/oss/taxonomy/term/828/all en /oss/article/nutrition-you-asked/it-true-you-cannot-eat-polar-bear-liver <p>You could eat it. If you are lucky, you would live to regret it. That's because the liver could be lethal! You could overdose on retinol!</p> Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:51:30 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8892 at /oss /oss/article/aging-controversial-science-health-toxicity/lets-face-it-creams-deliver-more-hype-evidence <p>In the 1980s, Dr. Albert Kligman, an American dermatologist  made an interesting observation.  Patients being treated for acne with retinoic acid saw an improvement in their wrinkles, an improvement that was eventually traced to enhanced collagen formation. But there was a but. There were hurdles on the road to smooth skin. Retinoic acid treatment resulted in increased sensitivity to sunlight, and initially, in irritated skin. To ensure that patients were properly monitored, retinoic acid was made available only by prescription.</p> Tue, 13 May 2014 12:42:49 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2144 at /oss /oss/article/food-health/second-generation-golden-rice <p>Eating carrots really can make you see better. That is, if you’re deficient in vitamin A! Retinol, as the vitamin is also known, is absorbed from the digestive tract and is converted in the body to retinal which complexes with a molecule in the eye known as opsin. When light hits this complex, it unleashes a cascade of chemical events that lead to the transmission of an impulse up the optic nerve. Given that vitamin A is found in meat and fish, a deficiency in North America is rare. But you don’t have to have meat.</p> Tue, 25 Dec 2012 03:21:43 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1846 at /oss