The Luminous Trap: How Television Light Dictates the Pace of Your Evening Meal

It is a peculiar habit of our modern existence that we have allowed the glow of a screen to become the primary companion during our most fundamental daily ritual. In the Netherlands, where the evenings grow dark and heavy with rain for much of the year, the television often serves as a window to a brighter world. Yet, there is a subtle mechanism at play within this domestic arrangement that few consider. The intensity of the light emanating from your device does more than merely illuminate the room. Read more

A Word About Fat Before We Begin

There was a time, not so very long ago, when my grandmother in Utrecht would set a plate of herring on the table every single Friday without fail, and nobody in the house thought to ask why. You ate the herring because it was herring day, because the fishmonger on the Oudegracht had his freshest delivery on Thursday evening, because your mother ate herring and her mother before her. Nobody spoke of “fatty acids” over the kitchen table in 1962. Read more