Glowing Blue Pork Found in China

So this story on ChinaSMACK, which offers English-language translations of odds and ends found on the Chinese internet, caught our attention: "Blue Glowing Pork Meat Found in Shanghai."

For one, the story itself is sort of priceless: Apparently, one "Miss Chen" gets up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and notices a faint blue light coming from her kitchen, only to discover that the source of this ghostly glow is none other than the slab of pork that she'd purchased the day before and left on the table (left on the table!?).

Second, there's a tone of eager, earnest amazement that runs throughout the article which makes it feel less like a digitized dispatch from a teeming megatropolis on the other side of the globe and more like something you'd find in the dusty archives of, say, the Walnut Grove Gazette. To wit, "In order to be sure she wasn't seeing things, Miss Chen woke up her family to look at this piece of strange meat together. The pork glowed in the dark but returned to 'normal' in the morning. Both astonished and afraid, Miss Chen's family did not dare to eat from this piece of pork again. Yesterday afternoon, this reporter rushed to Miss Chen's home and saw this piece of glowing pork."

If you've ever flipped through yellowing copies of old small-town newspapers, this has a familiar ring, like the sorts of stories found beneath headlines declaring, "Local Man's Garden Squash Bears Holy Visage."

But could it be true? Given that "Miss Chen" lives in Shanghai and we, um, don't, that makes the task of verification a little more difficult than darting over to Old Man McGillicutty's place to see if said squash really looks like Jesus.

An "exhaustive" search of the literature (thanks Google Books!) revealed astounding evidence that, yes, meat stored in conditions that in the U.S. would saddle you with a health code violation can indeed start to glow like the ghost of Christmas past.

Dr. Robert Ostertag, for example, discusses of the matter at some length in his Handbook of Meat Inspection published in 1904, in which he catalogs reported incidents of strangely glowing meat spanning centuries, from 16^th-century Rome to 18^th-century Vienna.

Take heart, Miss Chen, apparently someone named "Neusch" in Basel observed in 1877 "that pork which was kept in a receptacle in a pantry emitted a green light of such intensity that people were able to recognize each other by it and to read the time on their watches."

Fast-forward 50 years, and the more scientifically minded (but no less literarily inspired) writers of Meat Hygiene name the likely culprit: phosphorescent bacteria, such as Pseudomonas cyanagenus, which can cause contaminated meat to appear "as if it were studded with stars."

Foods Identified as 'Whole Grain' Not Always Healthy

Jan. 10, 2013 — Current standards for classifying foods as "whole grain" are inconsistent and, in some cases, misleading, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. One of the most widely used industry standards, the Whole Grain Stamp, actually identified grain products that were higher in both sugars and calories than products without the Stamp. The researchers urge adoption of a consistent, evidence-based standard for labeling whole grain foods to help consumers and organizations make healthy choices. This is the first study to empirically evaluate the healthfulness of whole grain foods based on five commonly used industry and government definitions.

"Given the significant prevalence of refined grains, starches, and sugars in modern diets, identifying a unified criterion to identify higher quality carbohydrates is a key priority in public health," said first author Rebecca Mozaffarian, project manager in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at HSPH.

The study appears in the January 4, 2013 advanced online edition of Public Health Nutrition.

The health benefits of switching from refined to whole grain foods are well established, including lower risk of cardiovascular disease, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes. Based on this evidence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans consume at least three servings of whole grain products daily, and the new U.S. national school lunch standards require that at least half of all grains be whole grain-rich. However, no single standard exists for defining any product as a "whole grain."

Mozaffarian and her colleagues assessed five different industry and government guidelines for whole grain products:

The Whole Grain Stamp, a packaging symbol for products containing at least 8 grams of whole grains per serving (created by the Whole Grain Council, a non-governmental organization supported by industry dues)

Any whole grain as the first listed ingredient (recommended by the USDA's MyPlate and the Food and Drug Administration's Consumer Health Information guide)

Any whole grain as the first ingredient without added sugars in the first three ingredients (also recommended by USDA's MyPlate)

The word "whole" before any grain anywhere in the ingredient list (recommended by USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010)

The "10:1 ratio," a ratio of total carbohydrate to fiber of less than 10 to 1, which is approximately the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in whole wheat flour (recommended by the American Heart Association's 2020 Goals)

From two major U.S. grocers, the researchers identified a total of 545 grain products in eight categories: breads, bagels, English muffins, cereals, crackers, cereal bars, granola bars, and chips. They collected nutrition content, ingredient lists, and the presence or absence of the Whole Grain Stamp on product packages from all of these products.

They found that grain products with the Whole Grain Stamp, one of the most widely-used front-of-package symbols, were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, but also contained significantly more sugar and calories compared to products without the Stamp. The three USDA recommended criteria also had mixed performance for identifying healthier grain products. Overall, the American Heart Association's standard (a ratio of total carbohydrate to fiber of ≤10:1) proved to be the best indicator of overall healthfulness. Products meeting this ratio were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, sugar, and sodium, without higher calories than products that did not meet the ratio.

"Our results will help inform national discussions about product labeling, school lunch programs, and guidance for consumers and organizations in their attempts to select whole grain products," said senior author Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology.

Corn Could Help Farmers Fight Devastating Weed

Jan. 7, 2013 — Versatile and responsive to management, corn is grown throughout the world for everything from food to animal feed to fuel. A new use for corn could soon join that list, as researchers in China investigate the crop's ability to induce "suicidal germination" in a devastating parasitic weed.

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Known commonly as sunflower broomrape, the weed causes extensive damage to vegetable and row crops in Asia, Africa, and southern Eastern Europe. Lacking chlorophyll, it is a parasite and completely dependent on a host plant for water and nutrients. An infestation of broomrape in sunflower fields can reduce yields by 50%. Sunflower is one of the main oil crops in China, and in one county, over 64% of a sunflower field covering more than 24,000 acres is currently infested.
Several strategies have been tested to stop the damage caused by broomrape, including chemical and cultural methods. Previous studies have shown the utility of using trap crops, which induce germination of the unwanted seed but do not allow for development and survival of the parasite thus causing "suicidal germination." However, no single method of controlling broomrape has yet been shown to be effective and feasible for small farms.
In a study published in the Jan.-Feb. issue of Crop Science, Yongqing Ma and a research team from Northwest A & F University in China attempted to control broomrape infestation by using corn as a trap crop. Corn was a favorable option since both sunflower and corn can be grown in the same areas of China. While corn cannot be parasitized by broomrape, the scientists found that a hybrid line of corn and its parental lines induced significant germination of broomrape seeds. They suggest that corn lines could be produced specifically to be used as a trap crop, thus controlling broomrape infestations and producing a forage crop for livestock feed.
To study the effect of several corn varieties on broomrape germination, the researchers tested both hybrid and inbred lines. They found that one hybrid and its parental lines consistently induced the highest germination rates. While none of the corn varieties tested was bred to be a trap crop for broomrape, by analyzing these successful lines, it may be possible to produce even more efficient varieties, the researchers say.
The research team sampled the corn in multiple ways looking at the effects of root extracts, shoot extracts, and soil samples from around the roots. Root extracts generally caused more germination than the shoot extracts. Researchers think that this is because the chemical most likely responsible for causing germination, strigolactone, is made in the roots of the corn plant.
Using the results of their study, the scientists believe that a breeding program could be developed to make corn varieties that are even better at inducing suicidal germination in broomrape. It would also be possible to determine how the chemical that induces germination is made by studying these corn varieties.
Finally, the authors note that the benefit of using corn as a trap crop extends beyond its effects on broomrape. If corn is successful, it can be harvested for livestock feed and other uses thus optimizing the effort and cost to plant it.