Doctoral Dissertation Research: Developments in the Food Science of Nutritious Processed Foods

在Joseph Masco教授的指导下，博士候选人艾拉巴特勒将承担一个民族志研究的食品科学家，风味化学家和感官科学家的工作，对新的，营养，吸引人的加工食品的发展。她的重点将是科学家如何工作，以复制的味道，风味和质地的食物的属性，如果他们通过替代糖或盐的其他成分，例如，幻影香味，化学品，旨在刺激神经通路产生想象的感觉。 该项目涉及神经生物学、记忆、健康、感官和化学的交叉领域。鉴于全国对许多加工食品对美国人口健康的不良影响的关注，这项研究将引起广泛的兴趣。随着公共评论员、卫生专业人员和政治领导人努力解决如何应对肥胖和糖尿病水平不断上升的问题，加工食品行业受到了严厉的批评。这种人类学方法将传达科学家的观点，他们正在努力制作更健康但仍然美味的产品。

Under the direction of Prof. Joseph Masco, Ph.D. candidate Ella Butler will undertake an ethnographic study of food scientists, flavor chemists and sensory scientists working on the development of new, nutritious, appealing processed foods. Her focus will be on how scientists work to replicate the properties of taste, flavor and texture of foods if they substitute other ingredients for sugar or salt through, for instance, phantom aromas, chemicals designed to stimulate neural pathways to produce imagined sensations. This project works at the intersection of neurobiology, memory, health, the senses and chemistry.Given the national concern with the ill effects of many processed foods on the health of the American population, this study will be of broad interest. As public commentators, health professionals and political leaders grapple with how to deal with rising levels of obesity and diabetes, the processed food industry has received serious criticism. This anthropological approach will convey the perspectives of the scientists who are working to craft healthier but still tasty products.