Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 208

Nov 30, 2019

Red Wine Antioxidant Kills Cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Red wine has been known to be healthy for many reasons, but some recent studies show that antioxidants in red wine can actually kill cancer.

Not only is it helpful in preventing cancer, but it can also help to fight it once it has been detected.

Cancer is a life-threatening disease that can kill people of any age.

Nov 28, 2019

Studies Show that Breast Milk Grows Premature Infant Brains Faster than Formula

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, food, neuroscience

It’s easy to get excited about breast milk. Just the basic fact that a woman can eat food and turn it into a complete food instantly tailored to grow that particular newborn is quite outstanding. But there is more to breast milk than what meets the eye and understanding the perfection of it could mean a better life for premature babies.

For starters, when a baby suckles her mama’s breast, a vacuum is created. That’s right. Saliva in, milk out. The infant’s saliva is sucked back into the mother’s nipple, where receptors in her mammary gland read its signals. Katie Hinde, a biologist and associate professor at the Center for Evolution and Medicine at the School of Human Evolution & Social Change at Arizona State University, calls this “baby spit backwash,” and it contains information about the baby’s immune status. As far as scientists can tell, baby spit backwash is one of the ways that breast milk adjusts its immunological composition. When mammary gland receptors detect the presence of pathogens, the mother’s body produces antibodies to fight it, and those antibodies travel through breast milk back into the baby’s body, where they target the infection.

“[Breast] Milk is so incredibly dynamic,” says Hinde. “There are hormones in breast milk, and they reflect the hormones in the mother’s circulation. The ones that help facilitate sleep or waking up are present in your milk. And day milk is going to have a completely different hormonal milieu than night milk.” That broken-down means that breastmilk made at night contains hormones that help your baby sleep.

Nov 28, 2019

Robotic kitchen

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Four MIT graduates have just opened a restaurant where a robotic kitchen prepares the meals.

Nov 27, 2019

How I cured myself of chronic illness and reversed ageing | Darryl D’Souza | TEDxPanaji

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension

NOTE FROM TED: This talk, which was filmed at a TEDx event, contains several assertions about diet that come from the speaker’s own understanding of nutrition. While some viewers may find advice provided in this talk to be helpful, please do not look to this talk for medical advice. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdf

Can you cure your self from life threatening health problems? Can you reverse ageing? Darryl D’Souza, an expert in natural therapy and pioneer in integrated wellness and spirituality talks about how he reversed ageing by following simple laws of nature about food and nutrition. How the food that we eat today has become our poison and how we can reclaim our lives and good health. Darryl is the author of “Become Healthy or Extinct”, a book about reversing chronic illnesses with integrated natural therapy. The book has followers in over 150 countries. An engineer by profession, but drawn into the world of natural therapies after failed attempts by modern medicine to cure him of some serious illnesses at a young age. Darryl is a pioneer in Integrated Wellness & Spirituality and conducts life-transforming talks & workshops that expose the real causes of widespread sickness in society and he gives you breakthrough ideas on how to become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Nov 27, 2019

Space travel can make the gut leaky

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, space travel

Bacteria, fungi, and viruses can enter our gut through the food we eat. Fortunately, the epithelial cells that line our intestines serve as a robust barrier to prevent these microorganisms from invading the rest of our bodies.

A research team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has found that simulated microgravity, such as that encountered in spaceflight, disrupts the functioning of the epithelial barrier even after removal from the .

“Our findings have implications for our understanding of the effects of space travel on intestinal function of astronauts in space, as well as their capability to withstand the effects of agents that compromise intestinal epithelial barrier function following their return to Earth,” said Declan McCole, a professor of biomedical sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, who led the study published today in Scientific Reports.

Nov 27, 2019

This microbe no longer needs to eat food to grow, thanks to a bit of genetic engineering

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, food, genetics

Biochemical makeover allows Escherichia coli to use carbon dioxide as a building block for its cells.

Nov 26, 2019

Cows on Russian Farm Get Fitted with VR Goggles to Increase Milk Production

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability, virtual reality

On a farm near Moscow, the cows are walking around with VR goggles strapped to their heads in an effort to improve their living conditions, relax them, with the ultimate goal for them to produce more milk.

Nov 25, 2019

Experts unlock key to photosynthesis, a find that could help us meet food security demands

Posted by in categories: biological, food

Scientists have solved the structure of one of the key components of photosynthesis, a discovery that could lead to photosynthesis being ‘redesigned’ to achieve higher yields and meet urgent food security needs.

The study, led by the University of Sheffield and published today in the journal Nature, reveals the structure of cytochrome b6f — the protein complex that significantly influences plant growth via photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the foundation of life on Earth providing the food, oxygen and energy that sustains the biosphere and human civilisation.

Nov 25, 2019

These Bizarre Wormlike Creatures Eat Rock, Poop Sand, And May Even Redesign Rivers

Posted by in category: food

Most clams are happy to make their burrow in a nice, soft bed of sand or mud. Not this mollusc. A recently uncovered relative of the shipworm puts the hard into hardcore, chewing holes into rocks and excreting the debris as sand.

Lithoredo abatanica joins a short list of freshwater animals capable of literally weathering the landscape and creating real estate for other species to hide in, while potentially affecting the course of their river ecosystem.

Continue reading “These Bizarre Wormlike Creatures Eat Rock, Poop Sand, And May Even Redesign Rivers” »

Nov 24, 2019

Bacteria farms produce natural sugar safe for diabetics and teeth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, sustainability

Sugar poses one of the most pressing health problems in the modern world – not least because it’s just so delicious. Rather than quitting sweets cold turkey, low-calorie alternatives to sucrose could make tasty treats that are at least less bad for us. And now, researchers from Tufts University have developed a more efficient method for producing one such sweetener, using farms of bacteria.

The sugar in question is called tagatose, which the FDA says is “generally regarded as safe.” It’s 92 percent as sweet as sucrose – regular old table sugar – but because the human digestive system doesn’t metabolize as much of it, it only has 38 percent of the calories. That, in turn, means tagatose has a much smaller effect on blood glucose and insulin, making it safe for diabetics. And to cap it off, tests show that it doesn’t contribute to cavities or tooth decay.

But, of course, there’s a catch – tagatose is a little complicated to produce. Normally, it’s done by hydrolyzing lactose to make galactose, which is then isomerized into tagatose, which then needs to be purified and crystallized into a solid, usable form. Yields from this process are low, at less than 30 percent.