Happy Feet

   

    Picture this: you're sitting somewhere, waiting for a train, a plane, a class to start, or the doctor to come poking into the waiting room. You put in some headphones to pass the time and play your favorite Spotify playlist. About 15 seconds go by and you notice you're already tapping your feet, humming loudly, and nodding your head. You don't want to draw attention so you stop. 20 seconds later you're back at it again. Why do we do this? Are Metro's beats really that good?

     Turns out that when you listen to music, quite a few things happen. Your heart rate increases, you feel desirable emotions, and multiple areas of the brain are stimulated. One study done at McGill University showed that listening to music can release dopamine, the chemical that is responsible for making you feel good. Dancing is believed to have evolved from rhythmic movement, such as tapping feet.

     According to a study posted in Science Daily, moving to music is a part of a human cognition called "motor theory of perception." According to the theory, when we listen to music, we have a habit of actively simulating the body movements that we believe went into making that sound. Researchers at the University of Oslo also determined that people make sense of what they hear by mentally simulating it to make sense of it.

     There's nothing wrong with being an incessant foot tapper. According to one study, fidgeting helps burn calories, up to 350 a day, and we hate those, right?

     So tapping feet is cool and all, but what's up with humming? Well it's believed that humming has evolved over time and used to be the "contact call" of humans, which is a way animals communicate. Humming is also believed to be a type of relaxer for humans, since sitting in complete silence can be uncomfortable and seen as a sign of danger. Like breathing and putting our fingers in our mouths, humming seems to be something we do unconsciously without much thought.
     An earworm, or "stuck song syndrome" is the habit of humming or moving to a song that you're no longer listening too. You can easily "catch" an earworm: after listening to your new favorite song, seeing the same annoying commercial, or watching the intro to your favorite 90s sitcom. Even seeing something that reminds you of the sound. Who hasn't hummed the Disney theme after popping in the Lion King VHS tape?
    No one knows what causes them, though it's believed that 98% of people experience them. One study found that lyrical songs may account for 73.7% of earworms, while instrumental music may only account for 7.7%. A piano piece, or Bruno Mars? Hmm. It's also believed that musicians and people with OCD suffer the most earworms. Earworms typically don't last more than 30 seconds and they're very forgettable. Humming is also believed to be contagious, just like yawning, and is also believed to have benefits on the body and mind.
     Tapping your feet and nodding your head is natural. Music influences us and moving to it is what we're supposed to do. If tapping your feet or nodding your head does annoy you though, well hey it's at least better than tinnitus.

*Fast Company, Washington Post, Science Daily, Psychology Today, Skyword, Scientific American, The Straight Dope, Quora, Rejuvenation Lounge, Joseph Jordania "Time to Fight and Times to Relax: Singing and Humming at the Beginnings of Human Evolutionary History."

Arguing over Peanuts

    

     Peanut butter is a world delicacy. According to the American Association of Agronomy, we spend over $800 million a year on it. The average American child has 1,500 PB&J's before high school graduation. January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day in the US. We take peanut butter so seriously that according to Atlas Obscura, Stuart Parnell, the former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America, was sentenced to 28 years in prison after knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter in 2009. According to Ad Age, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the most popular chocolate candy in America. Snickers, the world's #1 brand, contains peanuts as a main ingredient. FiveThirtyEight also ranked Reese's as the top Halloween candy. And I mean, come on, it makes sense. Chocolate and peanut butter is the world's best match up. Name a better one, I'll wait. You can even get peanut butter colored paint, and peanut butter interior in your car.

     As it turns out, for peanut butter to be considered "peanut butter" in the United States, it has to contain at least 90% peanuts. While that seems like common sense, it didn't always used to be that way.

     In 1959, the FDA revealed that items labeled as "peanut butter" only contained 75% or so peanuts. Consumers weren't happy about it and started referring to peanut butter as "peanut flavored face cream." Manufacturers were altering recipes to cut costs, such as hydrogenated oils being used instead of peanut oil and using alternative sugars. For the next 12 years, the FDA and the peanut butter industry fought back and forth over how much peanut is enough peanut.

     According to Atlas Obscura, the FDA wanted peanut butter to be 95% peanuts. Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, and the rest of the brands said “no.” The FDA then said 90%, the PB industry said 87%. In 1964, both sides finally met to try to compromise in what was called the "Peanut Butter Hearings." A few years of peanut butter corporate legal jargon and 8,000 transcript pages later, the hearings ended in favor of the FDA. Regardless, peanut butter moves slow as it took 5 years until the 90% peanut rule became standard in 1971.

        Ruth Desmond was fundamental in the FDA landing the win. She was instrumental in getting changes implemented after the 1959 Cranberry Crisis that included cranberry sauce contaminated with weed killer. She eventually became known as "Peanut Butter Grandma" for her persistent fight.

    The FDA is now more into fighting for accurate labeling than fighting for accurate food. Regardless, what exactly is in our food has become a hot topic as consumers have became more educated about food health.

     From lies and misconceptions about the sugar content in cereal, to natural food being all-natural, to gluten-free always being a healthier alternative, the list goes on with instances of consumers being misled. While peanut butter being 90% peanut vs 87% peanut might seem like a silly difference to argue over, it's the principle about not letting consumers be purposefully misled, and in that case, the FDA made the right push, no matter how silly "Peanut Butter Hearings" sounds.

     If you're not a big peanut butter person, but still want to experience the peanut butter life, you can pick up some peanut spread instead, which is less than 90% peanuts.

     And a peanut butter international fun fact: in the Netherlands, peanut butter cannot be called "peanut butter", because by law, butter has to be actual butter. Instead, it's "peanut cheese." Not kidding.

*sources: Atlas Obscura, photo from Wonderopolis, American Association of Agronomy, Business Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Healthline, The Atlantic Online, Marketplace.