Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Eating in RAW?


Every now and then you run into someone with an exceptionally different diet from yourself. I always have apprehension when I know I will be accommodating say a vegan. Mainly I worry they will have miserable time staying at my house and have a difficult time enjoy the same local cuisine I enjoy. I have however failed to meet someone who eats exclusively raw food. I first heard of the raw food diet around two years ago on WebMD. I find the concept terribly interesting and potentially beneficial. However, I find it completely impossible. I love cooked food and I like cooking food. Sucks for me right? I will not be receiving the health benefits from raw food, or are there more benefits to cooked food? Did cooking give humans an evolutionary edge over our fellow primate brethren? That is exactly the question posed by Dr. Richard Wrangham during an interview on NPR's Science Friday. During the interview, the Primatologist, discusses primates general preference to cooked food, the ability to extract more protein form cooked food, and our ability to digest it better. In the end this may have given our species the right ingredients to evolve into what we are to day. The interview in no way discourages the raw food diet, but does mention that it may not be for everybody. You can listen to the interview here, or catch the highlights at thesaladgirl.com.

Monday, September 28, 2009

I can't believe it's butter!


I am not one to criticize when it comes to keeping food well past the expiration date. In fact, I probably have some left overs from at least two or three months ago, just waiting to be stirred and release their putrid smell. While I have kept things for a long time, nothing compares to what a group of Archeologist found in an Ireland bog. Archeologist, John Fitzharris and Martin Lane, were pleasantly surprised to find a barrel of butter over 3,000 years old. Now that is one for the record books. You can read the ful article at dicoveryon.info. I wander if you can still spread it on a roll?