Getting the Most From Your Food

This NPR story is moderately interesting in itself, but I have to say that the thing that caught my attention was the miniature hamburgers.

The story reports on a study suggesting that cooked meat--in this case in the form of miniature hamburgers fed to mice--may be the most efficient source of energy, providing better results than raw meat, raw but pounded meat (to partially break it down and make it easier to digest), or raw, pounded or cooked sweet potato (though cooked sweet potato did provide more energy than raw sweet potato).

It seems it's just easier to digest things when they're cooked, meaning that we--or at least mice--can get at more of the potential energy therein.

I don't eat raw, pounded or cooked meat myself, so I guess I'd just better make sure I have a plentiful supply of less-efficient vegetables to make up the difference.

Keep this in mind, though: when you're working to fend off starvation after the zombies and/or killer robots attack, it may be important to remember that you'll get more energy from your food if you cook it. Every little bit helps in a post-apocalyptic wasteland!