If you have get a hangover after New Year’s Eve parties, it may not just be what you drank–it could be what those canapés you ate as well (and if you ate TOO MUCH, you need Anne Strieber’s famous diet book!) Foods that give some people a headache range from cheese to pickles (in other words, FERMENTED foods). Many of them contain tyramine, a natural food chemical that transmits signals along pain nerve endings.
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There are lots of theories about what caused human evolution. Here’s a new one: cooking!
When humans invented cooking, it increased the number of calories they consumed, since heat breaks down cellulose in plants, making them more digestible and releasing the nutrients. Before the discovery of fire, we would have had to forage for 9 hours a day in order to get the same number of calories.
This could be the reason that other primates, such as gorillas, may have bodies 3 times larger than ours, but still have much smaller brains, despite the fact that they spent almost 8 hours a day foraging for food.
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Some foods just seem to go together naturally, like red wine and steak, soda and hamburgers, pickles and pastrami sandwiches, chocolate cake and milk (or coffee!). Researchers are studying our taste buds to try to figure out why.
One theory is that astringent foods like red wine and pickles balance out the grease of steaks and pastrami. In the October 16th edition of the New York Times, Sindya N. Bhanoo quotes sensory biologist Paul Breslin as saying, "They cancel each other out, so to speak. We want our mouth to be lubricated just right."
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A new study has discovered that our mood for food can be changed by a restaurant’s choice of music and lighting, leading to increased satisfaction and REDUCED calorie intake (NOTE: The PRICE has now been reduced too!) Can’t afford a restaurant? Maybe that’s even better. Turn the lights down at home, light the candles, get out the good napkins and turn on soothing music–and DINE (and finish with a good cup of coffee).
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