Slow eating vs fast eating-Men vs women!

The question as to whether man and women are made equal can be a risky thing these days, especially when women organizations are fighting to recognize they are equal in all respects. To a great extent they are right if we see the new heights women have scaled in their daily life with very few so called man-bastions remaining to be conquered. In almost all fields of human endeavor women have achieved equally or better than men making gender discrimination no more an issue. Against such a background, one is amazed by a report from Korea that there is a difference in the eating dynamics between men and women which has apparently the backing of science. According to this report men invariably eat faster than women because of the physical differences in their respective food eating systems. How far this can be generalized is a question that may occupy center stage in coming days. Here are further details about the research and its interpretation.

Men and woman have some obvious differences along with a few less obvious ones. Men are built stronger than women, women are better at multi-tasking and micro-managing while men are better with cars and driving (though this is debatable). All of them lend credibility to the popular mantra - 'men are from Mars and women are from Venus'. A new study published in the January 2015 edition of 'Physiology & Behavior' that talks about the sexes' manner of chewing also goes to show how men and women are wired differently. If you're a woman and have sat across a man wondering how he's almost done with his meal while you're not even half way through, then science has some news for you. Korean researchers Soojin Park and Weon-Sun Shin decided to explore these everyday remarkable differences and study exactly how the chewing patterns of men and women are different. Researchers enlisted 24 male and 24 female undergraduates from Semyung University in South Korea. In an attempt to analyse the chewing patterns of both the sexes', researchers attached electrodes to their jaw muscles and fed them 152 grams of boiled white rice each. This experiment allowed them to record muscle activity, bite size, food ingested per minute (in grams), chews every mouthful, total chewing time and total meal duration. They found considerable differences between men and women. Typically, men take larger bites and have more 'chewing power' which implies that they eat quicker than women. When women had the same chewing pace as men it was found that women chewed more with each bite, thereby taking more time to eat their meal. The study found that 'bites and chew thoroughly with a weaker chewing power than males, while they consume the same amount of staple food'.

The above findings raise a larger question whether women are more prone to body weight gain from a given amount of food compared their male counterparts? After all the utilization of food nutrients depend to a significant extent on how thoroughly the food is chewed and digested and naturally more chewing helps greater maceration of food ingested followed by more efficient release and absorption of the nutrients present in it across the intestine. Whether slower eating will create satiety with lesser food, is not answered by the above study as transfer of glucose from the food to the blood decides the time of satiety message from the brain. Thus the above study raises more questions than providing answers to other related areas. Though these studies are interesting by themselves, we have certainly not seen the end of this debate about eating equality between the genders as more studies are bound to follow in the coming days!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Agricultural farms sans labor?-Too futuristic to think of now!

No wonder a country like the UK is thinking in terms of higher degree of mechanization and automation in their agricultural farms because of acute scarcity of labor and high cost involved in accessing them. Most farm workers are migrants as UK's indigenous population cannot do all the chores required to keep the nation going. Mechanized contraptions are already available for individual operations like tilling, sowing, planting, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, threshing etc but here also lot of skilled workers are needed to operate these machines. Recent musings by one of the government policy makers in that country regarding application of IT enabled solutions to further cut down on the number of workers deployed in the farms reflect the frustration faced in the country to raise food production to feed the population without depending heavily on imports. Here is a take on this new strategies UK is thinking about as a future option.

"Farms have changed "dramatically" from the stereotype of the Wurzels and will soon have driverless tractors, the Environment Secretary has said. Liz Truss said that modern agriculture means "jobs done by hand are now done by machine", reducing the need for migrant labour. She said that while the number of jobs on farms will continue to decline, there will be greater demand for coders and IT experts. She said that the perception that farming and the food industry is about the Wurzels, the folk band, and "hairnets and wellies" is outdated. She said: "There's a big agricultural engineer in my constituency called Herbert's that produces potato pickers. Those are jobs that were done by hand and are now done by machine. I think we are seeing that taking place. "I think the number of people working on farms has declined for years, but that doesn't mean there won't be more jobs available in food overall. "If you think about the whole food chain, whether it's Sainsbury's hiring coders or whatever, it's a different profile of jobs. Farming itself is something where we are going to end up with driverless tractors very soon, I'd imagine. Most of the farm equipment you now need to be able to programme."

Farming is no more a low technology affair in advanced countries like Europe, the US, Canada, Australia etc where the population is either diminishing or hardly growing to any meaningful extent while immigrant population is increasing very significantly. There is another issue that is worrying developed countries to no end. This concerns the ever increasing incidences of food poisoning occurring in these countries in spite of the best technological inputs available to them! As most food borne diseases are caused by human intervention it makes sense to reduce contact between man and the food handled to the absolute minimum as far as possible. If food processing factories can work with a small force of workers due to very high degree of automation achieved, there is no reason why farms also cannot manage with the same type of IT enabled technologies. With organic foods registering phenomenal growth across the world, higher safety requirements for these foods can be achieved more easily if human contact is restricted to the unavoidable minimum. For a country like India such changes may be just be a pipe dream because if human beings are replaced by machine, where else will the farm labor go for gainful employment? A right blend of policies can however benefit the country involving selective deployment of technologies and machines farsighted vision to expand and diversify employment opportunities for displaced farm labor as it is reported to be happening in China.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

A new food standards regime coming to vogue-Will it cause disruption of global trade?

Every country in this planet has a food industry of its own which seeks to meet the food needs of the citizens through processing of native raw materials or imported ones if not available within the country. Besides some foods are always imported because no nation can be expected to be 100% self sufficient in terms of its needs making global trade a necessity rather than a luxury. Like any buyer-seller arrangement, country to country trade also involves negotiations, bargaining and agreed standards regime under which export-import is managed. International agencies like WTO, WHO, FAO, ISO etc do provide guidelines and recommendations regarding food safety and standards but ultimately the trade will take place only based on mutually agreed upon prices and consensually arrived quality parameters. In any market place buyer has invariably an advantage if there is over-supply while supply shortage will give advantage to the seller. Recent promulgation of a new set of standards in the Gulf countries for food imports follows the same reality and these mandatory standards under the banner of Halal Food Certification are expected to be the basis on which imports of foods from non-Islamic countries into the gulf region are going to be regulated. Here is a take on this new development in the global food trade front.   

"Halal food products from Australia and New Zealand are the first imports to be subject to the UAE's new standards, which aim to create a global mark of quality for the Islamic food industry. The halal mark was unveiled by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology (Esma) at Gulfood yesterday, following a three-year development process that is part of Dubai's push to become the global capital of the Islamic economy. The new halal certification covers the full process from farm to slaughter to additives and ingredients used, Esma said. The standards are backed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the 57-country body that aims to preserve Islamic social and economic values. Within two years all food imports will need the mark to pass through the country, Esma said. About a fifth of the global food trade is halal, according to Datamonitor, and it is forecast to be worth US$10 trillion by 2030, a Global Futures and Foresights study says. Halal food imports into the GCC will reach $53.1 billion by 2020, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. "More than 85 per cent of the food we import comes from non-Muslim countries," said Dr Rashid bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, who is also chairman of Esma. "We need new standards of transparency and security for halal customers. There will be no disruption to the food chain, it will be an incremental change with Australia and New Zealand the first countries to fall under the new standards."

Probably there is logic in promoting Halal Foods Certification in a big way as Muslims constitute a very sizable segment of world population and most of them are religiously conservative in following Islamic traditions and culture as originally evolved over so many centuries ago. It is to the credit of the Gulf countries, especially Dubai, that Halal Food Standards have been codified with no ambiguity keeping in view the knowledge generated by modern science. That these standards are not radically different from international ones and can be easily met by all countries with least disruption of their existing industrial landscape must be appreciated. If countries like Australia and New Zealand can export their products with no difficulty as per the new Halal Standards global trade will have no impact if other Islamic countries also follow the same guidelines for food imports into their countries. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Move over drugs, here comes probiotics therapy to treat diabetes!

With the metabolic syndrome becoming a major scourge affecting the quality of life for millions of people across the world, its treatment involving insulin injection or consumption of powerful drugs are unavoidable chore of daily life for these unfortunate victims. Is there no hope for them to lead a normal life by getting the diabetes cured permanently in spite of vast strides medical science has made during the last 3 decades? While about 70 million persons are considered suffering from diabetes, be it Type I or Type II, there may be many who might not be even knowing that they are diabetics because of the silent way it creeps in unannounced and without any strong symptoms. Of course the pharma industry is raking in money through a variety of treatment regimes including sale of human insulin injections and about half a dozen synthetic drugs. It is against such a depressing background that the recent news about the exciting work in Cornell University in the US developing a probiotic treatment regime that may eventually come in the form of a pill that is to be consumed by diabetics every day for avoiding glucose build up in the blood. Here is a take on this "breaking story" report.

"Researchers at Cornell University have successfully treated diabetic rats by engineering a strain of lactobacillus, a rod-shaped bacteria common in the human gut, resulting in up to 30 percent lower blood glucose levels. The technology could pave the way for a new treatment for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes that could one day see managing diabetes be as easy as taking a daily probiotic pill.. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diabetes is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that around 29 million people have the disease, many of whom aren't even aware they have it. The Cornell study could take us one step closer to a safe, effective way for people to control the disease. In their proof of principle study the researchers modified a strain of humanlactobacillus to secrete a protein called Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which helps manage blood sugar levels, and administered it orally to diabetic rats for 90 days. The upper intestinal epithelial cells of the diabetic rats were converted into cells that acted very much like pancreatic beta cells, which in healthy people monitor blood glucose levels and secrete insulin to balance glucose levels. The rats with high blood glucose developed insulin-producing cells within the upper intestine in numbers sufficient to replace 25 to 33 percent of the insulin capacity of nondiabetic healthy rats. "The amount of time to reduce glucose levels following a meal is the same as in a normal rat, and it is matched to the amount of glucose in the blood, just as it would be with a normal-functioning pancreas," says John March, professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University and the paper's senior author. "It's moving the center of glucose control from the pancreas to the upper intestine." Conversely, the engineered probiotic did not appear to affect the blood glucose levels of healthy rats".

The beauty of this work lies in the fact that it works both for Type I and II diabetic patients giving hope that insulin injection may become a part of history if and when the innovation is commercialized. Probiotic bacteria is receiving increasing attention these days because of their ability to get modified through genetic engineering for highly targeted applications. Though there may be some resistance because of the genetic modification of the bacteria, its benefits far outweigh any other consideration. One can only hope that the development publicised so early will not raise hopes too high because it may take quite some time before taking its place on the drug store shelves as human trials are yet to be undertaken to confirm that the technology really works. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Infant foods becoming less and less healthy? An alarming trend.

Sugar is in the news for all wrong reasons. Though it is a taste maker for beverages and all sweetish products, its role in causing some diseases has made it a great villain. In fact to day's obesity epidemic is being attributed to greater consumption of white sugar. Whether there is universal agreement or not, sugar is considered by many as an addictive substance and its continued use is difficult to curbed because of this fact. It is for nothing that health experts are advocating putting restrictions on levels of added sugar present in processed products realizing the damage of potential of this "white demon"! though food industry is being pressured to cut down on added sugar in their product portfolio, such voluntary efforts cannot bring any dramatic results. From the industry view point consumer liking forms the basis of their product formulations and in a fiercely competitive market all players have to agree to restrict sugar levels in their products. What is alarming is that even children's foods are not spared when it comes to addition of sugar in their formulations. almost 30-35% of the products targeted at infants and young children have more sugar than necessary, obviously to attract more and more of their targets to their products. Even healthy products containing many nutritive ingredients are rendered unhealthy due to loading with sugar. Here is a take on this alarming situation in a country like USA where reliable data is available

A new CDC study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, tells us something about infants and sugar that is worrisome, though not especially surprising if you've been following the food industry's efforts to mislead the public and influence the science and policy on added sugar. The study examined the salt and sugar content of commercial infant and toddler food in the U.S. Researchers looked at a 2012 dataset of 1074 infant and toddler foods and beverages. Among infant products, they found that 41 of 79 mixed grains and fruits—i.e. healthy seeming items—contained more than one added sugar; in 35 infant items, more than 35 percent of calories came from sugar. Among toddler products, the researchers found that 72 percent of dinners and most cereal bars, breakfast pastries, fruit, snacks, desserts, and juices contained more than one added sugar. Given the American Heart Association's recommendations on added sugar, it's pretty clear from the CDC study that many very young children are getting too much.  How do parents know how much is too much?
The study concludes with advice to pediatricians. Namely, counsel parents to pay attention to labels on the food and drink products they buy for their infants and toddlers and try to limit the added sugar.  An added sugars declaration on the Nutrition Facts label would empower consumers with knowledge of how much sugar has been added to foods. Currently, the Nutrition Facts label does not provide parents with enough information to truly make informed decisions. Total sugar is listed in grams—not the more familiar teaspoons—and neither the amount of added sugar nor the percent daily value are provided. So parents, who may be trying diligently to follow their pediatricians' science-informed advice, cannot know how much sugar has been added to the foods and beverages they are feeding their infants and toddlers—or how much is too much.
As the FDA considers its proposed rule to update the Nutrition Facts label to include added sugar, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services are concurrently developing the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A forthcoming report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee—an independent scientific body tasked with providing guidance to the agencies—is expected to contain recommendations on limiting added sugar to a maximum of 10 percent of daily calories and including added sugar and percent daily value on the Nutrition Facts label. It would be an important, science-based step forward not only for parents of young children but for all Americans if the agencies decide to adopt the DGAC's recommendations on limiting and labeling added sugar.

The fact that early childhood eating practices have an important bearing on the body weight when they grow up, it is necessary that the nutritional standards of children's foods, especially infant foods are made stiff so that industry is not allowed a free hand in making and marketing whatever they feel like doing. When new guidelines are made there should be restrictions regarding use of the two white "poisons" viz, sugar and salt so that the future generations are not exposed to unnecessary dangers during their evolution into adulthood. Strict compliance must be insisted upon in stead of leaving them as just guidelines because voluntary efforts in a fragmented industry like food processing does not work as shown by past experience.

 V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Soil fertility-Do the inorganic fertilizers really serve to restore soil health?

The famed green revolution that catapulted India into the major league vis-a-vis grain production had lost its sting long ago and productivity has been stagnating ever since due to progressive decline in soil health. Massive application of inorganic fertilizers did help to increase productivity up to a point and response to these fertilizers is constrained by the poor over all health of the soil caused by intensive cultivation practices. According to many krishi pundits massive subsidies being paid by the government to farmers in the purchase of fertilizers cannot set this distortion right unless farmers take corrective measures to deal with impact of chemicals on micronutrients  and soil acidity. Here is a commentary on this often neglected aspect of modern agriculture.

"Soil fertility, particularly in the northern parts of the country, is steadily declining, thus raising concern for national food security. The situation, according to a Senior Research Fellow of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Mr Shashidhara Kolavalli, is partly the result of some farming practices such as overcropping. "Current agricultural practices 'mine' soil nutrients in the sense that nutrients extracted from soils through crops are not adequately replenished," he stated. The senior fellow was addressing selected journalists on soil fertility management and fertiliser subsidies to Ghanaian farmers. Mr Kolavalli informed the journalists of the arrival of a team of 10 experts in the country to offer recommendations to the government on how to solve challenges associated with offering fertiliser subsidies to farmers. He expressed the hope that the team's exchanges with stakeholders and policy makers would enable the government to structure policies that would address the issues of soil fertility management and fertiliser supply. Following significant increases in world food and fertiliser prices, Ghana and a number of other countries began to subsidise inorganic fertilisers in 2008. The aim was to encourage fertiliser use and also offer uniform prices of the product across the country. However, the cost of subsidies and the quantity of fertilisers attracting subsidies have increased tremendously over the years. Available figures show that a total of GH¢862.39 million was spent on subsidies between 2008 and 2011 by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and COCOBOD. Meanwhile, the MOFA fertiliser subsidy bill is projected to rise to GH¢136 million and account for over 35 per cent of its budget in 2020. Although inorganic fertiliser was required to replace lost nutrients, Mr Kolavalli said differences in soil characteristics such as active soil organic carbon, micronutrients and acidity might depress crop response to inorganic fertiliser. "The evidence is increasingly indicating that crop response to fertiliser can be significantly constrained by farmers' inability to manage and augment their soils over time."  Mr Kolavalli noted that, "Chemical fertiliser has a role but we cannot just focus on it as the panacea to solving soil fertility problems."

Organic farming may be the right answer to address this problem but where do we go for supply of huge quantities of organic and bio fertilizers to meet the demand if use of chemical fertilizers is to be restrained. Under such a scary situation what will the world at large, do to augment food production to meet the demands of a population expected to burgeon to more than 9 billion by the year 2050? Genetically modified foods are being promoted relentlessly by the genetic engineering industry as a "sure" solution to the stagnation in food production but there is not scientific evidence that GMO route can boost food production to any significant extent. Besides the safety of these unnatural foods obtained by gene manipulation cannot be adjudged absolutely safe based on the present knowledge we have so far. A whole new paradigm shift in the preset practices cannot be postponed further and it is time farmers are retrained to undertake rejuvenation of their farm lands through intervention by the agri varsities where adequate extension personnel are available. Over a period of time sufficient trained field workers must be produced for doing this task on an emergency basis. There seems to be no other option available to the world to stave off large scale scarcity of of essential foods in the coming years. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Canteen Foods Association-An Australian idea for food service in schools

Discussion about school lunch programs is a part of the continuous effort to improve the attendance in schools as well as to provide more nutritious foods to children away from home because of economic as well as other social factors. canteens in the school premises is not a common phenomenon in India but almost all schools in the US as well as in Australia have privately run catering contractors who offer cheap subsidized foods to the students. Colleges in India, however have this privately run canteen system where students can spend their off time for having some light foods and beverages. But the type of products served in these canteens is not regulated though there is supposed to be an overseeing committee to enforce quality, hygiene and sanitation and good manufacturing practices. In Australia where there are about 3000 schools food is offered in the school premises by members of a coalition called Australian School Canteens Association which oversees buying as well as food service practices under the school foods policies of the government. Since unlike Indian canteens where most foods are prepared in house, in Australia processed products supplied by food products industry are offered in the canteens. Only those manufacturers who are approved can supply foods to these canteens, thus exercising some control over the quality and safety of products purchased by the students. This is an interesting situation worth consideration in other countries also. Read further about it below: 

"Big food companies are muscling in on the lucrative school canteen industry to promote and sell their products to students. The canteen association, ASCA, which uses its buying power to deliver savings to more than 3000 Australian schools and canteens, estimates the industry is worth almost $1 billion. Association chief executive David Edwards said food companies did not make huge profits in schools but used canteens to promote their products to young audiences. "It is an important business. Some companies do it for brand recognition. If kids buy their products when they are young then they will probably continue buying it as adults." The association represents about 750 canteens in Victorian government, independent and Catholic schools and tries to deliver savings to schools through its buying power. All profit is donated to charity. About three food companies approach the association every week hoping to strike a deal. Increasing the profits of canteens and ensuring products met healthy food guidelines were the association's main aims, Mr Edwards said. In 2013 the association severed its ties with Coca-Cola and switched to Schweppes because "they had a healthier range of products", he said. Freedom Foods struck a deal with the association recently to supply schools with nut-free snack bars, which have been awarded a score of four out of five under a new health star rating system. Marketing director Rebecca Carson said students were incredibly involved in their buying decisions, and she hoped the deal helped the company expand. "Not only are our bars healthy but importantly they are also nut-free. Allergies in schools are a huge issue." Students who bought the company's snack bars at the canteen could then ask for them to be included in their lunch boxes, she said.An education department spokesman said clear guidelines were provided to canteen operators about what should be offered through a traffic light system, which categorises food into three categories according to their nutritional value."

The allegation that big food companies with muscle and clout with the government can force the Association to buy their products without giving a damn to the health guidelines may be genuine because world over powerful industries do have the necessary wherewithal to influence policies through their links with political administrators. Such distortion can cause double damage due to not only supply of "bad" foods but also because of brand building potential through such exposure to these foods in the canteens. But if the Association can run without succumbing to supplier pressure that is the best thing the student community can have. In Australia fortunately there are clear government buying guidelines which stipulate that only foods with traffic light symbols on the labels of foods that imply high healthy scores can be catered in school canteens. Thus not leaving the freedom to the suppliers to buy and sell any food in the school precludes corrupt influences that can distort the system to the detriment of the student community. It is time in India also the existing canteens in all large schools and colleges are brought under one umbrella and responsibility for controlling the profile of products catered is vested in that organization which has to be privately or cooperatively formed for the purpose. It is imperative that over a period of time canteen food portfolio is altered to reduce the proportion of in-house made products and include more and more centrally manufactured branded food with assured health values. Industry must evolve a separate nutrition rating system and offer highest rated products to the school canteens. Government can also give a boost to local food industries by helping them to link with school canteens provided they can make products with high safety and nutritional ratings.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com