March 26, 2010 Science Friday (NPR)

March 26, 2010 Science Friday (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125216841
audio stream and a transcript

Two food topics covered were from the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco.

The first is an interview with Navindra Seeram, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, University of Rhode Island.
He talks about new antioxidants found in maple syrup. His conclusion is that maple syrup is better than other sugars.
Maybe so, but that doesn't make it a health food. I love maple syrup by the way. The research is funded by industry and the Canadian government.

The second is Frank Mitloehner, Professor, University of California, Davis.
His numbers conclude that dairy and meat does not contribute as much to climate change as other scientists have concluded, because the amount of roughage (which results in methane) in cattle feed has been overestimated.
Therefore transportation contributes more to greenhouse gasses than all agriculture (26 percent versus 5.8 percent).
Five percent of his funding comes from the agriculture industry.
The finger pointing will no doubt continue.