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Q: Is poultry fat healthier than fat from red meat? Or is poultry better merely because it’s easy to remove the fat, which is concentrated in the skin?

A: Yes and yes. Poultry usually has less fat and thus fewer calories, especially when the skin is removed. In addition, chicken fat has less saturated fat and more polyunsaturated fat compared to beef fat. Saturated fat tends to raise blood cholesterol, though the saturated fat in both beef and poultry is largely composed of stearic and palmitic fatty acids, which may have a neutral effect on blood cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fat tends to lower cholesterol. Nevertheless, neither chicken fat nor beef fat should be considered "good" fats.

Removing the skin from chicken or turkey can cut the total calories by half. Skinless breast meat is leanest. Without skin, dark-meat chicken (such as thighs or wings) has two to three times more fat than breast meat—and 25% more calories. In fact, some well-trimmed, lean cuts of beef and pork (look for the word "loin" or "round") have no more fat, ounce for ounce, than skinless dark-meat chicken.

Q: Is it okay to eat used coffee grounds? I like to put half the grounds from my morning brew in my oatmeal. What about chocolate-covered espresso beans?

A: Small amounts on occasion probably won’t hurt—but we’d advise against eating a lot of the grounds or beans.

Coffee beans contain hundreds of substances, many healthful. Brewed coffee has been linked to a reduced risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and some other disorders—and the grounds may have similar effects.

But some of the chemicals in coffee are potentially harmful. For example, coffee beans contain diterpene compounds, called cafestol and kahweol, which raise blood cholesterol. These are removed by paper filters when coffee is brewed, but people who drink a lot of unfiltered coffee (such as Turkish, French press, and espresso) may see their cholesterol go up. If you eat the grounds, you’ll also get these compounds.

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1995 looked specifically at the effects of consuming used coffee grounds (about 1/4 ounce a day). After three weeks, blood cholesterol increased by an average of 26 points.

Eating the grounds or whole beans may provide an extra (welcome or unwelcome) laxative effect. You won’t get an extra buzz from the grounds, since brewing extracts most of the caffeine. But an ounce of chocolate-covered coffee beans has about as much caffeine as in two to three cups of coffee.

Q: Why does my stomach growl?

A: Such sounds—not just in the stomach, but also in the intestines—are normal. They indicate that things are moving in the digestive tract as they should be. They sounds are called borborygmi, from the Greek word meaning gurgling or rumbling.

The digestive tract is lined with muscles that cause continual contractions. Food, liquids, and trapped gases are propelled along by these contractions, which produce vibrations, clicks, and gurgles. Between meals, contractions continue to sweep any remaining food particles and fluids through the intestines.

If you haven’t eaten in a long time, the sounds can be loud. The intestines are hollow, and if no food is present, there’s nothing to muffle the rumbles. The more gas relative to food and liquids in the tube, the more likely you are to hear the sounds. Conditions such as lactose intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome, which increase gas and/or cause diarrhea, can also make bowel sounds louder. If besides hearing growling you experience pain, see your doctor.

Q: I heard that milk sold in plastic bottles loses much more vitamins than milk in cardboard cartons. True?

A: As long as the plastic is opaque, not clear, the difference is minimal under normal circumstances. If the plastic is not completely opaque, however, more light can get through to the milk, and that can reduce levels of vitamin A and C, as well as some B vitamins (riboflavin and folate).

When exposed to sunlight or very strong artificial light for long periods, even milk in typical opaque plastic containers loses some vitamins. This can also impart an off-flavor.

The milk industry is usually careful to protect milk from the adverse effects of light during processing and storage, and consumers keep milk in dark refrigerators. Milk in glass bottles has greater vitamin loss when exposed to strong light.

Even if milk loses some vitamins because of exposure to light, it’s still very nutritious. Calcium and other minerals won’t be affected, in any case.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, July 2010