Nerdy Science Blog

Our food preferences are likely to be programmed from the moment we’re fertilized.

For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests. The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others, the researchers say.

—— ScienceDaily: People Are Programmed To Love Chocolate, Study Finds

Some people might envy those who can eat a lot (such as me) and will never get fat. Researchers suggested that this might be because of the link between metabolic system and food we like, such as chocolate, carbs, steaks, etc.

So stop using “fattening” restraining yourself from eating chocolate, you’re just not talented. So do durianphobic losers.

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Read this news from nature. Scientists from Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovo, Israel had discovered the protein that can erase long-term memories. Yadin Dudai and Reut Shema found that the polypeptide ZIP is useful in “zipping” memories.

They then looked to see what would happen if they injected the rat cortex with ZIP, a small protein Sacktor’s laboratory previously used to block spatial memories held in the hippocampus. ZIP silences an enzyme called PKM-zeta, which Sacktor thinks is key to perpetuating long-term memory.

This is exciting, but there are something else that concern me. Will this discovery be used in military acts or by terrorists? Will it be commercialize just for someone to forget their past becoming the next popular drugs? Maybe it will become the next important thing in the future spy movies like the Bourne series.

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Very often when we fall sick (i.e., fever, sore throat, flu and other common illness), our Chinese friends will tell us to stay away from ‘heaty foods’ such as spicy food, tom yam, char kuew teow, durian and etc, including chicken and egg to avoid our sickness from getting worse. Instead, we are advice to take simple cooked foods or ‘cooling foods’ such as porridge, noodle soup, herbal tea and etc which will give some soothing effect, with perception that these foods will help in get rid the ‘heaty’ from our body, and thus get well soon.

But if you have Indian friends who always having Indian meals with, they will tell you different thing: get some spices when you get sick!

This is their way of helping themselves whenever they are not feeling well, they will demand more curry onto their banana leaf while having their meal. One of the explanations I ever heard which sound logical is: the spices in curries can boost up the immune system in our body, so we get cure faster.

Well, I do not know how true it is, but recently researchers found out a chemical compound, capsaicin which can find in chilies might help in battle with cancer.

A study by the scientists, published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, has proven for the first time that the chemical compound capsaicin — which is responsible for the burning sensation when we eat chillies — can kill cells by directly targeting their energy source.

It could mean that patients could control or prevent the onset of cancer by eating a diet rich in capsaicin and that existing products to treat conditions such as psoriasis and muscle strain, which contain the compound and are already approved for medical use, could be adapted to tackle this more serious disease.

By looking at statement at below, perhaps next time we should give a try to curry.

He said: “This is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the western world.”

For full story, please go to “A Curry A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?” at Science Daily.

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