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Showing posts from July, 2021

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,

Types of breads available in the world based on ingredients

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Bread is made of wheat. There are different types of reads available in the market. The goodness of these varies. Let us have a look at the types of breads available in the world markets. These types are based on the ingredients used in making bread  1. Regular white bread-This is made of refined wheat flour. The flour is made of wheat that is stripped of its nutrients and fiber. Some of these breads are fortified with vitamins A and D in line with national food product fortification programs.  Read here:  How to tackle insomnia?  2. Whole wheat bread-In this, the flour used is made from whole wheat. The bran, germ, and endosperm all three parts of the whole wheat grain are present in the flour used to make this type of bread. Hence it is healthy and nutritious. Its fiber content is more and so are the vitamins and minerals. It is wholesome.  3. Brown bread- Brown bread is a general term used for brown colored bread. But if need not necessarily be made of whole wheat though people thin

Galapagos islands giant tortoises and the bacterial resistance in them!!!

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 Worldwide antibiotic resistance has shown a tremendous surge. The covid pandemic has led to more of this due to irrational use of antibiotics for this new and unknown viral disease. At the same time, scientists have found that it is spreading also to wildlife. The Galapagos tortoises who are in close contact with human settlements on the islands have also demonstrated a rise in antibiotics resistant bacteria in their body.  The study on Galapagos tortoises Researchers attached to Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine (ICM), the Animal Health Research Center (INIA-CISA), the Complutense University, and the European University of Madrid, with the staff from the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) conducted a study on the giant tortoises of the Galapagos islands. It was part of the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Program (GTMEP).  They analyzed fecal samples of 270 tortoises from the famous islands. They were basically looking

What is immune age? How to determine it? What is the benefit of knowing it?

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 We usually talk about chronological age. But there is another new type of age that doctors on Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project are able to determine. It is called immune age and it has fairly good predictive capacity of aging. The study Researchers on Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project assessed 50 inflammatory markers called cytokines in blood of volunteers and linked it with aging, inflammation, body fraility, and chronic illnesses. Gene activation and immune responses were also carried out in the collected cells.  They also estimated these in adults over 60 years, over 65 years, and in centenarians. They used artificial intelligence (AI) called deep neural network to estimate the immune age or iAge. Immune age metric (Source: Live Science)  How to tackle insomnia naturally?  Findings They found that the most important cytokine was CXCL9. This cytokine level predicts body and cardiovascular health and was also a strong predictor of immune age. When genes for CXCL9 was knocked out in coll

Natural ways to tackle insomnia

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 Almost all of us have experienced inability to sleep or insomnia at some time in our life. There are multiple reasons for it. It may occur for a short while due to some problems of life or become chronic if problem persists or treatment is not taken for it.  Doctors prescribe drugs for insomnia. It helps but as long as the drug is taken. If the root cause is not rectified, the insomnia could do a comeback once the medicines are stopped. Additionally, drugs also have their own issues of mild to severe side effects. Hence it is best and in the interest of the patient over the lo g term to try ways to tackle insomnia with our resort to medications.  The best way to deal with insomnia is to weed out the root cause of it. The reason of worry, tension, or anxiety should be removed in order to get a sound sleep. But this is not always possible. So the next step is to try out natural ways to get an adequate amount of proper sleep.  1. Some people are unable to get sleep in new location. Try t