Can you identify these historical figures: Percy Spencer, Nicolas Appert, Luther Burbank, or Fanny Farmer? Maybe not, but their work likely affects what you eat nearly every day. Spencer invented the microwave oven (1946); Appert, the canning process (1770s); Bur-bank developed the Idaho potato (1871) and many popular varieties of potatoes, plums, and berries; Farmer, standard cooking measurements (published, 1896).
August is National Inventors Month, a good time to honor how America’s inventiveness has brought more nutrition, better food safety, and more food choices to your table.
Among the inventions of the last century: vitamin D-fortified milk, iron-enriched flour, and folic acid-fortified grain products. Today scientists are developing tomatoes with more cancer-protecting lycopene, peanuts with less of the protein that causes allergic reactions, higher-starch potatoes that absorb less fat for chips and fries, among others.
Reinvent your food choices this month.
- Invent one solution to a personal eating challenge. Here’s one: Spoon cut-up fruit into an unsugared ice cream cone to eat on the run.
- Invent a new dish. Just change one ingredient: fennel or kohlrabi in soups or stir-fries, or atemoya or blood orange in fruit salads.
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