Presenting: “The Science of Food”

has collected a delectable set of articles on the origin and future of food, and our love and hate relationship with it

By | |

For most of human history, life revolved around food. hunting, growing and preparing it left little time for anything else. Industrialization of the production process changed all that and made it easy—arguably too easy—to overlook the intimate connection that food has to the health of our body and the health of our planet. But today people are increasingly mindful of that connection, thanks in part to new insights and options from science.

Researchers, for example, have begun to untangle the complex web of factors that . Experts who have devoted their careers to some of our most treasured foods can now explain the ,  and . Historians have pieced together the origins of our  and traced the millennia-long evolution of and the .

Now much of the discussion about food involves angst and trade-offs. Many agricultural products—not to mention farmers' livelihoods—are threatened by climate change and disease. Two top scientists at Mars, Inc., the famed candy-bar maker, describe serious threats to the —chocolate, a sweet treat that some find addictive. The notion of addiction may be more than mere metaphor. As neuroscientist Paul J. Kenny points out in “,” overconsumption of sugary, high-fat foods such as chocolate may actually alter brain chemistry in ways similar to the effects of addictive drugs. In “,” nutrition expert Marion Nestle notes that the rich world is awash in such foods, which are implicated in elevated rates of obesity. Changing that environment of temptation can be part of the solution, she argues. Behavioral strategies for weight loss .

The globalization of agriculture and food distribution has boosted yields and prevented famines—and filled our winter salads with produce grown . Yet the insatiable appetite of humanity is also harming the environment in myriad ways. “” asks Jonathan A. Foley. An authority on sustainability, Foley proposes a plan to end malnutrition worldwide while preserving rain forests and stabilizing the climate. For that to happen, we will need to lessen the steep , which is rising rapidly. Informed eaters must whether . How about ? Or, as chef Bun Lai advocates, ? You may not agree with all the ideas in this issue. But they are indeed food for thought.

see also: