Clinical Immunology

Can Peanut Therapy Help with Nut Allergies?

Millions of Americans with nut allergies -- whose reactions range from itchy mouths and pain, to anaphylactic shock that can lead to death -- are doing all they can to avoid nuts. But a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests that maybe nuts aren't their enemy af ... More >>

The Seven Psychopaths Trailer Redone With Cats

You heard me. I don't know what else to say. Here is the furry, imagined trailer for Seven PsychoCATS.

Should NYC Restaurants Have To List Allergy-Inducing Ingredients In Foods?

[See More: New York City Health Board Passes Bloomberg's Soda Ban Proposal | Sushi Costs More In New York Than Los Angeles Because, Well, Of Course It Does] So now that the soda ban has been passed, could forcing NYC restaurants to list allergy-inducing ingredients be the next source of controversy ... More >>

Lourdes

Tick Bite Making People Vegetarian

A caution to our meat lovers out there: there's a tick out there that's making people allergic to meat. Known as the "lone star tick," researchers are saying that a bite from it can trigger allergic reactions toward meat. "People will eat beef and then anywhere from three to six hours later start ... More >>

Co. Chef Jim Lahey on Homemade Pizza and Infecting Himself with Hookworms

Jim Lahey revolutionized home bread making with the simple, no-knead technique he perfected at the Sullivan Street Bakery. He then turned his attention to pizza, dishing up inventive pies at Chelsea pizzeria Co. And now you can make Jim's pizza at home. He's got a new cookbook out called My Pizza ... More >>

New Guidelines for Gluten Sensitivity: Report

​A panel of experts recently released a report that proposed a new way of classifying gluten-related disorders, according to the Wall Street Journal. The authors of the report, which was partially supported by a company that sells gluten-free products and published in the journal BMC Medicine, ass ... More >>

Most People With Food Allergies Don't Have Food Allergies

About 20 percent of Americans say that they have food allergies or sensitivities, but only about 3 or 4 percent actually do have them, according to The Washington Post.

The Cutest Guy On TV Right Now!

No, that's not him in the above illustration -- though it might be his insides. I'm talking about the guy on the commercial for Crohn's disease, the awful condition that has to do with "damaging inflammations" of the bowels and lots of running to the toilet. I'm sure you've seen the ad (unless you ... More >>

Scientists Working on a Pill to Make Drinking Less Fun

​Scientists at the University of Adelaide are working on a pill that lets people drink alcohol without becoming drunk. The Daily News reports that it is still a few years away, but the "stay sober" pill will "limit the effects of alcohol on the brain." In other words, it doesn't stop the damag ... More >>

The Red Desert

Pitch Of The Week!

​This is by far the most memorable pitch that's been aimed my way recently, and it's possibly the wackiest since a publicist asked if I wanted to interview one of the Jersey Boys about hay fever. Here it is....

Scaffolding Totally Ruins Bride's Dream Wedding

​You know what they say about weddings -- something is bound to go wrong. Ideally it's not because you eat a peanut and die from anaphylactic shock, or because it turns out that your groom had an affair with your mother, though anyone with allergies and/or a certain kind of groom/mother should ... More >>

Hillary Clinton May Have Just Been Feeling 'Allergic' in Dramatic White House Photo

​This photograph of Barack Obama's national security team during the Osama bin Laden raid, taken by official White House photographer Pete Souza, moved us all. What were they thinking? What were they seeing? Look at those faces! Especially...Hillary Clinton. It's as if she'd seen a ghost. Or f ... More >>

Peanuts Safe From Persecution...For Now

​They might be the sworn enemy of moms with pre-school aged kids, but it looks like peanuts haven't gotten the ax just yet when it comes to being served on airlines.

Hell's Kitchen Is Hot; Sandra Lee to Launch Kitchen Line

​Increased food prices have begun to affect diners directly, with restaurants like Per Se and 'wichcraft raising their menu prices. [Wall Street Journal] A group of women at Bravo were said to be bitching about the special treatment Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi gets. (This is news?) [NY Post] He ... More >>

Semen Setbacks Plaguing Modern Man

​Today we face two terrible, awful, cringe-worthy studies about men and their reported sexual dysfunctions. The first comes via the Daily News (kudos on that stock art pick, guys!), which cites research presented at the European Society for Sexual Medicine that determined that some 16% of the ... More >>

Weight Watchers Users Outraged at New Points for Eating Healthy; Has 2010 Been the Year of the Fish Taco?

​The ongoing dispute over the licensing agreement between Kraft and Starbucks will be battled in court as Kraft sues. [Nation's Restaurant News] As part of a publicity stunt, the New York Burger Company got a priest, minister, rabbi, and other religious leaders to bless its burger. [NY Time ... More >>

The Great Pumpkin Shortage is Over; Ben & Jerry's No Longer 'All Natural'

​The great canned pumpkin shortage of 2009-10 has ended. Nestle, which sells about 85 percent of the canned pumpkin in the U.S., said increased demand was to blame for the shortage. [Boston Herald] As the FDA nears the approval of genetically modified salmon, questions over its safety have ar ... More >>

Looming Disaster: Ali Koehler, Best Coast's New Drummer, Is Allergic To Cats

​Here's, courtesy the Guardian, is a wildly amusing as-told-to chat with Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, who remains somewhat of an obsession for us these days, in large part due to her obsessions: namely, her cats. Lots of choice lines here, from "I'd sooner talk about my cats than my music" ... More >>

Study: Boozing Will Help With Your Aches and Pains

Warding off rheumatoid arthritis, and brain cells.​Yep, you kinda knew this already, but it's scientifically proven now: Drinking alcohol may help reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis. Not only that, it may cut your risk of getting arthritis in the first place! According to a study at t ... More >>

Chatting With Veggie Burgers Every Which Way's Lukas Volger About Reinventing the Bête Noire of Vegetarian Dining

Veggie Burger MadnessLukas Volger displays one of his creations.​Even though it's generally accepted that vegetarian food has evolved by leaps and bounds over the past several years, veggie burgers by and large remain stuck in the herbivore ghetto. There's the Morningstar-Boca Burger contingen ... More >>

BP Oil Spill Affecting the Food Web; Nestlé to Stop Making Health Claims on Kids' Drink

​Honest Tea won its bid against Coca-Cola to keep the words "no high fructose corn syrup" on its juice pouches despite it being something of a rebuke of Coke products that do contain the syrup. [NY Times] Apparently, the BP oil spill has already damaged the food web (what scientists used to c ... More >>

Hot Bread Kitchen Moves into Harlem's La Marqueta; Prime Meats Takes Plastic

​The 4,500-square-foot city-owned La Marqueta market in Harlem will now house Hot Bread Kitchen, a non-profit bakery that trains low-income immigrant women in culinary skills. [Wall Street Journal] It still does not take reservations, but Prime Meats in Carroll Gardens now takes credit cards ... More >>

A Look at the Latest Beer Gardens; Oil Spill Threatens Seafood Industry

​The Tribeca Grand's Church Lounge attracts an A-list crowd of bar, restaurant, and club owners; doormen; DJs; and promoters every Sunday for brunch. [NY Post] As Astoria's Bohemian Hall celebrates its 100th anniversary, a look at the city's newest beer gardens, including Mission Dolores in P ... More >>

KFC's Double Down Sandwich Run Extended Through Summer; Urbanspoon to Launch Online Restaurant Reservation Service

​Opentable.com is about to get some competition. Urbanspoon is hoping to snag its part of the online restaurant reservation market with a new launch today. [Wall Street Journal] The Lion is the latest iconic West Village restaurant from the past to be revived to attract scenesters of the pre ... More >>

A Walk in a Corporate Garden; Grub Crawls A-Go-Go

​Corporations like PepsiCo have started planting organic corporate vegetable gardens, where employees can weed during breaks and take home the harvest. [NY Times] Grub crawls are all the rage these days. Neighborhoods like South Williamsburg and the Lower East Side are ideal for grazing at a ... More >>

John Doe & Exene Cervenka

7-Eleven to Roll Out Private-Label Beer; High-Alcohol Wines Appeal (to Some)

​A bizarre study has revealed that college students who are addicted to tanning salons tend to drink more alcohol and smoke more pot than their paler peers. [BusinessWeek] 7-Eleven is launching its own private-label beer called Game Day, produced by City Brewing of Wisconsin, that will target ... More >>

Allergy Season "Wicked Bad" This Year

If you're planning on a frolic in a field of flowers, bring along some Kleenex.​If your eyes are all red and swollen and scratchy and you're feeling generally like you got hit by a truck, or maybe a large, blooming plant of some sort, it's not because you drank too many glasses of the good stu ... More >>

Food Photography is Rampant; Induction Cooking Blows Up

​Keeping a photographic diary of everything one eats is becoming increasingly popular, with photo-sharing sites like Flickr boasting more than 6 million images tagged with the word "food." [NY Times] For tips on how to shoot your food, try using natural light whenever possible, fill your fra ... More >>

STAIR MASTER

Race to the top of 30 Rock

SWEET TOOTH

BabyCakes doesn’t discriminate

Nightmares Before Thanksgiving: Medicos Warn of Holiday-Related Injuries, Celiac Disease, Etc.

​Christ in Heaven, King Kong and the Rockettes have announced holiday Christmas season. So it's time to start thinking about that cozy, mildly-patriotic warm-up event, Thanksgiving, and the turkey with which those of us who are not celebrity vegans celebrate. Looking forward to it? Let us fi ... More >>

More Ideas to Ruin Your Halloween

​The conspiracy to render Halloween miserable proceeds apace. For those of us who must politicize everything, including harmless children's holidays, Right Wing News provides "10 Horror Movies For Conservatives To Watch This Halloween." These include The Exorcism of Emily Rose ("treats Christi ... More >>

'Carlapalooza'

Circulatory System+Nesey Gallons+Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't

WALK-IN

The Bard doesn't need a park

Brooklyn Has Its Own Street Vendor Wars... But Also a Multicultural Fourth of July

The street food vendor wars are not confined to Manhattan. Brooklyn has seen its share of tension between food carts and brick-and-mortar restaurants. Claiming unfair competition, littering, and noise, restaurants in Bay Ridge have asked the city to ban street vendors in the Business Improvement Dis ... More >>

X's Exene Cervenka Diagnosed With Multiple Sclerosis

Fresh off an evidently triumphant three-night stand at Bowery Ballroom by these L.A. punk deities comes the sobering news that they're mortal: X's PR has released a statement from singer/poet/warrior princess Exene Cervenka announcing that she has MS. The full statement follows after the jump; god ... More >>

"Consumers Don't Want Double Packs"

Quotes from the Food and Agriculture Summit included, "What I think the consumer wants is value at point of sale. They don't want a lot of fancy promotions. They don't want a lot of double packs. They want a reasonable price point." [Reuters] In a survey of 8,203 people across the country, 2.55 p ... More >>

No-Nut Baseball

The Perfect Summer Meal -- With a Side of Epi-Pen

DIY Sex Toys

Why does the purple Magic Marker smell like ass?

Sesame Sweet

Allergy news bad for sesame lovers

Horoscope

Elven Like Me

Otherkin Come Out of the Closet

People Who Feed 'People'

Freelancers Say They Were Ripped Off

Unnatural Disasters

How Humans Are Behind the Weather Weirdness

The Virus Fights Back

At the World AIDS conference, hope mingles with troubling news about drug-resistant HIV