Month: October 2018
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Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?
Vincent P. de LuiseNew Haven, Connecticut, USA The health benefits of fruits and vegetables are a long-standing and verified aspect of nutrition science. One of those fruits, the apple, has a particularly interesting, albeit circuitous, history as a healthy foodstuff. The well-known aphorism “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is based on a…
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Stephen Hales: Belief and blood pressure
Joseph deBettencourtChicago, Illinois, United States “It would but ill become us in this our State of Uncertainty, to treat the Errors and Mistakes of others with Scorn and Contempt, when we ourselves see Things but as through a Glass darkly, and are very far from any Pretensions to Infallibility”— Stephen Hales, Haemastatics Stephen Hales’ father…
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Drunk in love: Bodies and consumption in Samson and Delilah
Lee Andrews Peter Paul Rubens’ rendition of Samson and Delilah (1610) depicts Samson sleeping on Delilah’s lap as a Philistine cuts his hair, thereby removing the secret to his herculean strength. The artist who gave us the term “Rubenesque,” in which the words “plump” and “pleasing” describe the female form, had much to express about…
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Lord Byron and his strange relationship with food
Mildred Wilson “. . . I would rather not exist than be large.” Lord Byron – Trinity College (1805-1808) On April 15, 1805, George Gordon Byron wrote to Hargreaves Hanson, a fellow classmate at the prestigious school for boys Harrow, in conjunction with a planned visit to Hanson’s home: “. . . wish that you…
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The modern drought
Ana Paula Bottle LeónQueretaro, Mexico In any adventure film or novel where the main character gets stranded on an island, a mountain, or in the middle of the woods, an unquestionable priority is to find a source of drinkable water. Water is vital; it regulates body temperature, nourishes the brain, lubricates bones and joints, and…
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Are we gorging on autonomy?
Oliver William MorrissCambridge, England A potentially fatal crisis in the contemporary world threatens the very foundations of public health, in that what were formerly known as “diseases of affluence,” namely stroke, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, have become a global phenomenon affecting individual lives as well as national economies. Respect for autonomy is fundamental to bioethics;…
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Half-digested clues
Sarah KearnsAnn Arbor, Michigan, USA On a warm spring day in Denmark in 1950 two brothers, Viggo and Emil Hojgaard, ventured out into the marshlands to gather peat to make fuel. With hefty sharp spades, they cut out earthen bricks of decayed organic matter to be used as an energy source. During this laborious task,…
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Fufu and the body
Princewill UdomPort Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria Fufu, West Africa’s finest local delicacy, continues to maintain its scintillating sheen, especially in Nigeria. The congealed, doughy, smooth, white lump of processed cassava meal remains as popular as ever. Made from cassava, a root crop widely cultivated in West Africa, it enjoys luxuriant growth because of favorable climatic…