Susmita Baral

Coffee is a beverage we love to love and love to hate. Is it good? Is it bad? It’s a delicious to some, toxic to others mystery. But if this nonprofit group has its way, your next brew could come slapped with a dire warning — just like cigarettes. The Council for Education and Research on Toxics has a simple goal: for those manufacturing, distributing, and retailing coffee to alert consumers about the carcinogenic chemical lurking in a cup of Joe.

Back in 2011, Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani started working on her Uncomfortable series, which entailed reimagining everyday items into “uncomfortable” versions of their useful selves. Many of these everyday goods pertain to the kitchen: a double-cupped champagne glass, interlinked coffee mugs, a thick cutlery set, hourglass salt and pepper shakers, and even a slipper spoon. “I started this project for fun, so my purpose is to make people laugh and feel amused!

Diagnosing food allergies is a complicated matter. On top of pinpointing the source of an allergy, there’s the added murkiness of the fact that people can outgrow them. So how do you figure out if you’re still allergic to something without jeopardizing your health? A new study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology spotlights something called food challenge, which serves as a pretty good test, reports NPR’s The Salt.

The Danish term describing the concept of coziness — hygge — embodies a feeling of warmth, and it was the “it” phrase for the end of 2016. At the start of this year, hygge faced fierce competition from lagom, yet another Scandinavian buzzword. Now there’s a new lifestyle concept from Japan: ikigai. At its core, ikigai is the exact opposite of hygge.

If you’ve been perusing your Netflix library, then chances are you’ve seen a new documentary, What the Health. The pro-vegan film co-directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn attempts to show a causal relationship between animal foods and illness. And it’s not shy about it, either, equating eating eggs to smoking cigarettes.

Halloween is around the corner and Halo Top is here to creep you out. A new ad directed by Mike Dahlquist shows a 90-second clip featuring everyone’s favorite low-calorie ice cream, Halo Top. And it’s going to make you uncomfortable. Let’s just say the vibes are more sci-fi movie and less sweet ice cream commercial. The video begins with a mature woman dressed in white (think: hospital gown and less wedding) in a pale-hued room.

Halloween is around the corner and Halo Top is here to creep you out. A new ad directed by Mike Dahlquist shows a 90-second clip featuring everyone’s favorite low-calorie ice cream, Halo Top. And it’s going to make you uncomfortable. Let’s just say the vibes are more sci-fi movie and less sweet ice cream commercial. The video begins with a mature woman dressed in white (think: hospital gown and less wedding) in a pale-hued room.

Ina Garten is a household name. She 10 cookbooks under her belt and a cult-favorite cooking show, The Barefoot Contessa. While Garten’s food expertise is renowned, the chef has book recommendations up her sleeve as well. While talking to Michael Ian Black for the podcast How to Be Amazing, the Food Network star revealed her book of choice: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The 656-page biography chronicles the life of the Apple innovator.

The age-old advice for fruit and veggie consumption is that adults need at least five servings of produce a day. But is that really the truth, and is it still relevant? According to a new study, you don’t need quite as much. The study, published in the Lancet, recommends just three to four servings a day of combined fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

Tropical Storm Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane, hit Texas and parts of Louisiana this past week. In light of the deadly floods, people have been partaking in random acts of kindness. Like the Pizza Hut employee who delivered hot slices to those stranded and running out of food, or the Mexican bakers who were trapped and made hundreds of pan dulce for flood victims.

A Germany grocery store has made a strong statement on racism and xenophobia by modifying their supermarket’s product lineup. Edeka, one of Germany’s largest grocers, recently pulled all foreign food items from the shelves at their store in Hamburg. The stint lasted one day, but it showed consumers how limited their culinary choices would be if diversity were eliminated from the food world.

Food waste is a global problem. To spotlight the issue, Anthony Bourdain has a new documentary — Wasted!: The Story of Food Waste — focusing on the matter. Slated to have a theatrical and video-on-demand release on October 13, the 90-minute film is directed by Anna Chai (The Mind of a Chef and The Layover) and Nari Kye (The Mind of a Chef and No Reservations), and produced by the team behind Bourdain’s popular CNN series Parts Unknown.

An art installation in New York City’s Times Square is making a statement about the sugar consumption of American children. It’s conceptualized and executed by KIND Snacks, and reportedly went up Tuesday morning before 5 a.m. The one-day installation showed sugar boxes piled on top of one another to reflect how much sugar children in the U.S. ingest every five minutes. In case the visual cue isn’t enough to guess, it’s 45,485 pounds.