Food links, Inauguration Day edition

Food science and studies…

• Childhood diet alters hormones for life: Research. The  message seems obvious: what you eat as a child can have a huge impact on health later in life

• Because in the winter we could use all the help we can get: How Food Can Affect Your Mood

• Prebiotic may offer ray of light for IBS sufferers: Study

• New soy concentrates for improved meat texture

• Yesterday David Lebovitz blogged a great corn syrup FAQ.

Branding…

• Heinz ketchup loses the pickle on the bottle.

• I bet that Heinz’s new package design will be nicer than Tropicana’s. For coverage of the Tropicana juice carton redesign see Serious Eats, Slashfood, Packaging Digest and Brand Week (or Google for more, of course). According to Brand Week,

The new packaging has 20 design trademarks and copyrights. It took 30 people five months to develop it. Three alternative designs were scrapped including a revised orange and straw version and a Pepperidge Farm-like depiction of an orange grove.

and

The design team…took half of a mid-season orange and created a cap that mimicked its peel in both color and texture. Because you have to squeeze it and turn it, “the cap symbolically represents the essence of the message which is that it the juice is fresh squeezed,”

I think that the Tropicana redesign looks bland and generic and to me the symbol of the orange with the straw did a better job at conveying the brand. Marketing and branding has long been among my interests too.

From Pepsi product to Coke product: Coke Sued Over Vitamin Water.

File under “cool stuff”…

• A chandelier Made of Gummy Bears
• Yesterday I stumbled upon some kitchen gadget pr0n.

And speaking of pr0n, though this goes under the categories of research and studies:

• Women less able to resist favourite foods. What does this have to do with food porn? The image in the article borders on NSFW (not safe for work). Some mom is going to be writing a letter to the newspaper, calling the image obscene.  Or maybe it’s just my mind.

And strange news…

• Teen charged with assaulting mom with taco. Yes, a taco. There’s got to be a joke about the Taco Bell chihuahua in there somewhere.  I shit you not and yes, I’m going there intentionally. Maybe the kid will use the Twinkie Defense (or if you prefer law.com‘s shorter definition).

Locally…

In Taste T.O., beer aficionado Greg laments the lack of good beer drinking establishments in Toronto, using a TAPS Magazine article for inspiration. The piece takes the reader to Montreal and Halifax. Interesting read. By the way, I think that Greg  (and/or Sheryl) needs to create a Taste T.O. Twitter account.

At Forum Liberalis Carolyn Bennett asks:

“Many experts suggest that Canada needs a comprehensive National Food Policy. What do you think should be essential elements of such a policy in the areas of agriculture, fishery, environment, industry, transportation, health, food protection, food security, aboriginal affairs, international trade and international development? Are there any other areas you think should be included?”

…Tell them what you think.

Finally…

Do bars serve beer floats? They should.

A blog post about what I’ve been cooking and baking coming soon and there’s a blog redesign in the future. I’ve changed templates but I want to do so much more.

Happy Obama Inauguration Day! We Canadians are thrilled.