Butter Ice Cream from the Butter Specialty Store, Echire in Tokyo, Japan

The ice cream has 21% butter and comes with plain, caramel or lemon flavours.

The price is 594 yen (tax included).

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

German Ice Cream Parlor Offers Cricket-flavored Scoops

A German ice cream parlor has expanded its menu with a skin-crawling offering: cricket-flavored scoops with dried brown crickets on top.

The unusual confection is available at Thomas Micolino’s store in southern Germany’s town of Rottenburg am Neckar, German news agency dpa reported Thursday.

Micolino has a habit of creating flavors that are far outside Germans’ typical preferences for strawberry, chocolate, banana and vanilla ice cream.

In the past, he’s offered liver sausage and Gorgonzola cheese ice cream as well gold-plated ice cream for 4 euros ($4.25) per scoop.

“I am a very curious person and want to try everything,” Micolino told dpa. “I’ve eaten a lot of things, including a lot of strange things, and crickets were something I still wanted to try, also in the form of ice cream.”

That he can now produce the cricket flavor is due to a European Union regulation that allows the use of the insects in food.

Under the regulation, crickets may be frozen, dried or used as a powder. The EU already allowed migratory locusts and flour beetle larvae as a food additive, dpa reported.

Micolino’s ice cream is made of cricket flour, heavy cream, vanilla extract and, honey, and he tops it with dried whole crickets. It has a “surprising yummy taste” — or at least that’s what he wrote on Instagram.

The creative vendor says that while some people are disgusted and even upset that he is offering insect ice cream, curious customers have mostly liked the new flavor.

“Those who try it are very enthusiastic,” Micolino said. “I have customers who come here every day and buy a scoop.”

One of his customers, Konstantin Dick, gave the cricket-infused flavor a positive review, telling dpa: “Yes, it’s really very tasty and edible.”

Another customer, Johann Peter Schwarze, also praised the ice cream’s creamy consistency, but added that “you can still sense the cricket in the ice cream.”

Source: AP

 

 

 

 

Chick’n & Waffles Ice Cream: New Flavor of the Month from Baskin-Robbins in the U.S.

The new creation features buttermilk waffle-flavored ice cream with crispy chicken flavor — and waffle-flavored bites swimming in a swirl of bourbon maple syrup.

 

 

 

 

Mediterranean Lifestyle, Not Just Diet, May Greatly Improve Health

Laura Williamson wrote . . . . . . . . .

Much is known about the heart-health benefits of adopting a Mediterranean-style diet, with its heavy focus on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish and healthy oils. But what about the rest of the Mediterranean lifestyle?

Short of lounging on the beaches of southern Italy or an island in Greece, could adopting the focus on relaxed, familial dining, afternoon naps and strong communal bonds also improve health?

A group of researchers explored what would happen if middle-aged and older British adults – who live about 1,500 miles northwest of the Mediterranean Sea and its convivial way of life – adopted not just the dietary but also the physical activity and social habits of their southern neighbors. And they found that the more they adhered to this lifestyle, the lower their risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular disease and other health conditions.

The findings, presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health conference in Boston, are considered preliminary until full results are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

“This study suggests that adopting a Mediterranean lifestyle adapted to the local characteristics of non-Mediterranean populations is possible and can be part of a healthy lifestyle,” said the study’s senior researcher, Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, an assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. She also is an adjunct professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

Prior research has shown the Mediterranean-style eating pattern helps protect against cardiovascular disease, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes. In this latest study, researchers analyzed the impact of other Mediterranean lifestyle factors – including physical activity, rest, social habits and conviviality – on 110,799 middle-aged and older adults living in England, Scotland and Wales.

Participants were drawn from the UK Biobank, a multi-center, population-based study of people ages 40 to 75 who were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease when they enrolled between 2009 and 2012. They were followed until 2021.

A 25-point MEDLIFE index was used to score their adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle. The index was broken down into three blocks: Mediterranean food consumption (12 points), which looked at what people ate; Mediterranean dietary habits (7 points), which looked at additional factors such as whether they snacked, added salt to their meals or preferred whole grains to refined grains; and other lifestyle factors (6 points).

The last block included questions on whether people ate meals with family and friends (conviviality); engaged in physical activity with others, for example by going on walks together; how often they met with family and friends (social habits); and how much sleep they got, both at night and through naps (rest).

After a median follow-up time of 9.4 years, death records were used to compare death rates for cancer, cardiovascular disease and all other causes between those with higher and lower MEDLIFE index scores. The analysis showed the more people adhered to the Mediterranean lifestyle, the lower their risk of dying from cancer or from any cause.

Specifically, compared to those with the lowest MEDLIFE index scores, adults with the highest adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle had a 29% lower risk of dying from any cause and a 28% lower risk of dying from cancer. Higher scores for each of the three blocks of the MEDLIFE index were associated with lower cancer and all-cause death risks. Higher scores for the third block, related to lifestyle activities, also were associated with lower cardiovascular death risks.

The study highlights the important roles community and social engagement play in good health, said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research at Columbia University in New York City.

“The Mediterranean lifestyle involves interactions with others,” she said, a component that is particularly important for people as they age. Studies have shown social isolation may increase a person’s risk of having or dying from a heart attack or stroke.

The findings emphasize why “we should be paying attention to other aspects of lifestyle, beyond just physical activity,” said St-Onge, who was not involved in the study. “Maybe we need to look at more and more of these social factors.”

One thing the study did not explore and would be of interest in future studies is the impact of stress, she said. “When you think about the Mediterranean lifestyle, you think about living at a slower pace, but this study does not seem to capture that.”

Source: American Heart Association

 

 

 

 

Pink Grapefruit Soufflés

Ingredients

1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon finely grated pink grapefruit rind
1/4 cup pink grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon grenadine
40 g low-fat dairy-free spread
3 egg yolks
5 egg whites

Method

1. Preheat oven to hot.
2. Lightly grease six 3/4-cup ovenproof dishes. Sprinkle bases and sides of dishes with a little of the sugar.
3. Combine remaining sugar with flour in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in milk. Cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens. Whisk in rind, juice, grenadine and dairy-free spread. Remove from heat.
4. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Whisk in egg yolks, one at a time.
5. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold a quarter of the egg white mixture into grapefruit mixture; fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon into prepared dishes on oven tray.
6. Cook, uncovered, in hot oven about 15 minutes or until tops are brown.
7. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Makes 6 servings.

Source: Low Fat Feast

---

Today’s Comic