Late night munchies and holiday gorging: sleep deprivation effects beyond the baggy eyes

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone's holidays went well and that things are winding down before we all hit the work grind.

I just came back from spending the Christmas break with my family and had the chance to spend New Year's with MOH. Though the time with my family was short, I had a great time catching up with everyone and eating great food.

The holidays, though fun-filled, also come at a cost. For me, it has been indulging on favorite childhood eats and tons of sweet treats.

Homemade brittle for the holidays!

Sure, I tried to combat all the eating with getting in some exercise, but you can only run so many miles before the endless nights of snacking finally catch up to you. During the holidays, my body just goes into overdrive with eating, snacking, munching, chewing, you name it - it also doesn't help my case much that I don't sleep too much while I'm on break (trying to make the most of my time with family you know!). I don't know why the holidays prompt so many of us to stuff ourselves, but after seeing a recent article in Nature Communications, I'm thinking my overindulgence for extra fatty foods may be linked to my lack of sleep.

If only we all looked this cute sleeping (courtesy of J. Pockele)

In the article, Greer and colleagues wanted to determine if sleep deprivation affects food intake. Using human imaging studies, they found that sleep deprived individuals had different brain regions being activated while subjects looked at different types of foods. The different brain regions activated or inactivated during this task have been well documented to be important for food decision choices and food regulation. *

Furthermore, they found that sleep deprived individuals consumed higher fat content foods and preferred higher fat foods than well-rested individuals. Though it's no surprise that higher fat foods tend to look and smell more appealing in general (who can argue with a burger as delicious looking as the one below?), being sleep deprived must make all us foodies lose total control over how much fatty food we should be consuming, like a kid running loose in a candy store.

MOH's infamous Slater's burger: The DOOT - a force to be reckoned with

In addition to increases in food intake, a more recent report shows that the sleep deprived also tend to spend more money on food (Chapman et al., 2013). Recalling back to my undergraduate years, I remember staying up late to study and making late night runs to the grocery store during midterms/finals week to stock up on my study essentials: ramen and Cheetos (I know they're unhealthy, but I still think they're delicious). I'm not sure if it's a compensatory mechanism, but there's just something about giving in to the "munchies" more when you're running on low energy, low sleep.

Cheetos in all their glory - my favorite: mix and match regular / flamin' hot Cheetos

Needless to say, I had a great holiday break. Yes, I was sleep deprived. Yes, I ate enough for three of me's to survive, and yes, I'm sporting a little more baggage than usual, but I had a great time doing so. Spending time with family is always a bonus, but having good company AND good food is a definite blessing.

And what better way to end the year than with a celebratory nature hike around one of Orange County's scenic trails?

We went to Aliso and Woods Canyon Park in Laguna Niguel - this trail is full of caves, rocky cliffs (scale at your own risk!), and beautiful little creeks. If you're into hiking and live around Orange County, definitely try this place.

For everyone who's reading, happy new year to all! May 2014 be a year full of new beginnings, rich memories, and delicious food.

Until next time, happy eating all!


*
Sleep deprived individuals showed increased activity in the amygdala while decreased activity was seen in the frontal lobe and insular cortex when viewing different food choices.

While it has been shown previously by many groups that sleep deprivation causes increase in food intake, this study points to the specific brain regions activated/deactivated following sleep deprivation, and shows that fat-rich foods in particular are preferably consumed by the sleep-deprived. The amygdala is known to contain different molecules (neuropeptides) that can modulate food intake, while the downregulated regions are more associated with regulation of appetite.

References:

1. Greer S.M. et al., 2013. The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature Communications. 4:2259.

2. Chapman, C.D. et al., 2013. Acute sleep deprivation increases food purchasing in men. Obesity. 21(12)

Holiday happiness - infusing science into your holiday baked delights!

Happy holidays everyone -

The year is winding down slowly and there are many great things to look forward to:

1. More time to spend with loved ones. I'm taking a short vacation away from lab to hang out with my family up in Stockton and couldn't be more excited. I'm planning to stalk my mom around the kitchen and learn how to cook more Vietnamese style dishes (my goal: mam va rau - we'll see if it's possible).

2. More winter in southern California - or "fall" for those who actually experience snow and rain frequently during this time of the year. Some great things about December/January: piping hot tea, curling up under a throw, and doing night runs.

3. A new year happening - new resolutions, new beginnings, new goals. This summer, I made a goal for myself to get back into running. MOH decided to up the ante and make me create a concrete mile goal, so I decided to do 300 miles within 6 months. I'm two weeks away from finishing the year and less than 15 miles left, so I'm pretty excited. I think next year, I'm going to aim for 600 miles. Speaking of which, I need new shoes. I've been eying the Brooks Adrenaline GTS - I saw a review on them on Runner's World and drooled a little. I had the GTS11 and loved it for its lightness.

4. Indulgence at its best! This time of the year there are a ton of holiday parties, get-togethers, and that always means good food, good desserts.

And if you're particularly lucky, you have some friends who make great desserts that appeal to both your eyes AND mouth! Case in point - my friend Jaimie Ngo's wonderful gingerbread treats that would brighten up anyone's day. Jaimie loves to infuse playful designs into her baked creations at a bakery in San Diego where she comes up with the cutest designs for any season!

Photo courtesy of J. Ngo

Did I mention she can also make brains look tasty, too?

Photo courtesy of J Ngo

Gingerbread cookies are a common staple during the holidays. This year, brighten your treats by decorating them using a simple royal icing (basically powdered sugar and egg whites, or meringue powder and water). Make sure to decorate once your cookies are fully cooled, or be prepared for a hot mess of melting icing (unless you're trying to get that visual effect).

Not that great of a decorator or not that creative? No worries - inspiration and creativity can stem from anything! Whether it's modeled after a piece of art or a photograph, or a cool show you watch, or something you see in nature, creativity can stem from anything. First time decorator? Don't fret - Jaimie cannot stress the importance of taking your time - decorating is a form of art, and requires patience and time. If you're willing to put in the time to thoughtfully decorate your desserts, everything will fall into place. Having the right baking and decorating tools help, too.

Hope everyone's holidays goes great! May everyone enjoy great memories and happy eating!

Green goodness: herbs at their finest

I never understood how some people just don't like herbs or greens, for that matter. I know a handful of people who just can't eat pho with the cilantro/green onion garnish, or don't like the natural taste of a simple spinach salad, or even the taste of fresh mint and perilla in a spring roll. Maybe it's the taste, but I can't imagine a world where herbs didn't exist.

They're delicious AND healthy - who can refuse them? Sure, there's that slight bitterness to it, but isn't that what the good stuff's made of?

Herbs come in all varieties, shapes and sizes... and surprise, surprise, as anything green and pseudo-bitter, they come with a heaping amount of good health kicks. In relation to cognitive health, certain herbs have been found to promote recovery following memory loss. A recently paper in Plos One written by Zhang and colleagues used a memory-loss rat model* and treated these rats with a chemical cocktail of herbal medicine (extracts came from different herbs including an herb that's in the mint family). What they found was memory function was improved and several genes were activated that promoted brain recovery and function.

Yes, herbs are healthy and that's all great, but how do you reap the full benefits of something? Oftentimes, eating fruits and vegetables in their raw form offers you the most nutrients (cooking sometimes kills proteins and essential nutrients). For herbs, one of my favorite recipes is to do a variation on a thai salad, known as larb.

Larb plays on sour and salty and spotlights different herbs and greens at their finest - when they're prepared fresh, with no fuss. This is probably my go-to dish when I'm heading out to the potluck event or hosting a girls' night. It's simple to make and can be done within half an hour (including prep time!).

Ingredients:
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes (or one large tomato)
- 1 bundle of green onions, chopped
- 1 bundle of cilantro, chopped
- half a head of napa cabbage, shredded
- 1-2 bundles of mint leaves, chopped coarsely
- Three bundles of dried vermicelli
- 2 limes or 3 lemons (more sour, the better)
- 1/2 of dried red pepper (or fresh peppers) - used to add spiciness
- 1/3 cup Fish sauce, use more to taste
- optional: ground meat or mashed tofu for protein punch (I didn't add it into this particular batch, but I like to sometimes boil tofu and mash it up into tiny pieces and infuse into the dish, similar to adding gorgonzola onto spinach salad). Alternatively, you can do ground meat.

Protocol:
1. Toss vermicelli into boiling water for 1 minute - immediately remove and toss the noodles into cold water. Let the noodles sit in cold water until ready to use
2. Chop up greens and throw them into a large mixing bowl - the bigger the bowl, the more flexibility you have to mix ingredients together

3. Once all greens, tomatoes and garlic have been chopped, add in vermicelli. The noodles should be cold and expanded. Toss the noodles in and mix the ingredients all together.
4. Squeeze lime/lemon juice and start with 1/3 cup of fish sauce - mix everything together.
5. Depending on how sour/salty you want your larb to be, adjust the amount of lime juice or fish sauce
6. If in a spicy mood, garnish with red pepper flakes or fresh chilis!
7. Serve immediately, or keep chilled - larb stays good in the fridge for a few days, but you may need to adjust the flavor since lime juicy becomes less potent over time.

Hopefully you guys like this dish - it's a great light dish to have and packs a lot of flavor, making for a great dish to bring to holiday parties!

Until next time, happy eating all!




***Supplemental information regarding the cited paper:
Rats were treated with Ibotenic Acid (IBO), a drug that causes severe injury to site of injection and leads to neuronal loss. In this paper, they tested memory function using Morris Water Maze (a platform is submerged under water and rats have to learn where the platform is in order to avoid getting wet for a long period of time) and differential gene regulation was observed using DNA microarray.

References:

Zhang J et al., 2013. Ameliorative effects of a combination of Baicalin, Jasminoidin and Cholic Acid on Iobetenic Acid-induced dementia model in Rats. Plos One.

Guest post: An unlikely pair - banana and parsley

Hey everyone, this week, I'm featuring a guest post from a fellow kitchen experimenter, none other than my sister. Some background - she's currently based on the east coast working at an International Development company. In her spare time, she enjoys hot yoga, playing with babies, and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Hope everyone enjoys this post - more to come in the future!

Until next time, happy eating all!

~

Hey y'all, it's The culineuroscientist's lil' sister the Wankstronomist. I'm the wanksta of gastronomy. If that still doesn't make sense, watch this and instead of 50 Cent rollin' up in a hummer, imagine Morimoto with the honey Ina Garten next to him chucking deuces like a boss. Or simply put, I'm the Ja Rule of the ballin' food world (no offense to Ja Rule, I love the man's music). 

That being said, I am particularly obsessed with the world of Foodpairings. Foodpairings is a SCIENCE, it's not as easy as taking citrus to a random piece of fish and going, "wowza, pops in my mouth". Foodpairings go together because these two noms share the same chemical compound.

This can lead to some interesting combinations with foods you never would have thought go well together (ie. passion fruit and oysters). Check out unusual foodpairings here, and keep your eye out on this blog for some fancy molecular gastronomy.

I decided to take on the two noms banana and parsley for some vegan banana parsley bread. SAY WHAAA?

Yeah, check it. Awesome foodpairing blogger Martin Lersch wrote this post on banana and parsley. After homie searched on The good scents company, he found out (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl formate and linalool are present in both banana and parsley. Basically, try cooking with parsley--if you have a gifted nose from the Gastronomy Gods, you can smell a waft of banana. 

Because my big sis is all hip and tries things vegan now, I decided to make a vegan dish as a nod to her healthy life style.

And I semi-failed.

Recipe IF YOU DARE:

Three ripe bananas (I used four...BIG MISTAKE)

1 cup of rice flour (I would adjust and do 1 and 1/2 cup)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup of chopped parsley leaves (no stems)

1 teaspoon of baking powder (apparently not all baking powders are vegan)

2 tablespoons of oil -- 1 for the batter, one to cover your baking loaf

1 tablespoon of chia seed (substitute for egg)

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 415 degrees F
• Take 1 tablespoon of chia seed and mix with 3 table spoons of water. Put aside - in five minutes, it'll turn into a tapioca-like thick mix
• Wash parsley and take only the top stems and leaves.Finely chop. Set aside.
• Mash the bananas well. You can even blend them if you want.
• Mix all ingredients together with remaining items: chia seed, parsley, banana, vanilla extract, baking powder, oil.
• Cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Depending on your oven, I'd watch closely until it gets golden brown.

Notes:

1. If batter is too dry, add a little bit of water. If batter is too wet, add more vegan flour. My bananas were super juicy that it didn't need additional liquid.
2. If your banana bread is golden brown (close to burnt edges), but still a bit wet on the inside--take it out and let it rest. After it cools (it should flatten considerably), cut into squares and cook at 350 degrees F in a toaster oven. DON'T JUDGE, I don't have 1379373 bananas and parsley to find the right heat balance.
3. Don't overdue bananas. Three ripe bananas are perfect. Doing four is overkill and makes the batter too wet.
4. I wouldn't recommend going with rice flour, unless you like gelatinous results. Should have read this post about vegan baking from the Gluten-Free Goddess.

If there's anything you can reap from this post, it's this:

1. Foodpairings are awesome. Who cares if the last page you witnessed was an atrocity to baking.
2. Banana and parsley tastes great together. Try it raw, make it into a smoothie, whatever...don't let this post ruin it for you. I just can't bake. 'Cuz I'm a wankstronomist.
3. My sister is doing an awesome job sticking to her vegan diet. My support is measured through my LOVE not my vegan baking, OK?

Alright, I'm out heading into the mean streets of Arlington-Yuppie Virginia. If this post gets enough likes, maybe my big sis will invite me again to do a post that isn't a big mess up like this one.

NEXT FUTURE POST: Dried apricots and harissa. 

PEACE

The Wankstronomist.