17Apr 2019 by Vincent Summers 2 Comments

Is Eating Beef Liver Bad for You? Or is That an “Old Scientist’s” Tale?

Food, Health
[caption id="attachment_23806" align="alignright" width="480"] Fried beef liver. Image courtesy of Lani Cooks, all rights reserved, used with permission.[/caption] “And in this corner…” so starts the boxing match. But, what does that have to do with liver? It illustrates people’s feelings about fried liver. They migrate to one corner or the other in a food boxing match. They love it or they hate it. What’s the chemistry of liver – and how does it impact your health? For liver to have any effect at all, you have to actually take a bite – so let’s first consider some of the typical statements people make about this food. First, let's consider those people who stick up their nose at the mere mention of fried beef liver. Those Who Stick Up Their Nose…
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13Apr 2019 by Vincent Summers 1 Comment

Amino Acids and Proteins: Major Components of Meat

Chemistry, Food
[caption id="attachment_23573" align="alignright" width="480"] Image by LifeisGood[/caption] The meat we eat largely consists of proteins, which are made up of amino acids. Proteins may be broken down into amino acids – and, amino acids may be built up into proteins. Consider the basic structure of amino acids and proteins. Amino Acid = Amine + Carboxylic Acid Amino acids contain an amino group, an acid group, and an alkyl group. In an amino group, there is one trivalent nitrogen atom, which is attached to two hydrogen atoms. We write out an amino group as –NH2. An amino acid also contains a carboxylic acid group. It is written –COOH, that is, it contains one tetravalent carbon atom that is double-bonded to an oxygen atom, and also it is single-bonded to one hydroxyl…
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23Jan 2017 by Vincent Summers 6 Comments

What Gives Boiled Eggs Sulfur Smell? Is Sulfur Bad for You?

Food, Health
[caption id="attachment_15992" align="alignright" width="440"] Hardboiling eggs.[/caption] Peel a boiled egg, break it open, and you will detect the distinct boiled eggs sulfur smell. Now foods do not contain sulfur (symbol S) in its elemental form. Rather, they contain compounds that include sulfur in their composition. What sulfur-containing compounds do we find in hen's fruit? In themselves, they are nutritious—even essential—compounds. Boiled Eggs Sulfur Smell: Amino Acids Eggs contain proteins such as albumin. Proteins are amino acids that have joined together. Amino acids are nutritious chemicals that contain nitrogen. Most amino acids do not contain sulfur. However, two do contain sulfur in addition to nitrogen—methionine and cysteine. In fact, they contain nitrogen and sulfur in equal amounts. The chemical formula of methionine is C5H11NO2S. Cysteine is C3H7NO2S. Boiled Eggs Sulfur Smell:…
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