pepper plants nightshade and figs. The results revealed that bats flew into the dark compartment twice as often as the compartment lit by a street lamp.
In a second experiment Lewanzik illuminated pepper plants growing in the wild with a street light
Although insect-eating bats have been shown to avoid foraging in light-polluted areas this is the first study to show that fruit-eating bats also avoid lit areas.
This is necessary since they mainly feed on fruit of pepper plants from the Genus piper that grow in the understory.
A pilot study from the Stanford university School of medicine shows little difference in digestibility between the two.
it's that there was no hint of any benefit said nutrition expert Christopher Gardner Phd professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research center
Although relatively few people drink raw milk--it's thought to comprise less than 1 percent of milk consumed nationwide--Gardner said he believes in making sure that the claims regarding foods
When claims about'all-natural'foods are merely anecdotal it works against the food movement
and undermines nutrition science he said. Let's get to the part that's real and do away with myths and anecdotes.
For people who are lactose-intolerant eating dairy products can be painful. Their bodies lack enough lactase
which is the enzyme that breaks down lactose the sugar in milk and milk products.
Although many strategies for coping with the condition exist--taking lactase enzyme tablets choosing lactose-free foods--none of them fully eliminates the problem.
If drinking milk makes you uncomfortable you will know within two hours. You either have cramps
For the pilot study Gardner's team recruited 16 participants who were tested to confirm their lactose-intolerant status. The test measures the amount of hydrogen in a person's breath after drinking a beverage that contains lactose.
The trial had a crossover design meaning the participants each consumed three different types of milk during the course of the study:
pasteurized milk raw milk and soy milk which doesn't have served lactose and as a control. The crossover design is really compelling
Additionally small amounts of sugar-free vanilla syrup were added to all three milks to make it more difficult for the participants to know which one they were drinking.
The participants also didn't notice a difference in the severity of their symptoms when drinking raw versus pasteurized milk.
I realized that milk is everywhere--it's in salad dressing it's even in bread Gabashvili said.
because she found she liked soy milk after drinking it during the trial and she also discovered she could tolerate small amounts of pasteurized milk.
He said future studies should note that the participants were willing to tolerate the discomforts of drinking milk for eight days which he believed was long enough to determine
or more horses and ever-moving herds of livestock provided nearly all food and other resources.
In coming months team member Avery Cook Shinneman a biologist at the University of Washington plans to analyze sediments taken from the bottoms of Mongolian lakes.
predation on invertebrates indirectly affects the amount of leaf litter retained for soil-building where nutrients
http://www. treesearch. fs. fed. us/pubs/45487story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Southwest Research Station.
#Agroforestry can ensure food security, mitigate effects of climate change in Africaagroforestry can help to achieve climate change mitigation
Their priority is to produce enough food. Under such circumstances any measures that will be put in place to mitigate the effects of climate change should also improve food production.
This mixture shows the role that agroforestry can play in addressing both climate mitigation and adaptation in primarily food-focused production systems of Africa says Dr. Cheikh Mbow Senior Scientist Climate Change
and Development at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and lead author of the article. It has been demonstrated by science that
Agroforestry is one of the most common land use systems across landscapes and agroecological zones in Africa but need much more adoption in order to increase the impact on food security.
With food shortages and increased threats of climate change interest in agroforestry is gathering for its potential to address various on-farm adaptation needs.
Nutrition is keyanother important factor is nutrition. Food that is rich in carbohydrates particularly fiber tends to produce larger amounts of gas than a diet without these ingredients.
In some individuals this might lead to repeated bloating and flatulence. The potentially negative impact of this kind of nutrition applies in particular to individuals who already suffer from IBS.
Recent studies show that such a flatulogenic diet (for example bread cereals and pastries made of whole wheat
and beans soy beans corn peas Brussels'sprouts cauliflower broccoli cabbage celery onions leek garlic artichokes figs peaches grapes and prunes) induces profound changes
in the microbiota of IBS patients thus prolonging and increasing the symptoms However at the same time the gut microbiota of healthy subjects remained stable
and unaffected by this kind of diet. On the other hand we now know for sure that diets containing low fiber content improve these symptoms significantly.
Recent research results suggest that compared to a normal Western diet a diet low in so-called FODMAPS (fermentable oligosaccharides disaccharides monosaccharides
and polyols) reduces symptoms of IBS including bloating pain and passage of wind says Prof.
It is amazing to see how quickly gut microbiota research has gained center stage within gastroenterology in the course of the past few years says Prof.
They are marked by a bleak strongly declining south side and a less declining north side overgrown by herbs Prof.
and curry plant only on one side of the hill and not on the other one?
#Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia laterhealthy dietary choices in midlife may prevent dementia in later years according a doctoral thesis published at the University of Eastern Finland.
The results showed that those who ate the healthiest diet at the average age of 50 had an almost 90 per cent lower risk of dementia in a 14-year follow-up study than those
whose diet was the least healthy. The study was the first in the world to investigate the relationship between a healthy diet as early as in midlife and the risk of developing dementia later on.
The researchers assessed the link between diet and dementia using a healthy diet index based on the consumption of a variety of foods.
Vegetables berries and fruits fish and unsaturated fats from milk products and spreads were some of the healthy components
whereas sausages eggs sweets sugary drinks salty fish and saturated fats from milk products and spreads were indicated as unhealthy.
Previous studies on diet and dementia have focused mainly on the impact of single dietary components.
But nobody's diet is based on one single food and there may be interactions between nutrients
so it makes more sense to look at the entire dietary pattern says Ms Marjo Eskelinen MSC who presented the results in her doctoral thesis in the field of neurology.
Higher intake of saturated fats linked to poorer cognitive functions and increased risk of dementiathe impact of dietary fats on cognitive performance and the risk of dementia was studied separately as well.
Even those who are genetically susceptible can at least delay the onset of the disease by favouring vegetable oils oil-based spreads
More than 50 scientists belonging to the Nutrient Network a team of scientists studying grasslands worldwide co-authored the study.
Gruner a member of the Nutrient Network (which participants have nicknamed Nutnet) since its founding in 2006 helped plan the worldwide study
The U n. Food and Agricultural organization estimates that grasslands cover between one-fifth and two-fifths of the planet's land area
As humans burn fossil fuels dose crops with chemical fertilizers and dispose of manure from livestock they introduce extra nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil air and water.
They often struggle to compete against grasses that use the extra nutrients to grow faster and bigger.
At the same time grasslands worldwide are being converted to pastures for domestic animals with native grazers like elk and antelope giving way to cattle and sheep.
One was treated with a set dose of fertilizers to mimic the effect of excess nutrients from human sources
And still others were former pastures where livestock had browsed in the past but were no longer there. In general where fertilizer was added
Grassland plants have evolved a variety of strategies to take advantage of a setting where nutrients are in short supply and inconsistently available.
In the human-altered world where nutrients are always plentiful plants that put their effort into growing tall to capture sunlight have an advantage.
As forests normally mature their grasses give way to herbs and shrubs and then new trees eventually take root.
When accounting for all feeding sites in the study region (ca 2000 km2) this would mean that in one fifth of the area ground-nesting birds will have little chance to see their eggs hatching.
Therefore this management practice widespread in Central europe comes into conflict with the conservation of ground-nesting birds such as grouse species
Hundreds of tons of food are thrown every year in the forest without thinking on the collateral effects
and providing food is not an exception. The spread of diseases for instance is one of the reasons why deer feeding has been banned in many regions of North america.
While supplementary feeding of wildlife is becoming increasingly common in conservation management and ecotourism our understanding of the complex effects of providing artificial food to wildlife is limited still commented Selva.
The study is published in PLOS ONE. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Vertimass anticipates that the ORNL technology will be in demand by existing corn-based ethanol production plants as well as new refineries coming online that aim to convert non-food crops such as switchgrass
poplar wood and corn stover into biofuels. The technology could also supply a source of renewable jet fuel required by recent European union aviation emission regulations.
Preliminary ORNL analysis in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado shows the catalytic technology could be retrofitted into existing bio-alcohol refineries at various stages of ethanol purification.
Phenolics are antioxidants similar to those in grapes and red wine. Compared to plants grown in normal soil without bacteria plants grown in stamp sand alone showed a fivefold increase in phenolics.
and oil for human food animal feed and other products global rates of yield increases for the crop will need to keep up with demand in the future.
Diet based on foraging, not horticultureresearchers from New zealand's University of Otago studying 3000-year-old skeletons from the oldest known cemetery in the Pacific Islands are casting new light on the diet
and chickens rather than primarily relying on growing crops for human food and animal fodder.
which provided a comprehensive dietary baseline Examining these ratios gave us direct evidence of the broad make-up of these adults'diets over the 10-20 years before they died
and chickens settlers were also foraging for a variety of marine food and consuming wild animals--especially fruit bats--and that whatever horticultural food they produced was relied not heavily on she says.
Isotopic analysis of the ancient pig bones found at the site also suggests that they were free-ranging rather than penned and given fodder from harvested crops.
Study of the human bones revealed a sex difference in diet compositions showing that Lapita men had varied more diets
and greater access to protein from sources such as tortoises pigs and chicken than women did.
This may have resulted from unequal food distribution suggesting that males may have been considered of higher status in Lapita society
and treated preferentially Dr Kinaston says. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Otago.
#Livestock can produce food that is better for people, planetwith one in seven humans undernourished and with the challenges of population growth and climate change the need for efficient food production has never been greater.
Eight strategies to cut the environmental and economic costs of keeping livestock such as cows goats
and quality of the food produced have been outlined by an international team of scientists. The strategies to make ruminant--cud-chewing--livestock a more sustainable part of the food supply led by academics at the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences are outlined in a Comment piece in Nature this week.
The eight strategies include: Livestock consume an estimated one-third or more of the world's cereal grain which some advocate would be used better to feed people directly.
Some of this could indeed be avoided by capitalising on ruminants'ability to digest food that humans cannot eat such as hay silage and high-fibre crop residues.
and the costs of feed and husbandry far exceed those of native breeds. Farmers therefore should be encouraged to keep
and provide the animals with better nutrition. Also with some supplements animals can produce more milk and meat for proportionally less greenhouse gas.
Raising animals for milk and meat is considered often at odds with the challenge of feeding a growing human population
but for undernourished communities there are health benefits to consuming healthy animal products. However the goal of public health should be a balanced diet across all countries with a target of no more than 300 grams of red meat per person per week.
Close to one billion of the world's poorest people rely on livestock for their livelihood. Traditional animal husbandry supplies more than just food.
Keeping animals provides wealth status and even dowry payments. However the benefits of keeping animals are disrupted
The quest for'intensification'in livestock farming has thundered ahead with little regard for sustainability and overall efficiency the net amount of food produced in relation to inputs such as land and water.
With animal protein set to remain part of the food supply we must pursue sustainable intensification and figure out how to keep livestock in ways that work best for individuals communities and the planet.
and increasing population pressure requires the development of methods to produce more food with fewer irrigation resources.
Wastewater reuse is an economical method to grow food but wastewater carries microorganisms such as viruses bacteria
and protozoa that can contaminate food and cause disease. Asia accounts for the majority of the worldâ##s reuse of wastewater in irrigation
However normal cooking temperatures and food preservation strategies can reduce the risks posed by microorganisms and viruses.
Food systems researchers Hoi-Fei Mok and Andrew J. Hamilton of The University of Melbourne in Australia instead created a statistical model to characterize the health risks posed by wastewater used to grow Asian vegetables The reach of the Asian vegetable
and salts that are necessary for survival. Most people who die from diarrhea actually die from severe dehydration and fluid loss.
and nutrients resulting in yield losses of up to 75 percent. Lesions in the roots also make the plant more susceptible to other diseases.
The new insights into metabolites will be helpful in developing edible and pest-resistant banana varieties says Swennen.
38.5%declared that leisure activities were responsible above all being in bars and restaurants and 24.7%said that it had been a member of the household who was a smoker.
Even though the exposure caused by members of the household was not the most common one the cotinine level analysed in the urine revealed that the home was the main source of exposure
and Remote Sensing Laboratory covered a 10-square-kilometer area that included dry land-farmed crops relying on rainfall only irrigated crops varying crop types pasture and fallow land.
fruits, vegetables linked to reduced risk of preterm deliverypregnant women who eat a prudent diet rich in vegetables fruits whole grains
A traditional dietary pattern of boiled potatoes fish and cooked vegetables was linked also to a significantly lower risk.
Although these findings cannot establish causality they support dietary advice to pregnant women to eat a balanced diet including vegetables fruit whole grains
whether a link exists between maternal diet and preterm delivery. Using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study they analyzed preterm births among 66000 women between 2002 and 2008.
and completed a validated food frequency questionnaire on dietary habits during the first four to five months of pregnancy.
The researchers identified three distinct dietary patterns interpreted as prudent (vegetables fruits oils water as a beverage whole grain cereals poultry fibre rich bread) Western
(salty and sweet snacks white bread desserts processed meat products) and traditional (potatoes fish gravy cooked vegetables low fat milk.
This indicates that increasing the intake of foods associated with a prudent dietary pattern is more important than totally excluding processed food fast food junk food
but say the findings suggest that diet matters for the risk of preterm delivery which may reassure medical practitioners that the current dietary recommendations are sound
but also inspire them to pay more attention to dietary counselling. These findings are important as prevention of preterm delivery is of major importance in modern obstetrics.
They also indicate that preterm delivery might actually be modified by maternal diet they conclude. In an accompanying editorial Professor Lucilla Poston at King's college London says healthy eating in pregnancy is always a good idea.
She points to several studies that have proposed the benefit of a diet rich in fruit and/or vegetables in prevention of premature birth and says health professionals would
therefore be well advised to reinforce the message that pregnant women eat a healthy diet. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
http://www. nrs. fs. fed. us/pubs/45430people often think of climate change as being distant
and foragers collecting nectar and pollen in a realistic landscape. Professor Juliet Osborne said: It is a real challenge to understand which factors are most important in affecting bee colony growth and survival.
This is the first opportunity to simulate the effects of several factors together such as food availability mite infestation and disease over realistic time scales.
The first results of the model show that colonies infested with a common parasitic mite (varroa) can be much more vulnerable to food shortages.
when colonies are limited also by food supply. BEEHAVE simulations show that good food sources close to the hive will make a real difference to the colony
and that lack of forage over extended periods leaves them vulnerable to other environmental factors.
Healthy bees are vital to our food supply as they pollinate many important crops. This virtual hive is an important new research tool to help us understand how changes to the environment impact on bee health.
#New online care from dietitians helps control weighta rich chocolate cake is tempting you but where is a dietitian
They each had one in-person visit with a dietitian where together they created a plan to reduce their heart risk including the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet with eight to 10 servings of vegetables and fruits per day.
The DASH diet is not about eating less food just more of the right food Dr. Green said quoting a patient who said:
in order to lay its eggs inside them. If the larva is able to develop it will often feed on all of the seeds in the berry.
and how this complex behaviour was able to develop over the course of evolution. The Oregon grape that is closely related to the Barberry has been living in Europe for some 200 years with the risk of being infested by the tephritid fruit fly
vegetable consumptionnew federal standards launched in 2012 that require schools to offer healthier meals have led to increased fruit and vegetable consumption according to a new study from Harvard School of Public health (HSPH) researchers.
The study the first to examine school food consumption both before and after the standards went into effect contradicts criticisms that the new standards have increased food waste.
There is a push from some organizations and lawmakers to weaken the new standards. We hope the findings which show that students are consuming more fruits
and vegetables will discourage those efforts said lead author Juliana Cohen research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.
Some 32 million students eat school meals every day for many low-income students up to half their daily energy intake is from school meals.
Under the previous dietary guidelines school breakfasts and lunches were high in sodium and saturated fats and were low in whole grains and fiber.
The new standards from the United states Department of agriculture (USDA) aimed to improve the nutritional quality of school meals by making whole grains fruits
The researchers collected plate waste data among 1030 students in four schools in an urban low-income school district both before (fall 2011)
Importantly the new standards did not result in increased food waste contradicting anecdotal reports from food service directors teachers parents
The authors say that schools must focus on improving food quality and palatability to reduce waste.
and the improved dietary intakes will likely have important health implications for children wrote the researchers.
and taking nutrients from the soil in order to synthesize a wide variety of products. Carnegie scientists asked the question:
#Increasing homogeneity of world food supplies warns of serious implications for farming and nutritiona comprehensive new study of global food supplies confirms and thoroughly documents for the first time
what experts have suspected long: over the last five decades human diets around the world have grown ever more similar--by a global average of 36 percent
--and the trend shows no signs of slowing with major consequences for human nutrition and global food security.
More people are consuming more calories protein and fat and they rely increasingly on a short list of major food crops like wheat maize
and soybean along with meat and dairy products for most of their food said lead author Colin Khoury a scientist at the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical agriculture (CIAT) which is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.
These foods are critical for combating world hunger but relying on a global diet of such limited diversity obligates us to bolster the nutritional quality of the major crops as consumption of other nutritious grains and vegetables declines.
The new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that growing reliance on a few food crops may also accelerate the worldwide rise in obesity heart disease and diabetes
which are affected strongly by dietary change and have become major health problems even within countries still grappling with significant constraints in food availability.
The study calls for urgent efforts to better inform consumers about diet-related diseases and to promote healthier more diverse food alternatives.
The research reveals that the crops now predominant in diets around the world include several that were already quite important a half-century ago--such as wheat rice maize and potato.
But the emerging standard global food supply described by the study also consists of energy-dense foods that have risen to global fame more recently like soybean sunflower oil and palm oil.
Wheat is a major staple in 97.4 percent of countries and rice in 90.8 percent; soybean has become significant to 74.3 percent of countries.
In contrast many crops of considerable regional importance--including cereals like sorghum millets and rye as well as root crops such as sweet potato cassava and yam--have lost ground.
Many other locally significant grain and vegetable crops--for which globally comparable data are not available--have suffered the same fate.
For example a nutritious tuber crop known as Oca once grown widely in the Andean highlands has declined significantly in this region both in cultivation and consumption.
Another danger of a more homogeneous global food basket is that it makes agriculture more vulnerable to major threats like drought insect pests and diseases
and the pressure increases on our global food system so does our dependence on the global crops and production systems that feed us.
As the authors probed current trends in food consumption they documented a curious paradox: as the human diet has become less diverse at the global level over the last 50 years many countries particularly in Africa
and Asia have widened actually their menu of major staple crops while changing to more globalized diets.
In East and Southeast asia several major foods--like wheat and potato--have gained importance alongside longstanding staples like rice Khoury noted.
But this expansion of major staple foods has come at the expense of the many diverse minor foods that used to figure importantly in people's diets.
The dietary changes documented in the study are driven by powerful social and economic forces. Rising incomes in developing countries for example have enabled more consumers to include larger quantities of animal products oils and sugars in their diets.
Moreover urbanization in these countries has encouraged greater consumption of processed and fast foods. Related developments including trade liberalization improved commodity transport multinational food industries
and food safety standardization have further reinforced these trends. Countries experiencing rapid dietary change are also quickly seeing rises in the associated diseases of overabundance said Khoury.
But hopeful trends are also apparent as in Northern europe where evidence suggests that consumers are tending to buy more cereals and vegetables and less meat oil and sugar.
The researchers single out five actions that are needed to foster diversity in food production and consumption and thus improve nutrition and food security:
This comprehensive new study relying on data from the Food and agriculture organization of the united nations (FAO) encompassed more than 50 crops and over 150 countries (accounting for 98 percent of the world's population) during the period 1961-2009.
In addition to CIAT and the Global Crop Diversity Trust it involved researchers from Wageningen University in The netherlands and the University of British columbia in Canada.
International agencies have hammered away in recent years with the message that agriculture must produce more food for over 9 billion people by 2050 said co-author Andy Jarvis director of policy research at CIAT and leader for climate
change adaptation with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food security (CCAFS) which CIAT leads
Just as important is the message that we need a more diverse global food system. This is the best way
not only to combat hunger malnutrition and over-nutrition but also to protect global food supplies against the impacts of global climate change.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by CGIAR. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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