SODIS Method Makes Water Safe to Drink

July 25, 2011 | by

Each year, nearly one billion people around the world lack access to safe, clean water [1]. Water is essential for life, yet less than 1% of water on the planet is safe to drink. This is especially a problem in developing countries or during natural disasters. Take Hurricane Katrina: back in 2005 when it hit the Gulf Coast, one of the biggest needs for storm victims was access to clean drinking water.

In the United States and Europe, people take it for granted that when they turn on the faucet, clean water will flow out. Indeed, a single flush of a toilet in the West uses more water than most Africans have to perform an entire day’s washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking [2].

Securing access to safe water worldwide is vitally important. Clean water is essential for agriculture, food and energy production, recreation and reduction of poverty. More than 2 million people, most of them children, die every year from water-borne diseases. And time is of the essence: by 2020, more people could die of water-related diseases than those that have died due to HIV/AIDS [2].

SODIS in Indonesia

My Plate Replaces Food Pyramid to Help Consumers Eat Better

July 6, 2011 | by

Last month, First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled the federal government’s new food icon, MyPlate. MyPlate is a new generation icon with the intent to prompt consumers to think about building a healthy plate at meal times. The new icon will replace the MyPyramid image as the government’s primary food group symbol as an easy-to-understand visual cue to help consumers adopt healthy eating habits consistent with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans [1].

Choose My Plate

A New Flavour of Journal is Coming to BioMed Central

May 5, 2011 | by

Today more than ever, science is playing a pivotal role in food and cooking as the worlds of the laboratory and the kitchen come closter together. A perfect example of this in today’s culture is the Food Network show Good Eats with Alton Brown along with websites like the Science of Cooking, Molecular Recipies, Modernist Cuisine and the Molecular Gastronomy Network.

The result of this movement to bring science into the kitchen is Molecular Gastronomy, the application of biological and chemical knowledge to cooking. Molecular Gastronomy is a discipline practiced by both scientists and food professionals to study the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking.

Biomed Central Flavour

Genetic Risk Factor for Peanut Allergies Identified

April 26, 2011 | by

It is difficult to find a school, camp or other facility catering to children these days that is not nut free. The prevalence of peanut allergies in preschool and school age children in the UK, the US and Canada is between 1.2 – 1.6%, which is about twice the rate at which it occurs in adults in these countries. Nut allergies, especially peanut allergies, are scary. And although they have been on the rise, no one really knows why. Researchers in Scotland recently reported in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that mutations in the gene for filaggrin, a protein found in skin, are a “significant risk factor for peanut allergy” [1].

Peanuts and peanut butter

Vitamin C Improves the Mood of Acutely Hospitalized Patients

November 23, 2010 | by
ResearchBlogging.org

According to new research, supplementation with vitamin C could improve the emotional state of hospitalized patients [1]. The study, published in the journal Nutrition, demonstrates that increasing vitamin C levels in acutely hospitalized patients results in a rapid, statistically and clinically significant improvement in mood state.

Sixty percent of patients in hospitals have extremely low levels of vitamin C. Their plasma levels are less than half that of normal levels; one in five patients have levels so low that they have scurvy, a condition characterized by general weakness, anemia, gum disease and skin hemorrhages as a result of vitamin C deficiency. But rather than giving them sauerkraut, like eighteenth century sailors received to combat scurvy on long voyages, Dr. John Hoffer at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal gave them vitamin C supplements. He found that their moods improved significantly.