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Friday 29 December 2017

Curious Cook: Vegetarianism and other dietary tales – Part 5

If people just make some effort to know more about food and where food REALLY comes from, almost certainly the dietary habits of most sane people would change.

ONE question seldom raised, especially by the food industry, is: Are we really eating real food? Yet this is a question we all should be asking ourselves every time we shop for dinner. As an illustration, the nutritional profile of meat has changed profoundly over the years – especially over the last 50-odd years. Large meat producers are constantly introducing new feeds, new breeds, new growth stimulants, new environments, new antibiotics, et cetera, in the pursuit of maximising meat production from modern livestock.
This has the side effect of altering the intrinsic nature of modern meat – intensive modern animal husbandry techniques are wholly alien to the natural diets and lifestyles of animals and it is not unexpected that the nutritional quality of the meat output would change significantly as a result. For comparison, chicken meat now has double the fat compared to chickens tested in 1940, along with 33% more calories and 33% less protein.
Importantly, modern battery chickens contain only 15% of the level of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, an essential Omega-3 fatty acid) compared to chickens in 1980, less than 40 years ago. This problem is compounded by an increase of 260% in the amount of linoleic acid (an Omega-6 fatty acid), a compound which has been linked to inflammation issues in humans. Add the antibiotics and growth stimulants and it is abundantly clear that when we eat modern chickens, we are eating meat from a creature far removed from its Asian jungle fowl ancestors.
Similar changes are also found when investigating other meats, and perhaps you have noticed it yourself over the years when shopping for food. Supermarket meat, especially pork and beef, have also altered its nutritional profile and getting fattier all the time – this is due directly to the feeds, growth environments and breeding. Animals naturally would not develop huge fatty streaks in the flesh as foraging for food over wide distances would keep their muscles lean – but the densely calorific feedstuff and crowded conditions in farms turn animal bodies into fat-production as well as meat-production systems. The only concern of most industrial farmers appear to be the amount of meat produced (and thus profitability), not nutritional quality to consumers.

potato
Fresh potatoes normally have around 21mg of Vitamin C per 100g, but this falls to 9mg after just three months. PHOTO: AFP
Things are not much better in agriculture. Specially-developed high-yield strains of plants are generally grown, not because they have added nutrition, but because they grow faster or provide a greater weight of crops. Apart from contaminating food, the use of pesticides has also been implicated in reducing the amount of vitamins and antioxidants in plants – it is claimed that in normal situations, vitamins and antioxidants are produced by plants as part of its natural defence systems but when pesticides are applied, plants prefer to grow and not bother about producing protective compounds.
The use of chemical preservatives is also necessary to keep the supply of food constant throughout the year; for example, potatoes are often sold months after they have been lifted from the soil. Apart from some possible toxicity of the preservatives, such storage also reduces significantly the amount of vitamins – fresh potatoes normally have around 21mg of Vitamin C per 100g, but this falls to 9mg after just three months.
The over-usage of land also has an impact – the metal selenium is used in human immune systems but this metal is now practically absent from most wheat grown in the United Kingdom, having been depleted from the soil over years of farming.

meat production
All the projections point to sustained increases in meat consumption, not declines, over the next decades – leading to the consequent increase of agricultural land needed to grow feed for the animals. PHOTO: AFP
The troubling road ahead
To be frank, the intensive methods used for animal husbandry and agriculture are probably necessary to satisfy the growing global human population’s demand for food, especially meat. Also, too much of the planet’s wealth is concentrated in an extremely tiny percentage of the people – as such, the vast majority of humans have a (very) limited budget for food and only intensive farming is able to deliver food at affordable prices. The nutritional shortfall in such food is just a consequence which has to be tolerated by many people – even so it is still much better than starving.
Short of a sudden and highly improbable widespread conversion of the human population into vegetarians, there will not be any impetus to change current agricultural practices, even though they are causing severe planetary environmental consequences.
According to the United Nations, the world is barrelling towards a human population of 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050 and an incredible 11.2 billion by 2100. As such, all the projections point to sustained increases in meat consumption, not declines, over the next decades – leading to the consequent increase of agricultural land needed to grow feed for the animals. An excessive amount of agricultural capacity is already utilised in meat production (rather than feeding people directly) – and this skews the gargantuan economics of agriculture.
It basically means that a sudden collapse in meat consumption would likely be disastrous for the world’s economy. One glimmer of hope might be the recent invention of laboratory-grown meat, which can one day possibly replace gassy animals and dependence on feed crops, even though that may also be disruptive to the current agricultural framework.

lab-grown meat
The recent invention of laboratory-grown meat can one day possibly replace gassy animals and dependence on feed crops. Photo: AFP
However, while we wait for developments, there are a few things which can be done now to help improve our diet and nutrition – these generally do not cost anything extra, and some are listed below, along with adjuvant notes. But please understand that none of the following items are guidelines or rules to follow – they are just common sense things that I do pretty much automatically:
1. Make the effort to get good food, not cheap food – in supermarkets I rarely even look at the processed foods, preferring to mooch around the fresh and organic food sections. If you consciously shop for good food, then it is easy to identify the less healthy items which you may have been duped into buying in the past – and if everyone stops buying rubbish, then eventually they will stop producing rubbish food.
2. Get fruits, greens and root vegetables from local markets, organic or farm outlets – this is easy as I like meeting local farmers and vendors in the village markets anyway. They often say what is fresh and that gets me thinking about how to prepare something new. The downside (or perhaps the upside) is that such produce here is rarely chemically treated so they rot rather quickly – but this just means learning to buy only what is needed until the next market day.
It was originally a shock to find fruits and vegetables decomposing after only a very few days due to the non-application of chemicals – similar items from city supermarkets can often last weeks in the refrigerator. One little aside is that leeks (and okra) contain high amounts of an oligosaccharide called inulin, which is a particularly good source of food for intestinal microbiota. Some notes about fruits and vegetables are on http://www.star2.com/food/food-news/2017/04/23/thoughts-on-superfoods-and-antioxidants-part-2/
3. Get meats from a reputable, responsible butcher – the local butcher is in another village around 6km away, and I usually walk there to get fresh meat. This butcher personally chooses his meats from small farmers in nearby regions where the animals are free to wander on hilly pastures. At the shop, I dictate exactly the cuts of meat I want, rather than juggle packets of fatty plastic-wrapped meat in the supermarket. As I would be walking back, this curtails the amount of meat I can carry with me inside the ice bag – thus helpfully limiting my tendency to over-indulge in good meat.
4. Have a smaller freezer – this ensures that many items would not be stuffed into and get lost in the depths of a large freezer, losing nutrients by the day. This also compels me to go out (and exercise) more often for food, for I also do not have a large refrigerator and everything in there usually has to be cooked/eaten within a reasonably short space of time.

small freezer
Having a smaller freezer can help you avoid wasting food. Filephoto
5. Keep a notebook on the refrigerator – a little notebook documents both the frozen and fresh food available at any time. Update the notebook with any additions. On using any item of food, cross it off the notebook. This way, it is also easy to keep a tab on what is needed on the next shopping trip.
6. Just have some meat-free or reduced calorie days – this is a personal thing but sometimes, it feels right to skip eating meat or eat less than 300 calories daily for a few days. To be honest, these days probably do not happen often enough but they are a little contribution to the reduction of animal cruelty and greenhouse gases. I also motivate myself by using any money saved for another good bottle of claret.
7. Avoid eating out whenever possible, unless the cook is worth the effort – this is quite easy as there are only small village restaurants here and we had exhausted their basic menus a long time ago.
But actually this point relates to the time when I was living in large cities. Then it was easier (and lazier) to just pop out to a nearby restaurant and have a meal there. The problems of course are that I did not know the quality of the food, the ingredients used or even if the food was actually safe to eat.
When I was younger in London, I would get food poisoning a few times a year, possibly due to my sensitive stomach. After a while, I became much more discerning about whose food I will eat – and that list is rather small in relation to the number of restaurants in the city.
8. Do not eat at places where food is too cheap – this continues on from point (7) above. For me, there was a high correlation between the price of a meal and subsequent stomach problems. Even if I do not get digestion issues, it often does make me think of what ingredients were used that can allow such cheap food to be sold. It also helps that I buy food and cook myself and therefore aware of the prices, for example, of free-range/organic meats compared to cheap slabs of industrial flesh.
9. Eat a bit of the NATURAL rind of cheeses. Generally, the natural rind of cheeses contains good bacteria which can complement and boost intestinal microbiota – it can also be quite tasty. You can also try Brie, Camembert, Emmental or mildly fermented (usually smelly) cheeses. Do not eat the waxy coating of cheeses such as Edam – these man-made wax shells are not meant to be eaten and can cause digestion problems. Other good alternatives are drinks and yoghurts with probiotic bacteria.
10. Be careful with calories – avoid consuming more calories than you need for your age, height, sex and activity level – overeating can lead to obesity which then leads to other serious diseases. Fats (and cooking oils) are by far the most calorific food items you can ingest, containing around 900 calories per 100g – as a comparison, sucrose (sugar) has 386 calories per 100g. Watching calories also applies to carbohydrates as well – as they are the second most calorific foods that you can eat.
Not all of the above will apply to everyone of course, especially people in busy urban environments – but hopefully the list will give people a few ideas how to enhance their dietary habits.

A good diet is about diversity.
A good diet should ideally be as inclusive of as many categories of nourishing foods as possible. Filephoto
Two conclusions
The first conclusion is a viewpoint that some people may not like. It is simply that a good diet should NOT be about excluding things to eat. A good diet should ideally be as inclusive of as many categories of nourishing foods as possible, provided it contains adequate fibre, nutrients and is not excessive calorific – and this would definitely qualify as a scientifically valid opinion.
Over aeons, our taste senses and digestive systems have evolved to handle a wide variety of nutritious foods, giving us the ability to innately and actively enjoy eating and tasting many kinds of food – it would simply be a great pity to waste this marvellous gift.
Saying that, the second conclusion is that it would be highly irresponsible to not emphasise that circumstances on our planet have changed profoundly – and therefore it would be prudent to reduce our gratuitous consumption of meat (as we simply eat too much of it). We should selectively enjoy meat in a more conscionable way that is not dependent on massive inhumane industrial farms which produce meat with significantly inferior nutritional profiles (while routinely avoiding any public disclosures about the disturbing mass production techniques used).
Responsibly-produced meat would cost more, and therefore we would eat less (like our evolutionary ancestors), but the rewards are reductions in animal cruelty and negative environmental impacts. And it tastes better.
The same sentiment also applies to food we get from plants – whenever possible, we should choose to consume properly-grown produce rather than industrial crops which are flavourless, tainted with chemicals, or both. You, your family, and your children would be eating healthier food – and get to taste once more proper food that is closer to food that suits our evolutionary roots.
Even simpler?
Perhaps things would be simpler if people just make some effort to know more about food and where food REALLY comes from – nutritional profiles, production methods, additives used, what the environmental costs are. If everyone understands that, then almost certainly the dietary habits of most sane people would change to some degree, mainly because sensible people prefer to be healthy rather than risk potential illnesses and damage to the planet that directly affects their children. Then the world might somehow avoid the probable catastrophe inherent in our food production systems.
It should be noted that several Western countries are now considering a “sin tax” on meat – the same sort of taxes applied on tobacco and alcohol. The reasons are varied but not least are the health issues associated with over-consumption of meat, and environmental considerations. Also, and you probably do not know this, even China has cut its recommended maximum meat consumption amounts by 46% in 2016.
As a parting analogy, eating too much meat is not unlike driving a fuel-sucking, heavily-polluting trailer truck for every trip to school, or work, or the coffee shop, or other little errands, rather than using a smaller, much more efficient hatchback car – there may well be occasional reasons to use a large truck but certainly it would not be an everyday requirement for most people.
Please note this analogy is not a call for meat abstinence – it is just a way of offering some perspective so that meat can be appreciated and enjoyed as the privilege it really is.

https://www.star2.com/food/food-news/2017/12/29/vegetarianism-dietary-tales-part-5/

Tuesday 26 December 2017

It's the DAY after CHRISTMAS ...


Santa Christmas image - artist unknown

It's the DAY after CHRISTMAS...

I know. I know.

The BIG DAY is over,

but we mustn't let the Spirit go!

Saturday 23 December 2017

There’s a link between what we eat (and drink) to cancer

In August of 2016, the New England Journal of Medicine published a striking report on cancer and body fat: Thirteen separate cancers can now be linked to being overweight or obese, among them a number of the most common and deadly cancers of all – colon, thyroid, ovarian, uterine, pancreatic and (in postmenopausal women) breast cancer.
NOVEMBER 18, 2017
There’s a link between what we eat (and drink) to cancer
How much of what we eat can be linked to cancer? Sugar may play a role.
Earlier this month, a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added more detail: Approximately 631,000 people in the US were diagnosed with a body fat-related cancer in 2014, accounting for 40% of all cancers diagnosed that year.
Increasingly, it seems not only that we are losing the war on cancer, but that we are losing it to what we eat and drink.
These new findings, while important, only tell us so much. The studies reflect whether someone is overweight upon being diagnosed with cancer, but they don’t show that the excess weight is responsible for the cancer.
They are best understood as a warning sign that something about what or how much we eat is intimately linked to cancer.
But what?
The possibility that much of our cancer burden can be traced to diet isn’t a new idea. In 1937, Frederick Hoffman, an actuary for the Prudential Life Insurance Co, devoted more than 700 pages to a review of all the medical thinking on the topic at the time.
But with little in the way of evidence, Hoffman could only guess at which of the many theories might be correct.
If we’ve made little progress since then in pinpointing specific foods that cause cancer, it’s in large part because nutrition studies aren’t well-suited to cracking the problem.
A cancer typically arises over years, or decades, making the type of study that might definitively establish cause and effect – an experiment in which people are randomly assigned to different diets – nearly impossible to carry out.
The next-best option – observational studies that track what a specific group of individuals eats and which members of the group are later diagnosed with cancer – tends to generate as much confusion as knowledge.
One day we read that a study has linked eating meat to cancer; a month later, a new headline declares the exact opposite.
And yet researchers have made progress in understanding the diet-cancer connection. The advances have emerged in the somewhat esoteric field of cancer metabolism, which investigates how cancer cells turn the nutrients we consume into fuel and building blocks for new cancer cells.
Largely ignored in the last decades of the 20th century, cancer metabolism has undergone a revival as researchers have come to appreciate that some of the most well-known cancer-causing genes, long feared for their role in allowing cancer cells to proliferate without restraint, have another, arguably even more fundamental role: allowing cancer cells to “eat” without restraint.
This research may yield a blockbuster cancer treatment, but in the meantime it can provide us with something just as crucial – knowledge about how to prevent the disease in the first place.
Lewis Cantley, the director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been at the forefront of the cancer metabolism revival.
Cantley’s best explanation for the obesity-cancer connection is that both conditions are also linked to elevated levels of the hormone insulin.
His research has revealed how insulin drives cells to grow and take up glucose (blood sugar) by activating a series of genes, a pathway that has been implicated in most human cancers.
The problem isn’t the presence of insulin in our blood. We all need insulin to live. But when insulin rises to abnormally high levels and remains elevated (a condition known as insulin resistance, common in obesity), it can promote the growth of tumours directly and indirectly.
Too much insulin and many of our tissues are bombarded with more growth signals and more fuel than they would ever see under normal metabolic conditions.
And because elevated insulin directs our bodies to store fat, it can also be linked to the various ways the fat tissue itself is thought to contribute to cancer.
Having recognised the risks of excess insulin-signaling, Cantley and other metabolism researchers are following the science to its logical conclusion: The danger may not be simply eating too much, as is commonly thought, but rather eating too much of the specific foods most likely to lead to elevated insulin levels – easily digestible carbohydrates in general, and sugar in particular.
This is not to say that all cancers are caused by too much insulin or that we should never eat sugar again.
Michael Pollak, a metabolism researcher and director of cancer prevention at McGill University in Canada, says that the best approach to sugar is to think of it like a spice – something to occasionally sprinkle on foods, as opposed to an ingredient in nearly every meal and too many drinks.
Nutrition is an inherently messy science. But recent advances in cancer metabolism research are sending us an increasingly clear message about our diet.
Winning the war on cancer may depend upon whether we’re ready to hear it. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service

http://www.star2.com/health/nutrition/2017/11/18/sugar-carbs-and-cancer-links/

Friday 22 December 2017

Want to have fantastic eye health? These tips can help

Having good eye sight is important and we should never neglect our eye health.
Here are some expert tips on how we can all take steps each day to protect our sight and look after our eyes.

OCTOBER 20, 2017



i
Want to have fantastic eye health? These tips can help
Easy tips to keep your vision sharp and your eyes protected.

Eat eye-healthy foods



A nutritious diet has benefits for all types of health conditions, but some foods are particularly beneficial for eyes.
Fatty fish such as tuna, herring or sardines are rich in omega-3 which nourish the cell membranes of nerve cells, including the retina, and help prevent the onset of eye diseases linked to ageing.
Including fruits and vegetables in your diet, especially clementines, oranges and mandarins, blueberries, carrots, and spinach, and broccoli, can also boost eye health thanks to being rich in antioxidants and vitamins A and C, which help protect the cornea and lens of the eye, prevent cataracts, and prevent eye fatigue.

Head outside

Associate Professor Scott Read from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, says spending more time in natural light is one of his top five everyday tips for keeping your eyes healthy.
Heading outdoors will give eyes a chance to focus on things further away and have a rest from close-up work, and it also exposes our eyes to brighter outdoor light which appears to reduce our risks of developing short-sightedness (myopia.)
He also adds that ideally, children should spend at least two hours a day outside to help prevent the condition from developing and progressing.
Spending time outside may reduce the risk of shortsightedness.

Don’t smoke

Kicking the habit can have a positive effect on all areas of health, but Professor Read explains that quitting smoking is also important for eye health.
Smoking increases the risk of cataracts, macular degeneration and damage to your optic nerve.
It also helps maintain a healthy weight which reduces the risk of diabetes, which can also cause eye problems.
Get you eyes tested regularly.

Get regular checkups

Professor Read also says that getting to know your own and your family’s eye health history is important so make sure you go for regular checkups, especially if there are hereditary eye conditions.
Marcela Frazier from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in the US, also recommends watching out for any eye problems in kids, which can become more noticeable once they start school.
She advises looking out for any complaints of headaches, being tired after reading, squinting, holding books close to the eyes, and even poor school and sports performance, which can all be a result of changes in vision.

Reduce screen time

Managing how long you look at your screens (phone or computer) may be something you should start doing.
Spending two hours or more a day staring at your digital devices, whether it is for work or play, may result in something called digital eye strain.
Spending too much time on your digital devices may be very bad for your eyes.
Digital eye strain is a condition that causes temporary physical discomfort according to a report by The Vision Council.
To avoid the condition, which can result in redness, irritation, dry eyes, blurred vision, eye fatigue, back and neck pain and headaches, experts recommend taking regular screen breaks, and also adjusting things like text size, posture, and computer setup. – AFP Relaxnews
http://www.star2.com/health/wellness/2017/10/20/want-protect-sight-fantastic-eye-health-try-tips/




Also read:



Thursday 21 December 2017

Want to Live Longer? Get a Dog

You love your dog… But now you have another reason to spoil your four-legged friend: Your pooch is helping you live longer.


9 December 2017

INH Health Watch

A large Swedish study has found that owning a dog extends lifespan.

Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden tracked the health, mortality, and dog ownership of more than 3.4 million adults. They followed them for 12 years.

The researchers found that dog owners were 33% less likely to die from any cause. And dog owners were 11% less likely to die of the number one killer, heart disease.

Dog ownership was associated with lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. The research was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Dog Ownership Boosts 3 Longevity Factors
The researchers say that dog owners experience three positive health effects:
  1. More exercise. Dog owners walk their dogs and are generally more active. A Japanese study of 5,200 adults found that dog owners were 54% more likely to get the daily recommended level of exercise than non-dog owners.
This activity lowers heart rate, helps stabilize blood sugar, and improves overall heart health.
  1. A healthier microbiome. Owning a dog can be as healthy as eating probiotic-rich food or taking probiotic supplements. Dogs bring dirt, and yes, bacteria into your home. Many of these microbes are good for you.
Researchers found dogs increase the levels of 56 different classes of beneficial bacterial species in a home. This infusion of microbes helps keep you healthy and your immune system in top condition. (Cats also contributed to probiotic diversity, but less so than dogs. Cats were found to boost levels of 24 classes of bacteria. 
How powerful is the immune effect? A study at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania found that petting a dog for 18 minutes elevates levels of immunoglobulin A. This is one of the body’s most powerful protectors against infection.
  1. Stress reduction. Dogs provide stress relief through companionship. But they also can act as an introduction to new human friends and facilitate socialization during walks. This reduces loneliness, which is a major risk factor for early death.
A German university study found owning a dog reduces the stress hormone cortisol. It increases levels of oxytocin, a hormone that promotes a sense of wellbeing.
Mwenya Mubanga is a researcher at Uppsala University. He led the new study.
"Dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death," Mubanga said. "Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households."
Best Dog Breeds for Good Health
Any dog can help extend your lifespan. But to maximize the health benefits, you want one that encourages you to exercise without being too difficult to care for. In other words, you want a pet that is active…but not too active.

According to the American Kennel Club, two classifications of dog best fit this description:

Sporting dogs. These include golden, Chesapeake Bay, or Labrador retrievers, pointers, and setters. They are friendly, like to spend time with people, and make great walking partners.

Terriers. They might be a little feisty, but they are ready-to-go anytime. They are a great choice if you want a smaller dog that loves to walk. This group includes the fox terriers, West Highland terrier (or Westie), rat terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, or Kerry blue terrier.

One more thing… When you’re ready for a new pet, don’t forget shelter dogs. You’ll be saving a dog’s life. And your new friend might save yours.


inhresearch.com

Wednesday 20 December 2017

Curious Cook: Vegetarianism and other dietary tales, Part 4

On the surface, it would appear that a vegetarian diet can lead to a longer life and a reduced incidence of certain diseases – at least, it seems that plant fibre plays a significant part in promoting a smoothly functioning intestinal system which is critical for good health.
Curious Cook: Vegetarianism and other dietary tales, Part 4
However, the definition of vegetarian used is as per most scientific dietary studies – it includes the occasional consumption of animal and/or fish proteins.
The total exclusion of meat from the diet can be regarded as mildly nutrition-deficient – but it is also generally not life-threatening.
The main risk of excluding meat is a lower intake of certain compounds found in meat – including Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), creatine, carnosine, Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), certain Omega-3 fatty acids (eg. docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA), heme-iron, taurine, et cetera.
It is feasible to replace or augment some of these nutrients from plant-based foods; for example, Vitamin B12 is also present in seaweed and fermented soy beans, and DHA can be synthesised by the body from alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) found in some seeds.
But some meat nutrients are not present in any plants – they include creatine, carnosine, heme-iron, taurine, et cetera, which are compounds that can affect health, stamina and general well-being in subtle ways.
Despite the meat industry’s constant insinuations about how much everyone needs animal protein, the fact is that growing children require rather more meat protein than adults.
Severe protein deficiency is manifested by diseases such as marasmus and kwashiorkor, normally found only in countries prone to famines, and these diseases tend to affect children rather more than adults.
In modern societies, practically any ordinary adult diet, vegetarian or meat-based, will normally include adequate protein. As such, protein-deficiency diseases are really rare even if meat is wholly excluded from the diet and protein deficiency in civilised countries is usually linked to eating disorders rather than food itself.
Anyway, there are now very good reasons to consider eating more vegetables and less meat – in fact, perhaps restricting meat to only a few portions a week. These reasons are not necessarily wholly to do with nutritional considerations but also relate to evolutionary, environmental, ecological and perhaps humane reasons.

meat
Are we eating too much meat? The answer, emphatically, is yes.

Are We Eating Too Much Meat?

A question posed earlier is whether modern humans are eating too much meat. The answer, emphatically, is YES.
By comparison, the consumption of meat by our Palaeolithic ancestors would have been highly irregular and probably restricted to smaller quantities.
There were several reasons for this: it is not usual to hunt and kill large animals every day, so meat would be generally be sourced from small animals and birds which needed to be shared between many people.
Hunting was not always successful every day either. There was no refrigeration so meat would spoil quickly. Even after humans took to animal husbandry, it was still not feasible to eat meat every day because breeding animals was a slow process due to gestation and animal growth rates.
Feeding livestock was also very resource-intensive – all this meant that animals were usually consumed only at special occasions, with plant-based foods eaten at other times.
Human digestive systems have evolved to cope with this irregular meat environment – our intestines may well evolve further in the future, but at present, the length and configuration of our intestines indicate that human digestive systems are attuned to extracting as much nutrients as possible from both plants and meat.
In modern societies, none of the above limitations about the availability of meat apply, mainly because people nowadays do not raise their own animals but rely on huge industrial producers to provide meat, trucked in vast quantities via refrigerated containers to food factories, supermarkets and butchers.
This means that ordinary people can now eat meat at every meal, every day – and very often many people do exactly that. This additional intake of meat has already affected the development of modern humans who are generally bigger than earlier generations – but it also very likely contributed to modern syndromes such as obesity, diabetes and gastrointestinal problems.
The global consumption of meat is still growing every year – as countries prosper, citizens can afford to eat more meat, and that is precisely what they do.

Distressing Statistics

In 2014, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) estimated that Americans ate 90kg of meat each on average while the rest of the world averaged 34kg each. By 2024, Americans are projected to eat 94.1kg of meat a year and the rest of the world 35.5kg each.
Producing such prodigious quantities of meat means that at any point in time there are around 20 billion chickens, 1.5 billion cows, 1 billion pigs and 1 billion sheep being farmed on Earth – and the numbers are increasing by over 25 million animals per year.
The problem is not only that we have so many animals, but we have to feed, house and care for all these animals to ensure the continued supply of meat at current volumes.
This leads to an even greater problem. An example, using statistics from the USDA Census of Agriculture for 2012, shows that the USA has 915 million acres of farmland, where over 45% (415+ million acres) is used for grazing pasture or livestock facilities, leaving just below 43% (390 million ac


Growing vegetables is more energy efficient than growing meat. Filephoto
res) for croplands – though only 315 million acres of croplands are actually harvested.
Of the crops produced, the top three most commonly grown crops are corn, soybeans and forage for animals (accounting for over 67% of all harvested croplands) – and 36% of the corn, 70% of the soybeans and 100% of the forage are used to feed animals, with the remaining used to produce biofuels or for human consumption.
The USDA statistics indicate that the overwhelming use of US farmland is for the production of meat (including providing feed for meat production), and this pattern of land usage for meat production is more or less repeated globally across other agricultural countries.
If meat production is as energy efficient as growing crops, then there probably would not be a problem, or at least it would be less of a problem.
However, meat is notoriously inefficient to produce as a food. According to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, it takes over 2kg of feed to produce a kilo of chicken or pork, 4-6kg for a kilo of lamb and 5-20kg for a kilo of beef (depending on the method used to raise cattle).
Translated into calories, it works out that for every 1,000 calories we feed livestock, we get back only 120 calories of meat from chickens, 100 calories from pork and only 30 calories from beef.
What is even gloomier are the statistics about the greenhouse gases produced by livestock: 3.7kg of gases for each kilo of chicken, 24kg of gases for a kilo of pork and up to a staggering 1,000kg of greenhouse gases per kilo of beef.
In calorific terms, producing meat like beef is like having 33 people do the job of one person with everyone simultaneously farting non-stop.
The reason for the huge production of gases by cattle is because they are ruminants with multiple stomachs that digest the cellulose in their plant feed via various kinds of bacteria – and a by-product of this bacterial digestion process is prodigious amounts of methane and other noxious gases.
There are also curious, somewhat arbitrary assessments of the amount of water needed for meat production.
It is estimated that each kilo of pork requires around 6,000 litres of water, a kilo of lamb needs over 10,000 litres and a kilo of beef uses over 15,000 litres.
However, these amounts of water often appear to refer mainly to rain water, probably used to irrigate pastures, so the environmental impact may be limited unless it is water extracted from underground sources such as wells and aquifers. Also run-offs from cleaning animal compounds are known to contribute to contamination of land, rivers and underground water resources.


Many people still generally prefer to eat meat even though other nourishing non-meat options are now available. Filephoto

Why We Love Meat

The high desirability of meat is linked to our evolutionary roots – meat is a very efficient way of acquiring proteins, fats, calories and other nutrients, some of which are not available from plants.
Also, without meat, humans would not be able to discuss topics like vegetarianism today because the evolution of human brains depended enormously on the energy and nutrients derived from cooked meat.
Therefore, throughout our entire evolutionary history, humans had expended a lot of resources to ensure a supply of meat – and our digestive tract is clear evidence of our ability to digest meat efficiently along with other foods.
This past dependence on meat nutrition is probably a significant factor why many humans still generally prefer to eat meat even though other nourishing non-meat options are now available.
One factor may also be the versatility of meat in terms of cooking and preparation. There are countless ways to enhance the taste of meat – a piece of pork can be grilled, fried, boiled, roasted, slow-cooked, usually while infused with spices, mixed with other foods, drenched in sauces, et cetera.
By comparison, the range of options for cooking vegetables is usually much more restricted – as such, becoming fully vegetarian will probably never be an option for me, especially as it is also very difficult to find a red wine to match a plate of boiled vegetables.
Additionally, there is also overwhelming evidence that our preference of meat is actively encouraged by a food industry which seem intent on keeping everyone eating as much meat as possible – while at the same time keeping disturbing facts about the production, slaughtering and nutritional quality of meat far away from the public.

A Depressing Pause

A prosaic but somewhat unsettling event some years ago made me pause for thought. I was on my way home after work and had stopped at a little supermarket near the station – in there I came across a pack of six raw chicken drumsticks for sale for £1 (RM5.5). It was not a special offer, it was not a discounted deal – it was just the normal price of battery-farmed chickens and it was simply horrifying to realise that three chickens were killed and their meat offered for so little.
Even more sickening was that the producer had sold the meat to the supermarket for just pennies. It made me consider the conditions in which chickens must have been raised and killed to justify the economics of supplying meat at such low prices.
It was not a happy thought, subsequently confirmed by some rather depressing research.

battery chicken farm
Being crowded in such confined spaces and in close proximity to so many other chickens mean that diseases can spread very quickly in a battery farm. Photo: Bloomberg
If you are squeamish, you might want to skip over the next bits for they are about broiler chicken farming in Britain. Broiler chickens are raised in cramped conditions, where it is common to have over 20,000 chickens in relatively small warehouses – space is at a premium so each chicken has less space than a sheet of A4 paper in which to live, and it is true that they will have more space in a kitchen oven than they would have had all their lives.
Selective breeding over many years means that these chickens grow very quickly in terms of flesh and weight which results in their puny legs being unable to support their bloated bodies – this leads to frightful injuries and deformities.
Being crowded in such confined spaces and in close proximity to so many other chickens mean that diseases can spread very quickly – and this is handled by the wholesale use of antibiotics which are mixed in with their food, and this is a root cause why certain human bacterial diseases can now no longer be treated by antibiotics.
If they live long enough, chickens in such a hostile environment would probably develop severe psychological issues but at least they are usually killed by the time they are less than seven weeks old, even though the slaughtering methods are disturbingly barbaric.
I can continue with other deeply troubling facts about industrial chicken farming – and also about how the public is often duped by glossy advertising and pictures of chickens running around on grass.
The truth is that most broiler chickens in the UK never see a blade of grass in all their sad, appalling lives – and great efforts are made by the industry to prevent people from knowing such facts.
The plight of other livestock raised for wholesale meat production is not better at all – this is simply because meat production is a business and when money is involved, efficiencies of scale are important to maximise profits and therefore animal welfare is a very low consideration, if it is considered at all.
The miseries do not stop at the farms – just very recently, in September 2017, the EU revised their regulations for the transportation of animals for slaughter when it was found that cattle, pigs, poultry and lambs were routinely dying during long-distance trips between EU countries. The animals were dying because of the lack of food and water, and stress due to the severely cramped transport conditions and inadequate ventilation.
If you are now feeling a little sombre, the final part discusses whether modern food is even real food, and what can be done which might help everyone and perhaps our planet too.

https://www.star2.com/food/food-news/2017/12/20/vegetarianism-dietary-tales/



Cordyceps and its role in sexual dysfunction

Priced at RM150,000 to RM200,000 (USD40,000 to USD50,000) per kg, the Cordyceps sinensis root is often mistaken for a mushroom, and has several nicknames such as “caterpillar fungus” and “Himalayan viagra”.

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

This is no cheap herb to get your hands on, and for a good reason.
Hailing all the way from the Himalayas, the Cordyceps herb can only be harvested during certain seasons of the year.
The root also boasts a variety of health benefits, including aiding in heart disease, energy levels and sexual dysfunction.
To find out more about Cordyceps, we speak to Eu Yan Sang senior nutritionist Kua Goh Yoke Lian to find out the origin of the herb and its benefits.
What is Cordyceps?
Cordyceps sinensis is actually a product of a parasitic fungus infecting moth caterpillars with its spores.
The fungus latches onto the caterpillar, then takes it over completely, killing the caterpillar in the process and mummifying it.
The entire caterpillar-shaped fungus is then collected, dried and preserved for medicinal purposes.
Is this still how it is made today?
Not necessarily. There are some forms of Cordyceps that are manufactured in the labs.
Although cultivated in a lab, this type of Cordyceps has a 99.6% similarity in its DNA to the natural Cordyceps. This is because it is cultured in a simulated natural habitat similar to the natural Cordyceps sinensis.
Is Cordyceps considered vegetarian?
It depends on your individual definition of vegetarianism.
Many people consider Cordyceps to be vegetarian as the caterpillar dies from the fungus infection, and not at the hands of humans.
However, those who are more devoted in staying away from meat may consider this to be non-vegetarian.
Also, Cordyceps can be manufactured in a lab and does not involve actual caterpillars in the process.
Are there many different types of Cordyceps?
There are many different species of Cordyceps, but the one associated with powerful health benefits and used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is Cordyceps sinensis.

Cordyceps sinensis, caterpillar fungus, Himalayan viagra, cordyceps, traditional Chinese medicine, Star2.com
This pricey herb is actually a result of a parasitic fungus infecting moth caterpillars and taking their bodies over completely, killing and mummifying them in the process. — Handout

What are some of the benefits of Cordyceps?
Cordyceps has been used for a long time in TCM to treat a variety of ailments.
• Cardiovascular system: It enhances the circulation of the blood, regulates blood pressure, and also strengthens the heart muscles, which in turn improves the cardiac function.
It also aids in regulating the heart rhythm, ensuring regular blood flow by hindering the clotting of platelets.
The herb remarkably increases cardiac hypoxia tolerance.
• Lung tonic: It is associated with something called the lung meridian in TCM. It helps in strengthening this meridian.
• Boosts respiratory function: Studies show that it can alleviate respiratory ailments such as asthma, tuberculosis and chronic bronchitis by protecting the lungs.
It decreases the production of phlegm as well.
• Boosts immune system: The Cordyceps fungus increases the growth of immune cells and promotes antibody production in the body, enhancing its resistance to bacterial, virus, yeast and fungal infections.
It helps with post-cancer recovery too.
• Anti aging: The herb has anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which help reduce weakness, stress and fatigue associated with aging, and boosts energy during over exertion.
• Combats sexual dysfunction: Cordyceps helps in boosting testosterone levels in men.
It also increases the energy levels and reproductive capabilities of both men and women.
• Kidney health: Associated with the kidney meridian, the herb strengthens the kidneys and other renal functions.
It also prevents excess toxins from accumulating in the body. It has a diuretic effect and thus, prevents kidney pain.
• Enhances energy levels, targets fatigue and exhaustion, and boosts exercise capacity: Awareness of this benefit was popularised by Chinese female athletes who obliterated three long-distance running world records during China’s Seventh National Games in 1993.
It takes care of oxygen utilisation by the cells and tissues of the body.
• Supports liver function: Studies show that it helps improve and restore liver function in cases of liver damage, such as from chronic hepatitis B and C infection.
What role does Cordyceps play in sexual dysfunction?
Cordyceps can effectively stimulate the secretion of DHEA from the adrenal cortex, which stimulates both men’s and women’s sexual function and energy.
Animal experiments show that Cordyceps can stimulate mouse MA-10 cells to produce progesterone, as well as significantly increasing testosterone, resulting in increased sperm formation.
For men, Cordyceps sinensis mycelium can effectively delay muscle fatigue, and promote and extend erectile capacity and endurance.
Generally, men feel a bigger impact than women in terms of sexual dysfunction when consuming Cordyceps.
How is Cordyceps typically consumed?
Cordyceps can be double-boiled to form a decoction, boiled into a tea, or consumed as a capsule.
It is usually recommended to be consumed once daily, using between four to eight grams of Cordyceps each time.
For a quicker option, there are also Cordyceps capsules and pre-packaged drinks with Cordyceps in them.

http://www.star2.com/health/2017/11/27/cordyceps-role-sexual-dysfunction/

Tuesday 19 December 2017

London Overground Night Tube service arrives today: Here's what you need to know about the new 24-hour service

You may have heard the Night Tube is expanding once more, and branching out to the London Overground this week.
From tonight, new 24 hour services will get underway each Friday and Saturday between Dalston Junction and New Cross Gate.
Friday 15 December 2017 8:41am


The Night Tube is getting bigger
The Night Tube is getting bigger (Source: TfL)
Here's what you need to know about the rollout, including whether more Night Tube services are on the cards...

What is the new Night Tube extension?

East London Overground services will run all night on Fridays and Saturdays starting from Friday 15 December to help those working throughout the night, as well as those enjoying east London's nightlife.

Which bit of the Overground is getting the 24 hour service?

Services will run between New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction, but Whitechapel won't get the Night Overground service until Crossrail works are complete. That's expected to join in the fun from next summer.
Here's the route:

(Source: TfL)

Are there plans to expand the Night Overground service after that?

Yes, Transport for London (TfL) plans to extend it to Highbury & Islington next year.

So the new Night Overground service will connect up with some of the Night Tube spots?

That's correct. The Night Overground will link up with the Night Tube network at Canada Water on the Jubilee Line, and then with Highbury & Islington on the Victoria Line next year.

How many Night Tube services are there again?

Five at the moment. It began on the Central and Victoria Lines in August last year, before being rolled out onto the Jubilee Line in October, the Northern Line in November, and then the Piccadilly Line last December.
The Night Tube services:
  1. Central Line: trains run between Ealing Broadway and Loughton / Hainault
  2. Victoria Line: trains run on the entire line
  3. Jubilee Line: trains run on the entire line
  4. Northern Line: trains run from High Barnet and Edgware to Morden via the Charing Cross branch
  5. Piccadilly Line: trains run between Cockfosters and Heathrow Terminal five

How has the Night Tube been doing so far?

Well, it's recorded over 9m journeys during its first year of operation. And research by London First and EY has predicted that the Night Tube will now be more beneficial to the economy than had been previously forecast. Estimates predict that over the next 30 years it will add £138m of value to the capital's economy each year - 79 per cent higher than the previous forecast of £77m.

Will Night services be expanded to other Tube lines though?

TfL is eyeing a wider rollout on its sub-surface Tube lines, but has to tie up an upgrade on them first including the introduction of a new signalling system, with work underway to improve the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines.
The modernisation of the lines, due to be completed in 2023, should mean Night Tube services can be introduced on them in the future.