Curiously Awesome

Approximately one in seven U.S. residents cannot get enough food to eat while the nation’s supermarkets throw away tons of food products every year.

About 63 percent of the average supermarket’s waste is food. This is 3,000 pounds per store per year.

Most of this food is safe for consumption and includes foods that are less visually appealing, such as bananas with brown spots or green potatoes. This food is thrown away to make room for a new shipment.

To stop supermarkets from wasting food while people go hungry, the Bill Emerson Federal Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects supermarkets from litigation in the event that someone gets sick from donated food.

Charring meat by heavily cooking it can lead to the development of cancer-causing chemicals in the meat.

People who eat well-done meat double their risk of developing bladder cancer compared to people who eat rarer meat. This is due to the heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that form when meat is cooked at very high heat.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 17 different HCAs that contribute to cancer. Other research has also established that these chemicals increase pancreatic cancer.

Keeping meat away from direct flames when grilling it will help to reduce the development of HCAs. Slow-cooking meat is another way to reduce HCA formation.

Young people who spend long times on the internet are more likely to be depressed than those who use it moderately. “Pathological” internet use can cause other problems as well like poor physical health, relationship problems, aggressive behavior and psychological disorders.

Young people without mental health problems that use the internet pathologically could develop depression as a consequence.

Symptoms of internet addiction are similar to other types of addictive behavior. These including cravings, neglecting family members and friends, moodiness when not using the computer, and lying about the amount of time spent on the internet.

Getting more sun may help your body fight disease. Researchers found that the immune cells responsible for destroying pathogens (T cells) cannot work properly if the body’s vitamin D levels are too low.

Vitamin D is naturally produced by the body when you get exposure to sunlight. Using sunscreen and lessening time outdoors has contributed to common vitamin D deficiencies. Vitamin D is present in some foods such as eggs, fatty fish and fortified milk, it is difficult to get high enough levels from food sources.

Only 15 minutes of sun on the face and hands every day will give a light-skinned person enough vitamin D. Darker skinned people need two to three times as much sun.

The body stops producing vitamin D when levels get high enough, making it impossible to get too much vitamin D from sunlight.

Vitamin D is important for calcium absorption and it has also been implicated in fighting diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Researchers have found that consuming foods sweetened with HFCS raises the risk of developing high blood pressure.

One in three Americans has hypertension and many don’t know it. This puts them at risk for several deadly diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness and dementia.

People who consume 74 grams or more per day of fructose — the equivalent of 2.5 soft drinks daily — had a greatly increased risk of high blood pressure. A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg. For research participants consuming fructose regularly, the risk of a high blood pressure level of 134/85 went up 26 % and the risk of having a blood pressure of 140/90 rose by 30 %. The risk of very high blood pressure — 160/100 — was 77 % higher in people who consumed fructose sweetened foods and drinks on a daily basis.

Scientists have found new evidence that nuts are healthy for the heart because they improve blood cholesterol levels without drugs. Consumption of nuts has been the focus of intense research because of their ability to reduce coronary heart disease risk and to lower blood lipid levels.

Researchers investigated data from 25 international nut consumption trials involving 583 people with high cholesterol or normal cholesterol levels. The studies compared a control group of research subjects to a group assigned to eat nuts regularly. No one took cholesterol lowering drugs.

The people in the trials who ate 2.4 ounces of nuts each day had a reduction in total cholesterol levels of 5.1 percent.

Researchers concluded the results of the study support including nuts as a natural dietary therapy for improving blood cholesterol levels.

Researchers recently finished a study that observed significant health benefits in people who eat chocolate.

The key components in chocolate that give it health benefits are the flavanoids. Flavanoids are known to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease because of their anti-clotting characteristics. The antioxidant power of chocolate is also significant. Chocolate has a higher Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity (ORAC) than most common foods. Antioxidants protect the body from the destructive effects of free radicals.

The Chocolate Manufacturers Association claims that dark chocolate has an average ORAC value of over 13,000 and milk chocolate has approximately 6,700.

A recent study has concluded that the emergence of MRSA superbugs has been caused by the widespread use of synthetic antibiotic drugs that started in the 1960s.

Scientists analyzed 63 samples of MRSA responsible for a large percentage of superbug outbreaks in hospitals globally. They identified a pattern of mutations that shows the superbug’s tendency to develop resistance to antibiotics. The scientists were able to narrow down the origins of the strain and traced it back to 1960s in Europe. This was a time when antibiotic use was just beginning to rise up in mainstream medicine.

The rise of deadly superbugs like MRSA highlights the overuse of antibiotics as the culprit. Many studies have concluded that synthetic antibiotic is increasing the growth of bacterial mutations.

People who eat more processed foods may suffer a higher incidence of depression. People who eat more fruits and vegetables are less likely to suffer depression. This reinforces an age-old belief that there is a real correlation between what we eat and mental health.

Researchers collected diet and lifestyle data on 3,500 middle-aged people and placed them into groups. The people were then ranked according to two different measures: how much of their diet was whole foods and how much was processed foods. Whole foods: fruits and vegetables–processed foods: high-fat dairy, processed meats, refined grains, fried food and sugar-filled desserts.

Physical and mental health are closely related.

Junk food seems to be almost as addictive as heroin, according to a recent study.

Researchers fed rats one of three different diets: a nutritious diet, a healthy diet with no access to junk food, and a diet of unlimited junk food. Rats in the third group quickly became overweight and the weights of rats in the first two groups did not change.

To test the effects of junk food on the brain’s pleasure centers, the researchers stimulated those areas whenever the rats ran on an exercise wheel. The longer the rat ran, the more pleasure it would get.

Rats in the first two groups did not change their exercise behavior. However, the rats eating junk food began running on the wheel longer. This suggests that their brain’s pleasure centers were desensitized.

Researchers then began shocking the rats painfully whenever they ate junk food. The rats in the first two groups quickly stopped eating the junk food but the third group rats continued with the junk food.