Questions tagged [food]
Any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body.
319
questions
3
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1answer
46 views
What's the role of bromelain in pineapple?
Bromelain refers to one of two proteases found in pineapple and its relatives. Like other proteases, many believe it has therapeutic uses and it's the subject of a lot of research. But what role does ...
3
votes
3answers
248 views
Air bubble in addled egg
I'm a complete novice in biology. This is just a question that arose during Saturday night warmup and there is no better place to get answers :)
So, as probably most of you know, if you want to ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Are peanut proteins similar to chicken meat proteins?
I'm studying amino acids content in vegetable food. I was looking at peanut protein and noticed its similarity with chicken meat, as you can see in the table below (quantities are measured in grams). ...
3
votes
1answer
62 views
Is there an ecological scenario where terrestrial insect larvae can show food choices?
I have been going through literature on insect food choices. I plan to study the effect of prior experience on food choices in both adults and larvae of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. ...
3
votes
1answer
5k views
How much do crocodiles eat?
How much do crocodiles eat? The closest I found to an answer was on German wikipedia, where it says that adult nile crocodiles eat "only about 50 full meals a year." While interesting, without knowing ...
3
votes
1answer
227 views
How do Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus precipitate the curd of swiss cheese?
I learned in my food microbiology class that Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus precipitate the curd of swiss cheese. However, I was wondering what type of mechanisms do these ...
3
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1answer
222 views
Does tea have its effect if you have a sleep after drinking it?
If I drink tea, then go to sleep for a while, when I wake up, will the effect of tea still be on me (the refreshing effect)?
Does it depend on the duration of sleep?
3
votes
1answer
632 views
Why do animals only eat some parts of their food?
For example monkeys/apes only eat part of a fruit and then throw the rest. Cats (big and small species) only eat some parts of their prey and then they abandon it.
Humans on the contrary leave as few ...
3
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0answers
35 views
Do humans have any biological adaptations to eating cooked food?
Humans have been cooking food for at least tens of thousands of years. The presumed reason why cooking took root in nearly all human cultures is that cooked food is easier to digest. However, cooking ...
3
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0answers
43 views
What do chimpz/bonobos/orangutangs/gorillas feed their babies with?
I just read this question and it made me curious about what a more original baby diet would look like. So, at what age do our closest relatives in the animal kingdom start giving their offspring more ...
3
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0answers
47 views
Why do humans enjoy spices? [duplicate]
It seems that many flavor and food preferences can be explained in the context of regulating feeding behavior. Generally, organisms tend to enjoy those foods which are optimal for them to feed on and ...
3
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0answers
68 views
Difference between feral and domesticated honey?
Is there any significant differences in composition (and/or taste) between the honey of wild ("feral") honeybees versus that of domesticated ones used in beekeeping?
3
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0answers
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Does drinking dry water have same effect as drinking regular water?
Dry water consists of water droplets that have been coated with silica nanoparticles, which prevents the droplets from forming a liquid.
If a human swallows dry water, does it have the same effect as ...
3
votes
0answers
869 views
Can a lion be fed cat food? [closed]
Is there a correlation between eating raw meat and aggressiveness in felines and canines?
Growing up, I was always told to cook the meat I gave to my dogs and cats so as not to give them the "taste ...
3
votes
0answers
64 views
Eating possibly spoiled food in the fasted state - is it considered protective against the potential harm?
It is a known fact that the acidic environment in the stomach serves several purposes, such as providing suitable conditions for primary chemical digestion of food molecules and protection from ...
3
votes
0answers
69 views
What effects would be caused by exposure to common life forms with opposite enantiomer biology? [closed]
Pretend a human had their body "reflected": heart on the wrong side, etc.; but also at the biochemical level: proteins, sugars, cells, DNA, everything.
What would the effects be of that human's ...
3
votes
0answers
68 views
Can juice have a higher sugar content after packaging? [closed]
It seems like the orange juice thats been sitting in the fridge for awhile always tastes sweeter than the juice just brought from the grocery store.
Can juice ripen in the container ? By that I mean,...
2
votes
2answers
304 views
How can toddlers expend seemingly boundless energy when they eat so little?
A toddler's food intake seems very little: only milk and water and some solid food. Therefore, from where does this energy come?
2
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1answer
23k views
Can white eggs be considered as non-vegetarian? [closed]
I am basically a vegetarian and I find it very difficult to get an actual biological answer for this question on search engine.
There are couple of links which discuss these argument but can not be ...
2
votes
2answers
254 views
Is identifying the genus of a fungus (mushroom specifically) enough?
Does the genus of a mushroom have enough information about it, without the species?
Let's say I wanted to identify a mushroom (when picking) to see if I can safely pick and later eat it. Let's say I ...
2
votes
4answers
150 views
Once food has been properly cooked is it absolutely safe?
If you properly cook food (let's say in the oven for 2 hours) will there be no risk left? no pathogen will survive this?
2
votes
2answers
330 views
Lactose Intolerance
What nutrition is given to infants who are lactose intolerant? I understand, in today's day and that age we have non-lactose formula milk, but what happened, before lactose-free milk was created, to ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views
What do bloodsucking animals actually feed on?
A number of animals, including mosquitos, leeches, ticks and so on, feed on blood. And yet, at least in mammals, most stored nutrients can be found in body fat as fat, muscles and liver as glycogen ...
2
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2answers
2k views
What is “theae folium”?
I wanted to buy black tea at a pharmacy and the pharmacist told me that russian tea is actually black tea so I bought it instead.It's made out of theae folium leaves and for some reason I can't find ...
2
votes
1answer
312 views
Is plastic just as good for you as corn?
To specify, I mean plain corn-on-the-cob, not anything processed like corn flakes.
Since one of the main important functions of corn is that it's not digestible, and therefore helps with digestion by ...
2
votes
1answer
539 views
Is it possible that there are unknown vitamins?
Is it possible that there are vitamins or other essential nutrients about which we still do not know?
2
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3answers
12k views
Why do endotherms need more food than ectotherms?
I have a rough idea: endotherms need more food to keep their temperature stable whilst ectotherms use less of their food in respiration.
but that's just me parroting the textbook I don't really ...
2
votes
1answer
414 views
Why is coconut oil healthier when it has so much saturated fat?
I noticed that coconut oil has ~96% saturated fat, and I was under the assumption that saturated fats = bad for health.
Why is it that coconut oil is healthier to alternatives with much less ...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
How much heme is in cooked pork and beef; why is cooked pork (“the other white meat”) not red?
The new video See how Impossible Pork will make you forget about pig meat includes a very short discussion of
the addition of heme to the product to make it taste like beef
the deep red color of a ...
2
votes
1answer
241 views
What is the evolutionary reason behind human preference for salty foods?
It's been established that food palatability is related to it's caloric density. This hypothesis is used to explain why humans are partial to sugar and fat. But it is also said that humans are partial ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
Can viruses stabilize and increase the shelf life of wine and other foods?
When you make wine, you use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment sugary juices. After you're done, you want to avoid them doing anything by using some chemicals etc. There are also other ...
2
votes
1answer
6k views
Why do we get bored of certain food items after repeatedly eating them?
Why do many people not like certain food items after eating them for long? They seem tasty first, and after eating many times, it feels like we get bored.
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Anatomical differences between herbivores and omnivores [closed]
What are differences of herbivores vs omnivores? I do not mean dietary differences (obviously), but physical ones.
E.g., afaik herbivores have a much longer digestive tract than carnivores; then ...
2
votes
1answer
174 views
Can an emulsion enter a cell?
I've been tempted on cooking.stackexchange to answer a question, and I did, out of my mind.
(In retrospect, I shouldn't have done so, based on my lack of citable resources.)
I've heard that a water ...
2
votes
2answers
98 views
What is the common diet of food-related IBS patients? Besides most patients being lactose intolerant, what other intolerances do they face?
I am currently writing a paper on irritable bowel syndrome, and I was wondering what the common diet of a patient with food-related IBS consists of. I've already begun discussing the pathogenesis of ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
What are the sources of energy that alcohol provides?
Milk contains sugar and proteins which give energy. What compounds in alcoholic beverages (edited) give energy? Are they more likely to turn into fat (as in beer belly) than blood glucose?
2
votes
1answer
332 views
How are oranges in the US or anywhere made seedless?
How are oranges in the US or anywhere made seedless? Please explain the broad principles and not the technicalities.
2
votes
1answer
84 views
Storing Apples at 30F?
This article about storing apples for the winter says:
You do not want the apples' temperature to fall below 30°F (-1.1°C), however,
because that will make them freeze and turn to mush when they'...
2
votes
1answer
132 views
Why is it common to grow microalgae in bottles or canisters?
I came across many people growing Chlorella or Spirulina types of microalgae, inside bottles or canisters and that that they also bubbled CO2 into these containers artificially.
This question is ...
2
votes
2answers
70 views
Is there a known or quantifiable correlation between capsaicin and its effect on the body's metabolism?
I've often heard that spicy foods can speed up your metabolism, I presume, due to the capsaicin. Though I'm sure this is a minor effect - I doubt eating a pound of jalapenos a day will help me lose ...
2
votes
1answer
161 views
Why might food go bad in an oxygen-free environment?
I was recently watching a video from the International Space Station (Making a peanut butter sandwich in space), and I noticed he mentioned that a tortilla kept in an oxygen-free environment could ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Are more animal species edible than plants?
While grocery shopping I was thinking that we restrict ourselves in regard to which animals we eat. I surely don't want to eat spiders and ants, for example, but I know that this is just because of my ...
2
votes
1answer
267 views
Leaves not liked by herbivores
I at times have many goats grazing in our locality. Recently a few cows were seen too. I just offered one of the cows a few leaves from Jasminum sambac plant growing in our garden. The cow smelled and ...
2
votes
1answer
128 views
What makes certain obligate anaerobes viable in fermentation starter cultures?
If Propionibacterium are obligate anaerobes (to wit, poisoned by oxygen), what makes 'Dairy' or classical propionibacteria (e.g. P. shermanii, P. jensenii, P. acidicpropionici, et al) viable in ...
2
votes
1answer
51 views
What are ways to compare the “costs” and “gains” of food production systems?
I'm looking for methodologies to compare the costs a food production requires with the gains it delivers (not in economic terms).
I'm aware of energy returned on investment. Are there other methods ...
2
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1answer
884 views
Do foods with preservatives become less toxic in the gut?
Do foods with preservatives stay digestible for longer in the gut by not rotting as much (producing less toxins)?
2
votes
1answer
66 views
Can aflotoxin presence be inferred from the mild discolorotion at the middle parts of a hazelnut?
Can aflotoxin presence be inferred from the mild discolorotion at the middle parts of a hazelnut?
For instance, how likely is it that the hazelnuts pictured below contain Aflotoxin?
P.S.: these ...
2
votes
1answer
42 views
Does the composition of a meal play a big, or small, role in food's thermogenic effect on the body?
Reading in: "Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk / Calories: Total Macronutrient Intake, Energy Expenditure, and Net Energy Stores" [NCBI Resources]:
"The thermogenic ...
2
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4answers
154 views
2
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1answer
188 views
Is it possible to use microalgae to produce food and live on it?
I know microalgae have not less protein and starch, grow quickly, require less. So, is it possible to use them for producing food (replace rice and wheat) and live on it?
Currently, I only saw people ...
