If you sprinkle table sugar in your coffee or on your cereal, you're using refined sugar. The process of refining sugars strips away fiber and nutrients. These empty calories can cause obesity and other health problems, and public health...
While reconstituted powdered milk never tastes quite the same as fresh milk if you're drinking it plain, the difference is less of a concern in baking because you'll have sugar, butter and other flavorful ingredients to take center stage. If you...
Metabolism is the process of chemical reactions within a living organism that results in life-sustaining energy. People often talk about their metabolism in terms of how many calories are used for the body to function. Simply breathing burns...
Oyster mushrooms have been used for thousands of years as a culinary and medicinal ingredient. The white mushrooms resemble oysters, and can be found growing in the wild on dead trees or fallen logs. They have a rich history in traditional Chinese...
In the 1997 edition of the "Foods and Nutrition Encyclopedia," food scientist M. Eugene Ensminger describes potatoes as tubers -- underground plant structures used to store starch and other nutrients -- of the Solanum tuberosum plant, a member of...
Seafood lovers prize scallops, and for good reason. Nothing captures the flavor of the sea like mild, slightly briny scallops. Scallops are the abductor muscle -- the muscle responsible for opening the shell -- of a oceanic bivalve, meaning they...
Buttermilk is available in almost every dairy case in every supermarket, but it remains tragically unappreciated. Too sour for use on cereal or in your morning coffee, buttermilk can take your baked goods from "good" to "great" or from "great" to...
Starch, the primary form of stored carbohydrate in plants, consists of two chemical compounds, amylose and amylopectin. While amylose makes up 10 to 20 percent of natural starches, amylopectin accounts for the remaining 80 to 90 percent. Amylose,...
Knox Gelatin is a gelatin product manufactured by the Kraft food company. Gelatin is made from collagen, a protein that occurs naturally in the connective tissue of mammals. Available in powder form, Knox gelatin is intended to be mixed with water...
Fatty ingredients play an important role in cheese making. According to Harold McGee, a food scientist, cheese has better consistency and versatility when made with heavy whipping cream and not diluted. However, some people want to lower their fat...
Shallots are related to onions, but they have a sweeter, milder flavor. Like garlic and onions, shallots have dry, papery skins. These flavorful vegetables provide good sources of several important nutrients. Add shallots to your favorite dishes...
They say opposites attract. That might be a simple rationale for combining beef and broccoli in a single dish, according to nutritional values published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, National Nutrient Database. Broccoli is a...
The St. Tropez Diet is similar to other Mediterranean-style diets. It promotes savoring and enjoying healthy food and not only allows you a little wine, but also encourages it. Biochemist and food scientist Apostolos Pappas created the diet and...
Baking beets ensures that no nutrients in this root vegetable are poured down the drain. For people put off by the aggressive, inky redness of beets, pale varieties are now available. Although these enable you to enjoy the flavor of beets without...
While most parents now know that babies shouldn't have raw honey, decisions about foods baked with honey are more complex. Raw honey, including pasteurized honey, can be contaminated with botulism spores. Botulism spores cannot grow and thrive in...
A sore throat is a common symptom in a child, particularly during the course of a viral cold. The scratchiness and pain of a sore throat may be accompanied by a runny nose or post-nasal drainage. Small children might not be able to articulate...
Chicken wings are the ultimate comfort food. Savory chicken draped in spicy-sweet sauce is the perfect dish for a family meal or a casual party. Unfortunately, fried chicken wings are high in both fat and calories, but don't worry. You don't need...
When your doctor puts you on a low-sodium diet, you start looking at every food you eat with suspicion. That includes pancakes, a classic breakfast favorite. Though you might be tempted to leave salt out of your favorite pancake recipe, it isn't a...
Onions provide good sources of several essential nutrients, and, like most other vegetables, they contain little salt and no fat. Flavoring dishes with onions, rather than butter and salt, can help you reduce your fat and salt consumption and meet...
Frog legs are a classic French meal, usually served with a complicated demi glace sauce. If you don't want to spend your entire afternoon stirring this type of sauce, there is another way to prepare frog legs: Shake 'n Bake. Though not quite as...
If you are diabetic or trying to reduce your sugar consumption, you might have considered Truvia, an artificial sweetener made from the leaves of the stevia plant. Though it makes a good substitute for sugar in coffee or sprinkled over cereal,...
Probiotics are suddenly all the rage. Found in supplements crowding the health-food store shelves and in foods advertised as digestive aids, probiotics are seemingly everywhere these days. But many people aren't quite clear on what probiotics...
Some sort of fat, whether animal- or plant-based, lurks in almost every food that most people consume. Many fats occur naturally, such as those found in cuts of meat, but some are added to processed and prepared dishes to make the final product...
The secret to eating less fat, losing weight and avoiding some major health problems like constipation lies in fiber, reports the University of Minnesota. For example, fiber makes you feel full, thus helping you to control your food intake and...
If you enjoy coffee, you appreciate its acidic flavor. Chlorogenic acids are the most abundant of the many naturally occurring acids in green and roasted coffee beans; others include quinic, lactic, malic, citric, lactic and acetic acid. Although...
Different versions of the cereal have come and gone, but the original Rice Krispies has been on the market for more than 80 years. According to the Kellogg Co., it only costs 50 cents per bowl, making it a cost effective way to gain nutrition. The...
A pressure cooker works on the principle of superheating steam and trapping it inside the pot. The steam trapped in the pot builds up pressure, which raises the internal cooking temperature from the standard boiling point of 212 degrees F. /100...
If your mother insisted that you start your day with a healthy breakfast before leaving the house, she was right --- again. People who eat breakfast have a lower body mass index compared to those who skip breakfast, food scientist Sungsoo Cho,...
Banana nut cake may seem healthy because its base is in natural, whole fruit and protein-rich nuts. But bananas are one of the highest-calorie fruit options, and nuts are high in fat as well as protein. It's certainly possible to mix up a cake...
