It’s that time again… When big-name food publications reveal their ‘Best Of’ lists for the past year. Food & Wine – one of our fave food screeds – has unveiled its list of ‘Everyday Foods That Defined 2025’s Most Popular Health and Science Research’…
Don’t you just love this image, borrowed from the Food & Wine story that inspired this post?
They do photos and illustrations like nobody else in the food magazine game…
My pick of their pick…
I’ll start by thanking Food & Wine for winnowing down the list of top food research and science stories from lat year. I, of course, have my usual questions and qualms when it comes to ‘Best Of’ lists. And I’ll be indulging those in cherry-picking my own short list…
What F&W did…
The renowned comestibles chronicle has presented us with their top 10, according to readership totals: “The 10 most popular food science and health stories that Food & Wine published this year, revealing what readers cared about most.”
Another key finding of their survey was that: “A majority of these stories focus on everyday ingred-ients like coffee, berries, and green tea, underscoring the importance of learning how daily diets impact our bodies.”
Their ’10 Most Popular’…
Here follows my curated selection of the F&W stories their, ‘readers couldn’t stop clicking on’ last year…
1. A Herbal Treatment for Alzheimer’s?
“It turns out two simple herbs could hold the promise of a better future for those living with Alzheimer’s. In 2025, researchers at The Scripps Research Institute synthesized a form of carnosic acid, a compound found in rosemary and sage that, in preclinical mouse models, reduced brain inflammation, boosted synaptic density, and improved memory markers linked to Alzheimer’s disease.”
2. Huge Health Benefits in Coffee
“[T]he polyphenols in coffee may act as prebiotics, feeding beneficial microbes linked to better digestion, immune support, and reduced inflammation. The scientists [said] their research adds to the growing body of evidence that it’s more than fine to enjoy your morning cup of Joe.”
3. 12 Fruits and Vegetables most likely to have Pesticide Contamination
“After testing 47 common fruits and vegetables, the Environment Working Group (EWG) named spinach, strawberries, kale, grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, blueberries, and potatoes as its ‘dirty dozen’ in 2025.”
4. Pecans may help lower your Cholesterol
“After testing 47 common fruits and vegetables, the EWG named spinach, strawberries, kale, grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, blueberries, and potatoes as its “dirty dozen” in 2025.”
5. The Most- and Least-Processed foods at your supermarket
“[A] research team at Mass General Brigham in Boston created a platform called TrueFood, which analyzed the most- and least-processed grocery foods commonly found at Whole Foods, Target, and Walmart…”
My take
Overall, we agree with F&W‘s list top 10 most-read stories. Their list was presented in order of read-ership totals for each topic.
But the ones we’ve listed above reflect our own picks (in no particular order) of the issues we con-sidered most important to expose to our readers. For example, while we followed F&W‘s lead on their items 1. and 2., our item 5. was their readers’ number 8.
So there’s no objective way to compare our list with F&W‘s. But I can assure you, we covered all the topics in their list – and many more with equal claim to ‘font-page headline’ emphasis!
~ Maggie J.