Diet & Food
Posts involving food, dieting, and other health-related topics.
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Background: A “chocolate fountain” is a food-serving item that a person might see at a wedding or fancy party: it’s just a device that recirculates melted chocolate so that you can dip strawberries or marshmallows in it before chomping them (Figure 1). Fancy! The Issue: Strangely, this type of device is almost never seen recirculating…
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Background: Some workplaces provide snacks for their employees, and employees frequently find it very difficult to avoid constantly snacking on these delicious treats. The Issue: It is hard to avoid snacking, especially when snacks are free. Proposal: The solution is simple (Figure 1): just wear a shirt that says “I’ll give you $20 if you…
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The Issue: Modern food has been optimized for deliciousness and ease-of-eating. Unfortunately, this makes it easy to quickly devour an entire plate of food. This is bad news for dieting and portion control. Proposal: Dieting plans typically focus on the type and quantity of food being eaten. Strangely, these plans rarely look at the utensils…
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Background: Making coffee can involve a number of steps (Figure 1). In an effort to streamline this process, many alternative coffee-making approaches have been devised. Among the “simpler” approaches to making coffee include instant coffee (“just add water”) and the often-ridiculed (yet commercially successful) coffee “pod” system (Figure 2). The coffee pod machine (Figure 3)…
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Background: A “pill organizer” (Figure 1) is a container for vitamins, medications, or anything else that a person wants to remember to take on a recurring basis. The Issue: There are many other recurring tasks that could also benefit from a weekly organizer. For example, according to the lobbyists at Big Vegetable, everyone should eat…
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Background: One widely-used metric for encouraging people to maintain a healthy weight is “BMI” (Body Mass Index), which is defined as BMI = (weight / height²), when given a weight* in kilograms and height in meters. [*] Or “mass,” for the highly pedantic. The Issue: Doctors often recommend that humans maintain a BMI in the 18.5–25.0 range, although the…
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Background: Certain types of apartment / home arrangements are rare in the United States (e.g. courtyard apartments or a second “back” unit behind a front house). Such residences are often not directly visible from the road, and accessing them may require going through a gate. They may also have addresses that include fractions or letters,…
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Background: Many types of candy come in pre-wrapped miniature single-serving (or “fun sized”) pieces, especially as Halloween candy. The Issue: For many people, it can be difficult to avoid eating an entire bag / bowl / other-type-of-container of candy. Proposal: We can create a candy dispenser that works as follows: first, the user fills the…
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Background: In most cases, the listed price of a product is also its actual price. But sometimes this is not true. Airlines, cell phone providers, and restaurants (among other businesses) occasionally add non-obvious “bonus” costs to the final fee. Sometimes, these are temporary: in New York City in 2021, a ~10% “COVID surcharge” was authorized…
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Background: The specific etymology of most food names is lost in ancient history. But a few foods are named after specific people. One of the most notable is the food/concept of a “sandwich,” named after “John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Sandwich). Proposal: This opens up a new possibility for gaining personal fame and fortune:…
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