Here’s an
interesting fact: 75 percent of the world’s diet is comprised of just 12 plants
and 5 animals.
However,
this reality has damaging implications for our planet. In a report compiled by
the World Wildlife Federation and Knorr foods, our narrow eating habits are
causing a slow collapse of habitats and species.
Overharvesting
and use of pesticides is detrimental to the land where commercial farming takes
place, as well as the animals that live on that land. In addition, the
deforestation necessary for the production of red meat is a major source of
greenhouse gases.
So, experts recommend diversifying our diets in order to preserve the planet. This means searching abroad for unfamiliar foods. These foods, many from the African continent, are sturdier and more productive than our traditional food sources, which means that these crops are better for our environment and can feed more people to account for the rising population.
Examples of non-traditional food sources include salsify root, purple yams, quinoa, fava beans, and seaweed.
What is beloved by college students, businessmen, and philosophers alike? Coffee. Coffee has played an important role in civilization since the Renaissance. This energizing drink has been inspiring thinkers, businesspeople, and the common person for centuries, and today, there’s hundreds of coffee shops to choose from. So, how should you pick? To understand why coffee shops are so important, it’s important to understand the origins of the modern coffee shop.
The origin of the coffee shop reaches back into the 1500s. Coffee was first grown on the Arabian Peninsula around this time, and the first coffee houses sprung up in the holy city of Mecca. These coffee houses became a place of political discussion and discourse. The Imams, or Muslim priests, actually banned these coffee houses from 1512-1524 because they were believed to be a place of propaganda and threatened to the political regime.
From the Arabian Peninsula, coffee spread to Europe. With the spread of coffee came the spread of the coffee house. Reports say coffee shops spread to Vienna in 1529, where sweeteners were first added to coffee, then to Damascus in 1534, and to Constantinople in 1555. Eventually, coffee houses distributed across the rest of Europe and served similar purposes as they did on the Arabian Peninsula. According to French traveler Jean Chardin, these coffee houses were a place for sharing news, conducting business, discussing politics, and storytelling.
By the 17th Century, coffee, tea, and chocolate had made its way to England and allowed for coffee houses to open across the country, the first being in 1652. From this point, they exploded in popularity and became common across England. They became wildly popular because these shops were one of the only communal spaces in England that did not involve the consumption of alcohol. Before coffee, taverns were a common place to meet, yet, because clean water was hard to come by, many people drank beer. In coffee houses, the boiling of water for coffee and tea created safe to drink and non-intoxicating drinks. In England, much like elsewhere, coffee houses were a place to gather, discuss politics and philosophy, conduct business, and share stories, without the drunken atmosphere commonly found in pubs and taverns of the time.
In the United States, coffee became the beverage of choice after the Boston Tea Party, and even Thomas Jefferson proclaimed: “Coffee—the favorite drink of the civilized world.” These coffee houses became integral to society, and today they are still just as important to our modern world.
Today, when you set foot into a café or coffee shop, you still see people experiencing this communal space the same way they did over 400 years ago: by gathering with friends, co-workers, engaging in discussions, and most importantly: enjoying the America’s favorite beverage.
This shop taps into the essence of what these historical coffee houses were made for: community. Not only is Bay Island Coffee Company a staple in the Gainesville community, but helps support this camaraderie by providing a public space for people to gather without distractions. Located in a tiny shack in the middle of Butler Plaza, they strip down many of the high-tech amenities that one would expect from a modern coffee shop: such as Wi-Fi, charging stations, et cetera. Instead, they focus on the basics: fast service, cheap prices, and some damn good coffee. With this simplistic approach, this coffee shop brings together many different walks of life from around Gainesville: from Alachua County residents to UF students.
In a college town, it’s easy to be swept up in classwork and gravitate towards fancy Starbucks-like shops, but going to Bay Island is an experience unlike others offered in Gainesville. It is truly a hidden gem, since it is so unassuming from the outside. It is easy to drive by and miss it, but if you have not gone and experienced their seasonal flavored coffee selection, their delectable breakfast offerings, or taken advantage of their daily deals, you are truly missing out on one of the best coffee joints in Gainesville. If you are tired of struggling to find a seat at an over-crowded, loud, university coffee shop, drive a quick 10 minutes down Archer road and experience the best Gainesville has to offer in a friendly, communal environment. Once you try some of their offerings, you will understand why this joint has a cult following by many UF students.
Check out Bay Island Coffee Company, located at 3270 SW 35th Blvd. Make sure to take advantage of their great deals offered daily.
There may be a new reason (amongst hundreds of others) to
keep your children off social media.
Doctoral student Anna Coates conducted research at the
University of Liverpool and discovered that social media influencers can ‘influence’
children’s eating habits.
The experiment involved showing children images from YouTube
videos. There were three groups: one group was shown images with YouTubers
holding non-food objects, another group was shown YouTubers eating healthy
snacks, and the last shown YouTubers eating unhealthy snacks. The children
could then pick between healthy and unhealthy snacks for themselves.
When allowed to pick, there was no difference in what foods
the “healthy snack” group picked versus the control group, but the “unhealthy
snack” group consumed over 30% more calories compared to the other two groups,
or 90 calories.
According to Dr. Natalie Muth, “”It only takes an extra
70 calories a day for a child of normal weight to become overweight,” so
these numbers add up quickly.
So, while influencers may not be able to sell you weight
loss teas and hair vitamins, they can influence your children to make unhealthy
eating choices.
According to research done by Katherine Harmon Courage, probiotics
are more important than we think. Not only that, but the prebiotics—what we eat
that feeds the microbes in our gut—are also essential to our digestive health. It
is important to take care of the little guys in our bellies because they provide
benefits such as fighting infections and moderating our weights.
In her book “Cultured: How Ancient Foods Can Feed Our Microbiome”,
Courage explores the role our microbes play in our diets and the history of
ancient foods rich in probiotics. For instance, Courage discusses that when
humans were hunter-gatherers, we used to eat much more fiber than we do today,
which is an important prebiotic that feeds our microbes. She says that if we do
not feed our microbes, that they will eventually eat at the lining of our lower
intestine (which honestly sounds kind of scary).
She also discusses how foods rich in probiotics should be an essential part of human’s diets. In Korea, for instance, kimchi is an essential part of a Korean diet, and even in remote Greenland, probiotics can be found in traditional Inuit foods like kiviak: birds fermented in seal skin.
By incorporating foods rich in probiotics and fiber into our
diet, we create an environment where our microbes can thrive. In turn, our guts
will be a lot healthier.
There
are very few things on this earth that are as wonderful as homemade pasta. If
you’ve only
had the store-bought stuff, I highly implore you to try the real-deal.
Homemade pasta gets a bad rap as something difficult to make, but with only three ingredients and a bit of elbow grease and and determination, you can whip up an authentic batch of any noodle easily.
Here’s
what you need to make a batch of fresh pasta just like your nonna.
3
large eggs
4
cups 00 flour. This is a very finely ground and fine grade flour, but if you
have trouble finding it, all-purpose flour works just fine.
Salt
to taste
Start
by combining your flour and salt in a mixing bowl. With a clean work surface,
make a mound with your flour. With your hands or the back of a wooden spoon,
make a crater in the center of your flour mountain and add your eggs. Whisk
your eggs together with a fork and slowly begin to add the flour bit by bit,
until you have incorporated all the eggs and have about half of your flour
remaining.
Roll up your sleeves and begin kneading your dough. Make sure to keep your work surface well-floured to keep it from sticking. It should look a bit shaggy at first, but as you continue to knead it should come together nicely. Continue kneading for ten minutes, then wrap in plastic and allow to rest 30 minutes.
Once
your pasta has rested, it is time to roll it out and to cut it into noodles.
There’s a lot of impressive technology on the market that will do pretty much all of this work for you, from kneading the ingredients to rolling it out into perfect noodles, but to me, this feels like cheating. If you don’t knead your own pasta, then it simply won’t taste as delicious at the end. I don’t make the rules.
I prefer to use the old-school stuff. I can’t make pasta without my Imperia Pasta Machine. These are made in Italy, so you know they’re the real deal. I heard from a friend of mine in Vicenza that her, her mother, and her grandmother all own this pasta machine and swear by it. That’s how you know it’s good. I’m inclined to agree. It works perfectly every time and you get some beautiful and evenly shaped noodles.
Luckily, you don’t have to fly to Vicenza for one. You can order the Imperia Pasta Machine on Williams-Sonoma, along with different attachments to make all sorts of different types of noodles.
The
Imperia Pasta Machine is the real star of this recipe, because it’s not so easy
to cut perfectly shaped noodles by hand. This delivers a beautiful noodle every
time and takes up little counter space. With removable, easy-to-clean parts, a
clamping mechanism and rubber feet to keep it on your counter, and different
attachments, you can make any pasta with ease. With its intuitive design, you
will never go back to store-bought pasta again.
Once
your pasta is rolled, cut it into strips narrow enough to feed through the machine,
and turn the crank. On the other end of the machine, you should have
beautifully cut noodles.
Throw
the noodles into boiling water for about thirty seconds and drain. Dress your noodles
as desired.
If you’re looking for inspiration, I highly recommend making these noodles into Cacio e Pepe, which literally translates to cheese and pepper. I really can’t think of a better combination. This Bon Appetit recipe is one of my favorites.
You
can save these noodles in the fridge for two days, or in the freezer for two
weeks, but I doubt you’ll have leftovers.
If you’re ready to start making your own pasta, here’s where you can buy an Imperia Pasta Machine of your own. Go ahead and toss out those boxes of Barilla while you’re at it.
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest days of eating in America. In fact, a conservative estimate suggests that people eat, on average, 2,400 calories from start to finish. Super Bowl spreads are saturated with pizza, wings, dips, and everything for the “big game”. However, research suggest that, for some people, the binging does not end on Sunday.
This week in The Salt, Maria Godoy explores a study by Rachel Herz of Brown University that suggests that the team people root for affects how they eat the day after the game.
People who cheered for the losing team are more likely to continue eating unhealthily the following day. Herz says that the negative emotions people have after a team loses causes them to turn towards foods that trigger endorphins. “Foods that are high fat and high carbohydrate give you dopamine and endorphins and serotonin. And it’s dopamine, in particular, that’s the reward-and-pleasure neurotransmitter. And endorphins actually soothe our pain, both physically and mentally. The higher in fat the food is, the more endorphins you’re going to experience with that.”
Inversely, people whose favorite team won actually make
healthier choices on the Monday after the Super Bowl. These people tend to have
an adrenaline rush that keeps them from feeling hungry. In Herz words, “It’s
akin to when you’re really excited — like when you’re in love, or you’re so excited
about what’s going on you sort of forget to eat. From a neuro-chemical
perspective, your body is actually feeling the sort of high that you feel like
you don’t even need food, so your appetite is reduced.”
So if you blew your diet this week, you can always blame Tom Brady.
Hey everyone, my name is Cassidy and I’m from Jacksonville, Florida! and I’m a sophomore studying telecom production. I’m currently involved in a research project here on campus with Dr. Johnson studying YouTube and Instagram influencers and their credibility. By examining factors such as video production quality, disclosure of advertising, and level of transparency, we will see if there is a trend between these factors and credibility. Unrelated to telecom, I also work in the University Archives working with the over 35,000 theses published since the 1930’s. My future career goals are pretty undecided, but I definitely want to be on the creative side of production. My dream job is to work at Bon Appetit (since I also have a lifelong love of food; my dream job as a child was to be a chef.) but admittedly, that’s a pretty small niche. If my dreams of becoming a world renowned food blogger don’t become true (if that’s even a thing), I’m also interested in film and television production. Therefore, my main focus for the trade press releases will be film related. With the upcoming Oscars, and the start of a new year, there will be a lot of hype surrounding the award show and new releases.
Gator Strat Comms 