Learn where food poisoning comes from (and how to avoid it); why we’re in the Milky Way’s second life.; and whether fruits and vegetables are healthier when they’re fresh or frozen. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com — and answer a listener question with help from The Nutrition Wonk, a registered dietitian nutritionist — to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: We're in the Milky Way's Second Life — https://curiosity.im/2CJwRVt Food Poisoning? Don't Blame the Last Thing You Ate — https://curiosity.im/2CNXI2S More from The Nutrition Wonk: Official Website — https://www.thenutritionwonk.com/ @NutritionWonk on Twitter — https://twitter.com/NutritionWonk @NutritionWonk on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/nutritionwonk/ Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn where food poisoning comes from (and how to avoid it); why we’re in the Milky Way’s second life.; and whether fruits and vegetables are healthier when they’re fresh or frozen.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com — and answer a listener question with help from The Nutrition Wonk, a registered dietitian nutritionist — to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
More from The Nutrition Wonk:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/cooked-vs-uncooked-fruits-and-veggies-w-the-nutrition-wonk-food-poisoning-facts-and-milky-ways-second-life
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got the latest and greatest from curiositydotcom and a special guest to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn where food poisoning comes from and how to avoid it, plus why we're in the Milky Way's second life. We'll also answer a question about whether fruits and vegetables are healthier when they're fresh or frozen with some help from a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Katherine Pett.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Here's an idea. We might be living in the Milky Way's second life. According to Japanese Astronomer Masafumi Noguchi, our home galaxy may have died once before and has come back to life.
CODY GOUGH: This is not like second life of video game.
ASHLEY HAMER: No. It's not like that.
CODY GOUGH: Or is it?
ASHLEY HAMER: It's definitely not like that.
CODY GOUGH: But what if it kind of is?
ASHLEY HAMER: But it's not. I better start explaining.
CODY GOUGH: OK, please.
ASHLEY HAMER: This idea comes from the fact that the Milky Way is made up of two types of stars, and scientists don't know why. One type is made up of alpha elements like oxygen, magnesium, and silicon. And the other type is rich in iron. That suggests that they formed in different ways. But how?
A concept was proposed in 2006 called cold flow accretion. That describes how stars form in galaxies via the influx of cold streams of gas. Noguchi came up with a model of the Milky Way's evolution over a 10 billion year period, starting with a period where cold gas streams flowed into the baby galaxy and made it possible for new stars to form.
Over time, these stars began to explode in type II supernova, the kind of death that happens when a star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity. Those type II supernova gave off lots of alpha elements which gave rise to even more stars rich in alpha elements. But around 7 billion years ago, those cold gas flows collided with other clouds of gas and produced shock waves that heated the whole shebang to a much higher temperature.
At that point, gas stopped flowing into the galaxy and stars stopped forming. But they kept on dying. This time, more mature stars exploded in type Ia supernova. That type of supernova only happens when a star is in a tight binary orbit with a white dwarf, which pulls gas from its larger companion until it's compressed so much that it triggers a runaway nuclear reaction. This cataclysmic explosion produces, you guessed it, iron, which is jettisoned into the gas of the galaxy.
Finally, around 5 billion years ago, the gas in the Milky Way emitted enough radiation to start cooling down again. Cold gas started flowing back into the galaxy and new stars started forming once more, including our own sun. And this time, they used the surrounding iron in their formation. That explains why some stars in our galaxy are rich in iron and some aren't.
So long story short, there was a 2 billion year period where the Milky Way completely stopped making stars and we're currently on its comeback tour. Now, we can just sit back and watch other galaxies do the same thing. Isn't science fun?
CODY GOUGH: We got a question from Constanza from Mexico who asks, "I've heard some doctors say raw vegetables are no use at all for our bodies since we don't have something in our metabolism to help digest them. Therefore, we should rather eat them cooked. Is this true for all vegetables or just for some? Same for fruits. Why do our bodies need them, anyway? Great question.
Ashley got in touch with Katherine Pett. She's a registered dietitian nutritionist who writes the blog Nutrition Wonk. She also works as a nutritionist for Conagra Brands and she sends a weekly email called This Week in Nutrition that you can sign up for on her blog at thenutritionwonk.com. Here's what she had to say.
KATHERINE PETT: So we can digest most raw vegetables. Some raw vegetables do need to be cooked. So we don't typically eat raw potatoes. Some vegetables have things that will make us feel ill if we don't cook them, so they definitely need to be cooked. But most of the vegetables that we encounter in the grocery store can be eaten raw or cooked.
And the short answer is that fruits and veggies are good for us, and we don't need to worry too much about whether we're getting them raw or whether we're getting them cooked as long as we're getting enough. So to answer the question, why do we need them, fruits and vegetables provide micronutrients-- which are vitamins and minerals that the cells in our bodies need to work properly. And if you get too little of a specific vitamin or mineral, it can lead to a severe illness. So it's important to get enough.
So while there's plenty of ways to get micronutrients, plant foods like fruits and vegetables also come with dietary fiber as well as phytonutrients which are beneficial chemical compounds that are uniquely found in plant foods. So one example would be lycopene, which is a carotenoid or a plant pigment-- an antioxidant that's in red tinted fruits and vegetables like watermelons and tomatoes.
So in addition to getting your micronutrients, you can also pick up these phytonutrients. And the good news is that both raw and cooked fruits and vegetables provide nutrients. So you don't have to choose one or the other. It's true that preparing vegetables by cooking them can break them down a little bit. The tough cell walls of the plants, which can make some of the nutrients more bioavailable, that means you can digest it more easily. So that is true.
And sometimes, processing and concentrating foods. For example, if you make tomato paste from tomatoes, you can actually increase the nutrient content of food. So in that case, lycopene availability in tomatoes increases when tomatoes are processed. But including raw vegetables is also beneficial because some nutrients are destroyed by heat.
So vitamin C and then other nutrients can leach out into cooking water if you were to say boil your vegetables. So in that case, you actually will lose some nutrients when you're cooking. So in summary, there are benefits to eating your vegetables raw or cooked. And most nutritionists recommend getting at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables.
CODY GOUGH: Thanks for your question Constanza. As a reminder, you can always email us questions at podcast@curiositydotcom. You can follow Katherine on Twitter and Instagram at @NutritionWonk and sign up for her weekly email this week in nutrition on her website at thenutritionwonk.com.
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ASHLEY HAMER: If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of food poisoning, we've got some news for you. It probably didn't come from the last thing you ate.
CODY GOUGH: I've never had food poisoning.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh. I have. The first time I ever tried to cook mussels. I was afraid of overcooking them and I undercooked them, and I had a bad time.
CODY GOUGH: Making sure everything is very fully cooked as a step to prevent food poisoning is one of the tips we're going to get into too.
ASHLEY HAMER: Absolutely. So the CDC estimates that every year, one in six Americans get sick from something they ate. That's usually because a pathogen found its way into the food-- whether during production, preparation, or from your own unwashed hands. But here's the thing. Just like you don't get sick the same day you run into someone with the flu, you don't get super sick the minute you finish eating that tainted burger. Pathogens bide their time.
Among the most common pathogens that cause food-borne illness, salmonella is the fastest acting one. And it takes at least six hours to kick in. Even that pathogen can take up to two full days before it makes you sick. So if you come down with a nasty case of diarrhea and vomiting, chances are that it's because of a meal you had before your last one. Maybe even several days before.
The good news is that most people don't require a doctor's visit when they get food poisoning. Although the CDC says, you should call a clinic if you have a temperature above 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit or if you can't keep liquids down. If you want to stay away from food poisoning in the first place, then you can start by washing your hands and preparation surfaces regularly. Make sure you also avoid cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food. And cook everything to a safe internal temperature. And keep food cold until it's ready to cook.
By the way, a CDC study found that produce is responsible for nearly half of food-borne illnesses in the US and causes nearly as many deaths as contaminated meat and poultry. Not even vegans are safe. But with the right preparation, we can all stay happy as a clam or mussel or actually eating mussels, which was not happy.
CODY GOUGH: We're good. Read about today's stories and more on curiositydotcom.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow with the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.