Fats and Diet
For more than two decades, fats have been in the limelight. With the health advice of today’s experts, we’re advised to moderate the total fat and lower the saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol in out food choices.
Certainly media continues to report new research linking various types of fats and cholesterol to health outcomes.
Culinary experts provide flavorful ways to use sensible amounts of fat in food prep.
And the food industry has launched many fat modified products; “reduced fat,” “0 grams trans fat,” and “with omega-3s.”
Not surprisingly, many consumers hear the message and consider the “fat facts” as they buy and prepare food.
While other nutrition-related concerns have emerged, attention to fat likely will be around for some time.
Evidence indicates that a diet high in saturated fats, trans fat and cholesterol increases risks for unhealthy levels of blood cholesterol, and therefore cardiovascular disease.
High fat eating is likely high in saturated fat and risky for heart health.
Managing excess calories is also harder harder with high fat eating.
There may be a link to some cancers, too. As science reveals more, it’s also becoming clear that the links between the different types of fat and health are more complex than once thought.
Aging baby boomers are being forced to face the “fat facts of life.” And people of all ages recognized that cutting back to a moderate fat intake – and eating less “sat fats,” tans fat” and cholesterol and replacing some with healthy oils – will promote good health in the long run.
Many people especially Americans already have cut down on their total fat intake to moderate levels. Yet there’s still room to improve, to make healthier food and fat choices and to consume less saturated and trans fats.
Fats and Diet
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Fiber in Plant
Fiber in Plant
Plant Food is basically divisible into stems, fruits, tubers, seeds and leaves. Stems are rich in fiber to support the upper leaves and connect them with the nutrient on soil.
The leaves are green, rich in the protein chlorophyll which traps the sun’s energy on which plants depend.
The fiber content of leaves and stems varies, tending to increase with age.
Seeds, fruits and tubers come in variety shapes, sizes and colors.
A seeds has an outer coat to protect the embryo as the seed lies dormant during the winter.
Come the warm days of spring and the seed begins to germinate, pushing a new shoot through the now cracked outer coat to reach the soil surface and point its tiny leaves towards the sun.
In the period between the onset of germination and the emergency of the seedling into the sunlight, the energy reserves of the seed are used up in growth.
Some seeds (e.g., soya) use oil for these energy reserves, but most (cereals, rice, cassava, potatoes) use starch.
Although there is some fiber in these starchy stores it is present in much greater quantity in the structural part of the seed – its protective coats and its plant embryo, or ‘germ’.
It is these coats and germs which man chooses to remove and discard, so that his enjoyment of the starch core is unimpaired. That is a botanical description of fiber.
There are four main molecular species which make up fiber: cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and lignin.
The first three can be classified as carbohydrate lignin being unclassified in the nutritional sense.
Cellulose, for example, is comprised of long chains of glucose molecules joined end to end. Cellulose is not digested. Neither are hemicellulose, pectin and lignin.
And that is the biological definition of fiber in human nutrition: indigestible plant matter, particularly indigestible plant carbohydrates.
Fiber in Plant
Plant Food is basically divisible into stems, fruits, tubers, seeds and leaves. Stems are rich in fiber to support the upper leaves and connect them with the nutrient on soil.
The leaves are green, rich in the protein chlorophyll which traps the sun’s energy on which plants depend.
The fiber content of leaves and stems varies, tending to increase with age.
Seeds, fruits and tubers come in variety shapes, sizes and colors.
A seeds has an outer coat to protect the embryo as the seed lies dormant during the winter.
Come the warm days of spring and the seed begins to germinate, pushing a new shoot through the now cracked outer coat to reach the soil surface and point its tiny leaves towards the sun.
In the period between the onset of germination and the emergency of the seedling into the sunlight, the energy reserves of the seed are used up in growth.
Some seeds (e.g., soya) use oil for these energy reserves, but most (cereals, rice, cassava, potatoes) use starch.
Although there is some fiber in these starchy stores it is present in much greater quantity in the structural part of the seed – its protective coats and its plant embryo, or ‘germ’.
It is these coats and germs which man chooses to remove and discard, so that his enjoyment of the starch core is unimpaired. That is a botanical description of fiber.
There are four main molecular species which make up fiber: cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and lignin.
The first three can be classified as carbohydrate lignin being unclassified in the nutritional sense.
Cellulose, for example, is comprised of long chains of glucose molecules joined end to end. Cellulose is not digested. Neither are hemicellulose, pectin and lignin.
And that is the biological definition of fiber in human nutrition: indigestible plant matter, particularly indigestible plant carbohydrates.
Fiber in Plant
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Burden of Diseases in the Developing World
The Burden of Diseases in the Developing World
Hunger and malnutrition remain among the most devastating problems facing the majority of the world’s poor and needy people, and continue to dominate the health of the world’s poorest nations.
Nearly 30% of humanities are currently suffering from one or more of the multiple forms of malnutrition.
The tragic consequences of malnutrition include death, disability, stunted mental and physical growth and as a result, retarded national socioeconomic development.
Some 60% of the 10.9 million deaths each year among children aged less than five years in the developing world are associated with malnutrition.
Iodine deficiency is the greatest single preventable cause of brain damage and mental retardation worldwide, and is estimated to affect more than 700 million people, most of them located in the less developed countries.
Over 2000 million people have iron deficiency anemia.
Vitamin A deficiency remains the single greatest preventable cause of needless childhood blindness and an increased risk of premature childhood mortality from infectious disease, with 250 million children under five years of age suffering from subclinical deficiency.
Intrauterine growth retardation, defined as birth weight below the 10th percentile of the birth weight for gestational age reference curve, affects 23.8% or approximately 30 million newborn babies per year, profoundly influencing growth, survival, and physical and mental capacity in childhood.
It also has major public health implications in view of the increased risk of developing diet related chronic disease later in life.
Given the rapidity with which traditional diets and lifestyles are changing in many developing countries, it is not surprising that food insecurity and undernutrition persist in the same countries where chronic disease are emerging as a major epidemic.
The epidemic of obesity with its attendant comorbidities – heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes – is not a problem limited to industrialized countries.
Children are in a similar situation; a disturbing increase in the prevalence of overweight among this group has taken place over the past 20 years in developing countries as diverse as India, Mexico, Nigeria and Tunisia.
The increasing prevalence of obesity in developing countries also indicates that physical inactivity is an increasing problem in those countries well.
The Burden of Diseases in the Developing World
Hunger and malnutrition remain among the most devastating problems facing the majority of the world’s poor and needy people, and continue to dominate the health of the world’s poorest nations.
Nearly 30% of humanities are currently suffering from one or more of the multiple forms of malnutrition.
The tragic consequences of malnutrition include death, disability, stunted mental and physical growth and as a result, retarded national socioeconomic development.
Some 60% of the 10.9 million deaths each year among children aged less than five years in the developing world are associated with malnutrition.
Iodine deficiency is the greatest single preventable cause of brain damage and mental retardation worldwide, and is estimated to affect more than 700 million people, most of them located in the less developed countries.
Over 2000 million people have iron deficiency anemia.
Vitamin A deficiency remains the single greatest preventable cause of needless childhood blindness and an increased risk of premature childhood mortality from infectious disease, with 250 million children under five years of age suffering from subclinical deficiency.
Intrauterine growth retardation, defined as birth weight below the 10th percentile of the birth weight for gestational age reference curve, affects 23.8% or approximately 30 million newborn babies per year, profoundly influencing growth, survival, and physical and mental capacity in childhood.
It also has major public health implications in view of the increased risk of developing diet related chronic disease later in life.
Given the rapidity with which traditional diets and lifestyles are changing in many developing countries, it is not surprising that food insecurity and undernutrition persist in the same countries where chronic disease are emerging as a major epidemic.
The epidemic of obesity with its attendant comorbidities – heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes – is not a problem limited to industrialized countries.
Children are in a similar situation; a disturbing increase in the prevalence of overweight among this group has taken place over the past 20 years in developing countries as diverse as India, Mexico, Nigeria and Tunisia.
The increasing prevalence of obesity in developing countries also indicates that physical inactivity is an increasing problem in those countries well.
The Burden of Diseases in the Developing World
Monday, August 31, 2009
Cranberries
Cranberries
Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocapron) for millennia have been part of the diet of North Americans and used for medicinal purposes in folk medicine.
Although cranberries are most familiar to consumers in North America, close relatives of the cranberry are also consumed in Northern Europe and Asia.
In North America and Europe, cranberries are primarily processed and consumed in the form of cranberry juice cocktails, and cranberry fruit drinks, with the oldest cranberry juice recipe dating back to 1683.
Cranberries have only been cultivated for the last 150 year; therefore, relative to grapes and other cultivated fruits, there is little genetic diversity.
The typical annual crop size is approximately 500 million pounds, with 60% being used directly in beverages, 35% being processed into sauces and concentrates that are mostly made into beverages and 5% being consumed fresh.
Cranberries are popular with consumers because of their bitter taste, and because of their positive implication for health as a functional food, they are one of the first functional foods in America.
As a functional food, cranberry juice is associated with protection from urinary tract infection.
Cranberry juice may also be useful for promoting cardiovascular health and inhibiting cancer development, and suggestions have also been made regarding cranberry applications for improving oral and gastric health.
Cranberries
Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocapron) for millennia have been part of the diet of North Americans and used for medicinal purposes in folk medicine.
Although cranberries are most familiar to consumers in North America, close relatives of the cranberry are also consumed in Northern Europe and Asia.
In North America and Europe, cranberries are primarily processed and consumed in the form of cranberry juice cocktails, and cranberry fruit drinks, with the oldest cranberry juice recipe dating back to 1683.
Cranberries have only been cultivated for the last 150 year; therefore, relative to grapes and other cultivated fruits, there is little genetic diversity.
The typical annual crop size is approximately 500 million pounds, with 60% being used directly in beverages, 35% being processed into sauces and concentrates that are mostly made into beverages and 5% being consumed fresh.
Cranberries are popular with consumers because of their bitter taste, and because of their positive implication for health as a functional food, they are one of the first functional foods in America.
As a functional food, cranberry juice is associated with protection from urinary tract infection.
Cranberry juice may also be useful for promoting cardiovascular health and inhibiting cancer development, and suggestions have also been made regarding cranberry applications for improving oral and gastric health.
Cranberries
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