Grub Street

A new report brings the not-great news that a "nationally representative sampling" of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 19 have dramatically higher odds of developing type 2 diabetes than the same age bracket did eight years before that, the Times reports. (You know how kids are these days: They see one celebrity chef on TV with diabetes and suddenly they all have to have it.) Researchers point out the study's data, published today in the journal Pediatrics, is subject to interpretation; nonetheless, the number of children who tested positive for diabetes in a sampling from 2007-8 was just about three times the amount of positives from a similar sampling in 1999-00. On the unmitigated side of things, the data suggests teenage obesity rates did not increase during the same time period. Over at Motherboard, however, may be the best diabetes and obesity news of the day: Gila monster saliva, it seems, holds the key to successful blood-glucose regulation, and a form of synthetic drool may turn out to be some kind of shady new next-gen wonder drug. [Well/NYT, Motherboard]

We didn't know it, but Trader Joe's pareve chocolate chips are quite the star of the Kosher baking world — and now they're being discontinued. This is causing something of a frenzy, as the Jew & the Carrot writes. Customers are jostling for the last of the supply, with some people loading up on 30 bags at a time. An employee at the 72nd Street store told the blog that supplies sold out two days in a row before the grocer even opened, thanks to frantic customer phone calls. Now ten-bag limits have been put in place, but they're not necessarily being enforced. Everyone breathe, and please stay better behaved than the people at that fried-chicken event at Extra Mooga — we'd hate to see any more fistfights this week. [Jew & the Carrot/Forward]

She peeled from Peels about a month ago, and over the weekend the talented pastry chef Shuna Lydon took to Twitter to announce she was "painting a new restaurant" in the East Village. Lydon will not name or divulge her level of involvement at the new place just yet. The forensics team here at Grub Street, however, has come up with a very possible match for the mystery spot. Click here for the clue, or here for the answer. [@shunafish / Twitter, Earlier]

A recent study confirms what we already kind of suspected: People who insist on eating only organic food are a bunch of self-righteous jerks, says Time. Researchers found that subjects exposed to organic fruits and veggies instead of brownies were more judgmental about moral situations and less likely to help strangers, since apparently they felt they'd fulfilled their good-deed quota for the day by choosing organic. But the most important takeaway here: Brownies make you a nicer person. Bring 'em on. [Time]