HeyJaredIt's Never JUST Food!
It’s Never JUST Food is for people who love to eat and also love to ask, “but WHY is it like this?”I'm your host Noha, a corporate escapee turned meal prep coach.As a lifelong self-proclaimed foodie, I love everything about food.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Aug 31, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 4, 2026
Latest episodes
Episode 17: Food packaging and the science behind the things we throw away (opens the original)
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Why are cucumbers individually wrapped in plastic? Why is half your bag of chips seemingly filled with air? How can milk sit unrefrigerated on a shelf for months? Food packaging sounds like it should be boring...until you realize just how much science, history and technology is hiding inside the stuff we rip open and immediately throw away. In this episode, we're going from ancient food containers to Napoleon-era food preservation, the invention of canning, cellophane, aseptic milk cartons and t
Episode 16: Cheese, part 3. Why does cheese melt, stretch or refuse to cooperate? The science behind the deliciousness. (opens the original)
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Why does mozzarella give us that glorious cheese pull while halloumi can sit in a screaming-hot pan and somehow keep its shape? And…why does American cheese melt SO well? In the final episode of our three-part cheese series, we're taking everything we've learned about cheese and bringing it into the kitchen. We're digging into the science of melting and stretching, why your homemade pizza sometimes turns watery, what makes cheese sauces split, whether American cheese is actually cheese, why some
Episode 15: Cheese, part 2. How one ingredient became thousands of cheeses (opens the original)
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How can one simple ingredient (milk) be transformed into more than 4,000 completely different cheeses? In part 2 of this cheese series, we're diving into the science, history and craftsmanship behind one of the world's most beloved foods. From creamy burrata and buttery Brie to tangy feta and bold blue cheese, you'll discover how small changes in milk, bacteria, moisture and aging create an incredible diversity of flavours and textures. Along the way, we'll explore why monasteries played such an
Episode 14: Cheese, part 1. The accidental invention that changed food forever (opens the original)
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Who invented cheese? It turns out...we don't actually know. In this first episode of a new cheese mini-series, we're traveling back roughly 8,000 years to explore one of humanity's oldest processed foods. From the first domesticated sheep and goats in the Fertile Crescent to archaeological discoveries in Poland, Ancient Egyptian tombs, Mesopotamian records and the Roman Empire, we trace the fascinating journey of how cheese likely came to be and how it changed human history. Along the way, we al
Episode 13: Hawaiian Shave Ice. History, kakigori & global ice desserts (opens the original)
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After a short podcast hiatus and a trip to Hawaii, Noha is back with an episode on Hawaiian shave ice: what it is, where it came from and how it's related to other shaved ice desserts around the world. In this episode: The roots of shave ice How plantation-era migration helped shape Hawaiian shave ice The difference between shave ice, kakigori, bingsu, halo-halo, baobing and raspado Why texture matters so much in frozen desserts Whether real fruit syrups make shave ice “healthier” What Foodies i
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