I’m not here to tell you how to celebrate the holidays; whatever you do, do it all for the glory of the Lord. I simply observe that there is a lot of diet discussion this time of year, and so a new paper examining why dieting works and more significantly why it doesn’t work caught my eye. Yes, it involves the microbiome; turns out that Innerspace is the final frontier. Mice that switched back and forth between a high fat diet and a “regular” diet actually gained more weight than mice on a high fat diet all the time, mirroring challenges some people report when they alternate diet plans with less restricted eating.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: Cutting the String on Yo-yo Dieting
food
Science in Review: The Open and Closed Case of Steve v Steve
Exhibit A: During a beach vacation with my extended family, I repeatedly heard my mom, my sister and my wife discussing the complexities of food shopping. These are three intelligent women, each with a Masters’ degree in their respective field, each with a minimum of 10 years’ experience buying and preparing food for themselves and at least some experience doing so for a family, and yet all three find this basic task increasingly overwhelming. Optimizing for sustainability, personal cost, global resource consumption, individual dietary needs, and overall nutrition and health in the presence of uncertainty about the relative and absolute merits of different foods and diets is a nontrivial problem. The space of possible foods over which to perform that optimization is expanding. Then, throw in questions like “Could you figure out which food(s) is causing our family’s eczema?” And by the way, serve it with appealing presentation and make it taste good to a wide assortment of palates, will you?
[Read more…] about Science in Review: The Open and Closed Case of Steve v Steve
Science Corner: I Can’t Believe I Ate That Whole Thing
Eating well in academia can be challenging. On any given day there’s probably pizza or donuts or cookies somewhere on campus. When either your time or your money (or both) are limited—and for students and faculty alike they often are—it’s hard to beat “free” and “right here.” But even with unlimited funds to buy whatever you wish and unlimited time for shopping and preparation, eating well still poses a challenge. There is an educational component as well; you have to learn or be taught what choices to make. And as this New York Times survey illustrates, sharing that knowledge is an imperfect and incomplete process.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: I Can’t Believe I Ate That Whole Thing
Feasts and Revelry: Good Food and the Grad Life (Scholar’s Compass)
I visited the Trade Winds Asian Market on a rare summer evening where time slows and places itself like infinity in your hands. I wanted to make green coconut curry before the summer ran out; summer always seems to run out before it has any right to do so. A friend and I drove to the market and wandered the aisles of unfamiliar labels and food types. We pondered the notations in Chinese characters of which green stalks were lemongrass and which was the Thai basil. Some others in the shop helped us make our choices. The internet gave suggestions on which brand of curry powder made it taste closest to the restaurant favorites I ordered “to-go†when time seemed thin and fleeting. We took an hour to then prepare the veggies and cook them to a spicy glory on the stove. There was more than enough for seconds and thirds. Dinner had turned into a feast of taste and quality time. [Read more…] about Feasts and Revelry: Good Food and the Grad Life (Scholar’s Compass)
Book Review: Eat with Joy
Tonight as the first year medical students of Penn State Hershey College of Medicine prepare for their final Anatomy and Physiology exam (on Friday), the Christian Medical Society (CMS)/CMDA will host another free exam week dinner.
What inspires upperclass students to bless first years with an every-other-week potluck during the stress of “proving themselves” (and even for some, a “finding” of their identity) during their first class? Eating good food is important for medical students and their graduate student colleagues (who are part of the mix as graduate students and TA’s) for encouragement and growth as a community. Furthermore, if one does not develop the discipline of eating early, one’s body take a hit during the intensity not only of study, but also vocation (in medicine, higher ed . . .). AND wasn’t it great to have upperclass students who blessed you during your first year 🙂
But even more, we must embrace that we are Called to Care, to love God with (and offer to God in service) our head, heart, and hands, e.g., Loving God in the Flesh in the Real World. Let us consider how Bob Trube’s review of Eat with Joy: Redeeming God’s Gift of Food (Rachel Marie Stone. InterVarsity Press, 2013) applies to our particular contexts. Read. Share. Review.
Note to all our readers: As I have done previously, I encourage you to read a book before you comment upon it 🙂 It is my intention that reviews such as those offered by Bob will not only provide opportunity for dialogue by those who have read the material, but also serve as teasers — helping our readers discern what books to place in their personal and book discussion group queue. If you have books you desire to review and/or have reviewed, please email me. Thank-you to those who are in process of reviewing Minds, Brains, Souls and Gods: A Conversation on Faith, Psychology and Neuroscience (Malcolm Jeeves) and Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art (Abraham Kuyper). ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director of ESN, editor of ESN’s blog and Facebook Wall. [Read more…] about Book Review: Eat with Joy