food and nutrition – Page 7 – MyWellness Network

Getting Enough Calcium

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Most Americans are developing a vitamin D deficiency. Calcium intake goes hand-in-hand with Vitamin D.

Your body needs calcium to build strong bones when you are young and to keep bones strong as you get older. Everyone needs calcium, but it’s especially important for women and girls.

Girls ages 9 to 18 need 1,300 mg (milligrams) of calcium every day.
Women ages 19 to 50 need 1,000 mg of calcium every day.
Women over age 50 need 1,200 mg of calcium every day.

Calcium can help prevent osteoporosis (weak bones).
One in 2 women and 1 in 4 men over the age of 50 will break a bone because of osteoporosis (“os-tee-oh-puh-ROH-sis”). Some people don’t know they have osteoporosis until they break a bone.

Calcium helps to keep your bones strong and less likely to break.

Q: How can I get enough calcium?
A: There are 2 easy ways to get your calcium:

1. Eat foods with calcium every day, such as:
Fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk, yogurt, and cheese
Broccoli, spinach, and other green leafy vegetables
Tofu with added calcium
Soy-based drinks (soymilk) with added calcium
Orange juice with added calcium
2. Take a calcium pill every day. You can choose a pill that has only calcium or a multivitamin with calcium. Let your doctor know you are taking extra calcium.

Healthy Eating Tips

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests:

A healthy diet can help protect you from heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Get tips on how to eat healthy on a budget, plan ahead to save time, and eat healthy away from home.

Econimic Benifits of GM Crops

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PG Economics is a UK based research company. They have found:

In the sixteenth year of widespread adoption, crop biotechnology has delivered an unparalleled level of farm income benefit to the farmers, as well as providing considerable environmental benefits to both farmers and citizens of countries where the technology is used.

“Where farmers have been given the choice of growing GM crops, adoption levels have typically been rapid. Why? The economic benefits farmers realize are clear and amounted to an average of over $130/hectare in 2011” said Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics, co-author of the report. “The majority of these benefits continue to increasingly go to farmers in developing countries. The environment is also benefiting as farmers increasingly adopt conservation tillage practices, build their weed management practices around more benign herbicides and replace insecticide use with insect resistant GM crops. The reduction in pesticide spraying and the switch to no till cropping systems is continuing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture”.

Previewing the study – “GM crops: global socio-economic and environmental impacts 1996-2011”, the key findings are:

* The net economic benefit at the farm level in 2011 was $19.8 billion, equal to an average increase in income of $133/hectare. For the 16 year period (1996-2011), the global farm income gain has been $98.2 billion;
* Of the total farm income benefit, 49% ($48 billion) has been due to yield gains resulting from lower pest and weed pressure and improved genetics, with the balance arising from reductions in the cost of production;
* The insect resistant (IR) technology used in cotton and corn has consistently delivered yield gains from reduced pest damage. The average yield gains over the 1996-2011 period across all users of this technology has been +10.1% for insect resistant corn and +15.8% for insect resistant cotton;
* A majority (51%) of the 2011 farm income gains went to farmers in developing countries, 90% of which are resource poor and small farms. Cumulatively (1996-2011), about 50% of the benefit each went to farmers in developing and developed countries;
* The cost farmers paid for accessing crop biotechnology in 2011 was equal to 21% of the total technology gains (a total of $24.2 billion inclusive of farm income gains ($19.8 billion) plus cost of the technology payable to the seed supply chain ($5.4 billion(1,2)));
* For farmers in developing countries the total cost of accessing the technology in 2011 was equal to 14% of total technology gains, whilst for farmers in developed countries the cost was 28% of the total technology gains. The higher share of total technology gains accounted for by farm income gains in developing countries relative to the farm income share in developed countries mainly reflects weaker provision and enforcement of intellectual property rights coupled with higher average levels of benefits in developing countries;
* Between 1996 and 2011, crop biotechnology was responsible for an additional 110 million tonnes of soybeans and 195 million tonnes of corn. The technology has also contributed an extra 15.8 million tonnes of cotton lint and 6.6 million tonnes of canola;
* If crop biotechnology had not been available to the (16.7 million) farmers using the technology in 2011, maintaining global production levels at the 2011 levels would have required additional plantings of 5.4 million ha of soybeans, 6.6 million ha of corn, 3.3 million ha of cotton and 0.2 million ha of canola. This total area requirement is equivalent to 9% of the arable land in the US, 25% of the arable land in Brazil or 28% of the cereal area in the EU (27);
* Crop biotechnology has contributed to significantly reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices. This results from less fuel use and additional soil carbon storage from reduced tillage with GM crops. In 2011, this was equivalent to removing 23 billion kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or equal to removing 10.2 million cars from the road for one year;
* Crop biotechnology has reduced pesticide spraying (1996-2011) by 474 million kg (-9%). This is equal to the total amount of pesticide active ingredient applied to arable crops in the EU 27 for one and three-quarter crop years. As a result, this has decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on the area planted to biotech crops by 18.1%(3);
* The environmental gains from the GM IR traits have mostly derived from decreased use of insecticides, whilst the gains from GM HT traits have come from a combination of use of more environmentally benign products and facilitation of changes in farming systems away from conventional to reduced and no tillage production systems in both North and South America. This change in production system has reduced levels of GHG emissions from reduced tractor fuel use and additional soil carbon storage.

Copper Connected to Alzheimer’s Disease

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America has conducted a study linking the consumption of copper to Alzheimer’s:

Significance
The causes of the sporadic form of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are unknown. In this study we show that copper (Cu) critically regulates low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1–mediated Aβ clearance across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in normal mice. Faulty Aβ clearance across the BBB due to increased Cu levels in the aging brain vessels may lead to accumulation of neurotoxic Aβ in brains. In a mouse model of AD low levels of Cu also influences Aβ production and neuroinflammation. Our study suggests that Cu may also increase the severity of AD.

Abstract
Whereas amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulates in the brain of normal animals dosed with low levels of copper (Cu), the mechanism is not completely known. Cu could contribute to Aβ accumulation by altering its clearance and/or its production. Because Cu homeostasis is altered in transgenic mice overexpressing Aβ precursor protein (APP), the objective of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of Cu-induced Aβ accumulation in brains of normal mice and then to explore Cu’s effects in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. In aging mice, accumulation of Cu in brain capillaries was associated with its reduction in low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), an Aβ transporter, and higher brain Aβ levels. These effects were reproduced by chronic dosing with low levels of Cu via drinking water without changes in Aβ synthesis or degradation. In human brain endothelial cells, Cu, at its normal labile levels, caused LRP1-specific down-regulation by inducing its nitrotyrosination and subsequent proteosomal-dependent degradation due in part to Cu/cellular prion protein/LRP1 interaction. In APPsw/0 mice, Cu not only down-regulated LRP1 in brain capillaries but also increased Aβ production and neuroinflammation because Cu accumulated in brain capillaries and, unlike in control mice, in the parenchyma. Thus, we have demonstrated that Cu’s effect on brain Aβ homeostasis depends on whether it is accumulated in the capillaries or in the parenchyma. These findings should provide unique insights into preventative and/or therapeutic approaches to control neurotoxic Aβ levels in the aging brain.

In a separate study, playing a musical instrument was found to and years to the life of the brain.

Children And Malnutrition

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By President Obama

Last June, the United States, India, Ethiopia, and UNICEF hosted the Global Child Survival Call to Action event in Washington, DC. In India, 43% of children under the age of five are underweight and 48% are chronically undernourished. To address this and other causes of child deaths that can be prevented, India issued a national Call to Action for Child Survival and Development to end all preventable child deaths by 2035.

Yesterday I wrote about my time in Kachhpura and how they are working to end malnutrition. Today I attended a roundtable discussion with Government of Maharashtra Officials, USAID, UNICEF, Indian civil society and private sector representatives to learn about their efforts to improve nutrition across the country and to make available other proven health interventions to prevent child deaths, such as immunizations, clean water, and treatment of pneumonia and diarrhea.

As a mom, this is a personal issue for me as no parent wants to see her child go hungry or be sick. I am inspired by how the communities that I have visited have launched into action to tackle this problem. I am heartened to learn of the joint efforts of the Indian government, civil society and private sector in close collaboration with the U.S. and UN Agencies to target children between 0 and 35 months old, one of the most vulnerable groups. I look forward to seeing their continued progress in the future.

After leaving the roundtable discussion, I continued on to The Dilaasa Crisis Intervention Department for Women in Bandra, an area in Mumbai. The center is the first hospital-based crisis center in India for female survivors of domestic violence and came out of a partnership between the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, a public entity, and the Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, a private trust. This relationship illustrates how dedicated both the people and the government are to creating a safe space for the victims of gender based violence and to ensuring that this nightmare ends for so many women.

In Hindi, Dilaasa means “reassurance,” and it seems that the center has gone above and beyond that mission for each of the 2,000 women it has cared for so far. Dilaasa provides a safe and anonymous space for women to seek support, a promise the women I met with were so appreciative of. The center focuses on empowering these women by helping them understand that the cause of violence is external to them. I could see the power of this approach in my conversations with the center¹s survivors. I am still amazed by the incredible strength of each woman I was able to meet.