Food companies and their misleading labels

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Food is for nutrition and to provide the body with energy and vital nutrients. Names of foods help us to know what the likely ingredients might be in it. But often, we notice that food names are misleading. They can fool a person into buying only to realize that it did not meet their expectations and imagination. For instance, take the example of samosa. An ideal samosa is refined wheat flour (maida) wrap with mashed potatoes and boiled peas inside. And when we say paneer samosa (cottage cheese stuffed fried dumplings), the picture that comes to our mind is of a wrap of refined wheat flour dough with paneer inside. But to your disappointment, you will find that these samosas are nothing but the normal samosas with mashed potatoes with or without boiled peas and just 1 small piece of cottage cheese at one corner!!! If we talk about rusks, most of these are made of refined wheat flour or maida which is not healthy. Maida is stripped of all the vital nutrients such as fiber, vitamins,
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The mystery of sex and sexual reproduction that even confused Charles Darwin, the father of evolution!

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Evolution has always helped the creatures of this world! It has allowed better survival and ways to do it. Evolution has led to the formation of the higher form of animals and humans. The process of replication has also evolved. First, it was the asexual means and in this, an organism divides and produces a progeny. This is seen in bacteria, some plants, and also some animals during certain times. And in the higher forms came the sexual reproduction. In this, two members of the same species have sex and the DNA or genome of the two combine to produce a new genome and life. This concept of sex and sexual reproduction is a mystery for scientists. Even Charles Darwin, the father of evolution was confused with this concept of sex. He wrote in the year 1862: 

"We do not even in the least know the final cause of sexuality; why new beings should be produced by the union of the two sexual elements. The whole subject is as yet hidden in darkness."

Sexual reproduction [Source: Quora]


If you think closely on it, compared to asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction is messier. It is more troublesome, more time-consuming, and more costly. Besides, the end result is a mixer and not a replica of the former being. It is also more dangerous because one member has to attract a mate for sex and the result of it a reproduction. With so many disadvantages, is there any probable advantage of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction? 

Any advantages of sexual reproduction?

There seem to be no obvious advantages of sexual reproduction. Hence scientists have to hypothesize and propose and postulate theories for it. In 1886, the evolutionary biologist from Germany, August Weismann had proposed one advantage. He stated that sexual reproduction gives an opportunity to reshuffle genes and produce a different person with individual differences. And sex is a process to combine two resources into one. He felt that this would help to have a better individual who can respond to environmental stresses in a better way! He stated that sex helps to speed up evolution. Do you agree? 

Sexual reproduction is messier, dangerous, and troublesome than asexual reproduction [Source: YouTube]

August also felt that some animals reproduce asexually for most of the year and switch to sexual reproduction when environmental stress is increased. 

Read here Mauritius and the story of its sugarcane plantations! 

Chris Adami and his opinion

Chris Adami from Michigan State University has a theoretical explanation for it. He states that evolution is about information acquisition and preservation. It is a learning process that an organism gets and passes it to the next generation through its DNA. This process is more efficient with sexual reproduction. He states: 

"Acquisition and maintenance of information are necessary for evolution to work – remembering the old and imagining the future."

Attracting act, choosing, and sexual selection in sexual reproduction [Source: Slideplayer]

But then the question is why have males? Charles Darwin felt that besides natural selection, another thing was acting on evolution. This was the sexual selection and it means preferences by one sex of certain characteristics in the other sex. These two are required for population genetic health. And the earliest thing to have a sexual reproduction was a red alga or a seaweed. 


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