Discovery

I have a number of college textbooks on my shelf that I use as references: basic biology, physics, chemistry. I don’t consult them often, but when I do they’re very helpful, usually putting things in a clearer context than more fundamental references might.

I’ve just added another to the shelf, and I’ll probably be consulting it more than all the others combined.

Frustrated with the existing nutrition textbooks, WSU nutrition scientists Michelle (Shelley) McGuire and Kathy Beerman decided to write their own.
“We had used the other three big books on the market,” says McGuire. “They seemed too preachy and didn’t seem based on science.” Most of the texts was not even written by nutrition professions, she says. “It was kind of shocking.”

So McGuire and Beerman approached the publisher who publishes the top-selling text, which at the time was in its 36th year and 12th edition.

“We said we think we can write a better book,” says McGuire. “And they took us on.”

Little did they know what they were getting into.

They started writing that better nutrition text in 2004 and have been working on it ever since. The result, Nutritional Sciences: From Fundamentals to Food (Thomson Wadsworth), was recently released in its second edition.

Writing the book was “an amazing experience,” says Beerman. “I went into it feeling we could bring a lot to it because of our experience teaching. What I got out of it is I’m now a much better teacher.

“It was like studying for prelims again,” she says. “It forced me to go back and re-learn everything.”

Indeed, the book is exhaustive in its information. It is also beautifully, and purposefully, illustrated. And a good read.

I admit that I have not read it straight through. And probably never will. But I have read the sections on carbohydrates, the pH scale, and other subjects—and filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I will go back to it often.

The book covers “nutrition” from every angle, including, for example, a brief but excellent explanation of how photosynthesis captures energy from sunlight and transfers it to chemical bonds of glucose.

So how does one carve out the time to produce such an information-dense and exhaustive work? Not only do the authors have heavy teaching loads, they both have research programs. Beerman specializes in dietary practices of college students and the effects of isoflavones on health parameters—immune response, thyroid function, memory, and metabolic profile—in postmenopausal women. McGuire’s research involves breastfeeding and linoleic acid, an essential omega-6 fatty acid, which is of course covered thoroughly in Nutritional Sciences.

“We had this full-time job all day,” says Beerman, “and then would go home to another full-time job evenings and weekends.”

Longer shelf life, better flavor, more nutritional value than canning or other forms of preserving food? It happens with a new technology developed by Dr. Juming Tang and his team at WSU. The process could revolutionize food preservation and lead the way to gourmet backpacker food, deluxe meals for astronauts, tasty MREs for soldiers, and longer-lasting food for humanitarian missions.

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the process after more than a decade of research and testing by Tang’s team. As Howard Grimes, WSU vice president for research, says, the technology “promises significant advances in food safety and quality to benefit everyone.”

Read more at WSU Today and watch a video explaining the process: 

 

Washington State Magazine ran an article about early stages of Dr. Tang’s work in 2002.

As Julie and Julia debuts in theaters around the country this weekend, there’s a role in the film viewers may not immediately notice but without which the movie might be completely different. It’s Noel Riley Fitch’s biography of Julia Child titled Appetite for Life. Riley Fitch’s book, while never outright mentioned in the film, was a resource for writer Julie Powell for her blog about cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her book Julie and Julia 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. Powell drew on several sources including Appetite for Life as she was imagining the scenes between Julia and her husband Paul for her book. Powell’s blog and book became the basis for Nora Ephron’s movie, which stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia Child.

Riley Fitch, who had earned her PhD in American Studies from WSU in 1969 was already an accomplished biographer when she met Child at an American Institute of Food and Wine conference in 1990. Child, a voracious reader who loved material about Americans in Paris, had already read a few of Riley Fitch’s books.

How did you convince Julia Child to let you be her biographer?

She had said, “I say no to everybody who asks me that. I’m a very busy woman and I don’t have time to tell you about my life.” I said “Well, I’ve never written about a person who is still living, so I don’t really need all your time. I know how to research a person’s life without having met them or talked to them.”

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An apple pie with only 100 calories? Well, I had to try it. So last week I wandered over to the Food Science/Human Nutrition building, where Washington State University students on the Food Product Development Team were taste-testing their latest creation, a low-cal apple snack dessert.

Apparently this was a popular taste test. In the first 20 minutes about 30 people had lined up to sample the pies. I barely made it in.

The testing space was quiet hallway lined with booths on the right. In one corner of each booth waited a laptop computer.  Once you sat down, you faced a small metal door, about a foot square. To announce your presence, you pushed a blue button, which triggered a light in front of the door telling the students on the other side that you’re there.

I quickly finished the introductory section of the questionnaire on the laptop, which asked things like my age and dessert preferences, and then I pushed the button. The door slid up and I could see a portion of a student – her chin, arm, and some torso. She greeted me and slid forward a napkin, a paper cup of water, and the first little pie. It looked like a small bran muffin. It smelled of grain and a bit of apple.

Since I’m more of the hot apple pastry topped with vanilla ice cream type of person, I didn’t really feel like I was eating apple pie. It was more like a healthy breakfast or hiking snack.  And it was a little dry. The water helped.

The second pie, which another student slid in when I pressed the blue light button again, really wasn’t as good. It had some other taste – a different kind of sweet flavor that was off-putting. I wrote on the questionnaire that even if I knew that the second pie was a healthy treat, I wasn’t likely to buy it. The first I might buy in a pinch as a healthy alternative to potato chips. (more…)