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Your kitchen towel could be loaded with bacteria, study shows

We were already weary of kitchen sponges, but now we know to look out for kitchen towels, too. Kitchen towels do many duties from wiping to drying, holding hot things and cleaning surfaces. They’re ubiquitous in households around the world, but now we know, those pretty patterns might be hiding some dangerous secrets. A new study from the University of Mauritius reported by the American Society for Microbiology found that family size and type of diet factor into the growth rate of the bacteria on kitchen towels that can lead to food poisoning and other serious infections. Researchers took an up close look at 100 kitchen towels after one month of use and found that 49 percent of the towels contained high levels of bacterial growth. The bacteria count increased with the size of the family and also when children or extended families were present. In households where towels  had more than…

Sleeping with the television on can cause you to gain weight, research shows

If you thought sleeping with the television on was a harmless habit, think again. New research published by JAMA Internal Medicine says that snoozing with an artificial light on nearby can cause you to pack on the pounds. Here’s how it works: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) surveyed 43,722 women ages 35-74 on whether they slept with a television on, a light outside the room, a small nightlight, or no light present. The participants were not shift workers, daytime sleepers, or pregnant at the time of the study. The women were ask to report changes in weight, height, BMI, waist and hip measurement to the researchers for five years. Researchers then analyzed the data, and the findings are unsettling. Researchers found that those who slept with a television on were by far worse off than their darkness dozing peers. Television sleepers were 17% more likely to gain weight…

People prefer eating on the couch, not at the table, survey says

Eating at the dinner table is apparently, becoming a thing of the past. While you may have had no choice as a kid, now that you’re an adult, a newly released survey shows that you’re more likely to eat elsewhere. More than 1,000 people participated in the first Cooking at Home Report, conducted by June, the appliance company credited with pioneered the intelligent convection oven. While 72% of respondents said they grew up eating dinner at the table, only 48% said they still do so today. Of course, this can mean many things. Perhaps some participants live in the city, where apartments may be too small for a dining table. So where do people eat? The couch is a popular place to dine, with 30% of respondents claiming that was their surface of preference. Seventeen percent of people say they prefer to eat in bed. The report didn’t ask questions…

Eating pasta three times a week won’t make you fat, study shows

Spaghetti. Rigatoni. Fettuccini. It’s everyone’s favorite — pasta — and Italian lovers everywhere can rejoice over new research that reveals the popular pantry item won’t make you fat. While the joys of pasta are undeniable (is there anyone out there who doesn’t love diving into a big bowl of bolognese?) its healthfulness has always been in question. In recent years, low-carb options like quinoa have taken a bite out of pasta sales as health-minded adults feared packing on the pounds. But science now tells us, that eating a portion of penne up to three time a week won’t make you fat, and it might even help you slim down. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto conducted 30 randomized control trials involving nearly 2,500 people who replaced their regular carbohydrates with pasta as part of a healthy low-glycemic index diet. The findings? Pasta doesn’t not cause you to put on extra body fat. “The study found that pasta didn’t contribute to…

Get your greens! Broccoli may help fight schizophrenia, study suggests

Broccoli has long been hailed as an all-star food thanks to its anti-cancer properties and healthy doses of vitamin C, calcium, and B vitamins. Now, a new study suggests that the crunchy cruciferous vegetable could be helpful in managing schizophrenia. Researchers at Johns Hopkins say that extracts found in the vegetable can tweak chemical imbalances in the brain of those suffering from the mental disorder. They used the compound sulforaphane, derived from broccoli sprouts, to restore glutamate and glutathione to lower levels. Broccoli’s high levels of sulforaphane also mean that potentially it could be used as an alternative to antipsychotic drugs, which often have painful or dangerous side effects. In a study published in January in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers measured brain regions of 81 people who had suffered a recent episode of psychosis. Those patients, on average, showed 4% less of the chemical glutamate in certain areas of…

Skipping breakfast could increase risk of heart disease, study shows

You’ve heard it before — “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” But that still doesn’t stop you from slapping the snooze button and skipping out on the first meal of the day in favor of a few extra quality minutes of shuteye. But you might want to think twice. We already know a good breakfast can help you lose weight, but a new study suggests that skipping breakfast might increase your risk of death from heart disease. The study was recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers used data from 1988-1994 on more than 6,500 people between the ages of 40 and 75, who had been asked how often they ate breakfast in the morning. Responses showed that 5.1% almost never ate breakfast; 10.9% rarely ate breakfast; 25% had breakfast somedays; and 59% had breakfast every day. The researchers followed up with the…

Eating garlic could help protect your memory, new study shows

You might miss out on some smooches, but a new study suggests that consuming garlic may help protect your memory. Scientists at the University of Louisville found that eating garlic may reduce age-related problems with memory. As it turns out, allyl sulfide, the same sulfide compound that gives us “garlic breath” also improves our gut health, which is one factor in cognitive function. If people eat more garlic, the study’s authors believe people could see a reduced risk in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. For the study, researchers gave oral allyl sulfide to 24-month-old mice (basically 56 to 69 years of age in human years). They then compared these mice with 4- and 24-month-old mice not receiving the allyl sulfide supplement. The older mice that received the garlic showed better long and short term memories, as well as a healthier gut bacteria, than the mice that didn’t receive…

6 Benefits of eating spicy foods

Eating spicy foods can be a point of pride for some people. Friends compete to see who can eat the hottest wings without crying. Restaurants tout their Ghost Pepper salsas, and TV show crews travel thousands of miles to film their hosts taking on spicy food challenges at fairs and festivals. But aside from a badge of honor — and maybe the thrill of it — there are several benefits to eating spicy foods. Of course, if you already have reflux or gastro issues, eating spicy foods may make you feel worse. But, if you don’t have these issues and your stomach is strong, you may experience some of these health benefits of spicy foods: 1. A boost in metabolism. Studies have shown that people who eat spicy foods burned more calories and had less of an appetite after eating red pepper. Spicy foods, like hot peppers, contain the capsaicin,…

Restaurants with handwritten menus are seen as healthier, study says

From the dim lighting to the trendy tunes, there are countless factors beyond the food that influence what you think about a restaurant. Now, a new study claims that even the font chosen for a menu can influence your perception. The study, led by Stephanie Liu, an Assistant Professor of Consumer Sciences at The Ohio State University, suggests that restaurants with handwritten menus (as opposed to machine-written/professionally printed) are seen as having better tasting food. Research found that the imperfect handwritten font generated more favorable attitudes toward the menu overall. Furthermore, the food was perceived as being healthier. The findings are explained in the abstract of the paper, published in the Journal of Business Research: “The results show that handwritten typeface creates a competitive advantage by conveying a sense of human touch, which subsequently induces the perception that love is symbolically imbued in the restaurant’s offerings.” The researchers then determined that…

These are the most popular cocktails in America throughout the day, research shows

You probably wouldn’t do a shot of tequila with your morning toast any more than you would sip a mimosa at midnight. We have come to think of different alcoholic drinks as being better suited for different times of the day. So which cocktails are our a.m. and p.m. favorites, and which remain popular around the clock? Nielson, a global analytics company, arrived at this answer by compiling data collected from restaurants and bars over a four month span of time in 2018. So what are Americans drinking these days? Nationwide, the most popular cocktails 24/7 were the margarita, martini, old fashioned, mimosa, and the Moscow mule. Things get more interesting when broken down by depart. Nielson defined morning at 6 .m. to noon, afternoon as noon to 6 p.m., evening as 6 p.m. to midnight, and night as midnight to 6 a.m. The favorites were as follows: Morning Mimosa Bloody…