GOOD FOOD NEWS

Here are two articles, one on ice cream and the other on low sugar watermelons, that we recently came across. We don’t know about you, but we were not at all surprised by the ice cream article. On the other hand, we certainly cheered the watermelon news.

Food Trends: June 2005

By Denise Shoukas

Ice Cream Pick-Me-Up
To give ice cream sales a boost as well as jump-start product development, Unilever, the world?s largest ice cream maker, has backed a study to uncover ice cream?s effect on mood. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London tracked the brain activity of people eating vanilla ice cream and discovered that this summer favorite perks up the brain?s pleasure zones. According to Don Darling, vice president of development at Unilever Ice Cream Europe, ?Just one spoonful of Carte D?Or lights up the happy zones of the brain.? This news could turn ice cream into the next functional food.

Low-Sugar Watermelons
A wave of the future may be low-sugar watermelons. An Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist is developing red-fleshed watermelons with about 5 percent sugar content, compared to the typical watermelon containing 14 percent sugar. The fruit still produces lycopene, the pigment that gives the melon its appealing red color and is thought to help reduce risk of heart disease and certain cancers.