#What Is Veal? Like many culinary terms veal came to English from French. It refers to the meat of a young cow
or calf as opposed to beef (also from French) an adult cow's meat. Prized for its tenderness
and delicate flavor veal has appeared in the cuisines of Italy France and Germany for centuries.
It dates back to (at least) Roman times when Emperor Alexander Severus outlawed calf slaughter due to overconsumption.
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   The different varieties of veal depend on the calves'diet. Milk-fed calves (actually raised on a milklike supplement) produce a pale pink veal
while grain-fed calves produce redder fattier meat. Veal production has prompted strong criticism from animal welfare groups.
Traditional practices place calves in small (30 by 70 inch) individual crates that prevent much movement;
By depriving the animals of exercise veal producers aim to reduce muscle growth keeping the meat tender.
and the American Veal Association has committed to ending the practice by 2017. Follow Michael Dhar@mid1980. Follow Livescience@livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+A
#What Is Vodka? From its humble medieval origins as a medicinal agent vodka has conquered the world.
In 2012 tipplers downed 1. 17 billion gallons (4. 44 billion liters) of the distilled alcoholic beverage making it the world's most popular spirit.
But what is made vodka from? To produce vodka you must first ferment any foodstuff that contains sugar
or starch then distill the product to increase its alcohol content. Fermentation means feeding sugar to yeast so that the yeast can produce alcohol.
Today most vodka is made from fermented grains such as sorghum corn rice rye or wheat though you can also use potatoes fruits or even just sugar.
The fermentation step creates a product with only about 16 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) too low for spirits.
Upping that number requires distillation or heating in a container called a still. Because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water you can collect the evaporated alcohol separating it from the water.
Most vodka is 30 to 40 percent ABV. Rectified spirits like the American brand Everclear reach 95 to 96 percent ABV.
The first records of vodka come from ninth-century Russia and eighth-century Poland. Vodka's popularity spread with Russian soldiers during the Napoleonic wars After the Russian revolution one vodka maker relocated to Paris
and started a distillery under the now-famous French spelling of his name: Smirnoff. Follow Michael Dhar@michaeldhar. Follow Livescience@livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+l
#What Is Your Food Eating? If you have kids you probably worry whether or not they re getting the right nutrients.
You might worry about your own nutrition too. So you choose what you think are the right food groups
and serve balanced meals. But that s where it ends for most Americans. We simply don t have the time to dig deeper.
We don t have the time to worry about where our food gets its nutrients. Funny to think about it that way isn t it?
But whether it s a tomato or a hamburger the food you're about to eat once needed nutrients to maintain its health
and survive. And now its job is to support your family s nutritional needs. The question is this:
Do you think the way it was nourished will make a difference to your health? A recent Oregon State university study found that it may.
Researchers fed 10 pregnant cows different amounts of flaxseed up to 7 percent of their daily diet to pinpoint the optimal amount needed to increase their milk s omega-3 content.
At six pounds of flaxseed daily the saturated fat in the cow s milk dropped 18 percent while polyunsaturated fatty acids and omega-3 levels rose drastically.
In fact the cows produced milk with 70 percent more omega-3 fatty acids than bovines that didn t eat flaxseed.
Similar levels of polyunsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids were found in the cheese and butter produced from this milk.
Flaxseed is more expensive than grass grain or corn so if this practice goes mainstream expect to pay a premium for any dairy products that come from flaxseed-eating cows.
For now this study serves as a good example of how important it is to eat food that has been nourished well.
Here are some tips to help make that happen.¢¢Â  Beef.  Grass-fed cows usually aren jacked t up with steroids and antibiotics.
They also tend to get a bit more exercise than their grain-fed counterparts. Because of this they tend to be leaner
which means they have saturated less fat. Healthier for the cow. Healthier for you.¢¢Â  Produce.
 Buy local! There is some conflicting evidence about whether or not organic produce contains more nutrients than nonorganic
but nothing compares to buying a tomato picked ripe from the vine. When you buy produce from a grocery store it may have spent as much as a week in transit.
Which would you prefer?¢¢Â  Price. Buying local produce from the grocery store can be more expensive than buying produce from faraway sources.
And grass-fed beef is priced almost always considerably higher than grain-fed beef. Sometimes you can get a great deal by buying local especially in season.
This is particularly true if you buy directly from the source. If you can buy your food at farmers markets'or from the farm itself.
Healthy Bites appears on Myhealthnewsdaily on Wednesdays. Deborah Herlax Enos is certified a nutritionist and a health coach
and weight loss expert in the Seattle area with more than 20 years of experience. Read more tips on her blog Health in a Hurry o
when she crooned Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Children and adults are ingrained evolutionarily to prefer sweeter foods to bitter ones scientists have learned.
But as it turns out sugar isn't the only way to sweeten the pot.
Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville are searching for new ways to make foods taste better naturally without adding sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Flavor equals health. If we can make healthy foods taste better people will buy more of them
and have a healthier diet said Harry Klee a University of Florida plant scientist. Klee and his colleague Linda Bartoshuk a psychologist have found that volatiles chemicals in fruits
and vegetables that create aromas may play an even more important role than sugar content in a person's perception of sweetness.
Klee and Bartoshuk discussed their findings last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in Boston.
How sweet you think a fruit is isn't necessarily related to its sugars Klee said.
For instance the researchers found that consumers rated one type of tomato the Matina as being twice as sweet as the Yellow Jelly bean tomato
even though the Matina contained less sugar than its yellow relative. Researchers have known long that volatiles existed in fruits
Flavor is a combination of input to the brain from the taste buds and from the nose.
when people chew food. While studying tomatoes Bartoshuk has found six volatiles that contribute to sweetness independent of sugar.
Oddly not all the volatiles responsible for sweetness smell so sweet on their own. In fact one volatile called isovaleric acid smells like dirty socks Bartoshuk pointed out.
Yet it combines with the input from other volatiles as well as input from the taste buds to create the perception of sweetness in the brain.
It's possibly as simple as volatiles intensifying the effect of sugars in the brain said Bartoshuk in an interview with My Health News Daily.
because it may allow food growers to create tastier varieties of foods such as tomatoes by selecting the genes responsible for sweetness-inducing volatiles
and strawberries Bartoshuk hopes to be able to combine the volatiles from the two fruits into a single mixture that could be added to foods
and beverages to make them sweeter. Â The potential to create sweeter foods while reducing the intake of sugars and artificial sweeteners is truly exciting.
We believe it can be done she said. Pass it on: Smell rather than taste may influence our perception of a fruit's sweetness.
This story was provided by Myhealthnewsdaily a sister site to Livescience. Follow Myhealthnewsdailyâ on Twitterâ@Myhealth mhnd. We're also onâ Facebookâ &â Google+o
The administration has submitted also an amicus brief in support of the meat industry's challenge to California's anti-downer law
The administration argued that the Federal Meat Inspection Act preempted California's law and that only the federal government could regulate the care
and slaughtered at federal meat processing facilities including in California. The burning question is why is the administration aligning itself with the meat industry
and shark-finning interests on these important questions? And why does it argue that only the federal government not the states can speak on these matters?
Tchukki Anderson a staff arborist for the Tree Care Industry Association says many people have had success by mixing a tablespoon of sugar or corn syrup in the water.
However the study's author tree scientist Les Werner says additives such as sugar aspirin or even vodka don't help.
Clean water still works the best. But don't take their word for it. Try the experiment
Honeybees use both visual and olfactory cues to recognize flowersâ that produce nectar in return for insect pollination.
Not all flowers produce nectar and bees avoid those that don't by learning to recognize the odors of nectar-bearing flowers.
Honeybee Scouts Find Food Diesel alters floral scents The researchers specifically explored whether nitrogen oxides a group of highly reactive gases released by diesel combustion are capable of altering floral odors to an extent that would dampen a bee's ability to recognize desirable flowers.
Over the course of two hours the researchers measured the concentrations of the eight volatile compounds under the various conditions.
Honeybee smell recognition The researchers also conditioned a group of honeybees to recognize the synthetic floral odor by repeatedly exposing them to it in conjunction with a nectar reward.
whether the bees extended their proboscis the strawlike mouthpart they use to suck up nectar within 10 seconds of exposure to the odor in the study chambers.
Colony collapse disorder These findings could have serious implications for the global food supply the team said
since honeybees pollinate about 70 percent of crop foods across the world which accounts for about 35 percent of the global food supply.
Global honeybee populations have declined dramatically within the past decade or so due to a condition called colony collapse disorder
which has been associated with the spread of synthetic pesticide use and other manmade materials but remains poorly understood.
but many come from the food we consume. Â Scientists in the study determined each participant's optimism score through a series of questions such as the positively worded
and the plant makes up most of their diet. Thousands of miles away in Africa bamboo is also an important food for mountain gorillas.
Its existence there though is a bit of a mystery hidden away as it is up African mountains a long way from where most varieties live in Asia.
But when and where this process of spread took place remains mysterious. The possibility remains that African bamboos could represent the modern ancestors of all current Asian bamboos
and the pandas who rely almost exclusively on the plant for food. Emailâ Douglas Mainâ or follow him onâ Twitterâ orâ Google+.
and Lots of Confusion An enduring mantra among nutritionists from both a vegetarian and carnivorous perspective has been to eat more whole grains to reduce the risk of heart disease type 2 diabetes and colon cancer.
and National Nutrition Month this mantra can be deafening. The U s. dietary guideline is three to five servings of whole grains daily.
The food industry knows this and has offered long products merely sounding like they contain whole grain
or none including foods with labels sporting the words multigrain 12-grain stoneground high fiber enriched wheat flour and (unbelievably) whole grain.
Also whole grain might be the first ingredient in food products tainted with less desirables such as Lucky Charms cereal magically delicious with magic perhaps derived from copious marshmallows (second ingredient) containing sugar corn starch
and corn syrup followed by more sugar (third ingredient) more corn syrup (fifth ingredient) and more corn starch (sixth ingredient).
A study published in January in the journal Public health Nutrition by researchers at Harvard School of Public health found that most whole grain labeling is confusing with the industry-supported Whole Grain stamp pointing to foods higher in sugar
Yes General mills the maker of Lucky Charms is a sponsor of the Whole Grains Council issuer of the stamp.
A 1999 study led by David Ludwig now director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's Hospital found that obese teenagers who ate a breakfast of instant oatmeal a highly processed
whole grain that cooks in seconds were much hungrier later in the day compared with those who ate steel-cut (long-cooking) oats or an egg omelet;
and the instant-oatmeal eaters had blood sugar spikes similar to what's seen after eating simple non-whole-grain white bread.
All in the processing Ludwig's more recent work has demonstrated that how a grain whole or refined is processed truly determines its healthfulness.
Most grain contains inedible chaff (fed to animals) bran (the oil-rich outer layer) germ (the grain seed's nutrient-rich embryo) and the endosperm (the starchy center.
This enables the food industry to make whole-grain products that taste and act nothing like whole grain.
but no amount of FDA-required labeling explains this to consumers lured into eating three servings of whole grains daily. 10 New Ways to Eat Well Also grain type matters.
Slower is better At the heart of Ludwig's research is the concept of the glycemic index (GI) a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels rise after eating a particular type of food.
Refined grains such as packaged white bread and most breakfast cereals have a high GI 70 or above;
Non-intact whole grains such as whole-grain breads are in the middle. You won't garner this information from a food label.
But the general rule of thumb is processed that heavily foods (crackers cookies or instant breakfast cereals compared with whole grains you need to cook for 30 minutes
or more) will have little or none of the benefits said to come from eating whole grains.
One exception is said pasta Ludwig. The process of extruding and drying the durum wheat (which itself is very different from wheat species used for bread) leads to a surprisingly low GI food with a slower digestion rate.
Popcorn is technically a whole grain and may provide some of the benefits that come from consuming other whole grains said Joanne Slavin a professor at University of Minnesota.
Provided the popcorn isn't laden with sugar salt oil or butter the advantage also might be
what it replaces snacks such as potato chips or crackers. Along these lines Slavin's approach is not merely to add more whole grains to your diet
but rather to substitute them for less-healthful foods: to add a higher ratio of whole grain oat or wheat flour to white in recipes for example.
As healthy as whole grains are they aren't essential to human health unlike fat and protein.
Proponents of the paleolithic diet argue that grains entered the human diet only a few thousand years ago.
Yet grains do provide many essential nutrients and a feeling of fullness and the more whole the grain the more nutrients it will have
and the greater a sense of satiety it will provide. Christopher Wanjek is the author of a new novel Hey Einstein!
a comical nature-versus-nurture tale about raising clones of Albert Einstein in less than-ideal settings.
His column Bad Medicine appears regularly on Livescience r
#Why a Cold Spring Delays Cherry Blossom Blooming It's been a dull spring for cherry blossom watchers so far.
Blossoms in Philadelphia did not open until early April. Usually the flowers appear anywhere from mid-to late March.
During the winter the closed cherry buds can tolerate below-freezing temperatures Meyer said. But as things start to warm they will break dormancy
The patterns in tree rings tell a story explains Erin Mcmurry research assistant in the University of Missouri'scollege of Agriculture Food and Natural resources Tree Ring Laboratory.
Accounts of that day which became known as New england's Dark Day include mentions of midday meals by candlelight night birds coming out to sing flowers folding their petals and strange behavior from animals.
#Why Aren't Turkey Eggs Sold at the Grocery? As you pick up your turkey at the grocery store this week you might wonder why you never see the birds'eggs for sale.
Gobbling turkeys do lay eggs. But selling them in grocery stores would have its drawbacks. Turkey eggs small numbers and big size make them less practical for the poultry section.
Chickens start reproducing early and pump out more eggs than turkeys. The larger size of turkey eggs requires more room to nest
which takes up too much space in a coop. Economically meat from a grown turkey bird is much more valuable than an extra large fried egg.
Plus some breeds of turkey have retained a strong mothering instinct which is good for hatching chicks
but tough on farmers trying to collect the eggs. If you still want turkey eggs your best bet is to try a farm stand.
Or buy a live turkey and wait for it to lay an egg. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter@llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google
#Why Australia's Wildfires Are So Bad A dry warm winter set the stage for dozens of wildfires currently threatening populated areas in New south wales Australia.
The fires have destroyed hundreds of homes and sent smoke and ash into the air over Sydney.
The region which is now entering summer also experienced hundreds of fires this January during a catastrophic heat wave.
 The past three months have been among the driest 10 percent on record in New south wales (NSW) said Todd Lane a meteorologist at the University of Melbourne.
The region has received about 4 inches (100 millimeters) less rain than normal. At the same time temperatures during the winter months averaged 5 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) hotter than normal across much of NSW.
and nutrients to produce the red colors of fall several other climate-related changes could dim autumn forests Neufeld said.
Under current conditions the fall signals of cool nights and sunny days prompt trees to temporarily store nutrients in their leaves in the form of red pigments.
instead burn off their sugar or send it to the twigs Neufeld said. That means the trees won't use that sugar to make red pigments.
See Where Fall Leaves Are Turning Other factors like increased cloud cover and precipitation could also dim red colors by reducing photosynthesis Neufeld said.
Less photosynthesis means less sugar to fuel anthocyanin production. Invasives and other effects Warming has brought already the hemlock wooly adelgid northward devastating hemlock trees Iverson said.
As a practical food source however your lawn leaves a lot to be desired. There are two main problems with a grass diet.
Aside from the digestion issues a second problem with grass as a food source is the mastication.
#Why Carbs May Cause Food Cravings Refined carbohydrates such as corn syrup could trigger food cravings not unlike the cravings that drug addicts experience new research suggests.
The findings which are published today (June 26) in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggest that the quick spike
Refined carbohydrates seem to be able to provoke food cravings many hours after consumption at least in susceptible people said study co-author David Ludwig the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center
Limiting these foods could help overweight people avoid overeating. Christopher Gardner a nutrition scientist at Stanford university Medical center who was involved not in the study said that this study
and others looking at the question of whether refined carbs can truly be addictive may have implications for how these foods should be regulated.
If it can be demonstrated that addictive foods are bypassing an individual s ability to regulate their intake then the possibility of designing passing
and enforcing legislation to help support Americans in making healthier food choices becomes more of a reality Gardner wrote in an email to Livescience.
Good carbs bad carbs The body typically breaks down carbohydrates into blood sugar or glucose. Whole grains and carbohydrates in vegetables take a long time to break down raising blood sugar slowly
whereas refined carbs such as sugar corn syrup and white flour cause sharp spikes in blood sugar. Research suggests that refined carbohydrates are tied to pleasurable feelings
but those studies typically compared enormously different foods: cheesecake versus steamed broccoli for instance. That made it difficult to discern
whether the carbohydrates or some other part of the food caused the cravings. 8 Tips for Fighting Sugar Cravings Sugar cravings To tease out this difference Ludwig
and his colleagues gave 12 overweight and obese young men two drinks. One contained cornstarch which has a low glycemic index meaning it causes only a gradual rise in blood sugar.
The other drink contained corn syrup which has a high glycemic index. The researchers used artificial zero-calorie sweeteners to make the two drinks taste identical.
The men who received the high-glycemic index drink showed a dramatic spike in blood sugar after consuming the drink.
But four hours later their blood sugar levels crashed and they reported being very hungry. At the same time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of those who drank the corn syrup drink showed increased activation in a region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens
which has been tied to reward and cravings in past research compared with the men who drank the low-glycemic index drink.
Though the study only looked at obese people further studies could clarify whether avoiding processed carbs could help lean people avoid packing on weight Ludwig told Livescience.
The authors hypothesize that the sharp drop in blood sugar spurred by cookies chips or cake may not only stimulate hunger
but also make the idea of eating seem more rewarding and pleasurable to the brain. There's a strong evolutionary reason to have linked food to pleasure Ludwig said.
The problem is when the modern highly processed carbohydrates can hijack this evolutionarily based reward system putting it in effect into overdrive Ludwig said.
To put it simply we didn't evolve to eat the low-fat Twinkie for breakfast.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+.+Â Followâ Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article onâ Livescience. com i
A camel can carry up to 80 pounds of fat on its back (Baby camels don t get their humps until they start eating solid food.
When a camel consumes the emergency food supply the hump will shrink and fall to one side.
In this scenario the dog may even be seeking out grass to get additional nutrients it may not have in its normal diet such as fiber minerals or digestive enzymes.
A 2007 case study in the Journal of Veterinary Medical science reported that a switch to a high-fiber diet stopped a miniature poodle from regularly eating grass.
#Why Do People Drink Milk? Milk is recognized widely as a nutritious drink for people of all ages it's a good source of protein calcium Vitamin d potassium and other vitamins and minerals.
Despite the health benefits of milk consumption of milk in the United states dropped to its lowest levels in nearly 30 years in 2011 with more than half of adults cutting milk completely out of their diet according to the U s. Department of agriculture.
Among other factors a greater awareness of lactose intolerance may have something to do with the decline in milk consumption.
As all mammals do human infants produce hefty amounts of lactase an enzyme that allows the body to digest lactose without lactase babies can't digest their mothers'nutrient-rich milk.
How lactose tolerance initially spread isn't entirely clear. One theory suggests pioneering farmers and their families migrated out of Central europe with domesticated crops that weren't suited for the new environment.
With poor crops and possibly contaminated water sources they increasingly turned to cow's milk for sustenance making it a regular part of their diet.
Folks there have a legend of a drunken farmer whose dealings with the devil led to him being turned back at both the gates of heaven and hell upon his death.
Every Halloween communities in Ireland would craft their own turnip lamps to scare him and other wayward spirits away.
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