#Early Human Ancestors Transformed Diet Around Lucy's Time Early human ancestors made a drastic shift in their diet from eating exclusively fruits
Until about 4 million years ago our early hominin ancestors had diets that were isotopically at least very similar to chimpanzees'said Matt Sponheimer a paleoanthropologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The 10 Biggest Mysteries of the First Humans Diet insight Because plants using different methods of photosynthesis to grow absorb different amounts of carbon isotopes the ratio of those isotopes in dental enamel can reveal insights
But after that despite living in a very similar environment their diet underwent a radical transformation to include C4 and CAM plants.
although the exact composition of the diet still remains a mystery. Â The findings suggest that beginning around the time of Lucy human ancestors seem to have transitioned from a fairly restricted diet to one with more variety
and that may have led to their diversification Sponheimer said. Lucy and her like they seem to be willing to eat just about anything Sponheimer told Livescience.
and release nutrients as soil passes through their digestive systems. In their tubular segmented bodies nutrients are transformed into a form that plants can consume.
Their influence on the environment has interested scientists since Charles darwin. Â So it came as a shock earlier this year
The researchers also found that among vegetarian women those who had the strictest diets were 25 percent more likely to have compared anxiety with women who followed more flexible vegetarian diets and occasionally consumed fish or meat.
In order to have a healthy pregnancy women need to follow a healthy diet and not something special for pregnancy saidâ study author Juliana Vazâ a researcher at theâ Federal University of Pelotasâ in Brazil.
A healthy diet can include whole grains vegetables meat poultry and fish she said. Some fish and seafood are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids
which are among theâ nutrients that cannot be made by the body and must be obtained from diet.
Scientists have been studying the role of omega-3 in the body and how it affects different organs including the heart and brain.
Because of the demands of a growing fetus pregnant women need higher amounts of nutrients. The lack of fish and meat in a vegetarian diet may explain why vegetarian women in the study tended to experience more anxiety the researchers said.
In this study the vegetarian group did not fare well at all. The fetus's brain is growing dramatically
and included women who mainly ate fruits salad fish and cereals. The traditional group's diet consisted mainly of vegetables red meat and chicken.
Other groups were vegetarians women who ate large amounts of processed food and women who had a diet rich in sweets.
At the 32 weeks of pregnancy the women completed questionnaires and those who scored in the top 15 percent were classified as having high levels of anxiety.
It is safe to eat up to 12 ounces a week (the equivalent of two average meals) of a variety of fish lower in mercury such as salmon pollock catfish and canned light tuna according to the U s
To accommodate this number current food production will need to almost double reads the report titled Edible Insects:
Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. We need to find new ways of growing food.
Although many Westerners may react to the idea of bug-eating with disgust insects make up a part of the traditional diets of about 2 billion people the report estimates.
because unlike chickens pigs and cows insects are not warm-blooded Sorkin said. As a result they do not have to expend energy to keep themselves warm
But for Westerners entomophagy may require disguising dinner. I think most people here probably don't like to eat insects
and grind them into a flour more people would consume it Sorkin said. One company Utah-based Chapul has taken this approach
and sells energy bars made of cricket flour. Â Humans aren't the only ones who could stand to eat more insects.
Research is exploring using insect protein to feed farmed fish and poultry the report says. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
#Eating Peppers May Lower Parkinson's Risk Regularly eating peppers may lower the risk of Parkinson's disease a new study suggests.
Peppers and tobacco both belong to a family of plants called Solanaceae. As a result peppers be they red yellow
or green contain tiny amounts of nicotine. Previous research has suggested that the nicotine in cigarettes
Each year 50000 to 60000 new cases are diagnosed in the United states. Â The pepper advantage In the study the researchers looked at 490 people who had been diagnosed newly with Parkinson's disease
The researchers found that not only were associated peppers with a reduced risk of Parkinson's but also that the more peppers people consumed the greater the apparent benefit.
People who ate peppers five to six times a week or more slashed their Parkinson's risk by about 50 percent compared with those who ate them less than once a week.
Peppers'good-for-neuron powers were much clearer in people who had used never tobacco regularly Searles Nielsen added.
Exposure to nicotine from tobacco use is likely going to overshadow what people would get in their diet she explained.
While it is certainly intriguing to think that eating peppers may protect against Parkinson's disease we have to consider that there are other explanations she said.
and start eating red peppers Okun said. Much work will need to be done to understand the mechanism
Still it can't hurt to include peppers in your diet Searles Nielsen said. If you happen to like peppers fine she added.
Just don t overdo it. Keep in mind that too much of a good thing may not be a good thing Searles Nielsen said.
Eating peppers may lower the risk of Parkinson's disease. Follow Myhealthnewsdailyâ on Twitterâ@Myhealth mhnd. We're also onâ Facebookâ &â Google+.
and candy flavors that aren't allowed in cigarettes the CDC said Just last month the CDC found that more than a third of middle
#Eggs Don't Deserve Their Bad Reputation, Studies Show (Op-Ed) Katherine Tallmadge M. A r. D. is registered a dietitian author of Diet Simple:
195 Mental Tricks Substitutions Habits & Inspirations (Lifeline Press 2011) and a frequent national commentator on nutrition topics.
me Should I be eating eggs? My doctor tells me they're'poison 'and to avoid eggs
because they'll increase my cholesterol. My response? That's old news! Most of the studies I've seen conclude that eggs are fine
and may even improve your health as they contain nutrients difficult to find in other foods.
More importantly a report by Ying Rong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and her colleagues published in The british Journal of Medicine in January reviewed 17 different egg studies.
The study concluded Higher consumption of eggs (up to one egg per day) is associated not with increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke.
The increased risk of coronary heart disease among diabetic patients and reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke associated with higher egg consumption in subgroup analyses warrant further studies.
The bottom line: Your nutritional needs and food choices should be personalized. You should enjoy food and eating as it is one of the basic pleasures in life!
My grandmother's favorite food in the whole wide world was eggs (see recipe below.
She loved eggs so much we named an egg cooking style after her. The grandmommy egg was soft-boiled for three minutes.
As it sat in an egg cup we would slice off the top third so the runny yolk would form a delicious and naturally creamy sauce for the white.
Unfortunately during the last decades of her life my grandmother came to see eggs as poison
and avoided one of her real food pleasures. Health authorities were warning the public against eating eggs for fear that they were a major cause of high cholesterol levels the bad kind low-density lipoprotein known as LDL and increased risk of heart disease.
New studies show that the caution may have been an exaggeration. Yes increased blood cholesterol levels can raise the risk of heart disease.
Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol. But does eating eggs raise blood cholesterol and cause heart disease?
This is where the story gets somewhat complicated so stay with me folks and I'll try to make sense of all of this.
and analyzes their diets and their health has found no connection between eating eggs and increases in heart disease.
On the other hand controlled clinical studies where researchers feed subjects specific amounts of cholesterol and measure the effect on blood do show a slight increase in blood cholesterol with increases in dietary cholesterol
And while eggs are high in cholesterol (186 milligrams 184 of them in the yolk) they're relatively low in saturated fat (1. 6 grams in the yolk.
Interestingly people in Japan consumers of some of the largest quantities of eggs in the world (averaging 328 eggs consumed per person per year have low levels of cholesterol
because the Japanese eat a diet low in saturated fat. Americans do just the opposite.
Research has shown that we usually have our eggs alongside foods high in saturated fat such as bacon sausage
and buttered toast. This meal pattern raises LDL levels and makes the effect of eating eggs worse than it actually is.
So how many eggs can you eat? That depends on a number of factors. The American Heart Association no longer includes limits on the number of egg yolks you can eat
but it recommends that you limit your cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams daily or 200 milligrams if you have heart disease
or if your LDL is greater than 100. You decide where that cholesterol comes from!
and say an egg a day is fine. The amount that one egg a day raises cholesterol in the blood is extremely small so small in fact that the increase in risk in heart disease related to this change in serum cholesterol could never be detected in any kind of study said Walter Willett professor of epidemiology and nutrition
at Harvard's School of Public health. Elevations in LDL of this small magnitude could easily be countered by other healthy aspects of eggs.
Based on the research my recommendation is if you eat a healthful diet go ahead and eat an egg a day.
 (My interview on CNN summarizes the key reasons why.  On the other hand if your cholesterol is high
and if you eat the typical American diet high in saturated fat devoid of fruits vegetables
and fiber maybe you shouldn't be eating an egg a day. But will taking eggs out of an unhealthy diet make a positive difference?
Probably not. I can't tell you how many times during my career I've heard people say I've cut out eggs
but my cholesterol is still high! The impact of a healthy balanced diet cannot be denied here.
Assuming you're eating a healthy diet here are some ways you may benefit by eating eggs.
Protein. Eggs are considered the gold standard that other proteins are measured against. Because of the superior amino acid mix an egg's six grams of protein are absorbed easily
and efficiently used by the body. The egg is also low-calorie (74 calories. Choline.
Yolks are one of the best sources of this essential nutrient. Choline is needed for brain development in a growing fetus
and may also be important for brain function in adults. Lutein and Zeaxanthin. These two important beneficial phytochemicals found in egg yolks (as well as kale
and spinach) help prevent eye diseases especially cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. While eggs contain less lutein
and zeaxanthin than greens these phytochemicals are more absorbable because of the presence of fat in the yolk.
Eggs are one of the few natural sources of Vitamin d important for the bones and teeth.
To bring this all together here is a recipe that is a regular meal for me any time of the day quick easy delicious nutritious!
Eggs Scrambled with Onion Garlic and Sweet cherry Tomatoes Servings: 1 Sautã 1/4 sweet onion and a smashed garlic clove over medium-high heat in 1 teaspoon canola or olive oil until almost soft.
Add a handful of chopped tomatoes to the pan (or any other vegetables you happen to have chopped such as spinach kale mushrooms
In a separate bowl whisk two eggs. Pour eggs into the pan containing the onion garlic
and tomato add 1 ounce low-fat cheese if you wish. Stir continuously until eggs are cooked.
Pour over toasted whole rye bread. Tallmadge's most recent Op-Ed was Is BMI Best?
8 Steps to Your Healthiest Weightand her additional contributions are available on her profile page.
Her latest book is Diet Simple Farm to Table Recipes: 50 New Reasons to Cook In Season.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
and butterfly wings make use of some unique surface characteristics that promote self-cleaning. The researchers believe that incorporating some of these features into man-made products might be key to tackling problems associated with biofouling.
and butterfly wings combine the low drag of shark skin with the superhydrophobicity of the lotus leaf putting these surfaces at the top of the list of nature-made self-cleaners.
and butterfly wings came to the investigators from observing these structures in their natural habitats.
and butterfly wings roll off effortlessly and that each remains clean in their respective environment says Bhushan.
and lotus leaves rice leaves and butterfly wings have special properties that make them particularly resistant to fouling.
and wings creating a negative mold they then used to create a urethane replica better suited to the rigorous tests the investigators had in mind.
Like shark skin rice leaves and butterfly wings exhibited low drag and self-cleaning properties.
Both rice leaves and butterfly wings contain micro -and nano-sized features that repel and direct water in one direction says Bixler.
and butterfly wings combine antifouling properties of some of nature's best self-cleaners Bhushan and Bixler have identified new surfaces that can be used as engineering inspiration for a wide range of industries plagued by biofouling.
Bushan's study on rice leaves and butterfly wings was titled Bioinspired rice leaf and butterfly wing surface structures combining shark skin
and death and the limits imposed by it Sachs said at a luncheon here on Tuesday (Feb 5).
I was just walking across the street to get some Popeye's Fried Chicken. I come around the corner and the next thing
Though goat meat doesn't appear commonly on North american menus it's very popular in many immigrant neighborhoods especially throughout Latino Middle Eastern Caribbean and Asian communities according to the Washington post.
Known as mutton or chevron when the meat comes from an adult animal (and cabrito or kid when the goat is young) the delicacy is rapidly gaining favor among chefs and foodies The New york times reports.
Part of the appeal of goat meat comes from its health benefits the Times reports. Though the meat contains more protein than does beef it has less fat than chicken
and therefore is cooked usually slowly with some kind of added moisture as in stews according to the USDA.
And recent studies suggest goats display an unusual degree of social bonding: Not only do the animals pick up accents from one another demonstrating an advanced degree of vocal learning
but mother goats can also pick out the calls of their kids even a year after being separated from them.
And young males that ventured to other groups soon switched to the local diet researchers report online today (April 25) in the journal Science.
Of the 10 males that migrated to a group with a preference for the opposite food color from their native group seven of them chose to eat the corn that the new group preferred.
or slow the spread of wildfire is to thin the forest. But old forests also provide habitat for iconic animals such as the California spotted owl and the American marten.
The idea is that by treating only a portion of an area typically about a third fire managers can slow the spread of fire across the entire landscape Battles said.
#Experts Fear Airborne Spread of Deadly Pig Virus A deadly virus that's just recently appeared in the United states is killing off millions of pigs nationwide
but eventually recover according to Pork magazine. In the blink of an eye 30000 pigs were dead John Prestage senior vice president at Prestage Farms in Oklahoma told Reuters. 10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species PEDV was seen initially in Europe in the 1970s.
The illness is considered not reportable meaning that pork producers are obligated not to report an outbreak to agriculture officials.
The virus is not zoonotic meaning it has jumped not yet species to infect humans or other animals according to a statement from the National Pork Board.
PEDV does not affect food safety according to the National Pork Board and properly prepared ham bacon and other pork products remain completely safe to eat.
If the disease continues to spread however it may affect pork production which could result in significantly higher prices for pork products in the coming months.
Third-generation Kansas hog farmer Nathan Smith said he is convinced the disease is airborne. He lost about 15000 piglets this summer or about $1 million worth of livestock.
It moved too fast for tires too fast for feet Smith told Reuters. The only thing that touched each pig was the wind.
Calcium-rich foods Calcium is an essential nutrient for building strong bones. Calcium-rich bone-building foods include milk yogurt cheese and pudding.
Soy beverages and tofu are fortified also with calcium. Dark green vegetables also provide calcium. Uses of calcium Pure calcium metal is used as a reducing agent during preparation of other metals such as thorium uranium zirconium and more.
Potassium s salts give their flames a violet color. There are 17 known isotopes of potassium.
and potassium and its salts can be obtained from them with relative ease. Potash is mined in Germany New mexico California Utah Saskatchewan and elsewhere.
Potassium is found in a wide range of foods such as leafy greens tomatoes cucumbers zucchini eggplant pumpkins potatoes carrots beans dairy foods bananas meat poultry fish
Many potassium salts are very important and commonly used including hydroxide nitrate carbonate chlorate bromide iodide cyanide sulfate chromate and dichromate.
For the animal welfare movement to put a fine point on its impact King's measure could easily repeal all the state laws against shark finning puppy mills extreme confinement of farm animals and the slaughter and sale of meat from horses dogs
And most fast-food restaurants now include some healthful side options such as fruit and vegetables in their kids'meals.
Mcdonald's automatically includes a half-portion of apples in their child meals the report said
And most kids'meals should be changed to meet national nutrition standards the report said. As of February less than 1 percent of all kids'meal combinations (33 out of 5427 possible meals) met nutrition standards according to the report.
The new report is a follow-up to a 2010 study by the same researchers. For the update the researchers examined menu items and advertising practices of 18 top fast-food restaurants in the United states. Among the findings:
While some fast-food chains have added healthy sides there needs to be more effort to include wholesome main meals with more whole grains
Poaching for their meat and the males'horns used in traditional medicines was the main driver.
We know why animals migrate to look for the best conditions to breed and feed. We are only just beginning to understand how some of them do it
at first he rejected bread. The story of the wild boy spread and in February 1726 King George i of England sent for him.
The boy became a celebrated case and turned out to be more influential than he could have imagined:
and Kamala preferred raw meat walked on all fours and would howl at the moon like a wolf.
and all those other animal-rights freaks out there Nugent said according to Mlive. com. He allegedly donated the meat to the homeless.
and sage scrub may burn only once every 100 years and the inland ridges every 30 years.
The primary spread of fire where we lose houses under wind-driven conditions is from embers Fotheringham said.
Bring a little of the natural environment into your yard recommended Halsey who trained as a firefighter to better understand the challenges California must overcome to solve its fire mess.
but lays one pointy blue-green egg each year on the flat mossy branch of a redwood.
the egg-sucking chick-eating Steller's jay. About 4000 murrelets remain in California with about 300 to 600 in central California's Santa cruz Mountains.
Squirrels ravens and owls also swipe murrelet eggs but jays are the biggest thieves in California gobbling up 80 percent of each year's brood.
Unless more eggs survive the central California population will go extinct within a century according to a 2010 study published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The two-pronged approach will teach the black-crested jays to avoid murrelet eggs on pain of puking.
and California least terns the jays eat their eggs too. Steller's jays don't seek out murrelet eggs.
But when the birds circle picnic areas near murrelet nests some discover the chicken-size eggs make a fine treat.
The smart savvy birds will return to the same spot over and over searching for food. Murrelets to their misfortune nest in the same tree every year.
Watch the mysterious marbled murrelet For an animal that lives for some 20 years losing an egg is a terrible terrible loss Bensen said.
World's worst Easter egg hunt The plan the brainchild of Humboldt State graduate student Pia Gabriel centers on carbachol an odorless tasteless chemical that provokes vomiting with just a small swallow.
Small chicken eggs dyed blue-green and speckled with brown paint were offered as meals to jays with carbachol hidden inside.
Wild Steller's jays in this first treatment group usually tried just one taste of the carbachol-filled fake eggs.
All of a sudden their wings will droop and they throw up. That's exactly what you want a rapid response
The quick action helps the jays link the eggs with the illness. Some jays wouldn't even touch the eggs evidence that murrelet egg-nabbing is learned a behavior Golightly said.
In spring 2010 and spring 2011 a team zip-tied hundreds of the copycat eggs to redwood-tree branches in several parks.
Each chicken egg was colored painstakingly (Benjamin Moore Oceanfront 660) and speckled to resemble murrelet eggs.
A control batch of red speckled eggs also decorated the forest. We've been accused of being the Easter bunny in the woods Golightly told Ouramazingplanet.
A second wave of eggs set out a few weeks later measured whether wild jays learned to avoid tossing their lunch.
The mimic eggs reduced egg-snatching by anywhere from 37 percent to more than 70 percent depending on where the eggs were deployed.
For instance one spot lost eggs to bears so not as many jays got to sample the carbachol.
The bogus eggs were set low on branches to avoid drawing jays toward real murrelet eggs.
A retched success The tests were so successful that Halbert applied for oil-spill restoration funds to start training Steller's jays in the state parks.
In spring 2012 during murrelet nesting season researchers spread hundreds of vomit-inducing eggs throughout Butano State Park and Portola Redwoods Park in the Santa cruz Mountains.
This year the project included Memorial Park a county park with old-growth redwoods. Nature's Giants:
We've found a significant decrease in predations by jays the number of times eggs get broken she said.
The effects were monitored with camera traps and a second wave of mimic eggs. Reducing predation on murrelet nests by 40 percent to 70 percent would stabilize the Santa cruz Mountains murrelet population according to the 2010 study published in the journal Biological Conservation.
In 2012 the smallest cutback in egg attacks by Steller's jays and other predators was 44 percent
and avoid those rare blue-green eggs that made them retch. Nothing else in the forest looks like a murrelet egg.
If taste-aversion training were to spread through the murrelet's range it would not be the first time a bird would require human babysitters to survive think of condors who need devoted monitoring and care..
But Halbert said all the efforts to stop egg-stealing won't matter if the parks can't shrink the jay population by getting rid of their campground crumb food source.
At Redwood National park the staff reconfigured the outdoor sinks so jays and squirrels can't steal leftovers from dishes.
While Redwood National park is going oecrumb clean the park will wait on the vomit eggs Bensen said.
and feed the animals you're contributing too. It is coming at the expense of the murrelet.
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