Mice tested results less valid and walnut meringue bars

Crispy Coconut Cupcake with Peanut Butter, Banana and Chocolate Crumble

Food Diary (November 01, 2011)

Breakfast: Sourdough toast

Lunch: Chickpea tikka masala with rice

Dinner: Pasta with caramelised onion tomato sauce, wholemeal sourdough

Baking/sweets: Crispy Coconut Cupcake with Peanut Butter, Banana and Chocolate Crumble

What you see above looks nothing like a cupcake. I am not sure what I should call this thing so lets just stick with crispy cupcake for now. It used to be a cupcake earlier in its life but it was transformed into a crispy cupcake. As a result the cupcake acquired a crispy texture, both inside and outside. 

You will probably not believe me if I say that this is really simple to make and requires few basic ingredients that are most probably sitting in your pantry. Trust me, my pantry is usually empty and I have all the required ingredients. The cupcake has just 4 ingredients, and cake mix is not one of them, neither is butter or eggs. The recipe is available here.

Moving on to the next item on the agenda. Tikka masala is usually or only associated with chicken. However the difference between chicken and chickpea is just an ’en’ and ’pea' at the end. Its amazing how rearranging a few alphabets transfers an ingredient from the carnivore to the vegetarian category. I hope tikka masala purists let me get away with this.

Chickpea tikka masala with rice

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Bite my cake

Walnut meringue bars

Today’s Favourite Blog

Source: Science Daily

Mice are often used to test whether substances in food are harmful to humans. However humans and mice are different and as such the results of the tests may or may not be applicable to humans.

Humans have certain enzymes in more parts of the body than mice. This can affect the test results. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health inserted human enzymes into mice to examine the health risk from eating well-done meat. These mouse were fed meat crust (i.e. the surface formed during cooking). The results show that the incidence of intestinal tumours increased from 31 per cent to 80 per cent in "human-like" mice.

Heat-processing of food can lead to the formation of carcinogenic substances. The formation of carcinogenic substances -- so-called food mutagens -- usually occurs at high temperatures when frying or grilling.

The scientists concluded that the health risk associated with harmful substances in food may therefore be underestimated if we use mice for testing.

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