The Checkup: Flour—Not Eggs—to Blame in Cookie Dough E. Coli Outbreak

• I learned two interesting things in this New York Times story about the 2009 E. coli outbreak linked to raw, store-bought cookie dough: (1) that researchers think the flour, not than the eggs, is to blame, and (2) that only (!!) 53 percent of college students admit to eating unbaked homemade cookie dough. On the former point, experts say it has to do with pasteurization—the process of killing harmful pathogens in foods—and the fact that the only ingredient in the cookie dough that went unpasteurized was the flour. So by process of elimination—voila!—the flour was the likely culprit. As for the second point: um, what?! Clearly those college students were underreporting. I would like a show of hands of anybody who hasn’t consumed unbaked cookie dough. Don’t worry, I’ll wait …

… No one? That’s what I thought.

• This study makes me a little sad. The Body Odd reports on a vocal analysis which found that lots of college women speak in low, creaky, raspy voices—on purpose. Why? Because Ke$ha does, of course. Oy.

• I have to give a nod to this post on Runner’s World’s Ask Coach Jenny blog, which talks about the many benefits of backward running. No, I don’t make a habit of running backwards, but I once knew of somebody who did: Back when I lived in DC, there was this guy known around town only as Backward Running Man. He used to run the streets of the city—down the double yellow!!—backwards. I have no idea who he was, what (if anything) he was training for, or why, but I hereby dedicate this bullet point to Backward Running Man—and everybody else who feels the need to run backwards from time to time.