Today's interesting fact has to do with tasteless tomatoes.
Many people complain that the tomatoes we get and eat have no taste. There are two good reasons why we have tasteless tomatoes. One has to do with tomato suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. The other has to do with us, the consumers.
First we need to consider the fact that tomatoes in their raw form, have no flavour, no taste.
Many would dispute this but... until the juice and the flesh of the tomato is mixed, either in cutting, mashing or mixing, there is no flavour. This has been shown by taste testing of the flesh and liquid that have been carefully separated without mixing the two components. They have found that within the liquid part of the tomato, there is an enzyme that, when mixed with the flesh of the tomato, generates a chemical reaction that creates the flavour that we taste when we bite into it.
And this enzyme is why sometimes tomatoes have no taste, because is gets destroyed when it is left at temperatures below 4 degrees centigrade. The longer it the tomato is kept below this temperature, the more of the enzyme is destroyed. When you consider that the optimum temperature range for perishable food storage is 3 to 5 °C (37 to 41 °F), and that most refrigerators tend to be set to between 3 and 5 °C, you where the problem is.
Some suppliers, wholesalers and retailers keep their tomatoes in large fridges to keep them from going ripe too soon, and thereby destroy the enzyme before we get it. And some of us, immediately on getting home from the retailer put our tomatoes into the fridge.
So if you want tasty tomatoes, don't refrigerate them.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
Today's interesting fact has to do with Medicine
The Nuremberg codes are ethical codes that were set up to prevent a repeat of the human experimentation that occurred during WW2 on German Prisoners.
There are ten points in all, and as defined by the United States National Institutes of Health the first one is
1) The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him/her to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment. The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.
I thought I'd bring this up, because in some countries, this consent has recently been neglected, perhaps because it currently only applies in those countries that have added it to their legal codes. In the US, apparently, it only applies to Federally funded research, unless you live in California or any other state that have passed the code into law.
There are ten points in all, and as defined by the United States National Institutes of Health the first one is
1) The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him/her to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment. The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.
I thought I'd bring this up, because in some countries, this consent has recently been neglected, perhaps because it currently only applies in those countries that have added it to their legal codes. In the US, apparently, it only applies to Federally funded research, unless you live in California or any other state that have passed the code into law.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Stopping Potatoes sprouting
Today's interesting fact has to do with potatoes and how to stop them from sprouting.
Potatoes sprout when they are in the right conditions... unfortunately, being kept in the dark, and in a warm kitchen, encourages them to put out new shoots from their eyes to reach the light. You need to keep them in the dark, to keep them from going green, when they start producing poisons that can cause illness and if consumed in large amounts even death.
To prevent this potatoes from sprouting, add a couple apples to the potato bag. The ethylene gas produced by apples as they ripen, will stop the potatoes producing the offending sprouts. You could use bananas as well, but they ripen much faster than apples do.
Potatoes sprout when they are in the right conditions... unfortunately, being kept in the dark, and in a warm kitchen, encourages them to put out new shoots from their eyes to reach the light. You need to keep them in the dark, to keep them from going green, when they start producing poisons that can cause illness and if consumed in large amounts even death.
To prevent this potatoes from sprouting, add a couple apples to the potato bag. The ethylene gas produced by apples as they ripen, will stop the potatoes producing the offending sprouts. You could use bananas as well, but they ripen much faster than apples do.
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