For many health-conscious people, bread is a little slice of hell. Shelves of multigrain loaves—or friends passing around sourdough (酵母面包) starters and attaching the word artisanal (手工艺性的) to the ancient combination of yeast (酵母), flour and water—have led consumers to believe whole grain bread is healthier than industrial white bread. That trend has made for a lot of expensive sandwiches.

Fortunately, a new study by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science is here to cut through the confusion. In the study, published in Cell Metabolism, researchers randomized 20 participants to consume either processed white bread or artisanal whole wheat sourdough in order to compare the effects of each on the body.

Before the study started, all participants consumed the same amount of white and nonwhite bread for several days. Then each group ate, on average, at least 100 grams of bread—three to four slices—per day for one week. After a two-week break, the groups switched types for another bread-laden week. The total amount of calories the participants consumed remained constant the duration of the study.

The researchers were surprised by what they found. “There were no clinically significant differences between the effects of these two types of bread on whatever we measured,” said computational biologist Eran Segal, senior author of the study in a statement. Those measured included glucose levels upon waking, fat and cholesterol levels, the amounts of essential minerals in the bloodstream and several indicators of tissue damage. Segal and colleagues examined 20 variables and found not one notable difference between the white bread eaters and the artisanal bread eaters. The key finding: It wasn’t that both breads had no effect on the body. Rather, they both did equal damage. As it turns out, half the participants had a higher glycemic response to industrial white bread, and half had the higher response to artisanal sourdough bread.

The researchers also found that which bread was best for you can be predicted based on the bacteria present in your body. They found that the “profile”—the variety of bacterial species—correlated with the glycemic (血糖) response to each bread. The small size of the study means the results should be considered preliminary. The researchers hope to study these predictors more carefully as a potential way to improve nutritional recommendations, says biologist Avraham Levy, another study co-author.

In short, the study provides vital evidence that we need to stop judging each other in the supermarket bread aisle.

Most people don't think much about the food scraps they throw away; however, researchers in Tokyo have developed a new method to reduce food waste by recycling discarded fruit and vegetable scraps into robust construction materials.

Worldwide industrial and household food waste amounts to hundreds of billions of pounds per year, a large proportion of which comprises edible(可食用的) scraps, like fruit and vegetable peels. This unsustainable practice is both costly and environmentally unfriendly, so researchers have been searching for new ways to recycle these organic materials into useful products.

“Our goal was to use seaweed and common food scraps to construct i materials that were at least as strong as concrete,” explains Yuya Sakai, the senior author of the study. “But since we were using edible food waste, we were also interested in determining whether the recycling process impacted the flavor of the original materials.”

The researchers borrowed a “heat pressing” concept that is typically used to make construction materials from wood powder, except they used vacuum-dried, pulverized food scraps, such as seaweed, cabbage leaves, and orange, onion, pumpkin, and banana peels as the construction powders. The processing technique involved mixing the food powder with water and seasonings, and then pressing the mixture into a mold at high temperature. The researchers tested the bending strength of the resulting materials and monitored their taste, smell and appearance.

“With the exception of the specimen obtained from pumpkin, all of the materials exceeded our bending strength target,” says Kota Machida, a senior collaborator. “We also found that Chinese cabbage leaves, which produced a i material over three times stronger than concrete, could be mixed with the weaker pumpkin-based material to provide effective rein for cement.”

The new, robust materials kept their edible nature, and the addition of salt or sugar improved their taste without reducing their strength. Furthermore, the durable products resisted rot, fungi, and insects, and experienced no appreciable changes in appearance or taste after exposure to air for four months.

Given that food waste is a global financial burden and environmental concern, it is crucial to develop methods for recycling food scraps. Using these substance to prepare materials that are stronger enough for construction projects, but also maintain their edible nature and taste, opens the door to a wide range of creative applications.

Experts say that if food were a country, it would rank second behind the US as one of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. The reason is the rising demand for meat. Animal farming is responsible for 14.5 percent of global methane emissions. While cows are the worst contributors, pigs, sheep, donkeys and other animals play a part as well.

Animal agriculture also causes land to become damaged, water to be polluted and forests to get destroyed. With the world population forecast to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, things are only looking worse for our already decreasing natural resources. While going vegetarian would help, meat consumption is too deep-rooted in most Western diets to allow for such a sharp, permanent change. That is why experts are advocating substituting some of the beef, chicken, or pork with ordinary insects!

Insects, which grow into adults within a matter of months, if not weeks, are ready for consumption much faster than domestic animals. They also require much less room, use less water and food, and produce far less greenhouse gas than animals.

Of the 1.1 million insect species worldwide, scientists have identified 1,700 as eatable. Among them are ants, grasshoppers, grubs, and earthworms. Just like animals, each insect has a different taste. Tree worms taste just like pork, and grubs are similar to smoked meat.

While eating insects might be a new concept for Western people, over 2 billion people worldwide consume insects as a regular part of their diet. Besides being delicious, insects are high in protein, have very few calories, and are free of the saturated fat found in animal meat. Insects can be prepared in many ways. Creative cooks can use them to cook protein-rich soup, make baked treats, and even fry a few with vegetables. So eat insects--- both your body and Mother Earth will thank you for it!