and positions of genes in the coffee plant show that they evolved independently from genes with similar functions in tea and chocolate
and Victor Albert professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo are the principal authors of the study.
Upon taking a closer look the researchers found that coffee's caffeine enzymes are more closely related to other genes within the coffee plant than to caffeine enzymes in tea and chocolate.
The above story is provided based on materials by University at Buffalo. The original article was written by Cory Nealon.
Researchers at the University of Missouri recently conducted a study testing a longstanding hypothesis that salamanders might climb vegetation for food.
The salamanders--minus their last meals--were returned then safely to their exact capture location. The stomach contents were preserved in alcohol
and then subsequently dissected apart. Students assisted by MU Curators'Professor James Carrel and Research Entomologist Mark Deyrup with the Archbold Biological Station in Florida identified each prey item to the lowest taxonomic level
The diet of the salamanders captured on the ground was the same as the diet of salamanders captured sitting high up on vegetation.
We found no evidence that climbing allows these salamanders to more fully exploit available food resources
The study Relationship between diet and microhabitat use of red-legged salamanders (Plethodon shermani) in southwestern North carolina appeared in the journal Copeia.
#Ozone pollution in India kills enough crops to feed 94 million in povertyin one year India's ozone pollution damaged millions of tons of the country's major
crops causing losses of more than a billion dollars and destroying enough food to feed tens of millions of people living below the poverty line.
Wheat--one of the country's major food sources--saw the largest loss by weight of the four crops studied in the new paper with ozone pollution damaging 3. 5 million metric tons (3
Another major food source rice saw losses of 2. 1 million metric tons (2. 3 million U s. tons) according to the new study.
The new food security bill requires the country to provide 61.2 million metric tons (67.5 million U s. tons) of cereal grains--that include wheat and rice--to India's poor each year at a subsidized rate.
The insect is capable of eating more than 100 different plant species and in 2010 it caused $37 million worth of damage to apples alone.
and spread its pest status in other invaded regions descriptions of its life stages and biology its chemical ecology and the types of damage it does to various host plants.
The authors of the article--some of the best known experts on the BMSB in North america--are from the the U s. Department of agriculture Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and a number of universities.
#Allergic reaction to antibiotic residues in foods? You may have to watch what your fruits and veggies eatpeople with food allergies always have to watch what they eat.
Now they may have to watch what their fruits and vegetables eat as it seems it's possible to have an allergic reaction to antibiotic residues in food.
An article published in the September issue of Annals of Allergy Asthma and Immunology the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) examines the case of a 10 year-old girl who had an anaphylactic (severely allergic reaction after eating blueberry pie.
Although she had a medical history of asthma and seasonal allergies and known anaphylaxis to penicillin and cow's milk she wasn't known to be allergic to any of the ingredients in the pie.
After weeks of testing on both the young girl and a sample of the pie the article authors decided that what had caused the reaction was contaminated a streptomycin blueberry.
Streptomycin in addition to being used a drug to fight disease is used also as a pesticide in fruit to combat the growth of bacteria fungi and algae.
Certain European countries ban the use of antibiotics for growing foods but the United states and Canada still allow them for agricultural purposes.
The authors note that new regulations from the Food and Drug Administration may help to reduce antibiotic contaminants in food
which will help reduce antibiotic resistance and may also help reduce this type of event.
#Taxes, subsidies could encourage healthier diet, lower healthcare costsin a Viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association a team of Boston researchers call for the implementation of taxes
and subsidies to improve dietary quality in the United states. The researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science
and Policy at Tufts University Harvard university and Boston Children's Hospital write that policies taxing nearly all packaged foods
and subsidizing healthier foods could both help people make meaningful dietary changes and substantially reduce health care costs.
With climbing rates of obesity diabetes and other diet-related illnesses helping to drive health care expenses to an all-time high we are at a crossroads said first author Dariush Mozaffarian M d. Dr. P
. H dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. The strategies we rely on now--labels on food packages
and dietary guidelines--place responsibility squarely on the shoulders of individual people to find purchase
and eat healthy foods. Given the complexities of our modern food environment that is an uphill battle.
We must start looking at enacting policies that help people navigate our complex food environment
and adopt a healthier way of eating. Mozaffarian; senior author David S. Ludwig M d. Ph d. director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children's Hospital;
and co-author Kenneth S. Rogoff Ph d. Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard university say the goal of taxes
They suggest a 10-30%flat tax on nearly all packaged foods as well as foods served at most chain restaurants and by large cafeteria vendors.
This tax revenue would be used to offset the cost of subsidizing healthier foods such as fruits nuts vegetables fish beans
and changes in the food supply to declines in cardiometabolic risk factors and chronic disease Ludwig said.
It's clear that poor nutrition has a major role in some of the leading American health problems including diabetes and heart disease.
We must act now to reduce the financial barriers to more sensible dietary choices and help people live long productive lives.
Over time the size of the tax could be on a sliding scale depending on nutritional quality a tactic the authors hope would prompt restaurants and food manufacturers to produce healthier products.
We believe our proposal of a food tax and subsidy system would be faster to implement than other approaches Rogoff added.
Reducing the rate of diet-related diseases and their economic costs would be a huge economic and welfare boost to Americans
With a modest 10-30%tax on most packaged foods healthy foods such as fruits nuts and vegetables could be subsidized to cost pennies to consumers Mozaffarian said.
This would dramatically reshape the food supply help to reduce nutritional and health disparities amongst the poor and other disadvantaged Americans and potentially save billions of dollars in year in health care costs for diet-related diseases.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Tufts University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
when polluted runoff from a rapidly developing watershed overwhelmed the Bay's waters with nutrients causing algae blooms that blocked out much-needed sunlight for underwater plants.
and using excess nutrients in the water to grow. The researchers found lower nitrogen concentrations and less turbidity in the grass beds than the surrounding waters.
#Asian camel crickets now common in U s. homeswith their long spiky legs and their propensity for eating anything including each other camel crickets are the stuff of nightmares.
Sorghum exampleit is difficult to distinguish the human impact on the effects of natural factors on the evolution of crop plants.
A Franco-Kenyan research team has managed to do just that for sorghum one of the main cereals in Africa.
and Tharaka peoples making it possible to compare the influence of their different agricultural practices and traditional knowledge on the diversity of sorghum a very important cereal in this area.
and Tharaka peoples each grow a mixture of sorghum varieties that is unique to each group Certain varieties dominate based on ethnic preferences
So despite a common local market sorghum populations are very different there. Each ethnic group leaves its genetic signatureat the same time the researchers inventoried
and sampled the different varieties of sorghum grown by 130 Chuka Mbeere and Tharaka households.
DNA analysis of the 300 plants gathered has identified four genetic groups of sorghum. Two of them correspond to two introduced varieties.
This suggests that the practices of the three communities leave their signature in the genomes of sorghum populations.
(which the fungus also needs) from pasture grape pomace coffee or pineapple crown. This preparation where the mushrooms are to be developed is called substrate.
which is the growth of the fungus spores on some wheat or sorghum. The product obtained is spread on the substrate (contained in plastic bag)
However the mushrooms could be used as food supplement for cattle the gel can be used to increase moisture retention in some crops
but the gap in overall diet quality widened between the rich and the poor. An unhealthy diet is linked closely to cardiovascular disease diabetes and some cancers.
Eating a healthy diet is an important part of the strategy to prevent adverse health outcomes.
Evaluating population trends in diet quality is important because it can offer guidance for public health policy.
The authors used the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010) to investigate trends in diet quality in the U s. adult population from 1999 to 2010 using a sample of 29124 adults from the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES. A higher AHEI-2010 score indicated a more healthful diet.
The index's components were scored from 0 to 10. For fruits vegetables whole grains nuts and legumes long-chain omega-3 fats
For trans fat sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juices red and/or processed meat and sodium a higher score corresponded to lower intake.
The authors used a recently updated index the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) for further analysis. The energy-adjusted average AHEI-2010 score increased from 39.9 in 1999-2000 to 46.8
in 2009-2010. Reduced trans fat intake accounted for more than half of this improvement. Scores increased by 0. 9 points for sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice reflecting decreased consumption.
Score increases of 0. 7 points for whole fruit 0. 5 points for whole grains 0. 5 points for PUFAS and 0. 4 points for nuts
Our study suggests that the overall dietary quality of the U s. population steadily improved from 1999 through 2010 This improvement reflected favorable changes in both consumers'food choices
and food processing especially the reduction of trans fat intake that were motivated likely by both public policy and nutrition education.
However overall dietary quality remains poor indicating room for improvement and presenting challenges for both public health researchers and policy makers.
How could we close the dietary quality gap? First we could restrict benefits to more healthful foods as has been done by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC)
which restricts purchasable foods with the benefit they continue. Other strategies to improve dietary quality include providing healthful foods to students
and residents in underserved areas they note. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by The JAMA Network Journals.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal References s
#Sierra nevada freshwater runoff could drop 26 percent by 2100, study findsfreshwater runoff from the Sierra nevada may decrease by as much as one-quarter by 2100 due to climate warming on the high slopes according to scientists at UC Irvine and UC Merced.
Improving diet and lifestyle is critical for CVD risk reduction in the general population but the large majority of this evidence has come from western countries and hardly any from China.
Our data clearly shows that eating fresh fruit can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease including ischaemic heart disease and stroke (particularly haemorrhagic stroke.
It does suggest that eating more fruit is compared beneficial to less or no fruit. The researchers also found that people who consumed fruit more often had significantly lower blood pressure (BP.
Eating fruit daily was associated with 3. 4/4. 1 mmhg lower systolic/diastolic BP compared to those who never ate fruit.
Our data shows that eating fresh fruit was associated with lower baseline BP. We also found that the beneficial effect of fruit on the risk of CVD was independent of its impact on baseline BP.
Our results show the benefit of eating fruit in the healthy general population and in patients with CVD and hypertension.
#Changing global diets is vital to reducing climate change, researchers sayhealthier diets and reducing food waste are part of a combination of solutions needed to ensure food security
and avoid dangerous climate change say the team behind a new study. A new study published today in Nature Climate Change suggests that
--if current trends continue--food production alone will reach if not exceed the global targets for total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2050.
The study's authors say we should all think carefully about the food we choose and its environmental impact.
A shift to healthier diets across the world is just one of a number of actions that need to be taken to avoid dangerous climate change
and ensure there is enough food for all. As populations rise and global tastes shift towards meat-heavy Western diets increasing agricultural yields will not meet projected food demands of what is expected to be 9. 6 billion people--making it necessary to bring more land into cultivation.
This will come at a high price warn the authors as the deforestation will increase carbon emissions as well as biodiversity loss
They argue that current food demand trends must change through reducing waste and encouraging balanced diets.
and livestock methane emissions are likely to cause GHG from food production to increase by almost 80%.
%This will put emissions from food production alone roughly equal to the target greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 for the entire global economy.
The study's authors write that halving the amount of food waste and managing demand for particularly environmentally-damaging food products by changing global diets should be key aims that
if achieved might mitigate some of the greenhouse gases causing climate change. There are basic laws of biophysics that we cannot evade said lead researcher Bojana Bajzelj from the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering who authored the study with colleagues from Cambridge's departments of Geography and Plant sciences as well as the University of Aberdeen's Institute of Biological
The average efficiency of livestock converting plant feed to meat is less than 3 %and as we eat more meat more arable cultivation is turned over to producing feedstock for animals that provide meat for humans.
The losses at each stage are large and as humans globally eat more and more meat conversion from plants to food becomes less
and less efficient driving agricultural expansion and land cover conversion and releasing more greenhouse gases.
--but our choice of food is said Bajzelj. It is imperative to find ways to achieve global food security without expanding crop or pastureland.
Food production is a main driver of biodiversity loss and a large contributor to climate change and pollution so our food choices matter.
The team analysed evidence such as land use land suitability and agricultural biomass data to create a robust model that compares different scenarios for 2050 including scenarios based on maintaining current trends.
But even with the yield gaps closed projected food demand will still require additional land--so the impact on GHG emissions and biodiversity remains.
Food waste another scenario analysed by the team occurs at all stages in the food chain. In developing countries poor storage and transportation cause waste;
because the wasted food products have undergone already various transformations that require input of other resources especially energy said Bajzelj.
and halving food waste still showed a small increase of 2%in greenhouse gas emissions. When healthy diets were added the model suggests that all three measures combined result in agricultural GHG levels almost halving from their 2009 level--dropping 48%.
%Western diets are increasingly characterised by excessive consumption of food including that of emission-intensive meat and dairy products.
We tested a scenario where all countries were assumed to achieve an average balanced diet--without excessive consumption of sugars fats and meat products.
This significantly reduced the pressures on the environment even further said the team. The'average'balanced diet used in the study is a relatively achievable goal for most.
For example the figures included two 85g portions of red meat and five eggs per week as well as a portion of poultry a day.
This is not a radical vegetarian argument; it is an argument about eating meat in sensible amounts as part of healthy balanced diets said Cambridge co-author Prof Keith richards.
Managing the demand better for example by focusing on health education would bring double benefits--maintaining healthy populations and greatly reducing critical pressures on the environment.
Co-author Prof Pete Smith from the University of Aberdeen said: unless we make some serious changes in food consumption trends we would have to completely de-carbonise the energy
and industry sectors to stay within emissions budgets that avoid dangerous climate change. That is practically impossible--so as well as encouraging sustainable agriculture we need to rethink what we eat.
Cutting food waste and moderating meat consumption in more balanced diets are the essential'no-regrets'options added Bajzelj.
and they are sold in flavors such as Skittles cotton candy and the like which can attract youth. Most importantly we know that e-cigarettes
#Flapping baby birds give clues to origin of flighthow did the earliest birds take wing? Did they fall from trees
The study looked at how baby birds in this case chukar partridges pheasant-like game birds from Eurasia react
The researchers Dennis Evangelista now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North carolina Chapel hill and Robert Dudley UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology found that even ungainly day-old baby birds successfully use their flapping wings
This suggests that even rudimentary wings can serve a very useful aerodynamic purpose. Flapping and rollingthe nestlings right themselves by pumping their wings asymmetrically to flip or roll.
By nine days after hatching 100 percent of the birds in the study had developed coordinated
and occur before other previously described uses of the wings such as for weight support during wing-assisted incline running said Evangelista who emphasized that no chukar chicks were injured in the process.
and allowed the ancestors of today's birds to effectively use their forelimbs as rudimentary wings.
The new study shows that aerial righting using uncoordinated asymmetric wing flapping is a very early development.
But once animals without wings have this innate aerial righting behavior when wings came along it became easier quicker and more efficient.
Dudley noted that some scientists hypothesize that true powered flight originated in the theropod dinosaurs the ancestors to birds
when they used symmetric wing flapping while running up an incline a behavior known as wing-assisted incline running or WAIR.
WAIR proponents argue that the wings assist running by providing lift like the spoiler on a race car
and that the ability to steer or maneuver is absent early in evolution. Falling gliding and flyingsuch activity has never been observed regularly in nature
which rudimentary wings could have been used but it kicks in rather late in development relative to asymmetric flapping Dudley added.
This experiment illustrates that there is a much broader range of aerodynamic capacity available for animals with these tiny tiny wings than has been realized previously.
if they flapped their wings while running up an incline. None did. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Berkeley.
#New research reveals how wild rabbits were transformed genetically into tame rabbitsthe genetic changes that transformed wild animals into domesticated forms have long been a mystery.
and the nervous system were particularly important for rabbit domestication. The study is published today in Science
The rabbit was domesticated much later about 1400 years ago at monasteries in southern France. It has been claimed that rabbits were domesticated
because the Catholic church had declared that young rabbits were considered not meat but fish and could therefore be eaten during lent!
When domestication occurred the wild ancestor the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was confined to the Iberian peninsula and southern France.
There are several reasons why the rabbit is an outstanding model for genetic studies of domestication:
and this region is populated still densely with wild rabbits explains Miguel Carneiro from CIBIO/Inbio-University of Porto one of the leading authors on the paper.
Wild rabbits also serve as an excellent model for genetic studies of the early stages of species formation as shown in an accompanying study we publish today in PLOS Genetics adds Miguel Carneiro.
Then they resequenced entire genomes of domestic rabbits representing six different breeds and wild rabbits sampled at 14 different places across the Iberian peninsula and southern France.
No previous study on animal domestication has involved such a careful examination of genetic variation in the wild ancestral species. This allowed us to pinpoint the genetic changes that have occurred during rabbit domestication says Leif Andersson Uppsala University Swedish University of Agricultural
In contrast to domestic rabbits wild rabbits have a very strong flight response because they are hunted by eagles hawks foxes
In fact Charles darwin wrote In on the Origin of Species that â#no animal is more difficult to tame than the young of the wild rabbit;
scarcely any animal is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit. Darwin used domestic animals as a proof-of-principle that it is possible to change phenotypes by selection.
Rabbit domestication has occurred primarily by altering the frequencies of gene variants that were already present in the wild ancestor.
The team observed very few examples where a gene variant common in domestic rabbits had replaced completely the gene variant present in wild rabbits;
it was rather shifts in frequencies of those variants that were favoured in domestic rabbits. An interesting consequence of this is that
if you release domestic rabbits into the wild there is an opportunity for back selection at those genes that have been altered during domestication
the difference between a wild and a tame rabbit is not which genes they carry
But that of course makes perfect sense in relation to the drastic changes in behaviour between wild and domestic rabbits concludes Kerstin Lindblad-Toh.
#Good nutrition can help prevent, control type 2 diabetesin a comprehensive review of recent randomized clinical trials
and observational studies of diabetes and nutrition Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard School of Public health investigators have identified specific foods
because we believe that most of the current dietary guidelines for patients with diabetes do not reflect recent evidence.
Nutrition can be used as a medicine to prevent and control diabetes in a very effective way says Osama Hamdy M d. Ph d. Medical Director of Joslin's Obesity Clinical Program and Assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical school.
and management says Frank B. Hu M d. Ph d. M p h. senior author of the study and Professor Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology Harvard School of Public health and Director Boston Obesity
Nutrition Research center Epidemiology and Genetics Core. An unhealthy diet has long been considered a major contributor to the development of diabetes
but only in the past two decades has this role been confirmed by prospective observational studies and clinical trials.
One major finding was that certain foods and dietary patterns can help prevent type 2 diabetes even without weight loss.
People who eat a Mediterranean diet with foods such as olive oil whole grains and leafy vegetables and fruits have a lower risk of developing diabetes even
Foods such as oat cereal yogurt and dairy products green leafy vegetables grapes apples blueberries and walnuts were associated with reduced diabetes risk.
Drinking coffee and even decaffeinated coffee were associated also with lower type 2 diabetes risk. Participants who followed a Mediterranean eating plan--without restricting calories--showed a greater improvement in glycemic control
and insulin sensitivity than participants who ate other popular diets. In addition overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who followed the Mediterranean diet had need less for antihyperglycemic medications compared with participants on a low-fat diet.
Overall a variety of eating plans including the Mediterranean low-carbohydrate/low glycemic index and high-protein diets improved glycemic control and cardiovascular disease risk factors in patients with diabetes compared with control diets.
This offers patients a range of options for diabetes management. Foods associated with a higher risk of diabetes include red and processed meat sugar-sweetened beverages alcohol in excess quantities and refined grains such as white flour.
Recent studies of fat intake and diabetes incidence support the notion that eating the right kind of fats is beneficial to health.
This goes against years of advocacy of a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet. When people started eating less fat they compensated by eating more refined carbohydrates
which stimulate insulin secretion and increase fat deposition. A major problem with the American diet is refined too much grains and added sugar
which are associated with the rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes Dr. Hamdy says. Current evidence shows that some fats such as those from red and processed meats are associated with higher cardiovascular risk
while other fats such as those from vegetable oils and nuts are associated with lower risk. The Joslin nutritional guidelines for diabetes recommend a diet with relatively high amounts of healthy fats and protein but moderately low amounts of carbohydrates.
We know now that the quality of fat and carbohydrates is more important than the quantity of fat
and carbohydrates Dr. Hamdy says. Since 2005 participants in the Joslin Why WAIT (Weight Achievement and Intensive Treatment) program who have followed these guidelines
and exercised regularly have lost weight and maintained it for five years and significantly reduced their diabetes medications by more than 50 percent.
while improving the quality of their diet. Now that we have clear evidence we are striving to educate the American public about what foods to eat to prevent diabetes
and improve overall health he says. Since almost all knowledge of dietary prevention and management of diabetes comes from research in developed countries more studies are needed in less developed regions to help patients with diabetes worldwide improve their health.
We need to develop nutritional guidelines that take into account dietary patterns accessibility to foods and types of agriculture in different regions of the world Dr. Hu says.
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