Why Are Kids Dipping Cookies in Ranch, Are Food Comas Real, and What’s Inside the Mummy’s Stomach?

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Just in time for the holidays, Ask Gastropod is back with a plate full of listener questions for your listening delight! You came to us with mysteries both large and small, both ancient and eternal, and, honestly, all totally fascinating. Such as: What is up with ranch dressing, and how did a bottled salad dressing invented by a plumber and owned by a cleaning products company become *the* flavor of America? What did Europe's oldest human mummy, found frozen in the Alps, eat before his mountain trek—and why could no one find his stomach for twenty years? And, in news you can use this holiday season, why does a “food coma” make you drowsy and slow after a big holiday meal? We’ve got the answers to all of these fabulous listener queries in our latest installment, featuring murder in the Alps, a bathtub full of ranch, and more sea slugs than you might expect. Enjoy!

Episode Notes

Frank Maixner

Frank Maixner is the coordinator of the Institute for Mummy Studies, based in Bolzano, Italy. You can read all about his team's research into Ötzi the Iceman's stomach contents in their 2018 paper The Iceman’s Last Meal Consisted of Fat, Wild Meat, and Cereals.

A closer look at the stomach contents of Ötzi the mummy. The star on the scan in the center shows Ötzi's upward-migrated stomach, with the sampled contents below. Under a microscope, scientists found animal muscle fiber (B) and plant tissue (C). (Image Credit: Frank Maixner/Eurac Research/Institute for Mummy Studies)

Justine Hervé and Subha Mani

Justine Hervé is an assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business. Subha Mani is a professor of economics at Fordham University. Their co-authored 2024 paper on how food comas effect Indian students' testing abilities is Food Coma Is Real: The Effect of Digestive Fatigue on Adolescents' Cognitive Performance.

Nikolay Kukushkin

Nikolay Kukushkin is a clinical associate professor and research fellow at New York University's Center for Neural Science, where he studies the science of memory formation. You can find his 2019 research into the connection between eating, memory formation, and sluggish behavior (more so than usual) in Aplyisa sea slugs in the 2019 paper Neurotropic and modulatory effects of insulin-like growth factor II in Aplysia. This research was done in Thomas Carew’s lab; Niko has a new book coming out next year called One Hand Clapping: The Origin Story of the Human Mind.

A California sea hare, Aplysia californica, on its way to a big, food coma-inducing meal of sushi nori in the lab. (Image credit: Nikolay Kukushkin)

Abby Reisner

Abby Reisner is the author of the book Ranch: An Ode to America’s Beloved Sauce in 60 Mouth-Watering Recipes.

Left, the original "party dip" packet of dried herbs and spices that Hidden Valley Ranch sent out to customers to mix up their own dressing; right, Cool Ranch Doritos in Iceland, where they are sold as Cool American flavor. (Left image credit: The Clorox Company; right image credit: Flickr)

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics

This episode of Gastropod was supported by a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics. Check out the other books, movies, shows, podcasts, and more that they support here.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund

This episode of Gastropod was supported in part by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for our coverage of biomedical research.

Transcript

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