Bacon-flavoured beer, the fattest city in America, the 50 best spots to eat the 50 best foods

• On a recent foray to Huntington, West Virginia (recently bestowed with the dubious distinction of being America’s fattest and most unhealthy city), celebrity chef Jamie Oliver says he was so appalled that the hairs on his arm stood on end. Residents there “have never had food from scratch in their life,” he says, adding that big corporations control all the food, making it difficult to obtain fresh produce despite the rural surroundings. [Sky News]

• A brewmaster from Brooklyn has devised a new concoction that’s prompting bartenders to burst out laughing when they smell it. He takes it as a compliment, though, that they are so incredulous of Reinschweinsgebot, his new bacon beer, which proves once again that fried pork pairs well with anything and everything. In order to infuse the beer with porcine pungency (without transferring any fat to the liquid), the brewmaster borrowed intricate techniques from the perfume industry. [New York]

• In another list of culinary best-ofs—in this case, the Guardian’s list of the world’s 50 best things to eat and where to eat them—Canada has once again been snubbed. No Canadian restaurants were included on the list, which includes venues in India, Hong Kong and the U.S. Canuck loyalists may also be surprised to find that nothing from the Canadian culinary oeuvre (meaning poutine and peameal bacon) made the cut. [Guardian]

• The Chicago Tribune identifies the four main “wine killers” (foods that take the punch out of wine, such as artichokes, asparagus, chilies and vinegar) and how to deal with them. Hot peppers, for example, can be toned down with the cleansing effect of bubbly champagne. Cheers to that. [Chicago Tribune]

• A new group study supports the theory that eating fish is good for the brain. Those who regularly consume fish have a 20 per cent lower risk of developing cognitive impairment as they age, as opposed to those who never eat fish. Previous studies touting the brain-boosting benefits of fish were too small to be authoritative; this study examined 15,000 people from a wide range of locations. [Toronto Sun]