One of the things I always warn people about before their first archival trip is just how boring historical research […]
“Just Close Your Eyes and Chew!”: Spirulina, Modernization, and the “Lost” Crops of the Past
On February 20, 2017, the young nation of South Sudan declared that it was suffering famine in several regions of […]
Itinerant Tacos: A Brief History of Tortilla Factories
The squeaky wheels, the baking corn masa, and the silver behemoth carrying golden circles on a metal conveyor — the […]
Lady Mellanby’s Dental Utopia
Nearly all of us have dealt with dental caries — better known as cavities — at some point in our […]
A Healthy Dose of Skepticism
The FDA is on a mission to redefine healthy, and they “want to get it right.” This undertaking stems in […]
The Pre-History of the Paleo Diet
Dr. Loren Cordain describes himself as the “world’s foremost authority on the evolutionary basis of diet and disease” and as […]
Helen Atwater: The First Lady of American Nutrition You’ve Never Heard Of
When I was researching the history of American food guides, I came across one of the earliest resources, “How to […]
Why Eighteenth-Century Hangriness Might Be A Thing (And Why It Matters)
Captured by Abenaki Indians from New Hampshire in 1724, the Englishwoman Elizabeth Hanson described how after a disappointing hunt, her […]
“We lost our appetite for food”: Why Eighteenth-Century Hangriness Might Not Be a Thing
In August 2015, Oxford Dictionaries declared that the word “hangry” had entered our common vocabulary. Surely most people living in […]
Elimination Diets: Medical & Dietary Detective Work
After a lengthy, expensive, and invasive process, I received a diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a hard to pronounce and […]
