Sugar beet accounts for nearly 30%of the world's annual sugar production according to FAO and provides a source for bioethanol and animal feed.
What do foodstuff like muffins bread or tomato sauce have in common? They all contain different amounts of white refined sugar.
But what perhaps may result amazing is that this sugar is probably sourced from a plant very similar to spinach or chard but much sweeter:
the sugar beet. In fact this plant accounts for nearly 30%of the world's annual sugar production according to the Food and agriculture organization for the United nations (FAO.
Not in vain for the last 200 years has it been a crop plant in cultivation all around the world because of its powerful sweetener property.
Now a team of researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular genetics (Berlin Germany) lead by Heinz Himmelbauer head of the Genomics Unit at the CRG in Barcelona
together with researchers from Bielefeld and further partners from academia and the private sector have been able to sequence
Information held in the genome sequence will be useful for further characterization of genes involved in sugar production and identification of targets for breeding efforts.
Commonly this is achieved by generating sequencing reads obtained from high-throughput sequencing technologies followed by alignment of these reads against the reference genome to identify differences explains Heinz Himmelbauer a principle investigator of this study.
and artificial selection gene regulation and gene-environment interaction as well as biotechnological approaches to customize the crop to different uses in the production of sugar
The study found eating a diet high in tomatoes had a positive effect on the level of hormones that play a role in regulating fat and sugar metabolism.
The advantages of eating plenty of tomatoes and tomato-based products even for a short period were clearly evident in our findings said the study's first author Adana Llanos Phd MPH who is an Assistant professor of Epidemiology
which are rich in essential nutrients vitamins minerals and phytochemicals such as lycopene conveys significant benefits. Based on this data we believe regular consumption of at least the daily recommended servings of fruits
The longitudinal cross-over study examined the effects of both tomato-rich and soy-rich diets in a group of 70 postmenopausal women.
For a separate 10-week period the participants consumed at least 40 grams of soy protein daily.
Before each test period began the women were instructed to abstain from eating both tomato and soy products for two weeks.
Consuming a diet rich in tomatoes had a larger impact on hormone levels in women who maintained a healthy weight.
The soy diet was linked to a reduction in participants'adiponectin levels. Researchers originally theorized that a diet containing large amounts of soy could be part of the reason that Asian women have lower rates of breast cancer than women in the United states
but any beneficial effect may be limited to certain ethnic groups Llanos said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Endocrine Society.
which is inhaled as a vapor along with flavors like chocolate fruit candy or even tobacco. This poll shows high levels of concern about e-cigarettes and the possibility that kids who try them could start smoking tobacco says Matthew M. Davis M d. M. A p. P. director of the C
Currently e-cigarettes are regulated not by the U s. Food and Drug Administration. Twenty-six states have regulations prohibiting sale to minors;
what nature dishes out said Stallard a staunch proponent of the sponge effect who is seen often wearing Sponge Bob socks.
Researchers looked at the impact of potential obstacles to healthy eating and ways participants planned around this (coping planning).
The study found that an understanding of the health benefits of eating fruit and vegetables and the confidence in their own ability to do so was key to an individual's good intentions to consume the recommended daily intake.
when people had strategies in place to deal with situations that can undermine their healthy eating plan.
Cristina Albuquerque Godinho said We found that having strategies in place to deal with a range of eating situations that could undermine good intentions is very important
This study shows that small dietary changes as well as increased use of statins at a population level may significantly reduce vascular mortality in the UK say the authors.
This research adds weight to calls for the increased use of drugs for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease as well as for persevering with policies aimed at improving the nutritional quality of UK diets they conclude.
It just shows how effective small changes in diet can be and that both drugs and healthier living can make a real difference in preventing heart disease and stroke.
While no one currently prescribed statins should replace them for apples we could all benefit from simply eating more fruit.
#Importance of food as key provider of vitamins and nutrientswhile dietary supplements can help some people meet their nutrition needs eating a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods is the best way for most people to obtain the nutrients
and reduce their risk of chronic disease according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Two newly published studies in Annals of Internal medicine and an accompanying editorial indicate there is no clear benefit for most healthy people to consume vitamin supplements.
These findings support the evidence-based position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that the best nutrition-based strategy for promoting optimal health
and reducing the risk of chronic disease is to wisely choose a wide variety of foods said registered dietitian nutritionist and Academy spokesperson Heather Mangieri.
By choosing nutrient-rich foods that provide the most nutrients per calorie you can build a healthier life and start down a path of health and wellness.
Small steps can help you create healthy habits that will benefit your health now and for the rest of your life.
Additional nutrients from supplements can help some people meet their nutrition needs as specified by science-based nutrition standards such as the Dietary Reference Intakes Mangieri said.
Mangieri offered tips for developing a nutrient-rich eating plan:#¢#¢Start each day with a healthy breakfast that includes whole grains fat-free or low-fat dairy for calcium and Vitamin d and Vitamin c-rich foods.#¢
#¢Replace refined grains with whole grains like whole-grain breads and cereals and brown rice.#¢#¢Prewashed salad greens and pre-cut vegetables make great quick meals or snacks.#¢
#¢Eat fresh frozen or canned (without added sugar) fruit for snacks and desserts.#¢#¢Include at least two servings of omega-3 rich seafood per week.#¢
#¢Don't forget beans which are rich in fiber and folate. The recent increase in sales of supplements may not have been accompanied by an increase in consumers'knowledge about
what they are taking according to the Academy's position. Registered dietitian nutritionists have the knowledge
and experience to educate consumers on safe and appropriate selection and use of supplements Mangieri said.
while helping them develop a healthful eating plan that takes into account all of their dietary and lifestyle needs and tastes.
The above story is provided based on materials by Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#A roly-poly pika gathers much moss: High-fiber salad bar may help lagomorphs survive climate changein some mountain ranges Earth's warming climate is driving rabbit relatives known as pikas to higher elevations
or wiping them out. But University of Utah biologists discovered that roly-poly pikas living in rockslides near sea level in Oregon can survive hot weather by eating more moss than any other mammal.
Our work shows pikas can eat unusual foods like moss to persist in strange environments says biology professor Denise Dearing senior author of the new study published online today in the February 2014 issue
of Journal of Mammalogy. It suggests that they may be more resistant to climate change than we thought.
It's a bit like eating paper. By consuming mosses that grow on the rockslides where they live the pikas are released from foraging outside the safety
The pikas in our study actually set a new record for moss in a mammal's diet:
The study also found the low-elevation pikas build much smaller food caches to survive the winter compared with pikas in typical high-elevation habitat she adds.
and reingest them to gain nutrition. Caecal pellets look like dark wet blobs versus normal feces that are hard individual pellets.)
Pikas and rabbits and their gut microbes are the ultimate recycling factory Dearing says. They ingest low-quality food over and over again
and turn it into high-quality protein and energy. The end product is six times more nutritious than the moss.
Monitoring the Pika Salad Barvarner and undergraduates conducted the study on two talus slopes--each about 3. 5 acres--surrounded by a forest of Douglas fir western red cedar and bigleaf maple near the Gorge Trail near Wyeth Ore.
We counted the numbers of mouthfuls of food they ate and then collected samples of those foods in the amount we saw them eating per mouthful Varner says.
Overall the biologists watched 220 hours of pika behavior including 1577 individual bouts of foraging.
The food samples were analyzed for how much the pikas ate and for nutrition and fiber content.
and Livesixty percent of the pikas'diet by dry weight came from moss at both sites with the rest from grasses lichens ferns forbs shrubs and some fir needles.
Varner is unaware that pikas have been seen eating moss elsewhere and certainly not in this quantity. To our knowledge this study represents the highest degree of voluntary moss consumption reported for a mammalian herbivore in the wild
and fir needles high in phenol to preserve the food cache through the winter. Yet in both places the haypiles equaled about three ounces per animal per day of annual snowpack also showing the low-elevation pikas didn't need to prepare for winter as much because of the availability of their year-round salad bar.
The researchers wondered if nitrogen air pollutants from the Portland area might be absorbed by the moss making it more nutritious.
Most managers realize how downstream ecosystems such as coral reefs can be affected negatively by land-based activities that cause increases in runoff and associated sediments nutrients and chemicals.
Hybrid poplar trees which are grown usually in dense rows on flat land almost like a food crop are especially vulnerable to insect epidemics the researchers said.
#Rainforest rodents risk their lives to eathungry rodents that wake up early are much more likely to be eaten than rodents getting plenty of food and shut-eye according to new results from a study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Where food is hard to find agoutis spend more time foraging and are more likely to be eaten by an ocelot.
Both methods showed that agoutis in areas with less food left their burrows earlier and entered their burrows later than agoutis in food-rich areas.
Hungry agoutis were much more active at twilight and were more likely to get killed by an ocelot.
Next Jansen will examine what the differences in predation risk mean for seed dispersal by agoutis which bury seeds as food reserves in numerous scattered caches.
Once an ocelot kills an agouti the agouti can no longer eat its food reserves Jansen said.
Researchers from Brigham Young University and Cornell observed three schools adjust to new school lunch standards that require a serving of fruits
As they report in the December issue of Public health Nutrition students discarded 70 percent of the extra fruits and vegetables.
With Cornell's David Just Price conducted a second study to measure the effect of small rewards in the lunchroom.
And the amount of wasted food declined by 33 percent. Which begs the question: Is benevolent bribery a better way?
With healthy eating for example some fear that prizes will prevent children from developing their own motivation to eat things that are good for them.
and wound dressings flexible batteries made from electrically conductive paper; new drug-delivery technologies; transparent flexible displays for electronic devices;
The cellulose crystals are more difficult to break down into sugars to make liquid fuel. So let's make a product out of it building on the existing infrastructure of the pulp and paper industry.
This material is also abundant renewable and waste of the food industry he said. The research was funded by the Forest Products Laboratory through the U s. Department of agriculture the Purdue Research Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
#New global study reveals how diet and digestion in cows, chickens and pigs drives climate change hoofprintthe resources required to raise livestock
and the impacts of farm animals on environments vary dramatically depending on the animal the type of food it provides the kind of feed it consumes
and where it lives according to a new study that offers the most detailed portrait to date of livestock ecosystems in different parts of the world.
how efficiently they convert that feed into milk eggs and meat; and the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.
and the International Institute for Applied Systems analysis (IIASA) shows that animals in many parts of the developing world require far more food to produce a kilo of protein than animals in wealthy countries.
It also shows that pork and poultry are being produced far more efficiently than milk and beef and greenhouse gas emissions vary widely depending on the animal involved and the quality of its diet.
There's been focused a lot of research on the challenges livestock present at the global level but if the problems are global the solutions are almost all local
so that the debate over the role of livestock in our diets and our environments and the search for solutions to the challenges they present can be informed by the vastly different ways people around the world raise animals said Herrero.
and hungry world where in many areas livestock can be crucial to food security said Harvard university's William C. Clark editorial board member of the Sustainability Science section at PNAS.
The initial work was funded by ILRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food security (CCAFS.
By the Numbers Livestock production and diets The study breaks down livestock production into nine global regions--the more developed regions of Europe and Russia (1) North america (2) and Oceania
and the Caribbean (7) Sub-saharan africa (8) and the Middle east and North africa (9). The data reveal sharp contrasts in overall livestock production and diets.
and questions emerging from the new data relate to the amount of feed livestock consume to produce a kilo of protein something known as feed efficiency
Meat v. dairy grazing animals v. poultry and porkthe study shows that ruminant animals (cows sheep
and goats) require up to five times more feed to produce a kilo of protein in the form of meat than a kilo of protein in the form of milk.
The large differences in efficiencies in the production of different livestock foods warrant considerable attention the authors note.
Knowing these differences can help us define sustainable and culturally appropriate levels of consumption of milk meat and eggs.
and poultry (monogastrics) are more efficient at converting feed into protein than are cattle sheep
Globally pork produced 24 kilos of carbon per kilo of edible protein and poultry produced only 3. 7 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein--compared with anywhere from 58 to 1000 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein from ruminant meat.
The authors caution that the lower emission intensities in the pig and poultry sectors are driven largely by industrial systems
which provide high-quality balanced concentrate diets for animals of high genetic potential. But these systems also pose significant public health risks (with the transmission of zoonotic diseases from these animals to people)
and the felling of forests to grow crops for animal feed. Feed quality in the developing worldthe study shows that the quality of an animal's diet makes a major difference in both feed efficiency and emission intensity.
In arid regions of Sub-saharan africa for example where the fodder available to grazing animals is of much lower quality than that in many other regions a cow can consume up to ten times more feed--mainly in the form of rangeland grasses--to produce a kilo of protein than a cow
kept in more favourable conditions. Similarly cattle scrounging for food in the arid lands of Ethiopia Somalia
and Sudan can in the worst cases release the equivalent of 1000 kilos of carbon for every kilo of protein they produce.
Our data allow us to see more clearly where we can work with livestock keepers to improve animal diets
so they can produce more protein with better feed while simultaneously reducing emissions said Petr Havlik a research scholar at IIASA
For example the low livestock feed efficiencies and high greenhouse gas emission intensities in Sub-saharan africa are determined largely by the fact that most animals in this region continue to subsist largely on vegetation inedible by humans especially by grazing on marginal lands
unfit for crop production and the stovers and other residues of plants left on croplands after harvesting.
Results of this study show that the village of Quanhucun was a source of food for the cats 5300 years ago
and other food in early farming villages and domesticated themselves there has been little evidence for this theory.
Other clues gleaned from the Quanhucun food web suggest the relationship between cats and humans had begun to grow closer.
Another ate fewer animals and more millet than expected suggesting that it scavenged human food
Food security depends on irrigation--farmers are main water userswater scarcity is a major threat for human development as for instance food security in many regions depends on irrigation--agriculture is the main water user worldwide
The findings of the ISI-MIP are amongst the scientific publications that feed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working group II report on climate change impacts to be presented in March 2014.
and food supply reducing yields of major crops even as population and demand increases. Now a new analysis combining climate agricultural and hydrological models finds that shortages of freshwater used for irrigation could double the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture.
Given the present trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions agricultural models estimate that climate change will directly reduce food production from maize soybeans wheat and rice by as much as 43 percent by the end of the 21st century.
Due to climate change alone the models predicted a loss of between 400 and 2600 petacalories of food supply 8 to 43 percent of present day levels.
We found that maximal usage of available surplus freshwater could end up ameliorating between 12 and 57 percent of the negative direct effects of climate change on food production Elliott said.
Understanding the climate change implications of freshwater availability is key to the future food security goals of society said Cynthia Rosenzweig co-primary investigator of Agmip.
Warmer temperatures between March and May result in an earlier snowmelt and overall better food availability.
Quality and quantity of alpine grasses and herbs ultimately affect the vitality of The swiss wildlife icon.
#Legislation to provide allergy medication in schools crucial to save livesan act recently signed by President Obama will make it easier to provide epinephrine to children with severe food allergies in schools even without a prescription.
since up to 6 percent of children in the United states are diagnosed now with a food allergy.
Allergic reactions to food and other potential life threatening allergic reactions can be fatal unless epinephrine is injected into the child immediately.
Dr. Denny's son Liam just 18-months-old at the time had an anaphylactic reaction to soy milk in 2008.
Previous testing confirmed he was allergic to dairy egg peanuts and tree nuts but Liam drank soy milk for months before his anaphylactic reaction.
After drinking a cup of soy milk as he had done regularly for months Liam immediately started coughing vomiting developed hives all over his body
and slipped into unconsciousness after a few minutes. Dr Denny's husband also a physician administered Liam's epinephrine auto injector then immediately called 911.
or more students with a food allergy and about 25 percent of life-threatening food allergy reactions reported at schools occurred in children with no prior history of food allergies.
or for those with known food allergies who for whatever reason do not have self-injectable epinephrine immediately available.
and immunity and DNA testing to tackle the common liver fluke parasite--a scourge that causes annual losses of around. 5billion to the livestock and food industries worldwide.
of which will be uploaded to geographical information system for disease mapping and also feed into breeding programmes. This approach has broad application
Turning chicken feathers and plant fiber into eco-leather, bio-based circuit boardsthe Environmental protection agency has honored the University of Delaware's Richard Wool with its Presidential Green chemistry Challenge Award for his extensive
He created several high-performance materials using biobased feedstocks including vegetable oils lignin chicken feathers and flax.
His discoveries have led to the development of soy-based composites used in boats tractor panels
In issuing this statement the academy takes the same position as the American Medical Association the American Veterinary Medical Association the International Association for Food Protection the National Environmental Health Association the U s
. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Association. Whether from cows goats or sheep raw milk and milk products are a continuing source of bacterial infections that are especially dangerous to pregnant women fetuses the elderly young children
The popularity of raw milk and raw-milk products such as soft cheeses has been growing in recent years in part due to claims of health benefits.
and pasteurized milk contain equivalent levels of nutrients such as proteins carbohydrates calcium vitamins and enzymes. Claims that raw milk is associated not with lactose intolerance have not been substantiated by independent studies.
though only a few allowed sales in grocery stores. California is among the states that allow such sales.
An exemption in the FDA prohibition allows cheeses that have been aged at least 60 days to be transported across state lines for sale provided the cheese is labeled clearly as unpasteurized.
Before pasteurization was developed one of the major causes of childhood disease and death was drinking milk
Some advocates of raw-milk consumption argue that cows are healthier now than in the pre-pasteurization era
and in some cases liver failure can survive in raw-milk cheese even after 60 days of aging
We invented pasteurization to prevent these horrible diseases Maldonado said. There is really no good reason to drink unpasteurized milk.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Stanford university Medical center. The original article was written by LOUIS BERGERON.
He figured out where the ones eating methane and consuming oxygen are most active. Most of them are concentrated in a very thin layer called the capillary fringe where capillary forces suck the water up above the saturated zone.
and the Shared University Grid at Rice (SUGAR) both administered by Rice's Ken Kennedy Institute for Information technology.
and nutrients which will increase farmer's profitability and reduce environmental impact. When you have a cut in your hand
And careful water management can stop excess water from flooding fields and leaching valuable nutrients from the soil.
In the case of heathland for example we might consider restoring some of the wood-pasture heaths
It is spread by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid that feeds on the trees leaving bacteria that starve the tree of nutrients.
Infected trees produce fruits that are unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or for juice and most die within a few years.
and analyses of their teeth indicated they relied heavily on eating grasses in the grassy woodland environment.
so we can reliably reconstruct their ancient diets. Horse expert Raymond L. Bernor from the Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology at the Howard University college of Medicine in Washington D c. led the fossil analysis. The bones
#Hormones in the crosshairswhile small-scale horticulture is a relatively recent addition to the human repertoire of food provisioning hunting has deep evolutionary roots.
and remain high as they return home with meat. Their research appears online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The research Trumble
and colleagues conducted on short-term testosterone spikes among Tsimane hunters follows previous studies examining similar increases resulting from chopping down trees--another physically demanding task that is critical to successful farming and food production.
Sometimes you come back with a couple hundred pounds of meat and sometimes you come back with nothing.
Testosterone levels are highly reactive to environmental factors including pathogens parasites and food scarcity. If you get sick at all you see a decrease in testosterone said Trumble.
Grocery stores make it possible to collect thousands of calories without any physical activity and that's why a group like the Tsimane is very interesting.
The Tsimane experience higher exposure to parasites and pathogens and less food security thus they face a tradeoff between investing energy to maintain good immune function
or you're your own food. The key he added is to keep muscle functional and usable
All that mattered is returned that they with meat. Additionally Trumble and colleagues found that the hunters didn't have to make the kill themselves for their testosterone
and you help him bring back the meat that doesn't have any signaling value for you.
It doesn't mean you're a better hunter--all you're doing is carrying the meat back.
if providing food for their families is the dominant force behind hunting we would expect that these men would still show acute increases in testosterone
and cortisol when returning with any meat whether they killed it or simply participated in the process.
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