These colors might not sound very appealing, but black tomatoes are supposed to be very tasty, and most importantly, rich in antioxidants. Indigo Rose is a cross-breed between red and purple tomatoes, and is the latest ‘superfood’ to hit the market.
I have to admit, I never even knew that purple tomatoes exist. The modified fruit, bred by scientists in America, contain a special antioxidant called anthocyanin. Anthocyanin is responsible for fighting diseases like diabetes and obesity, and is the main pigment that lends the tomato its purple color. And when the purple tomatoes are mixed with the regular red ones, the resultant breed turns out black.
Black tomatoes were first bred by Professor Jim Myers at the University of Oregon, during a graduate study about the health benefits of tomatoes. When they discovered that purple tomatoes contained anthocyanin, which also provides color to blueberries, they decided to cross them with some wild red ones. Eventually, they came up with a black strain.
“It is the first improved tomato variety in the world that has anthocyanins in its fruit,” said Prof. Myers. “It (the breeding) will lead to a better understanding on how the antioxidants express in tomatoes and may contribute to human health. They (anthocyanin) have many varied effects on human health, but while they are powerful antioxidants in the test tube, we don’t really know whether they have an antioxidant effect on the human body,” he added.