Foods by name

USDA lists foods as laboratory entries. These pages are about the food as you would name it, and gather what the research says about it: composition, absorption, cooking, safety and what is still unknown.

• Acerola: one enormous number and almost nothing else
• Agave: the trials are about a fibre, the bottle is a syrup
• Almond butter: same almonds, more of the calories
• Almond flour: what grinding changes
• Almond milk: almost everything in it was added
• Almonds: a real effect, about three percent of your cholesterol
• American cheese: the trials are about vitamin D, the warning is about salt
• Anchovies: the parasite rule, and what else is actually known
• Animal fat: the cholesterol moved, the deaths did not follow
• An apple a day, and the juice that undoes it
• Applesauce: mostly studied as a way to take pills
• Apricot: glycaemic index 56 dried, and one kernel is a toddler's ceiling
• Artichoke: the trials tested a capsule
• Arugula: the highest-nitrate leaf measured, and what that buys
• Arugula and spinach: nitrate moved blood pressure only in healthy people
• the gout rule that measurement does not support
• Avocado: what it does to the rest of your plate
• Avocado oil and grapeseed oil: two opposite fats, never compared
• Bacon: two rashers a day, and the evidence is graded high
• Bacon and pork: small trials, and the nitrite question left open
• Turkey bacon: poultry and processed meat at once
• Bagels: mostly studied as the thing something else was compared against
• Baked beans: a pulse in a salted sauce
• Balsamic vinegar: the acid is tested, the bottle is a blend
• Banana: the potassium fruit that barely qualifies
• Barley, beta-glucan and what the trials actually measured
• Bean sprouts: a food whose whole research record is about not getting sick
• Black beans against other beans: the differences are smaller than the sample spread
• Beans or chickpeas: where the trials tell them apart
• Beans and lentils: a small real effect, and a portion almost nobody eats
• Beef: who paid for the study predicts what it found
• Beef and gravy: all the evidence is about the meat
• Beef and lamb: the answer depends on what replaces them
• Beef liver: the vitamin A is both the point and the limit
• Beet juice: it lowers blood pressure, and not through the nitrate
• Berries: the blood pressure effect that keeps not appearing
• Biscuit: the research is mostly about what a biscuit can carry
• Biscuits: mostly a vehicle for whatever the baker added
• Black beans: half a cup a day, and the phytate costs you half your iron
• Blackberries: one trial, and it used 600 g a day
• Blue cheese: the tyramine rule depends on the drug
• Blueberries: vessels yes, memory unsettled, frozen unmeasured
• Brazil nuts: the one food where a handful can be too much
• Bread: sourdough helps for two hours and not for twelve weeks
• Breakfast burrito: what is known about the wrap and the meal
• Brioche: the only trial used a brioche you cannot buy
• Broccoli: the enzyme you cook off, and how to get it back
• Broccoli sprouts: the sulforaphane is real, the results are modest
• Buckwheat: the lipids move, the blood sugar argues
• Bulgur: a whole grain tested once, and cracked wheat tested often
• Burdock root: two small trials and two poisonings
• Burrito: a composite dish the surveys know better than the trials
• Butter: the answer depends on what replaces it
• Butter or peanut butter: the swap nobody has tested
• Buttermilk: the fraction has the trials, the glass does not
• Cabbage: two minutes in a microwave beats five and a half
• Caesar dressing: the fat helps, the raw egg is the question
• Cake: after dinner it swings glucose more, and baked does not mean allergy-safe
• Candy: what a sweet carries besides sugar
• Canola oil: the LDL effect is real and small
• Cantaloupe: most of the evidence is about safety
• Cape Cod: a drink nobody has studied, built from two things that have been
• Carbonated drinks: the calcium loss belongs to the caffeine
• Carrots: the food and the pill point opposite ways
• Cashew nuts: the heart claim that was refused, and a calorie count that is too high
• Cashews: fewer calories than the label, no clear win for cholesterol
• Cauliflower: most of what is known is about its family
• Celery: what the blood pressure trials actually gave people
• Breakfast cereal: one word for an eightfold difference
• Cheddar: what the cheese versus butter trials actually compared
• Cheese: the comparison is doing the work
• Cherries: what the tart cherry trials actually measured
• Tart cherry juice: what recovers and what does not
• Chia: eight meta-analyses of the same small trials, three answers
• Chicken: the iron it blocks, and the washing you skip
• Chicken or salmon: the two salmon trials we have came out flat
• Chicken and shrimp: no head-to-head trial, and shrimp cholesterol that left the ratios alone
• Chicken or turkey: a comparison nobody has run
• Chickpeas: fewer calories than the label, and more filling
• Chicory: what the trials actually tested
• Chili: the pepper is well studied, the canned entree is not
• Chips: the container matters as much as the contents
• Chocolate and cocoa: the big trials tested a supplement
• Chorizo: studied as processed meat, barely as itself
• Churros: no composition record, and one study that names them
• Cilantro: the trials are on the seed, the outbreaks are on the leaf
• Cinnamon and blood sugar: the trials used capsules
• Clementine: the evidence is about hesperidin, and it disagrees with itself
• Cocoa: the blood pressure effect and what the trials actually fed people
• Coconut: almost every trial poured the oil
• Cod: 34 thousand people, one winter, no effect
• Coffee: the paper filter is the health intervention
• Coleslaw: a cabbage salad that is mostly its dressing
• Cookie dough, flour and the snack you ate instead
• Biscuits: what the grain data says and what it cannot
• Corn: filling, without being less food
• Corn tortillas: mostly measured for what was added to them
• Cornbread: the evidence is about the cornmeal, and none of it is about the bread
• Corned beef: the science is filed under processed meat
• Cornstarch: the thickener that is also a night-time medicine
• Cottage cheese: the calcium stays, the B12 goes
• Couscous and blood sugar: small trials, several grains
• Crab: strong on zinc and B12, and never tested in a randomised trial
• Crackers: the salt is in the box you pick
• Cranberry: one claim the trials carry, and the long tail they do not
• Creme brulee: a dessert nobody has studied
• Croissants: the ones in the studies were not the ones in the bakery
• Cucumber: water, vitamin K, and one trial about a capsule
• Custard: a laboratory food that tells you how you eat
• Dal: strong evidence on blood glucose, weak iron
• Dates in late pregnancy: what the trials can and cannot say
• Desserts: what the trials measured, and what they left out
• Dosa: a high glycaemic index breakfast, and the grain that changes it
• Double cheeseburger: no composition record, one test meal, and the salt
• Doughnuts: what the studies actually tested
• Dragon fruit: small trials, mostly powder
• Salad dressing: the fat is the part that works
• Dumpling: the wrapper decides more than the filling
• Edamame: the pods are the food, the trials are about soy
• Edamame and peas: what the research measures is pulses in general
• Eggs and cholesterol: what the trials found
• Eggs: the evidence is weaker than either camp says
• Egg pasta against plain pasta: a measured difference nobody has tested in people
• Eggplant: the blood pressure trial used a capsule
• Empanada: what is known is the oil and the dough
• Energy drinks: what a single can measurably does
• Falafel: strong evidence for the chickpea, almost none for the patty
• Fast food: what the evidence can and cannot tell you
• Figs: one trial inside a shelf of kiwifruit trials
• Fish: the omega-3 and the mercury arrive together
• Flan: a caramel custard that reaches the database as a powder
• Flaxseed: grind it, bake it, expect a small effect
• French toast: a dish nobody has studied, made of parts everybody has
• Fried chicken: what the studies actually measured
• Frozen yogurt: a dessert, not a yogurt swap
• Fruit: the differences between fruits are bigger than fruit itself
• Garlic: a real effect, a small one, and mostly from supplements
• Gelato: everything measured here was measured on ice cream
• Ghee: three short trials, and two different fats under one name
• Gin: the control arm in somebody else's wine trial
• Gnocchi: slow starch and an empty composition record
• Goat: the meat nobody has trialled, the milk formula that has been
• Goji berries: one eye result, and an extract that is not the berry
• Graham crackers: 24.85 g of sugar against 3.4 g of fibre
• Granola: most of the evidence is about the bar
• Grape juice: it buys a longer run, and the label promises more
• Grapefruit and your medicines: what the juice does
• Grapes: almost every study is about an extract
• Grapeseed oil: six small studies and no long view
• Gravy: a salt story and a food safety story
• Greek salad: the dressing is the part with the evidence
• Green beans: nearly always studied as part of something else
• Green peas: a legume that gets served as a vegetable
• Green pepper: a lot of vitamin C and very little else settled
• Grilled chicken: what the research actually measured
• Grits: what maize studies say about your bowl
• Guacamole: the avocado science and the salt you add
• Guava: very high in vitamin C, thin everywhere else
• Ham: the salt, and what the trials actually fed people
• Hamburger: one meal, measured for hours
• Hearts of palm: two USDA rows that disagree about the same vegetable
• Herring: a lean-meat swap that moved one number
• Honey: the strongest result is a wound dressing in clinical care
• Horchata: two different drinks, neither one tested
• Hot dogs: the risk everyone quotes, and the one nobody does
• Hummus: low on the glycemic scale on its own, with a listeria question
• Icing: three ingredients, studied separately
• Idli: a high glycaemic index, and a fermentation nobody has tested
• Jackfruit: almost everything tested was the dried green flour
• Jam: the sugar swap that changed nothing, and the varnish that almost did
• Jelly: the evidence is about sugar and about pectin
• Jicama: eaten raw, and barely studied
• Juice: the one sugary drink that does not behave like one
• Kale: 325 percent on the label, 4.7 percent in the blood
• Kefir: what the trials measured
• Ketchup: the salt is measured, the tomato science is borrowed
• Kimchi: the effects are real and small, and the salt question is open
• Kiwifruit: the fruit moved the bowel, the capsule did not
• Lamb: how the animal was fed shows up in your blood
• Lard: a firm answer on cholesterol and a split verdict on deaths
• Lasagna: a dish the science has only studied in pieces
• Lemon: the kidney stone question, and how much juice the trials used
• Lemonade: full of citrate, almost empty of alkali
• Lentils: the iron on the label and the iron you get
• Lime: what the kidney stone trials actually tested
• Lobster: plenty of selenium, almost no trials
• Macadamia nuts: a fat swap with a small lipid effect
• Mackerel: one word, two fish, and a mercury line between them
• Malt: sprouting moves the zinc, the powder is mostly sugar
• Mandarins: almost everything tested was a drink, not the fruit
• Mango: which mango, and how much of it
• Mangosteen: the trials tested the juice, not the fruit
• Maple syrup: one trial of daily use, and it is still sugar
• Mayonnaise: the oil decides, the raw egg is the risk
• Meat: what the studies measured, and what they left out
• Meatball: the side dish moved the meal more than the meatballs did
• Melon: the trials named after it are testing a capsule
• Milk, bones and the iodine nobody counts
• Mixed nuts: 105 trials, no weight gain, and one number to watch
• Mojito: one glass is more than one standard drink
• Molasses: iron tonic, trial syrup, still a sugar
• Monster energy drink: the trials tested energy drinks as a class
• Moscow mule: the ginger evidence comes from capsules
• Mousse: a carrier in every study that used it
• Mozzarella: the cheese trials were mostly run on cheddar
• Mozzarella sticks: nobody has studied the fried stick itself
• Mushrooms: the vitamin D depends on the light
• Mushrooms: sunlight turns them into a vitamin D food
• Mussels: the strong trials are about the extract
• Mustard: the powder that works on the food beside it
• Naan bread: every trial used a different flatbread
• Nachos: 495 kcal per 100 g and no trial of the whole plate
• Nectarine: a peach without the fuzz, and the science is all peach
• Noodles: the salt is the story
• Nuts: a strong habit signal, and short trials only in people with heart disease
• Oat milk: one real cholesterol trial, and a carton that decides the rest
• Oatmeal: three grams, and no way to count them
• Okra and blood sugar: what was tested was mostly capsules
• Olive oil: what the cohorts see and the trials do not
• Olives: a salt food with thin health evidence
• Onion rings: nobody has studied them, so this is what fried food data says
• Onions: the trials tested powder, extract and capsules
• Oranges: the fruit, the juice, and the 200 mg threshold
• Orange or sweet potato: two literatures that never met
• Orange and tangerine: a difference that lives in the tables
• Oranges: the fruit is vitamin C, the evidence is juice
• Ovaltine: one trial on the brand, many on the class
• Oysters: the zinc record holder that carries its own hazard
• Pad thai: no trial of the dish, and three ingredients that have been studied
• Palm oil: cholesterol, vitamin A and refining
• Papaya: vitamin C and carotenoids that reach the blood
• Parmesan cheese: small trials, big doses
• Pasta: the study everyone quotes never tested pasta
• Peanut butter: the number on the label came from almonds
• Peanut oil: refined passed 60 allergic people, crude did not
• Pears: a mild fruit with two specific cautions
• Peas: beans lowered cholesterol and peas did not
• Pecans: a reliable cholesterol change and little else
• Chili, black pepper and the capsule in between
• Pepperoni: one 1988 trial on the sausage, everything else is processed meat
• Peppers: what the capsaicin trials actually measured
• Persimmon: every human trial used something other than the fruit
• Pickles: what the studies actually measured
• Pie: a food nobody has studied, and a crust everybody has
• Pina colada: every ingredient measured except the drink
• Pineapple, bromelain and the dose on the label
• Pinto beans: a cup a day moves LDL, and the gas fades by week two
• Pita bread: what the flatbread trials actually tested
• Pizza: the salt, the timing and the lycopene that does not arrive
• Plantain: tested as medicine for sick children
• Plantains: the strongest evidence is about sick toddlers
• Plums, prunes and what the trials actually fed people
• Plums: almost everything tested was dried
• Pomegranate: the juice, the capsule and eleven refusals
• Popcorn: a whole grain that lives or dies by the bucket
• Pork: processed or not, and how hot the pan was
• Potato: chilling it, and the enzyme before surgery
• Potatoes: the cooking method is the whole answer
• Powerade: what the rehydration trials found
• Protein bread: who it was actually made for
• Provolone: the slice is 9 g and the table is 100 g
• Prunes: the bowel claim that passed and the bone claim that has not
• Pudding: mostly a test meal in the research
• Puffs: what the air in an extruded snack actually does
• Pumpkin: three different foods under one word
• Quesadilla: everything measured here was measured on the tortilla
• Quinoa: two meta-analyses, one literature, opposite answers
• Radish: a vegetable almost nobody has tested as a vegetable
• Radishes: mostly water, and most of the evidence is about other foods
• Raisins: well studied, and the results stay modest
• Ranch dressing: the dip helps the salad more than the child
• Raspberries: small effects, one real kitchen rule
• Red pepper: vitamin C in the sweet one, little proof for the hot one
• Refried beans: bean science, with extra salt
• Ribs: strong evidence about red meat, none about ribs
• Rice: the arsenic question, and the water you pour away
• Roast beef: the deli slice and the home joint carry different evidence
• Bread rolls: what the studies actually tested
• Romaine lettuce: eaten raw, occasionally risky, better with dressing
• Rosemary: the dose that speeds memory and the dose that slows it
• Rum: what the ethanol trials can tell you, and what they cannot
• Rutabaga: a cabbage-family root studied mostly through its relatives
• Rye bread: what it actually moves
• Safflower oil: two strong studies pointing opposite ways
• Salad dressing: the fat is what gets the salad into you
• Salami: one word, threefold sodium, and a Group 1 label
• Salmon: wild against farmed, measured rather than assumed
• Salmon and tuna: one fish has trials, the other has monitoring data
• Pink salt, sea salt and the iodine you lose
• Samosa: measured as a class, almost never by name
• Sandwich: one word covering a threefold range
• Sauce: most of the evidence is about what gets dissolved into it
• Tomato sauce: a centimetre of waist and a mould question
• Sauerkraut: what one good trial actually found
• Sausage: the trials tested a sausage you cannot buy
• Scallops: a lean shellfish with almost no science of its own
• Scone: the good trial used a scone built for the trial
• Semolina: the shape it is cooked into does the work
• Sesame oil: what the trials tested, and what they did not
• Meal replacement shakes: what the trials replaced
• Shrimp: one trial from 1996 still answers the only question people ask
• Sorghum: a grain with few human trials
• Soursop: what the cancer trials actually measured
• Soy milk: half a litre, and the bacteria in between
• Soy sauce: almost everything tested was added to it
• Soy: 41 studies on testosterone, and a label claim FDA tried to withdraw
• Soybeans: the hormone scare forty trials could not find
• Soymilk: what it replaces, and what the carton was fortified with
• Spaghetti: a low glycaemic index, and two things the label will not tell you
• Spam: what the studies weigh, and what they never measured
• Spinach: the oxalate story is mostly wrong
• Sprouts: the minerals stay put and the seed is the risk
• Squash: thin evidence and one bitter warning
• Squid: more cholesterol than other shellfish, and blood lipids that did not move
• Strawberries: a cup is almost a whole day of vitamin C
• Strawberry: nearly every trial used the powder
• Subway: the calories are on the board and people still guess low
• Sugar: the two WHO numbers are not one rule
• Sugar apples: almost all of the evidence is about a cousin
• Sugar-coated almonds: the nut has been studied, the shell has not
• Sunflower oil: two oils under one name
• Sunflower seed: the trials are about the extract and the oil
• Sunflower seeds: strong on copper, thin on evidence
• Sushi: raw fish, freezing and salt
• Sweet potato: the orange kind is the whole point
• Swiss cheese: measured against butter, defined by its holes
• Syrup: one word, twenty one products, almost no research on the bottle
• Tacos: what the tortilla and filling studies show
• Tahini: one four-hour study of its own, and an allergy worth knowing
• Tamale: the research is all about the masa
• Tangerines: one pigment absorbed well, and little shown beyond it
• Tapioca: the studies are about a different ingredient
• Tea: wait an hour after the meal and you keep the iron
• Tempeh: the fermentation is measurable, the benefit is pooled
• Tequila: what the research actually tested
• Textured vegetable protein: what the lab tests show
• Tilapia: a protein fish with almost no omega-3
• Tiramisu: a dessert whose whole literature is about the raw egg
• Tofu: the label America wrote and then took back
• Tomato: the association is strong and the trials find nothing
• Tomatoes: cooked is where the signal is, and the supplement failed
• Tortillas: the lime, the zinc and the outbreaks
• Tortillas: the calcium is real and the trials are tiny
• Trail mix: nobody has studied the mix, only its parts
• Tuna: nearly everything studied about it is contamination
• Turkey: the sleep story, and the vitamins the pot takes
• Turmeric: small capsule effects, and a spice nobody has tested
• Turnips: the randomised evidence is about the seed oil
• Vanilla: what the studies actually tested
• Vegetables: what the pot changes, and what is already on them
• Vegetables: small effects, measured honestly
• Vegetarian eating: what the trials moved and what they did not
• Vinegar and blood sugar: one narrow effect
• Vodka: the mixer changes how much alcohol reaches your blood
• Walnuts: two years of daily walnuts did nothing for memory
• Water: one proven job
• Watermelon: the trials are really about an amino acid
• Wheat: the fibre holds up, the sourdough story does not
• Wheat bread: what the word whole buys you
• Whey: it makes you stronger without making you bigger
• White beans: what the bean does and what the capsule claims
• White bread: what the swap trials found
• Whole wheat flour: match everything else and the glucose curve is the same
• Red wine and the heart: what the trials measured
• Yeast: the evidence is about a capsule, not about your bread
• Yogurt: one proven job and a label full of maybes