![\"New](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/28142933\/SEI_218802788.jpg\")
<\/div>Bold as brassica<\/h2>\n
What would be the effect on young adults and young children of seeing positive expressions on the faces of strangers who are eating raw broccoli?<\/p>\n
Katie Edwards at Aston University, UK, together with colleagues there and at the University of Birmingham, also in the UK, tried to find out.<\/p>\n
The journal Appetite<\/i> published a first-hand account of that adventure, along with the title \u201cExposure to models\u2019 positive facial expressions whilst eating a raw vegetable increases children\u2019s acceptance and consumption of the modelled vegetable<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n No need to mince words or broccoli about what they found. In their words: \u201ccontrary to the hypotheses, models\u2019 facial expressions whilst eating broccoli did not significantly influence initial willingness to try broccoli\u201d.<\/p>\n In the 1960s, young intellectuals in Western countries urged each other to adopt the philosophy and ways of Zen (Zen Buddhism). To have a thoughtful, wise, good life, people were encouraged to \u201cgo the ways of Zen\u201d and to \u201cbe at one with the universe\u201d.<\/p>\n Six decades later, thoughts and chatter have advanced.<\/p>\n Although no replacement has been widely adopted in the West as a counterpart in the 2020s, Feedback suggests Venn (Venn diagrams).<\/p>\n Venn, like Zen, aims for a simpler understanding of matters that seem complex. Venn masters sometimes describe their practice this way: a Venn diagram uses overlapping circles or similar shapes to illustrate the logical relationships between different kinds of items.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adopt the philosophy and ways of Venn. Perceive and cultivate the overlaps in your life. Draw a Venn diagram of the qualities of every person, place and thing from your entire life, from birth until now. The overlaps in the Venn diagram will reveal the commonalities. Embrace them. Be at one with the few.<\/p>\n Go Venn.<\/p>\n Superpowers, trivial or otherwise, have the reputation of being all or nothing. John Hancock tells Feedback of an exception \u2013 maybe a partial exception \u2013 to that.<\/p>\n He says: \u201cIt seems I am able, consistently, to pour out almost exactly half of a 339 ml bottle of beer, such that 2 identical glasses have the same level of beer within 1 or, at most, 2 mm. This is done in one pour without any aids \u2013 I just seem to know when to stop pouring!\u201d<\/p>\n (Feedback notes that Hancock\u2019s name is familiar to citizens of the US. On 4 January 1776, a previous John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that told Britain to go suck eggs. That Hancock wrote in lettering so big and bold that his name became a synonym for \u201ca person\u2019s handwritten signature\u201d. In the US, people still tell each other to \u201csign your John Hancock\u201d. That earlier John Hancock, unlike this current John Hancock, disdained half measures.)<\/p>\n There is another recent addition to Feedback\u2019s collection called The Title Tells You Everything You Need to Know.<\/p>\n \u201cThe possible pain experienced during execution by different methods<\/a>\u201d perhaps brought surprise to readers of the journal Perception<\/i> in 1993. It also won the 1997 Ig Nobel peace prize for its author, Harold Hillman at the University of Surrey, UK.<\/p>\n If you find an equally striking example, please send it, with citation details, to Telltale titles, c\/o Feedback.<\/p>\n Teflon, much appreciated as a \u201cnon-stick\u201d coating on frying pans and other cookware, could become an everyday additive to food, especially in weight-control diets.<\/p>\n Readers of a 2022 study called \u201cEngineering properties of Teflon derived blends and composites: A review\u201d get a quick hint of that in a single, slightly cryptic sentence: \u201cBy volume of Teflon reduced calories in food and observed satisfactory results accepted by community<\/a>\u201c. That sentence refers to a paper published in 2016 in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology<\/i>.<\/p>\n The 2016 paper has an intellectually yummy title: \u201cPolytetrafluoroethylene ingestion as a way to increase food volume and hence satiety without increasing calorie content<\/a>\u201c. The authors, Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich and Frank Greenway, in the US, explain that polytetrafluoroethylene \u2013 also known as PTFE or Teflon \u2013 is a plastic. They propound its merits: \u201cAnimal feeding trials showed that rats fed a diet of 25% PTFE for 90 days had no signs of toxicity and that the rats lost weight.\u201d<\/p>\n They go on to hypothesise \u201cthat increasing the volume of food by mixing the food with PTFE powder at a ratio of 3 parts food to 1 part PTFE by volume will substantially improve satiety and reduce caloric consumption in people\u201d.<\/p>\n Polytetrafluoroethylene, they write, \u201ccontributes no flavor (evident by its use in tongue piercings) and hence does not detract from the eating experience\u201d. It is also \u201cextremely inert\u2026 so it will not react within the body\u201d.<\/p>\n It is thus \u201can ideal material for use as a nonmetabolized food volume bulking agent\u201d \u2013 and in food that definitely won\u2019t stick to your ribs.<\/p>\n Got a story for Feedback?<\/b> You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com<\/a>. Please include your home address. This week\u2019s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nCircles of life<\/h2>\n
Talent for titration<\/h2>\n
Questionable discomfort<\/h2>\n
The Teflon diet<\/h2>\n
Send it to feedback@newscientist.com<\/a> or New Scientist, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY
Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed<\/p>\n