The Paleozoic diet: Why animals eat what they eat

What an animal eats is a fundamental aspect of its biology, but surprisingly, the evolution of diet had not been studied across the animal kingdom until now. Scientists at the University of Arizona report several unexpected findings from taking a deep dive into the evolutionary history of more than one million animal species and going back 800 million years, when the first animals appeared on our planet.

Many species living today that are carnivorous, meaning they eat other animals, can trace this diet back to a common ancestor more than 800 million years ago.

A plant-based, or herbivorous, diet is not the evolutionary driver for new species that it was believed to be. Closely related animals tend to share the same dietary category -- plant-eating, meat-eating, or both. This finding implies that switching between dietary lifestyles is not something that happens easily and often over the course of evolution.

 A species was classified as carnivorous if it feeds on other animals, fungi or protists (single-celled eukaryotic organisms, many of which live on bacteria). Species were classified as herbivorous if they depend on land plants, algae or cyanobacteria for food, and omnivorous if they eat a mixture of carnivorous and herbivorous diets.

The scientists then mapped the vast data set of animal species and their dietary preferences onto an evolutionary tree built from DNA-sequence data to untangle the evolutionary relationships between them.

All species can be classified according to their evolutionary relationships, a concept that is known as phylogeny. Organisms are grouped into taxa, which define their interrelationships across several levels. For example, cats and dogs are different species but belong to the same order (carnivores). Similarly, horses and camels belong to a different order (ungulates.) Both orders, however, are part of the same class (mammals). On the highest level, animals are classified in phyla. Examples of animal phyla are arthropods (insects, crustaceans, spiders, scorpions and the like), mollusks (snails, clams and squid fall into this phylum), and chordates, which include all animals with a backbone, including humans.

The survey suggests that across animals, carnivory is most common, including 63% of species. Another 32% are herbivorous, while humans belong to a small minority, just 3%, of omnivorous animals.

Herbivore has traditionally been seen as a powerful catalyst for the origin of new species -- an often-cited example is the insects, with an estimated 1.5 million described species the most diverse group among the arthropods. Many new species of flowering plants appeared during the Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago, and the unprecedented diversity of flowers is widely thought to have coincided with an increase in insect species taking advantage of the newly available floral bounty.

"There is a big difference between eating leaves all the time and eating fruits every now and then," Wiens said. "The specializations required to be an efficient herbivore or carnivore might explain why the two diets have been so conserved over hundreds of millions of years."

Unhealthy products are gaming flawed health star food rating

WE KNOW that when it comes to buying groceries, we should stock up on vegetables and steer clear of the $1.99 Tim Tams tempting us right in front of the aisle.

But when it comes to identifying which packaged foods are good choices, choosing the healthier option isn’t always clear.

Three years ago, the federal government launched the Health Star Rating System, which resulted in some supermarket products being rated a certain number of stars based on particular nutritional criteria.

Despite some superficial success, there is plenty more criticism to suggest that the system is fundamentally flawed and in urgent need of major review.

So what is actually wrong with the Health Star Rating System?

A complex nutritional algorithm has been formulated in an attempt to weigh up the good and not so good nutrients a particular food offers. But its failure to isolate specific ingredients such as sugar within this calculation, has resulted in some foods which are naturally higher in saturated fat (like full cream dairy) having a lower rating than lower fat, yet heavily processed foods including snack food and confectionery.

The classic example of this can be seen in the case of Greek yogurt — a natural whole food -which scores just one star using the rating system, compared to a bag of lollies which scores two stars.

It is hardly surprising that you can find frozen vegetables, healthy snack foods and bottled water with five stars, but many packets of lollies, biscuits and chips have no Health Star Rating at all. For any public health nutritional guidance system that has the goal of directing consumers towards healthy food choices to work, all foods need to be labelled so consumers can easily compared across products and brands.

Foodborne pathogen sheltered by harmless bacteria that support biofilm formation

Pathogenic bacteria that stubbornly lurk in some apple-packing facilities may be sheltered and protected by harmless bacteria that are known for their ability to form bio films, according to Penn State researchers, who suggest the discovery could lead to development of alternative food borne-pathogen-control strategies.

That was the key finding that emerged from a study of three tree-fruit-packing facilities in the Northeast where contamination with Listeria monocytogenes was a concern. The research, done in collaboration with the apple industry, was an effort to better understand the microbial ecology of food-processing facilities. The ultimate goal is to identify ways to improve pathogen control in the apple supply chain to avoid foodborne disease outbreaks and recalls of apples and apple products.

"This work is part of Penn State's efforts to help producers comply with standards set forth in the federal Food Safety Modernization Act, often referred to as FSMA," said researcher Jasna Kovac, assistant professor of food science, College of Agricultural Sciences. "The Department of Food Science at Penn State, through research and extension activities, has an ongoing collaboration with the apple industry, led by Luke LaBorde, professor of food science."

In the study, researchers sought to understand the composition of microbiota in apple-packing environments and its association with the occurrence of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Their testing revealed that a packing plant with a significantly higher Listeria monocytogenes occurrence was uniquely dominated by the bacterial family Pseudomonadaceae and the fungal family Dipodascaceae.

Biofilms are a collection of microorganisms that attach to a surface and then secrete a slimy material that slows down the penetration of cleaners and sanitizers, Kovac explained. "If a pathogenic bacterium is enclosed in a biofilm formed by microbiota, it is more likely that cleaning and sanitizing procedures will be less effective," she said. "This is a novel perspective, and it may well explain how Listeria monocytogenes has persisted in food-processing plants despite repeated efforts to kill and remove it."

The findings of the research, published today (Aug. 21) in Microbiome, provide insight into the Listeria contamination problem and may lead to researchers and the apple industry getting closer to solving it, Kovac believes. Equipment in fruit-processing plants -- such as brush conveyors -- have a poor sanitary design that makes them difficult to clean and sanitize, she pointed out. She and LaBorde plan to work with the apple industry to devise more effective cleaning and sanitizing strategies.

"Following up on these findings, we are experimenting with some of the nonpathogenic strains of bacteria that are not harmful to humans to see whether they can be used as biocontrols," she said. "Once applied on the surfaces of the equipment in these environments, they may be able to outcompete and suppress Listeria, thus reducing food-safety risks and potential regulatory action. We are still exploring that approach in a controlled laboratory environment. If it proves to be feasible, we would like to test it in apple-packing and processing facilities."

Staring at seagulls could save your chips

Staring at seagulls makes them less likely to steal your food, new research shows.

University of Exeter researchers put a bag of chips on the ground and tested how long it took herring gulls to approach when a human was watching them, compared to when the human looked away.

On average, gulls took 21 seconds longer to approach the food with a human staring at them.

The researchers attempted to test 74 gulls, but most flew away or would not approach -- only 27 approached the food, and 19 completed both the "looking at" and "looking away" tests. The findings focus on these 19 gulls.

"Gulls are often seen as aggressive and willing to take food from humans, so it was interesting to find that most wouldn't even come near during our tests," said lead author Madeleine Goumas, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"Of those that did approach, most took longer when they were being watched. Some wouldn't even touch the food at all, although others didn't seem to notice that a human was staring at them.

   

                             

"We didn't examine why individual gulls were so different -- it might be because of differences in "personality" and some might have had positive experiences of being fed by humans in the past -- but it seems that a couple of very bold gulls might ruin the reputation of the rest."

Senior author Dr Neeltje Boogert added: "Gulls learn really quickly, so if they manage to get food from humans once, they might look for more.

"Our study took place in coastal towns in Cornwall, and especially now, during the summer holidays and beach barbecue/]]]]]s, we are seeing more gulls looking for an easy meal. We therefore advise people to look around themselves and watch out for gulls approaching, as they often appear to take food from behind, catching people by surprise.

"It seems that just watching the gulls will reduce the chance of them snatching your food."

The UK's herring gulls are in decline, though numbers in urban areas are rising. Gulls in these areas are often considered a nuisance because of behaviours like food-snatching.

The researchers say their study shows that any attempt to manage this issue by treating all gulls as being alike could be futile, as most gulls are wary of approaching people. Instead, people might be able to reduce food-snatching by the few bold individuals by modifying their own behaviour.

The natural diet of herring gulls is fish and invertebrates, and the researchers will next investigate how eating human foods affects the gulls, and their chicks, in the long term. The paper, published in the journal Biology Letters, is entitled: "Herring gulls respond to human gaze direction."

Diet change needed to save vast areas of tropics

One quarter of the world's tropical land could disappear by the end of the century unless meat and dairy consumption falls, researchers have warned.

If the global demand for animal products continues to grow, large swathes of natural land will vanish potentially leading to widespread loss of species and their habitats.

Some nine per cent of natural land -- 95 per cent of which is in the tropics -- could go within 80 years unless global dietary habits change, the scientists say.

They found that rapid increases in meat and milk production result in sharp rises in land clearing in tropical regions that harbor high levels of biodiversity.

As incomes increase across the globe, consumption has shifted from staples such as starchy roots and pulses to meat, milk, and refined sugars.

Meat and dairy production is associated with higher land and water use and higher greenhouse gas emissions than any other foods.

By replacing animal products with plant-based alternatives, they predict that the global demand for agricultural land could be reduced by 11 per cent.

Researchers also found that industrial feed systems reduce agricultural expansion but may increase environmental degradation due to agricultural pollutants such as fertilizer.

The study comes after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week published a special report that identified reducing meat consumption as an important focus for climate change mitigation.

Reducing meat and dairy consumption will have positive effects on greenhouse gas emissions and human health. It will also help biodiversity, which must be conserved to ensure the world's growing population is fed. Changing our diets will lead to a more sustainable future and complement food security goals while addressing global food inequalities.

Flavonoid-rich diet protects against cancer and heart disease, study finds

Consuming flavonoid-rich items such as apples and tea protects against cancer and heart disease, particularly for smokers and heavy drinkers

Researchers found that people who habitually consumed moderate to high amounts of foods rich in flavonoids, compounds found in plant-based foods and drinks, were less likely to die from cancer or heart disease.

Lower risk of death in those who ate flavonoid-rich foods, the protective effect appeared to be strongest for those at high risk of chronic diseases due to cigarette smoking and those who drank more than two standard alcoholic drinks a day.

"These findings are important as they highlight the potential to prevent cancer and heart disease by encouraging the consumption of flavonoid-rich foods, particularly in people at high risk of these chronic diseases."

"But it's also important to note that flavonoid consumption does not counteract all of the increased risk of death caused by smoking and high alcohol consumption. By far the best thing to do for your health is to quit smoking and cut down on alcohol.

"We know these kind of lifestyle changes can be very challenging, so encouraging flavonoid consumption might be a novel way to alleviate the increased risk, while also encouraging people to quit smoking and reduce their alcohol intake."

How much is enough?

Participants consuming about 500mg of total flavonoids each day had the lowest risk of a cancer or heart disease-related death.

"It's important to consume a variety of different flavonoid compounds found in different plant based food and drink. This is easily achievable through the diet: one cup of tea, one apple, one orange, 100g of blueberries, and 100g of broccoli would provide a wide range of flavonoid compounds and over 500mg of total flavonoids."

"Alcohol consumption and smoking both increase inflammation and damage blood vessels, which can increase the risk of a range of diseases." 

"Flavonoids have been shown to be anti-inflammatory and improve blood vessel function, which may explain why they are associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease and cancer.."

'Flavonoid intake is associated with lower mortality in the Danish Diet Cancer and Health Cohort' was published today (13 August) in Nature Communications.

The ECU study was a collaboration with researchers from the Herlev & Gentofte University Hospital, Aarhus University, as well as the Danish Cancer Society Research Centre, Aalborg University Hospital, the Universities of Western Australia and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Rising CO2 levels could boost wheat yield but slightly reduce nutritional quality

Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are rising, which experts predict could produce more droughts and hotter temperatures. Although these weather changes would negatively impact many plants' growth, the increased CO2 availability might actually be advantageous because plants use the greenhouse gas to make food by photosynthesis. Now, researchers say that a much higher CO2 level could increase wheat yield but slightly reduce its nutritional quality.

  

  

Wheat is one of the world's most important crops; its flour is used as a major ingredient in a large variety of foods such as bread, pasta and pastries. Previously, scientists have shown that elevated CO2 can increase wheat yields at the expense of grain quality traits such as nitrogen and protein content. However, scientists don't yet know the full range of grain quality changes that can occur at different stages of wheat development or the biochemical mechanisms behind them. 

The researchers grew wheat in greenhouses at normal (400 parts per million; ppm) or elevated (700 ppm) CO2 concentrations. The team found that wheat grown under elevated CO2 levels showed a 104% higher yield of mature grain. However, the nitrogen content of the grain was 0.5% lower under these conditions, and there were also small declines in protein content and free amino acids. The researchers used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyse metabolic changes in the grains at different developmental stages. Among other changes, elevated CO2 altered the levels of certain nitrogen-containing amino acids during grain formation and at maturity. Although the metabolic changes they detected had modest impacts on final grain quality, the effects could be amplified by other changes in a plant's environment, such as limited nitrogen availability or drought conditions, the researchers say.

Substituting poultry for red meat may reduce breast cancer risk

Results from a new study suggest that red meat consumption may increase the risk of breast cancer, whereas poultry consumption may be protective against breast cancer risk.

Increasing consumption of red meat was associated with increased risk of invasive breast cancer: women who consumed the highest amount of red meat had a 23% higher risk compared with women who consumed the lowest amount. Conversely, increasing consumption of poultry was associated with decreased invasive breast cancer risk: women with the highest consumption had a 15% lower risk than those with the lowest consumption. Breast cancer was reduced even further for women who substituted poultry for meat.

"Red meat has been identified as a probable carcinogen. Our study adds further evidence that red meat consumption may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer whereas poultry was associated with decreased risk," said senior author Dale P. Sandler, PhD, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "While the mechanism through which poultry consumption decreases breast cancer risk is not clear, our study does provide evidence that substituting poultry for red meat may be a simple change that can help reduce the incidence of breast cancer."

With bitter foods, what you eat determines what you like to eat

Taste of bitter foods changes as repeated consumption alters the constellation of salivary proteins

Introducing plant-based foods to a diet is a common-sense approach to healthy eating, but many people don't like the taste of vegetables, bitter greens, in particular. But give that broccoli a chance. Doing so won't just change your mind; it will actually change the taste of those foods.

What sounds at first like a culinary parlor trick is actually a scientific matter based on specific proteins found in saliva. These proteins affect the sense of taste, and diet composition, at least in part, determines those proteins.

Saliva is a complex fluid containing around 1,000 specific proteins. Identifying all the players is a work in progress, but everything we eat is dissolved in saliva before it interacts with taste receptor cells and all these proteins are candidates for influencing stimuli before food is tasted.

"What you eat creates the signature in your salivary proteome, and those proteins modulate your sense of taste". Bitterness is also a near-universal characteristic of many pediatric medicines, and getting infants to swallow a bitter liquid -- which by nature they want to reject -- can be a challenge. An additive to that medicine to make it less bitter would increase compliance. It's similar to liquid dietary supplements in the geriatric population, which often contain sugar to tame the bitterness. Achieving the same result without sweeteners has obvious benefits.

"If we can convince people to try broccoli, greens and bitter foods, they should know that with repeated exposure, they'll taste better once they regulate these proteins," 12 servings of broccoli, however, for people who avoid these foods because of their bitterness, but would like to include them in their diet, they should know their taste will eventually change.

Trying to convince someone that a salad tastes great isn't going to work because to that person it doesn't taste great. Understanding with taste that we're dealing with something that's movable is significant.

Eating more plant-based foods may be linked to better Heart Health

Eating mostly plant-based foods and fewer animal-based foods may be linked to better heart health and a lower risk of dying from a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular disease.

People who ate the most plant-based foods overall had a:

• 16% lower risk of having a cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, stroke, heart failure and other conditions;
• 32% lower risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease and
• 25% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to those who ate the least amount of plant-based foods.

"The American Heart Association recommends eating a mostly plant-based diet, provided the foods you choose are rich in nutrition and low in added sugars, sodium (salt), cholesterol and artery-clogging saturated and trans fats. For example, French fries or cauliflower pizza with cheese are plant based but are low in nutritional value and are loaded with sodium (salt). Unprocessed foods, like fresh fruit, vegetables and grains are good choices," said Mariell Jessup, M.D., the chief science and medical officer of the American Heart Association.

"While you don't have to give up foods derived from animals completely, our study does suggest that eating a larger proportion of plant-based foods and a smaller proportion of animal-based foods may help reduce your risk of having a heart attack, stroke or other type of cardiovascular disease," said lead researcher, Casey M. Rebholz, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

Researchers reviewed a database of food intake information from more than 10,000 middle-aged U.S. adults who were monitored from 1987 through 2016 and did not have cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. They then categorized the participants' eating patterns by the proportion of plant-based foods they ate versus animal-based foods.

FDA authorizes soy leghemoglobin as a color additive

“We are in the midst of a revolution in food technology that in the next ten years will likely lead to more innovations in food and ingredient production than there have been in the past half-century.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending the color additive regulations to provide for the safe use of soy leg-hemoglobin as a color additive in ground beef analogue products (e.g., “veggie” burgers). The FDA is taking this action in response to a color additive petition submitted by Impossible Foods, Inc. requesting FDA to issue a regulation listing the use of soy leg-hemoglobin as a color additive in food.               

“As these new products and ingredient sources come to the market, the FDA has a responsibility to provide the appropriate regulatory oversight to protect public health by ensuring that these new foods and food ingredients are safe.

“As part of these efforts, the FDA has approved Impossible Foods’ color additive petition for the use of soy leg-hemoglobin in alternative, non-animal protein sources, like vegetable burgers.

“After a thorough review of available scientific information, the FDA has concluded that this use is safe. This action will allow the use of soy leg-hemoglobin in uncooked beef analog products sold directly to consumers, such as in food retail settings.

The regulatory body has reviewed all the information and data submitted by impossible foods, in addition to other outside information and concluded that there is a reasonable level of certainty the use of soy leg-hemoglobin as a color additive will cause no harm.

Impossible foods use genetically engineered yeast to harvest leg-hemoglobin at an industrial scale. The company says that this ingredient is what gives the burgers a specifically meaty flavor.

                           

Nutrition and Physiology

Nutrients are mainly classified into two types – Micro nutrients and Macro nutrients. 

1. Macro nutrients are which are required by the body in higher amounts (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids) while micro nutrients are required in lesser amounts (vitamins and minerals).
   
2.  Macro nutrients are responsible for energy requirement and structural development. Nutrition physiology is the study of the effect of the nutrients on the body’s metabolism and functions.

                            

Depending on requirement the nutrition can be classified into different types like: 

• Pediatric Nutrition: Nutrition of children so that they are exposed to all the required nutrients essential for healthy growth.

• Maternal Nutrition: Nutrition of mothers while they bear and nurture children

• Clinical Nutrition: Nutrition of patients in health care

• Sports Nutrition: Nutritional requirements of sports persons, especially the quantity of food and fluids consumed by athletes to optimize their activity.

Nutrients from food, not supplements, linked to lower risks of death, cancer

Adequate intake of certain nutrients is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality when the nutrient source is foods, but not supplements, according to a new study. There was no association between dietary supplement use and a lower risk of death.

In addition, excess calcium intake was linked to an increased risk of cancer death, which the researchers found was associated with supplemental doses of calcium exceeding 1,000 mg/day.

When sources of nutrient intake (food vs. supplement) were evaluated, the researchers found:

• The lower risk of death associated with adequate nutrient intakes of vitamin K and magnesium was limited to nutrients from foods, not from supplements;
• The lower risk of death from CVD associated with adequate intakes of vitamin A, vitamin K, and zinc was limited to nutrients from foods, not from supplements; and
• Calcium intake from supplement totals of at least 1,000 mg/day was associated with increased risk of death from cancer but there was no association for calcium intake from foods.

For the association between nutrient intake and the risk of death, the researchers found:

• Adequate intakes of vitamin K and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of death;
• Adequate intakes of vitamin A, vitamin K, and zinc were associated with a lower risk of death from CVD; and
• Excess intake of calcium was associated with higher risk of death from cancer.

Diet and Genetics

Genetics play an interesting role in body composition, particularly when it comes to body fat. The human body is designed to store fat in particular places, depending on gender, age, and of course, your family genes. Genes will determine women will carry this body fat around the hips and thighs as opposed to storing fat in the upper body. Men, tend to carry fat in the abdomen but can also carry fat in other places; the storage of fat, regardless of gender, can play a significant role in influencing well-being risks.

Keywords: Food Nutrition Conferences | Food Security Conferences | Food Manufacturing Conferences | Food preservation Conferences | Food storage conferences | Food labeling Conferences | Food waste Conferences | Pediatric Nutrition Conferences