Stories tagged candy
Scientists love candy, chocolate, and sweets just like anybody else. Check out these sweet sweet scientific studies.
Researchers in Honduras have uncovered evidence of the earliest known use of chocolate. Residues in pottery indicate that some American Indians were fermenting chocolate fruit into an alcoholic drink as much as 2,400 years ago.
Evidence of the most recent use of chocolate can be found in my garbage can pretty much any day of the week.
(If scientists don’t blow it up first.)
Farmers in Brazil have traditionally cut down large swaths of rain forest to plant cacao trees – the source of chocolate. But these high-yield plantations ravaged the rain forest, depleted the land, and suffered numerous outbreaks of disease. A new method of planting, called cabruca, plants cacao trees right inside the rain forest itself. Only a few rain forest tress are cut down – the forest itself remains intact. The forest nourishes the cacao trees and protects them from plantation diseases. And while the amount of chocolate grown in this manner is smaller than can be grown on a plantation, the farmers can make up the difference by charging a higher price for “environmentally friendly chocolate.”
Chocolate love began 3000+ yrs ago
Courtesy Fir0002
Food of the gods
The scientific name for the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao—"food of the gods." Research now verifies that we have been enjoying this treat for more than 3000 years. Although cacao is a blend of more than 500 chemical compounds, the signature chemical is a compound called theobromine. The chocolate residue (theobromine) was found in several jars from the site of Puerto Escondido in Honduras.
Scientists used "high performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry"
Dated from around 1100 B.C., this is the earliest evidence to date of the use of cacao.
Chocolate ingredients first use was in beer
"Ancient beer makers used the cacao's seedpods to make their drinks. The pods—which were a little smaller than a modern American football—were fermented, and then the pod pulp was used to make the beer." NationalGeographic.com.
"It was beer with a high kick," said study author Rosemary Joyce, an anthropologist at University of California, Berkeley.
"But it would not have tasted anything like the chocolate we have today."
Previous research on "chocolate teapots" dated chocolate drinks to about 2600 years ago.
Click this to read more about the history of chocolate.
Yum, yum, eat 'em up!: Photo by jaboobie at Flickr.When my mother was pregnant with me she must have been eating a whole lot of junk food according to a new study published by the British Journal of Nutrition.
Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in Great Britain discovered that pregnant rats that overindulge candy bars, potato chips and other junk food seem to pass those cravings on to their innocent and unsuspecting offspring.
So far, the study only involved rats, but I’m certain my mother is the reason I really crave Lorna Doones® and chocolate donuts.
The female rats in the study were fed either a bland yet nutritious sort of rat chow, or given access to as much tasty junk food as they wanted. The diets were continued in some rats up to birth, and through the breastfeeding period.
When the offspring were divided up, some of the group from the rat chow-only mothers was offered just rat chow to eat; the remainder of that group was mixed in with the offspring from junk food-fed mothers and given the choice of boring rat chow or delicious junk food.
The rat chow-only offspring ate the least amount of food, but for the offspring given a choice evidently too much junk food isn’t enough, especially the babies whose mothers had been fed only junk food. Their offspring preferred the empty-calorie treats and consumed twice as much food as the offspring of chow-only group.
The reason for this, the scientists think, is that the “pleasure chemicals” unleashed by the rat mother when eating high-fat foods may have some sort of effect on the brain of the fetus.
It should be reiterated that the study only has to do with rats. No such study has been done on humans, but I’ll tell, I’d probably be a good study subject. My mom still loves to ingest lots of sweets and I’m not far behind her.
Not good for one's heart: Photo by &y at Flickr Creative Commons.Which brings me to another disturbing study, which, in my case, could also be connected to junk food.
University of Texas researchers have determined that having a pot belly –even a fairly small one- increases your risk of heart disease.
"Fat that accumulates around your waist seems to be more biologically active as it secretes inflammatory proteins that contribute to atherosclerotic plaque build-up, whereas fat around your hips doesn't appear to increase risk for cardiovascular disease at all,” according to Professor James de Lemos, the research lead. “Even a small pot belly puts us at higher risk when compared to a flat tummy."
I guess that means I either have to cut down on my junk food intake or ratchet up my exercise regimen.
"What's important is that people consider their body shape as well as their weight,” said June Davison, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation. “Controlling both by eating less and being more active is an effective way to reduce your risk of heart and circulatory disease”
Well, I suppose, but even exercise has some controversy attached to it.
Last week a study stated that even light exercise was beneficial.
But then this week a new study proclaims that workouts must be “tough” to be of any benefit.
Oh, the heck with it. I'm going back to the couch with a bag of donuts on my pot belly and wait for some more agreeable studies to come out.
LINKS
Cravings story
Pot belly story
Tags : obesity, candy, sweets, health, health benefits, heart problems, junk food, fat, empty caloriesOver on the New Scientist's Short Sharp Science blog there is a great little experiment to try. Mix up some hot chocolate and tap your spoon on the bottom of the mug. As you do this the pitch of the tapping sound will change. Why? They don't know yet either. Any guesses?
Soon to be dinner?: Madagascar hissing cockroach
Courtesy scragz
Okay, file this one under, "stupid human tricks."
CNN is reporting that the Six Flags near Chicago is going to let people cut in line during their Halloween event if they eat a LIVE Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa). While park officials insist its safe the local health officials think differently:
Consuming live roaches might increase risks of gastrointestinal illness and allergies, according to Bill Mays, Lake County Health Department's community health director.
These little bugs are near and dear to many museums and schools. We have a fairly large colony here at the museum in one of our classrooms, I saw a bunch behind the scenes at the Boston Museum of Science just last week, and I know a couple teachers here in town who keep them in their classrooms. Sure would be sad to see a bunch of Six Flags Halloween partygoers hopped up on Mountain Dew eating these fine bugs just to cut the lines. Alas, I doubt a "Save the Roaches" campaign would have much traction either.
Chocolate doesn't sell where cocoa grows--it's too hot, and the candy melts. But food scientists in Nigeria have just developed a chocolate with a higher melting temperature that looks, tastes, smells, and feels pretty close to milk chocolate.
It's all over the Internet. It's on David Letterman and the Today Show. It's on NPR, for Pete's sake. Across the country, people are caught up in a frenzy of extreme Diet Coke and Mentos experiments.
Want to try it at home?
Get permission, go outside, and have a hose handy. Things are gonna get messy...
- The simplest thing is to just drop a Mentos or two into a small bottle of Diet Coke.
- Not so satisfying? OK, now it's time to get serious.
- Make a "cartridge" of Mentos. Hold each candy with a pair of pliers, and carefully drill a small hole through the center. Then string five or six Mentos onto a straightened paper clip or a piece of fishing line.
- Hold the bottle cap with a pair of pliers and drill a hole through the top. (Start with a hole 1/4" in diameter.) Thread the paper clip or fishing line with the Mentos cartridge through the bottle cap so that the candy will hang down inside the bottle when you screw on the cap. Different sized holes in the cap will yield different effects.
- You can also carefully drill holes in the bottle, above the level of the soda. If you drill a ring of holes, you get a pretty neat effect. And you'll also make a super big mess.
Of course, you don't have to use Mentos and Diet Coke. The good folks at EepyBird.com have done many, many experiments, and it turns out that dropping just about anything into any kind of soda creates at least a little fizz. But Mentos and Diet Coke is an especially satisfying combination.
So how does it work?
The explosive effect is caused when the carbon dioxide that's been compressed in the soda escapes so quickly that the pressure pushes the soda out of the bottle. That's the easy part. But why do Mentos, in particular, cause such a good effect?
Part of the answer has to do with nucleation sites. "Huh?" you ask. Yeah, me, too. Soda is a liquid supersaturated with carbon dioxide gas, and nucleation sites are places where the carbon dioxide can make bubbles. A nucleation site can be a scratch on a surface, a speck of dust, or any place where you have a high surface area relative to volume.
Bubbles in soda: (Photo courtesy Spiff, Wikipedia Commons)
And Mentos have a lot of nucleation sites. There are lots of imperfections in their surfaces, and that allows lots and lots of bubbles to form. Plus, Mentos are heavy enough to sink when you drop them in, so they react to with the soda all the way to the bottom of the container. The sticky result is a fun, foaming mess.
But what happens if you drink Diet Coke and eat Mentos at the same time?
The EepyBird website has the answer, if you really must know...
I just discovered a cool traveling science museum exhibit all about my favorite subject, CANDY! I haven't seen Candy Unwrapped but the descriptions make it look pretty cool I just hope it might ooze its sugary sweet trail near the upper midwest sometime soon.
Dark chocolate: Courtesy roboppy.
Researchers at the Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany are proposing certain types of dark chocolate could serve as sunscreen. Their findings are preliminary due to a small test group but are very interesting or should I say delicious?!?
Test Group
Twenty-four women ages 18 to 65 were recruited and participated by adding cocoa to their breakfast every day for about three months. Half the women received a powder packet containing 329 milligrams of flavanols per serving and the rest received packets containing 27 milligrams of flavanols per serving. The primary flavanols were epicatechin and catechin. A bevy of tests were conducted on each volunteer. Obviously, one test involved UV exposure.
Flavanols (Flavonoid)
Flavonoids are natural plant-based antioxidants. Through previous research, the German research team, deduced potent antioxidants (such as those found in certain types of chocolate) could shield skin from sun damage. Most flavonoids absorb UV light. However, research also suggests flavonoids reduce inflammatory agents (i.e. reducing skin reddening).
The Chocolate
Unfortunately, the cocoa used in this study is not commercially available…yet. The cocoa used delivered only 50 calories per serving. Thus, regular consumption won’t “blimp” a person out.
Findings
In the June Journal of Nutrition it was reported women consuming high-flavonoid cocoa had 15 percent less skin reddening from UV light after 6 weeks of cocoa consumption and 25 percent less after 12 weeks of the trial. The test group that consumed flavonoid-rich cocoa exhibited less reddening compared to their flavonoid-poor counterparts. Women in the flavonoid-rich group also showed increased blood flow to the skin, increased skin thickness as well as increased moisture.
***So sweet tooth individuals, keep on the lookout for flavonoid-rich cocoa.
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