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Saturday

No Cash Needed At This Cafe. Students Pay The Tab With Their Personal Data

At Shiru Cafe in Providence, R.I., students "pay" for coffee, but not with money. Chaiel Schaffel/Rhode Island Public Radio hide caption

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Chaiel Schaffel/Rhode Island Public Radio

The Salt

No Cash Needed At This Cafe. Students Pay The Tab With Their Personal Data

The Public's Radio

For free coffee, students can provide their names, phone numbers, email, majors and interests. This information is then provided to corporate sponsors who want to "diversify students' career choices."

Thursday

A Drifting Weedkiller Puts Prized Trees At Risk

The edges of this sycamore leaf are turned upward into a cuplike shape, the typical sign of exposure to dicamba. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

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Dan Charles/NPR

The Salt

A Drifting Weedkiller Puts Prized Trees At Risk

The EPA is deciding whether to let farmers keep using an herbicide called dicamba. The chemical is controversial because it can damage nearby crops. What's less well-known: It's hurting wildlife, too.

A Drifting Weedkiller Puts Prized Trees At Risk

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Apples Or Fries With That? When It Comes To Kids' Meals, Fries Are Hard To Beat

More kids are eating at fast-food chains like McDonald's, according to a new study, but parents are buying the healthier side options only about half the time. Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption

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Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Salt

Apples Or Fries With That? When It Comes To Kids' Meals, Fries Are Hard To Beat

Even though many fast-food chain restaurants are offering healthier sides, a new report says parents choose them only about half the time, and restaurants aren't consistent in how they offer them.

Wednesday

Cornell Food Researcher's Downfall Raises Larger Questions For Science

Brian Wansink demonstrates his "bottomless bowl of soup" — used to show that people eat more when served in a bowl secretly replenished from the inside — after he was awarded a 2007 Ig Nobel Prize in 2007 at Harvard University. Wansink made a name for himself producing pithy, palatable studies that connected people's eating habits with cues from their environment. Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

The Salt

Cornell Food Researcher's Downfall Raises Larger Questions For Science

WXXI News

Brian Wansink made a name for himself producing pithy, palatable studies that connected people's eating habits with cues from their environment. His data manipulation now serves as a cautionary tale.

Tuesday

Maine Asks Restaurant To Stop Giving Lobsters Cannabis Before Boiling Them

Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound in Maine, says she believes that cannabis can calm crustaceans before they are tossed into boiling water. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Salt

Maine Asks Restaurant To Stop Giving Lobsters Cannabis Before Boiling Them

Maine Public News

The owner of the eatery says she's giving compassionate cannabis to the crustaceans so that they don't feel pain. But the state isn't sure the practice is in line with health regulations.

Monday

Sunday

Do Healthy Diets Protect The Planet? As The U.N. Meets, A Focus On Sustainability

A farmer in India piles millet in a field. Grains such as millet and sorghum pack a powerful nutritional punch, but they are overlooked for calorie-laden commodity crops such as wheat or maize. Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

The Salt

Do Healthy Diets Protect The Planet? As The U.N. Meets, A Focus On Sustainability

As United Nations leaders gather in New York, top food and nutrition experts are convening for a forum to talk about how people around the globe can have both a nourished diet and a healthy planet.

Friday

Amid Palm Oil Boycott, India Wants To Produce More Of It

Sampath, 63, planted these oil palm trees on his farm in Tamil Nadu, India, 12 years ago, but has yet to turn a profit. Sushmita Pathak/NPR hide caption

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Sushmita Pathak/NPR

The Salt

Amid Palm Oil Boycott, India Wants To Produce More Of It

India is the world's biggest consumer of palm oil, a crop which threatens the country's water supply and is linked to deforestation. But the government faces little opposition to expand plantations.

Amid Palm Oil Boycott, India Wants To Produce More Of It

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Thursday

Wednesday

Yogurt May Not Be So Healthy If It's Pumped Full Of Sugar

Yogurt selections like this one at a Los Angeles 365 by Whole Foods Market store are getting larger, but a new U.K. study warns that many contain lots of added sugar. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

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Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Salt

Yogurt May Not Be So Healthy If It's Pumped Full Of Sugar

A study of some 900 yogurts sold in supermarkets in the U.K. found a shocking amount of sugar is hiding in this so-called healthy food, particularly in organic yogurts.

Tuesday

Florence Engulfs Hog Farms And Chicken Houses, Thrashing North Carolina Agriculture

A flooded farm stands next to the Lumber River on Monday in this aerial photograph taken after Hurricane Florence hit Lumberton, N.C. Charles Mostoller/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

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Charles Mostoller/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Salt

Florence Engulfs Hog Farms And Chicken Houses, Thrashing North Carolina Agriculture

At least 1.7 million chickens have died from flooding in the state. The impact is now coming into focus — including overflowing pools of hog manure and waterlogged sweet potato fields.

Florence Engulfs Hog Farms And Chicken Houses, Thrashing North Carolina Agriculture

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Doctors Should Send Obese Patients To Diet Counseling, Panel Says. But Many Don't

If patients are obese, their physicians should refer them to behavior-based weight loss programs or offer their own, a national panel of experts says. Yet many doctors aren't having the necessary conversations with their patients. Tetra Images/Getty Images hide caption

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Tetra Images/Getty Images

The Salt

Doctors Should Send Obese Patients To Diet Counseling, Panel Says. But Many Don't

Behavior-based weight-loss programs that focus on diet and exercise can work for obese patients, a national panel of experts says. But many doctors aren't having the necessary conversations.

Monday

Oregon Launches First Statewide Refillable Bottle System In U.S.

Double Mountain Brewery founder Matt Swihart grabs freshly bottled pale ale from the bottling line in Hood River. The ale is among the first to be sold in Oregon's new refillable beer bottles. Cassandra Profita/OPB/Earthfix hide caption

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Cassandra Profita/OPB/Earthfix

The Salt

Oregon Launches First Statewide Refillable Bottle System In U.S.

OPB

The new beer bottles can be refilled up to 40 times and are designed to be easily separated from the rest of the glass in the deposit system, ensuring that they get refilled instead of recycled.