Some scientific facts

Julia Child famously said that fat carries flavor, but perhaps instead we should give thanks to 4-methylpentanoic acid. Unique combinations of such chemical compounds give foods their characteristic flavors. Science-minded chefs have gone so far as to suggest that seemingly incongruous ingredients - chocolate and blue cheese for example - will taste great together as long as they have enough flavor compounds in common. Scientists recently put this hypothesis to the test by creating a flavor map which can be seen in recent publications. Lines connect foods that have components in common. By comparing the flavour network with various recipe databases, the researchers conclude that chefs do tend to pair ingredients with shared flavor compounds, but only in Western cuisine. Dishes from a database of recipes from East Asia tend to combine ingredients with few overlapping flavors.

Wine, Women and Whatever

Women usually tolerate less alcohol than men, but this has nothing to do with their body weight or size. If a woman and a man of the same size and build drank the same amount of wine, the woman would still show a higher blood alcohol concentration. (BAC). This is because women have a higher fat content than men and fat does not absorb any alcohol. The intoxicant therefore spreads to less liquid, leading to a higher BAC.

Hold the pudding!

I read that while beer makes that unaesthetic beer belly, wine does not affect the waistline at all. In fact. recent studies showed that women who routinely drank moderate amounts of alcohol, totaling about one drink a day, carried almost 10 lbs less body fat than women who did not drink at all. Experts evidently believe that the calories in alcohol are not metabolized in the same way as calories from carbohydrates, fats or protein. So if you are about to start a diet to lose weight, maybe you should consider having a glass of wine instead of chocolate pudding for dessert. Now tell me a better excuse than that.