Tag: Food and Agriculture

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages by the amount of sugar they contain, rather than by the liquid volume of these drinks, as several U.S. cities currently do, could produce even greater health benefits and economic gains, a team of researchers has concluded. The analysis, by researchers at New York University, Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health,

Taxing high sugar snacks such as biscuits, cakes, and sweets might be more effective at reducing obesity levels than increasing the price of sugar sweetened drinks, suggests a study published by The BMJ today. The researchers say this option “is worthy of further research and consideration as part of an integrated approach to tackling obesity.”

Cornell University food scientists have created a new low-calorie ‘butter’ spread that consists mostly of water. A tablespoon of this low-calorie spread has 2.8 grams of fat and 25.2 calories. Butter, on the other hand, which is 84% fat and about 16% water, has about 11 grams of fat and nearly 100 calories. They figured

Pop quiz: Given a choice between indulgent and healthy foods, what will most people pick? The answer may depend on what other foods sit nearby on the grocery shelf, suggests new research from Duke University. Paradoxically, the nearby presence of an indulgent treat can cause more people to opt for a healthy food, said study

Adding highly refined fiber to processed foods could have negative effects on human health, such as promoting liver cancer, according to a new study by researchers at Georgia State University and the University of Toledo. Accumulating evidence demonstrates consumption of whole foods naturally rich in fiber confers an array of health benefits. This, combined with

Consuming too much vitamin A may decrease bone thickness, leading to weak and fracture prone bones, according to a study published in the Journal of Endocrinology. The study, undertaken in mice, found that sustained intake of vitamin A, at levels equivalent to 4.5-13 times the human recommended daily allowance (RDA), caused significant weakening of the

Crops such as wheat and maize have undergone a breeding process lasting thousands of years, in the course of which  humankind has gradually modified the properties of the wild plants in order to adapt them to his needs. One motive was, and still is, higher yields. One “side effect” of this breeding has been a

It doesn’t matter if it’s rye, oats, or wheat. As long as it is wholegrain, it can prevent type 2 diabetes. This is the finding of a new study from researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the Danish Cancer Society Research Center. The comprehensive study is a strong confirmation of previous research findings

Recommendations for a high quality diet to avoid cardiovascular disease were developed in high-income countries two to three decades ago. They don’t consider other parts of the world or how diets have changed. Now scientists of the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences are using research from several large

Decades after scientists discovered hundreds of different fatty acids in vegetable oils, two that had managed to elude detection have finally revealed themselves to a team led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Huazhong Agricultural University in China. Named for the sites of the two leading institutions, Nebraskanic acid and Wuhanic acid make up nearly

Saliva is crucial for tasting and digesting food, but scientists have now found that it may have another, more subtle role. Salivary proteins could be part of a feedback loop that influences how food tastes to people — and by extension, what foods they’re willing to eat. The researchers hope that, one day, their findings

Diet modification can be a vital step to prevent cardiovascular disease. While various biological, economical, physical, social and psychological factors influence food choices, interventions targeting these factors can lead to meaningful improvements in long-term eating habits, according to a review paper published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Research has consistently

A new type of bed net could prevent millions of cases of malaria, according to new research published in The Lancet today (10 August). The two-year clinical trial in Burkina Faso, West Africa involving 2,000 children showed that the number of cases of clinical malaria was reduced by 12 per cent with the new type

The balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the tissues of female mammals, which previous research has suggested can impact the incidence of obesity in their offspring, appears to do so through its effect on the microbial population of the infant’s gastrointestinal tract. In the open-access journal Microbiome, a team of investigators from Massachusetts

Everyday products carry environmental chemicals that may be making us fat by interfering with our hormones, according to research presented in Barcelona at the European Society of Endocrinology annual meeting, ECE 2018. Following recommendations on how to avoid these chemicals could help minimise exposure and potentially reduce the risk of obesity and its complications. Obesity

A recent study by sensory researchers at Kansas State University’s Olathe campus finds that emojis are a viable alternative to words when it comes to accurately measuring how kids feel about food, products and other experiences. The results appear in the study, “The emoji scale: A facial scale for the 21st century,” which was published

Occurrence of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) has often been linked with El Niño rainfall. To curb future outbreaks of RVF, M. Kariuki Njenga and colleagues carried out enhanced syndromic surveillance of 22 high-risk RVF Kenyan counties to collect data on RVF-associated syndromes and risk factors in livestock from November 2015 through February 2016. Their research,

Evidence suggests that developing cooking and food preparation skills is important for health and nutrition, yet the practice of home cooking is declining and now rarely taught in school. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that developing cooking skills as a young adult may have long-term benefits for