Dieting takes a new turn in this study: “Chronic carbon monoxide treatment attenuates development of obesity and remodels adipocytes in mice fed a high fat diet,” P A Hosick, A A AlAmodi, M V Storm, M U Gousset, B E Pruett, W Gray III, J Stout and D E Stec [pictured here], International Journal of […]
Tag: diet
Male Scientists Demonstrate that Ejaculated Fluid is Conceivably Dual-Use
Three male scientists (all of them humans) go to great lengths to demonstrate that females (at least if they are flies) can, should they want or need to, regard ejaculate as a dual-use fluid. Their study is: “Elucidating the function of ejaculate expulsion and consumption after copulation by female Euxesta bilimeki,” Christian Luis Rodriguez-Enriquez, Eduardo […]
The Lodger Who Watched Them Eat
Confident that no one would notice what he was doing, Michael Nicod spent months in the homes of families he did not know, making detailed notes about everything they ate. Nicod was performing research for Britain’s Department of Health and Social Security in 1974. He and his colleague, University College London professor Mary Douglas, wrote a report […]
Unclassifiable headline: “Twitter can help weight loss – study”
This week’s Unclassifiable Headline of the Week appears on GMA News: “Twitter can help weight loss – study“.
Improbable TV: The Coffee Diet
Here’s a new episode — #131, “The Coffee Diet” — of the Improbable Research TV series. “The Coffee Diet” is the concluding song from the mini-opera “The Atkins Diet Opera“. This video shows the debut performance, which was part of the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony held in Sanders Theatre, Harvard University. The opera starred […]
Meat and potatoes and sperm
The 24 Oranges blog reports about research at Erasmus University, Rotterdam: Dutch cooking, the kitchen that has put the meat and the potatoes in meat ‘n’ potatoes, is great for increasing male fertility according to PhD student Marijana Vujkovic. Men who eat meat, potatoes and vegetables have a sperm count twice as high as those […]
Light eater clarifies her diet, sort of
Jasmuheen, who won the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in nutrition for her book “Living on Light,” which explains that although some people do eat food, they don’t ever really need to, now tries to clarify her claims about her never-eat-food diet. In a newly distributed newsletter, she writes: [I offer] books and CD’s that may […]
The virtues of bread & saliva
Saliva as a food ingredient is not an entirely new concept. (See the item here on saliva noodles.) For an earlier take, sample Nicholas Robinson’s book TREATISE ON THE VIRTUES and EFFICACY OF A CRUST of BREAD, Eat early in a Morning Fasting: To which are added, Some particular REMARKS concerning CURES accomplished by the […]
Wansinks big on the last supper
Brian Wansink (who won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2007 for his experiment with a bottomless soup bowl) has a new study. The Los Angeles Times reports: In a bid to uncover the roots of super-sized American fare, a pair of sibling scholars has turned to an unusual source: 52 artists’ renderings of the New […]
Quasi-opposites converge: dieting
In the category of everything-eventually-becomes-its-opposite comes this report in the Guardian: McDonald’s is hardly an ideal dining location for anyone struggling to stay slim. But the fast food chain scored a PR coup today when Weight Watchers agreed to endorse some of its products in New Zealand – a move met with outrage by nutritionists […]