Sugar

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

Los Angeles County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey gave conflicting testimony under oath during two union grievance hearings, attributing the contradiction to being confused and having problems with her blood sugar level, according to transcripts reviewed by The Times. Lacey, who is running for district attorney and has won major endorsements from newspapers, including The Times, testified under oath in 2009 and 2010 as part of a county employment dispute in which the union representing prosecutors accused the district attorney's office of retaliating against its officers.

It was evidently good enough for Gilligan and Robinson Crusoe. But is coconut water a healthy choice for people who aren't stranded on a deserted island? A longstanding treat in tropical regions across the globe, coconut water hit U.S. supermarkets a few years back and is now being marketed with a vengeance. Sometimes billed as nature's sports drink, the slightly sour beverage has also acquired a reputation for being able to improve circulation, slow aging, fight viruses, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article .) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose. “Our study shows that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body,” study senior author and UCLA professor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a release about the finding, which was published in the Journal of Physiology (postdoc Rahul Agrawal was first author)

  Momofuku's Crack Pie Total time: 1 1/2 hours, plus cooling and chilling times Servings: Makes 2 pies (6 to 8 servings each) Note: Adapted from Momofuku. This pie calls for 2 (10-inch) pie tins. You can substitute 9-inch pie tins, but note that the pies will require additional baking time, about 5 minutes, due to the increased thickness of the filling. Cookie for crust 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3 ounces) flour Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup (1 stick)

Rats fed fructose-laced drinking water for six weeks performed more slowly in a maze-navigating task, UCLA researchers have found. (Read this L.A. Times opinion article .) They think the effect is due to changes in the way the brain responds to insulin as a result of exposure to fructose. “Our study shows that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body,” study senior author and UCLA professor Fernando Gomez-Pinilla said in a release about the finding, which was published in the Journal of Physiology (postdoc Rahul Agrawal was first author)

Some good buys for your health and your pocketbook: Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season. Buy frozen otherwise. Frozen is cheaper and may even be better for you than fresh. That's because produce is usually frozen at its ripest, which is usually when it maxes out in nutrient content too. Some nutrients do break down or leach out in the freezing process, but most make it through.

A sweetener made from the juice of a Mexican cactus is an increasingly common ingredient in bottled teas, energy drinks, nutrition bars and desserts from health food stores. In just the last few years, agave syrup's popularity has soared: The number of agave products on the market more than tripled between 2003 and 2007, according to market analysis firm Data Monitor. This year, a major food manufacturer -- McCormick & Co. -- placed the syrup on its list of top 10 flavors for 2009.

  Total time: 45 minutes, plus baking and cooling time for the cake Servings: 10 to 12 Note: Adapted from "Southern Cakes." Cake 3 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened, plus additional for greasing the pan 1 (1-pound) box dark brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 5 eggs 1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. 2.

Sugar is toxic, and possibly as addictive as cocaine . Meat is laced with antibiotics . “Pink slime” is unappetizing , as is its dubious and fishy counterpart, “ pink slime of the sea .”  And the plastic packaging that food comes in is just as worrisome. But never mind the evidence that, as a country, we are eating ourselves to death. It's a free country, and we have the right to be our own worst enemy. Plenty of people have suggested regulating the junk we consume, specifically sodas.

Anyone who's gone on a diet knows: It's easier to avoid potato chips if you don't have any. So it's not a surprise that researchers found that California high school students eat less fat and sugar and fewer calories at school than their peers in states that allow the sale of snacks with more of those items. What's more, the California students didn't compensate outside of school; they ate an average of 158 calories a day fewer than students in the other states, according to the study published Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.The California students' consumption outside of school was approximately the same as the students in the other states.

Dear SOS: I was recently in Atlanta visiting a friend. She took me to Highland Bakery, where I had the most delicious sweet potato pancakes. Can you please try to get the recipe? Thank you so much. Stacy Wawerchak Redondo Beach Dear Stacy: Fresh off the griddle, these warm and tempting sweet potato pancakes are lightly spiced and deliciously aromatic. You could top them with maple syrup, but they're best drizzled with Highland Bakery's rich praline-like brown sugar butter sauce.

  Total time: 50 minutes, plus cooling time Servings: 8 Note: If you'd like to add any flavorings to your scones, it's best to add the flavorings after cutting in the butter and before stirring in the liquid. 3 cups (12¾ ounces) flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into ½-inch pieces 1 cup cold buttermilk, milk or cream 2 tablespoons heavy cream 2 teaspoons turbinado or coarse decorating sugar 1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Sugar is toxic, and possibly as addictive as cocaine . Meat is laced with antibiotics . “Pink slime” is unappetizing , as is its dubious and fishy counterpart, “ pink slime of the sea .”  And the plastic packaging that food comes in is just as worrisome. But never mind the evidence that, as a country, we are eating ourselves to death. It's a free country, and we have the right to be our own worst enemy. Plenty of people have suggested regulating the junk we consume, specifically sodas.

Case for the prosecution Sodas, candy bars and sweet breakfast cereals are entwined in modern life - along with a lot of other questionable choices and bad habits. It's hard to know exactly what all of that sugar is doing to our bodies, but scientists are making headway. Some not-so-sweet findings: • In an unusual - and revealing - experiment from 2011, researchers at UC Davis fed 48 young adults a sugary but carefully controlled diet. In just two weeks, subjects who got 25% of their calories from either fructose or high-fructose corn syrup saw a jump in their cholesterol levels.

Chocolate chip cookies Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Servings: 12 very large cookies Note: Adapted from Joan's on Third. 2 1/2 cups (10.8 ounces) flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter 1 1/4 cup plus a heaping 2 tablespoons (7 ounces) light brown sugar 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar 2 extra-large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt 1 pound 60% chocolate disks or large chips, coarsely chopped 1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

  Butterscotch pot de crème Total time: 1 hour, plus cooling time Servings: 10 Note: Adapted from Travis Lett of Gjelina. Our recipes, your kitchen: If you try this or any other recipe from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen, we would like to know about it so we can showcase it on our food blog and occasionally in print. Upload pictures of the finished dish here. 9 egg yolks 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) plus 6 tablespoons butter, divided 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon salt 1/2 vanilla bean 4 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided 2 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup crème fraîche Flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Who could resent the attention being showered on electric cars? Stylish and clean, they're the darling of the renewable-energy crowd, which is hailing the scheduled rollout of several e-powered models next year as a major blow against global warming. Well, Eduardo Leao, for one. He's executive director of the Brazil's largest sugar industry association, called UNICA, and he insists that cane-based ethanol produced in massive quantities by his members is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.

Worried about trans fat or salt? That's a little old-school. If you want to stay current on dietary villains, you'll want to start thinking about sugar. Lots and lots of sugar - as in 77 grams, or nearly 20 teaspoons. That's how much added sugar the average American consumes every day, according to a 2011 scientific report, and that's not even factoring in the sugars naturally found in fruits, vegetables and milk. And yes, we're talking typical people on typical days, not just 10-year-olds gorging on cotton candy and funnel cake at the carnival.

Maybe because I have made the same point to my colleagues, I was impressed by a Washington Times report this week headlined “ Decades-old law opened doors for big-money donors .”  The important words are “decades old.” The conventional wisdom is that the much-reviled Citizens United decision opened the way for sugar daddies Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson to spend megabucks furthering the candidacies of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich,...