Remember, one year ago, when WHO’s agency IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), classified red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, and processed red meat as “carcinogenic to humans”?
Although the way the IARC works is not without controversy, that sounded like a death sentence for meat. But did it change consumers’ behaviour? From what it looks like, not much. In the US for example, consumption of red meat started to grow again, after the all-time low of 2015.
And yet something’s changing in the world of meat. Here’s a summary of what’s happening.
The bright and the dark side of debunking
Let’s bust some food myths, shall we? Starting from the five-second rule: if you drop food on the floor, no matter how quickly you pick it up, it will collect bacteria. And here’s another one: oysters are not powerful aphrodisiacs, despite what Casanova’s life may have you believe.
Food Myths Are Among Us, but There’s Still a Simple Rule We Can Follow
Uncovering myths (whether food-related or not) can be useful, but has a dark side as well. As it turns out, the act of debunking can get you into a downward self-righteous spiral, where the dispeller becomes the dispellee.
Who Will Debunk The Debunkers?
So long, real food
Around the world, a small army of researchers is quietly engineering wearable devices that can interfere with your brain and make you believe that what you’re eating is more (or less) salty or sweet than what it really is, or that you’re chewing food, when in fact there’s nothing in your mouth.
Virtual food is becoming reality. How do you feel about that?