Genetically Modified Potatoes Providing Protein For Third World

"-------- One of the things I have become very interested in is the development of better foods through cross-breeding and other natural means, while avoiding things that could cause the planet, or those on it, problems. It is not an easy thing to do, with the many easy ways of increasing yields through what has been found to be unscrupulous means.

In New Scientist, a story tells of the way that the protein needs of many in the third world are being partly met by potatoes, grown to have a higher amount of protein, and also being more adaptable to the growing areas, producing much greater overall yields. ------ "

http://www.lockergnome.com/greaterworld/2010/09/30/genetically-modified-potatoes-providing-protein-for-third-world/

Feeding the World Through Food Science

IFT newsletter September 2010, Volume 64, No.9

" ----- Early in my food science career as a student recruiter, adviser, and instructor, I never needed to assume a defensive stance toward our profession. For example, on the first Earth Day, in 1979, I gave a public lecture and proclaimed to the audience that technological tools would assure us a cleaner environment from which to extract air, water, and food. But eventually louder and louder anti-technology voices were heard in classrooms and elsewhere. Colleagues also heard them and we bemoaned the fact that all our textbooks were only descriptive and did not provide us with some sort of a 'unified field theory' to rely on in this new age of people belittling, even attacking, achievements in science and technology, including food processing.

My enthusiasm for the report 'Feeding the World' knows no bounds. I urge you to read it in the September issue of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1541-4337), to copy and disseminate it, and to integrate its message into your professional consciousness and practice."

by Manfred Kroger , Ph.D., an IFT Fellow, Scientific Editor of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety and Professor Emeritus of Food Science, Penn State University (kv7@psu.edu).

http://www.foodtechnology.org/food-technology/past-issues/2010/september/columns/perspective.aspx

Sweet potatoes, cassava, taro good for diabetics

"MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) yesterday said there are selected root crops that have low glycemic index (GI) and would be good for diabetics.

In a statement, the DOST’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) said sweet potato (kamote), cassava (kamoteng kahoy), taro (gabi) and yam (ube) are some of the starchy root crops found to have low GI.

GI is a classification of food based on the blood glucose response to a food relative to a standard glucose solution. Low glycemic foods control the release of glucose into the bloodstream at a steady and sustained rate, keeping the body’s metabolic processes and energy levels balanced."

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=616467&publicationSubCategoryId=75

Why belly fat increases in women after the age of 40 & what to do about it

"On September 28, 2010, the Dr. Oz show, seen in Sacramento on channel 58 (Dish Satellite) emphasized how to reduce belly fat in women over age 40. As your estrogen levels drop, your fat cells increase as your body tries to make more estrogen by making more fat cells, particularly around the waist or in the belly."

There's a lot more to this article.

http://www.examiner.com/vegan-in-sacramento/why-belly-fat-increases-women-after-the-age-of-40-what-to-do-about-it

Giving Consumers What They Want

IFT newsletter September 2010, Volume 64, No.9
Six new mega-trends and market challenges are demanding product developers’ attention.
A. ELIZABETH SLOAN

"Consumers are demanding dramatic changes in the way that food companies formulate, process, and even flavor foods as they continue to look to the food industry for more natural health solutions and increasingly convenient meal options. Following are six mega-trends and market challenges identified in IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo presentations and exhibits. Product developers and marketers who successfully address these issues are likely to find significant marketplace opportunities."

Read all about the six mega-trends.

http://www.ift.org/food-technology/past-issues/2010/september/features/giving-consumers-what-they-want.aspx?page=viewall

IINC 2010 Nutrigenomic Seminar

"One of the great challenges in genetics and nutrition is to understand how each individual interacts with, and responds to their environment. Diet is the most important environmental factor influencing expression of genetic information because of the constant exposure to nutrients in foods. The emerging discipline of nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics is the study of the effects of diet on the activity of an individual’s genes and health and the study of how different genetic makeup metabolizes nutrients. -------------- we in collaboration with The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI Southeast Asia Region) initiated to conduct an international conference in nutrigenomics."

http://www.kulone.com/ID/Event/1106646-IINC-2010-Nutrigenomic-Seminar

Unscrambling the Egg Disaster

September 28, 2010, By JAMES MCWILLIAMS

" --------- Writing in the Atlantic’s Food Channel, Barry Estabrook, former editor at Gourmet magazine, categorically condemned 'industrial-scale factory farming' as 'the cause of virtually every instance of bacterial food contamination the country has experienced in recent years.' It’s the 'huge farms and processors,' he explains, rather than the 'small producers who live near us' that 'have given us' E. coli, salmonella and listeria. Estabrook, who raises a posse of his own chickens in a backyard horse barn, was challenged by a reader to have his birds tested for salmonella. Admirably, he did. Verdict: clean. --------------

For all the intuitive logic supporting Estabrook’s argument (not to mention the clean bill of health awarded his birds), others are less convinced that industrial farming per se is the problem. In a CNN interview, Professor Michael Lacy, who heads Poultry Science at the University of Georgia, explained, 'I know of no research that shows large-sale egg farming is less safe than any other,' adding that 'there is no scientific evidence that free-range or organic eggs are less prone to S. Enteritidis.' Darrell Trampel, an Iowa State poultry diagnostician, agreed, telling Newsweek, 'Even today, we find Salmonella Enteritidis on small organic farms—it’s not just the big ones.' "

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/unscrambling-the-egg-disaster/

Conference Shared Ways to End the Obesity Epidemic

BY CLAIRE MITCHELL | SEP 29, 2010
" 'The status quo cannot remain,' implored Sam Kass, senior policy advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives and White House chef, during his keynote address that kicked off the 33rd Annual National Food Policy Conference last week. --------- The status quo to which Kass was referring is the 1 in 3 children in the US currently reported by the Centers for Disease Control to be obese, the $215 billion spent on annual economic costs associated with obesity, the portion sizes at restaurants that have expanded to be 2 to 5 times larger than historical servings, the 27 percent of people ages 17-34 who are ineligible for military service due to obesity, and the fact that for the first time in our history, the current generation of children may have a shorter life span than their parents.

Those statistics are just some of the reasons why this year's Food Policy Conference focused primarily on childhood obesity."

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/09/do-it-for-the-kids/

Punitive Damages Added to Salmonella Egg Lawsuits

BY ALEXA NEMETH | SEP 28, 2010
"Information brought to light during hearings before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has led to punitive damages being added to lawsuits against Quality Egg/Wright County of Iowa."

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/09/marler-clark-files-punitive-damages-against-wright-county-egg/

The Diet of the Future: Nutritional Genomics

"Since scientists in the Human Genome Project successfully decoded the human genome, the literal blue print of human beings, in 2003, medicine has been looking to take advantage of this information to enhance people’s health. Nutritional genomics (or Nutrigenomics) is a new field of study, based on the the Human Genome Project research, looking at the relationships between diet and how what you eat affects your genes.

-------------Epigenetics is an even newer field of study than genetics. Epigenetics looks into the way environmental factors influence your genes. Without delving into the science, environmental factors play a huge role in influencing the way genes work. Apparently, you can even influence future generations through epigenetic effects."

http://rycefitness.com/blog/2010/09/04/the-diet-of-the-future-nutritional-genomics/