Discovery Health

I remember listening to Drew Pinsky on Loveline on KROQ, back when he sat opposite Poorman. I never thought that, years later, Drew and I would be working together on a TV series, set to air on Discovery Health Channel next season.

On the recent season of Drew’s show, Celebrity Rehab, two of his patients underwent functional brain scans as part of their evaluation and treatment (videos here and here). I reached out to Drew after the shows aired and we struck up a wonderful conversation discussing our respective fields of work. It turned out that we live quite close to each other. One thing led to another, and we are now filming our show. (more…)

The smell of sulfur.

Today, on PalatePress.com, Tom Mansell summarizes the role of sulfur in the aromatics of wine. He addresses not only the offensive odors – the flaws – but also the pleasing and attractive sulfur compounds in wine.

My editing role in this piece was only minor as Tom did a great job of organizing and presenting the information. It’s a good read.

Sixth annual Menu for Hope

This year has been hard on many of us, but there are many who have a tough year every year. As these coming holidays are a traditional time of giving and generosity, so now, for the sixth consecutive year, food and wine bloggers have organized to make a difference in the lives of people they don’t even know. This effort is called Menu for Hope.

This annual fund raising effort traditionally benefits the UN World Food Programme. The Sixth Annual Menu for Hope will benefit a new WFP program, called Purchase for Progress (P4P), which supports smallholder and low-income farmers. P4P helps farmers improve their farming practices and then allows them to sell their crops to WFP’s global operation.

The farmers win on two obvious fronts. You can win as well. (more…)

Please take a look at the image below. Then answer the question below.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Now select the option that best represents your feelings (click here if the poll does not show up):
[polldaddy poll="2363067"]

Check back in a few days as I’ll have something to say.

I am proud to announce that the first of my (hopefully) three-part series on the science underlying food and wine pairings is now available to read on PalatePress.com.

The series is called: “What wine pairs with red herring” and aims to understand the foundations of food and wine pairings through picking apart the chemistry and sensation neurophysiology aspects at play.

I know when people hear (or read) “chemistry and sensation neurophysiology”, they might get a bit intimidated. Don’t worry. I make it quite easy.

This first article focuses on tannic wines. With the help of a sensation researcher, I look at the chemical interactions between wine and food and how that is perceived by our sensory hardware.

Have a read.

A quickie as I dash out the door for a few early meetings behind the Orange Courtain:

Wikipedia is instituting a new editorial policy CNN.com reports.

Is this a preview of what’s to come in user-driven wine sites?

Dr. Obama

This country needs better health care. A requisite to successful and equitable administration of any publicly funded, universal coverage system is cost containment. A pillar of that is preventive care. That means getting the population to avoid doing things which will predispose them to chronic and, ultimately costly, conditions. It’s obvious that combating obesity and smoking should be at the top of the priority list.

What about alcohol consumption?

While moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages is associated with some health benefits, humans (in general) are not apt to practice restraint in most aspect of their lives. And lack of restraint carries consequences. (more…)