Misconception Junction 10 Food Myths

ASCONCEFTION 10 FOOD OYTHS Misconception Junction.com Myth#1: white Chocolate is Chocolate Chocolate is a range of products derived from cocoa mixed with fat and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confection. Depending on the proportion of cocoa, there are several types of chocolate like dark chocolate, milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate, etc. Though white chocolate is also often included in that list. technically it is not a chocolate because of its ingredients. In order to be labeled 'chocolate' a product must contain chocolate liquor. the thick liquid produced when fermented, dried and roasted cocoa beans are shelled and then ground. This is the key ingredient for all types of chocolate. However, the chocolate liquor and cocoa solids are Key ingredients missing in white chocolate. It's cocoa butter used in the white chocolate production that gives it it's chocolatey flavor. Cocoa butter is the fat which is removed from the chocolate liquor after it is pressed The difference between white chocolate and any other type of real chocolate is that in the latter, the cocoa butter is re-blended with the Cocoa solids to give a non-sweer taste to the product. That is why while chocolate is the combination of bitter and sweet, white chocolate is just sweet. Myth#2: Pasta is Originally Italian Worldwide, pasta has become synonymous with Italian cuisine with Italian immigrants bringing pasta everywhere they went. While it is true that the most famous varieties and recipes of cooking pasta really come from Italy. surprisingly the actual origin of pasta is not Italy! By definition. pasta is a term for foods made from an unleavened dough of wheat or buckwheat flour and water. Dry pasta, on the other hand, is only made from durum wheat flour or durum wheat semolina. There are several theories about the origins of Pasta. However, most food historians believe that Arabs (specifically from Libya) are to be credited for bringing pasta. along with spinach, eggplant and sugar cane, to the Mediterranean basin. One of the earliest references to pasta being made is in the Talmud, written in Aramaic in the 5th century AD. Here there is a certain record which comes from Arabic references of pasta cooked by boiling. According to the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufactures Association. pasta was then introduced during the Arab conquests of Sicily which had the interesting side effect of drastically influencing the regions cuisine. Myth#3: French Toast was invented in France French toast was not invented in France. In fact. French toast was around long before France even existed as a country. The exact origins of French toast are unknown, Bread has been a staple food for most cultures since food first began being prepared and, up until very recently. the vast majority of humans would have never dreamed of wasting any food: thus, one has to find a way to make stale bread palatable. Soaking it in milk and egg and then cooking it. seems logical enough. making a good tasty meal while not wasting any bread. The earliest reference to doing just this dates all the way back to 4th century Rome, in a cookbook attributed to Apicius. This style of "French" toast was called Pan Dulcis. This practice became common throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, including making it primarily out of stale bread. Indeed, the name for French toast in France itself is pain perdu . which literally means lost bread (it is also called this in Belgium, New Orleans, Acadiana. Newfoundland. and the Congo. among other places). Myth#4: You can lose weight by eating negative calorie foods The concept of negative calorie food has recently been popularized by the media, around on Internet discussion boards. and from publications, such as "Foods that Cause You to Lose Weight: The In this so called "negative calorie diet", it is believed that there are certain foods. such as celery. broccoli, papaya, and lettuce, where the amount of energy used to digest the foods is greater than the amount of energy provided by the foods. More technically. that the Thermic effect is greater than the food energy content. Unfortunately. like so many other gimmicky diets, this is just too good to be true and currently there is zero scientific evidence that there are any foods that are actually "negative calorie". In fact, the digestive process typically only accounts for around 10% of most caloric in-take. With the so called "negative calorie" foods, this number tends to jump to around 20%-30%, but not always. In either case, unfortunately. "20%-30%" is not greater than 100%. For a specific example, arguably the most popularly touted "negative calorie food", celery, tends to contain around 6 calories per medium sized piece, but only actually takes around 1/2 a calorie to digest that piece, so around 8% of the caloric in-take are "lost", not 100+%. That's not Negative Calorie Effect", by Neal D. Barnard. to say celery isn't a great food to eat Git very much is for a variety of reasons), but it's not "negative calorie". Myth#5: Fortune çookies were invented in China/America Fortune cookies were not invented in China, nor were they invented in America. The commonly held notion that they were invented in China typically comes from the fact that they are primarily served in Americanized Chinese restaurants. However, you will not find fortune cookies in actual Chinese restaurants, nor will you find historical records of a similar food item in China. As it turns out. fortune cookies were actually invented in Japan, which is probably why there are so many credible stories of Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century inventing fortune cookies. In fact. they simply brought them over from Japan. This fact was very recently (1990s) discovered when a researcher. Yasuko Nakamachi, encountered a fortune cookie-shaped cracker. called a Tsujiura Senbei, made by hand in a family bakery (Sohonke Hogyokudo), near a Sinto shrine outside of Kyoto. Japan. This cracker, not only looked like a cookie, it also contained a fortune, cal an omikuji (fortune slip). and was traditionally sold in shrines and temples in Japan long before fortune cookies debuted in the United States. Face facts with dignity Myth#6: The Red juice in Raw Meat is Blood Nearly all blood is removed from meat during slaughter. which is also why you don't see blood in raw. white meat: only an extremely small amount of blood remains within the muscle tissue when you get it from the store. So what is that red liquid you are seeing in red meat? Red meats, such as beef, are composed of quite a bit ofwater. This water, mixed with a protein called myoglobin, up comprising most of that red liquid. ends Myth#7: Coffee "Beans" are beans A Coffee bean is not actually a bean, rather it is a seed. Now I Know you are saying to yourself right now. "Aren't beans seeds and seeds beans?". Surprisingly. that is not the case. In fact, though beans are always seeds, seeds are not always beans. A bean is just one Kind of a seed. Specifically, it is a name for seeds of the family Fabaceae (also Known as Leguminosae) of which the coffee plant is not a member: thus, coffee "beans" are not actually beans. Myth#8: Jam and Jelly are the Same The difference between jelly and jam is that jelly is made strictly from the juice of fruit, while jam is made from crushed fruit. Specifically. jelly is made by crushing fruit, then straining out everything but the juice. The juice is then boiled, typically with sugar and pectin added, the latter of which reacts with the sugar and heat to give the jelly a thicker consistency for spreading. The first step in making jam is about the same as jelly. but instead of straining the juice, the crushed fruit is left in, often with the seeds left in, if they are relatively small. Unlike most all jellies, jam may not contain pectin, as the mashed fruit will of ten give it sufficiently good consistency for spreading. If you are wondering how to tell the difference between jelly and jam on sight. the jelly will spread preity evenly, while the jam will tend to be a little lumpy. Myth 9: Alcohol "Cooks out" of Food Alcohol does not cook out of food in most cases. The myth that alcohol does all cook out stems from the fact that alcohol has a much lower boiling point temperature (I73 degrees F/ 78.5 degrees C) than water (212 degrees F / 100 degrees C). temperature is above 78.5 degrees C. then the alcohol should boil off, right? In a study conducted at the US. Department of Agriculture, the University of Idaho, and Washington State University. researchers used a variety of recipes with various sources of alcohol and a variety of preparation types, including simmering. baking. flaming. refrigerating over night, etc. What they found was that the amount of alcohol remaining after cooking was in the range of 4%-85%. The variations weren't just dependant on how long you Kept the temperature above alcohol's boiling point either. They also found that the other ingredients made a difference in the alcohol retention rate. The size of the cooking vessel also greatly affected Thus. if the the alcohol retention rates. The smaller the vessel, the more alcohol will be retained given some set cooking time, due to the smaller surface area for evaporation.The reason there will always be alcohol remaining. is that the alcohol binds with water and forms an azeotrope (mixture of two or more compounds where the ratio cannot be changed by simple distillation). So as you boil the azeotrope, the ratio of alcohol in the compound stays the same throughout the boiling process. So you will always retain some alcohol, unless you boil off all the liquid. Myth#10: Carbohydrates are mostly responsible for increasing body weight It is a common belief that eating even low amounts of carbohydrates bread, increases body weight. whether the carbs are from sugar. fruits or vegetables. The reason for this misconception may be that eating carbohydrates raises insulin, which then lowers blood sugar. Low sugar increases appetite so a person ends up eating more. Considering this, some people advocate significant reduction of carbohydrates in their diet. In reality. the amount of fat you gain while consuming carbohydrates depends more heavily on their type, with the digestion of a particular carbohydrate depending on the a particular carbohydrate depends upon the complexity of its molecular structure. The more complex this structure is, the harder the digestive system works to break it down and absorb it into the bloodstream. So, depending on their chemical structure, there are simple (natural) and complex (man-made) carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates include natural food sugars (fruits., vegetables, milk products) and sugars added during food processing (cakes, sweets. sweet drinks) and refining. Complex carbohydrates include whole grain breads and cereals, starchy vegetables and legumes. It's foods with added sugars that are the problem as they are usually high in calories and low in nutrients. Refined carbohydrates (white bread, refined grains. pastries, sugared drinks) are easily digested and may contribute to weight gain and promote and heart disease. However. carbohydrates from non-refined food groups complexity of its molecular structure. The digestion 3 24 25 don't turn to fat nearly as easily. Designed by Noreen (Buzzfactory.net) © TodayIFoundOut.com JUNCTION