April showers bring May flowers. And June brings summer interns, eager for laboratory experience. We welcome Dana Pham-Hua from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA), and Elodie Viellet from Polytech Nice Sophia in France.
Rachel Cernasky’s article looks at "superfood" fads and asks whether they can have benefits, especially to the people who live where they are being produced.
Moringa, with its nutrient and nutraceutical profile, might be such a novel plant. And it’s possible that its sale to rich countries may provide a useful cash supplement to tropical communities where it is grown.
Cernasky interviewed me for the article, and she reproduces my rule of thumb for the validity of a moringa product: the closer it is to real, fresh, unadulterated, unprocessed moringa leaves, the better.
The ability to detect bitterness probably evolved to help us avoid eating harmful substances. By shunning too many bitter substances, especially those present in healthful foods, we might be putting our long-term health at risk. For example, the glucosinolates in Brussels sprouts and its cousins, broccoli, kale, and other cruciferous vegetables, switch on many healthful processes in our bodies, and many medicines prevent or treat serious illness.
The Center’s Dr. Fahey was recently quoted in an article in Modern Farmer that attempts to dethrone wheatgrass as a miracle-food or super-food. Says he: “I am unaware of any credible scientific evidence that consuming wheatgrass or wheatgrass juice is