



Does the secret of flavor lie in the Maillard reaction?
By Brendan Borrell | April 2, 2009 | 3
Devin Peterson sniffs odors coming out of the gas chromatograph.
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Another view of the olfactometer.
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Moskowitz holds two vials of bread odor.
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A data sheet listing all the smells Moskowitz recorded from a bread-sniffing session: From popcorn to puke.
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A refrigerator full of fragrant chemicals.
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A Mixmaster vies for bench space with other equipment in the food chemistry laboratory
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A gas chromatograph and mass spectrophotometer.
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Peterson stands by his equipment.
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Magnifying Taste: New Chemicals Trick the Brain into Eating Less
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
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3 Comments
Add CommentThe unproved hypothesis: Bread, any bread, is a healthy food. Six million years of human evolution did not involve the consumption of grains in any large percentage of total dietary calories. Only the last ten thousand years have seen the human cultivation, cooking and consumption of grains. Grains are toxic if not cooked. Mainstream science needs to be more careful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou quote Devin Peterson as saying "We bake things but happens to them?" This looks like a typo on your part. Can you double-check your notes and let us know what he said?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut that doesn't mean that evolution does not occur in 10,000 years. For example, southeast Asians have an unusually larger quantity of enzymes in their saliva to digest carbohydrates such as amylase. Which is probably why I and most of my family/friends have an insatiable appetite for rice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's also this hypothesis that precursors to modern humans had an appendix to digest grass.