The winter of 1609 to 1610 was treacherous for early American settlers. Some 240 of the 300 colonists at Jamestown, in Virginia, died during this period, called the "Starving Time," when they were under siege and had no way to get food.

Desperate times led to desperate measures. New evidence suggests that includes eating the flesh of fellow colonists who had already died.

Archaeologists revealed Wednesday their analysis of 17th century skeletal remains suggesting that settlers practiced cannibalism to survive.
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In kindergarten, Owen Kellogg came home sobbing one day because another boy at school had told him that he had a peanut, and that he was going to force Owen to eat it.

Owen, now 7, is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, said his mother, Haylee Kellogg of Cedar Hills, Utah. In reality, the taunting boy did not have a peanut, but Owen didn't know that - he just knew that eating a peanut could make him stop breathing.
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You've probably heard a lot about salmonella in reference to food poisoning, but the latest outbreak isn't about eating cooked animals – it's about touching live ones.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 93 people in a total of 23 states have been infected with strains of salmonella: specifically, strains known as Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Newport, and Salmonella Lille. Of those affected, 18 patients have been hospitalized and one death may be related to the outbreak under investigation too.

A large portion – 37% – of the those infected are 10 years old or younger, according to the CDC.

Read - CDC: Salmonella outbreak tied to live poultry

You may be clueless about how to start a fire in the wilderness without matches or a lighter, but our ancestors may have figured it out long ago.

Scientists have uncovered evidence that humans used fire at least 1 million years ago, potentially for cooking purposes. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Michael Chazon of the University of Toronto led an investigation into the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa. The team found burned bones and ash plant material, including grasses, leaves and twigs. The bones originated from a variety of animals: small rodents, antelopes and horselike mammals.

Read - Scientists find signs of ancient man-made fire

If you're concerned about the ethics of livestock production but don't want to become a vegetarian, consider this: It may be possible to grow meat in a petri dish.

Dr. Mark Post, professor of vascular physiology at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, is working on creating meat from bovine stem cells. And he's planning to unveil a burger created this way in October, he said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver.

Croplands and pastures occupy about 35% of the planet's ice-free land surface, according to a 2007 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"Meat consumption is going to double in the next 40 years or so, so we need to come up with alternatives to solve the land issue," Post said.

Read - One stem cell burger: $330,000

"Dad, my throat hurts. Can you get me some cough drops?" B.J. Hom asked his father, Brian.

Brian had no idea those would be the last words he would hear his son say.

The Hom family had just arrived at a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, to celebrate B.J.'s high school graduation and 18th birthday. But while Brian went to get cough drops at the gift shop, B.J. collapsed, his lips blue and his face pale, gasping for breath. He died that night from an allergic reaction, probably to unnoticed peanuts in a dessert from the dinner buffet.

"It was like someone reached in and ripped our hearts out," said Brian Hom of San Jose, California.

Read - "Study: Food allergies more common, more severe among children"

See all peanut allergy coverage

As you continue to weigh the risks and benefits of using your cell phone, in light of the recent World Health Organization announcement that the phones may lead to cancer, consider how scared you are of pickled vegetables, gasoline and magenta dyes.

These are just some of the substances also lumped in the same group of "possible carcinogens," formally known as "group 2B carcinogens" on the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer's list of known, likely and maybe-likely suspects.
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In the wake of Japan's nuclear disaster, all milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruit from one of four prefectures closest to the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be prevented from entering the United States, a spokesperson for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

All other food products produced or manufactured in one of those prefectures - Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma - will be diverted for testing, the spokesperson said. Food products from other parts of Japan will be tested as resources allow, but the FDA's main focus is food from these four areas, the spokesperson said.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered damage from the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11. Efforts to bring the plant's cooling systems back online to stabilize the situation continue.

Some of these food products have already been officially taken off the domestic and export markets: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan had previously ordered the governors of these four prefectures to halt the distribution of spinach and the local vegetable kakina, and told the governor of Fukushima to cease all raw milk distribution, the FDA said.

Read FDA: Some foods from 4 Japanese prefectures can't enter U.S.

Anyone who follows food has likely heard of "molecular gastronomy," a term that’s been floated around for the two last decades to describe a scientific exploration of food and the cooking process.

Some of the best restaurants in the world, such as Chicago’s Alinea and Spain’s El Bulli, have become famous for their out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to mixing food, science and technology in this way.
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Strawberries and chocolate go all too well together in fondue, cakes, and any other dessert you can imagine. Now, scientists are learning more than ever about the genetic makeup of both of these foods, and that knowledge could lead to genetically modified versions that are more nutritious and easier to grow.

The journal Nature Genetics is publishing studies about the genomes of each of these foods. Each of the studies is led by a different international team of researchers, and has received a mixture of academic, U.S. government and industry funding (strawberry industry groups contributed to research on that fruit, and Hershey Corp. helped fund the cocoa study).

By sequencing the strawberry genome, scientists can learn about how the fruits could be bio-engineered to be bigger, better-tasting, and more resistant to disease, said Kevin Folta, University of Florida researcher who collaborated on the study of the woodland strawberry. Folta estimates that it will be another 5 to 10 years before strawberries genetically modified for these qualities hit the market.

Read the rest of "What's inside chocolate, strawberries" on CNN Health