OPINION
Embrace
your inner hybrid Can jargon of the “go green”
movement reboot human health?
Being sustainable and going green are all the rage
these days – and for good reason. The ground swell around these
often-overused words has been gaining for decades, due in large part
to the hard work of many, the public outcry to outrageous denials
and policies of a recent few, and a little film starring some guy
named Al. (more)
PEER REVIEW High
dietary intake of prebiotic inulin-type fructans from prehistoric
Chihuahuan Desert
Archaeological evidence from dry cave deposits in the northern
Chihuahuan Desert reveal intensive utilization of desert plants that
store prebiotic inulin-type fructans as the primary carbohydrate.
IAncient cooking features, stable carbon isotope analysis of human
skeletons, and well-preserved coprolites and macrobotanical remains
reveal a plant-based diet that included a dietary intake of ~135 g/d
of prebiotic inulin-type fructans by the average adult male
hunter-forager. (more)
OPINION
In
defense of bugs
On October
30, the thirteen newly appointed experts to the Dietary Guidelines
Advisory Committee will have their first meeting in Washington, D.C.
to begin the important job of culling the latest scientific and
medical research on human health and nutrition to update the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans and accompanying food pyramid for 2010.Unfortunately, given the fact that 90% of the cells in the
human body are microbial and only 10% are human, the absence of any
gut microbiologists amongst the gathered expertise will assure yet
another set of dietary guidelines will all but ignore . . . (more)
OPINION
/ Letter
Eat
bugs. Not too much. Mainly with plants.
As of August 22, 2008,
the Food and Drug and Administration (FDA) will allow food
processors to irradiate iceberg lettuce and fresh spinach for the
purpose of zapping E. coli and other pathogens. This ruling has been
some time in the making and was recently fast-tracked due to the
high profile spinach outbreak of 2006 and the pesky Salmonella
Saintpaul outbreak of 2008. (more)
OPINION
Op-Ed
Gut Check The
ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul has drawn outcry from
media, predictable knee-jerk proposals from lawmakers, and
understandable fear and confusion among consumers. As with outbreaks
in the past, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and processing plants and
farmers continue to take the blame for tainted food making us ill.
But is our All-American sick gut deserving of some blame as well?
(more)
OPINION Are
government recommendations for daily fibre intake too low?
an evolutionary perspective
It’s safe to say that our current chronic low-intake of dietary fibre in
the western world (~12 to 15g/d) – coupled with our overuse of
antibiotics and the increase in multiple antibiotic resistance in
pathogens – has started a large-scale genetic “re-engineering”
experiment on the slowly evolved and critical symbiotic relationship
between humans and our little evolutionary hitchhiking friends, with
limited discussion of its outcome on public health. (more)
k OPINION
E.
coli and the future health of America In
2006, Americans learned that a salad could be hazardous to your
health. The media flurry and the elected official posturing that
followed the September 14 outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 associated
with spinach, is still fresh on American minds and making daily
headlines thanks in no small part to the brisk recalls associated
with tainted beef. So
is our food supply less safe and are the growers, shippers and
various groups and agencies tasked with oversight not doing all they
can to protect the consumer from deadly microbes as some believe?
(more)
OPINION / Letter to the Editor Paleo Longevity Redux Geoffrey Cannon1 repeats a
widespread affirmation that “paleolithic people usually did not
survive into what we call later middle age.” His underlying point,
which is widely shared among researchers and the public at-large, is
that our ancestors did not live long enough to develop cancer, heart
disease and other chronic illnesses. All of which forms the basis
for the near universal belief that ancient hunter-gatherers (our
ancestors) really were not healthier or fitter than us moderns, and
therefore their ancient dietary practices have little relevance to
modern health, well-being, and longevity. (more)
PEER REVIEW Prebiotics in Ancient Diets While modern studies continue to expand our knowledge of the health
benefits of prebiotics, virtually nothing is known of their use
among ancient populations. Drawing on select ethnographic and
archaeological data, examples of prebiotic use in ancient diet is
presented. By utilizing well-documented cooking facilities found
throughout the archaeological record of North America used to cook
inulin-bearing plants as a proxy, prebiotic consumption is
documented in Europe and the Mediterranean possibly as early as
40,000 years ago. (more)
OPINION / Op-Ed
Fighting E. coli
the old-fashioned way In
the wake of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks associated with spinach and other
produce in 2006, the new 110th Congress will be dusting off and
reintroducing the Food Safety Act (S. 729), initially proposed in 2005 by
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), to assure the American public that the
government is working hard to substantially reduce future food-borne
outbreaks. (more)
OPINION
Unintended Consequences What happed to the Human Hybrid? As you read this,
there are millions of tiny microbes swimming around in the fluid
surrounding your eyeballs. But you can’t see them. There are millions more
under your finger nails, on your hands, arms, legs and just about every
imaginable section of your fleshy real estate. There are millions more
lining your moist nasal passage, many more maneuvering about your liver,
heart, lungs, pancreas and trillions more living throughout your
continuous gastrointestinal tract – from mouth to anus.
(more)
PEER REVIEW
Evolutionary
perspective on dietary intake of fibre and colorectal cancer
From an evolutionary
perspective, the ongoing discussion of fibres role in colorectal
cancer is possibly limited by the overall low intake of fibre
across study groups. Our ancestral diet consistently included a
diverse range of plants that regularly contributed >100 g/d of
dietary fiber. Importantly, this diversity assured that, due to a
range of physical and chemical structures, a steady flow of
fermentable substrates promoted metabolic activity into the distal
regions of the colon. more>>
,
paleobiotics
Paleobiotics are plant parts that, due
to their physical and chemical structure, escape digestion and
absorption in the small intestine of humans.
These nondigestible plant remains reach the colon where they are
fermented by the residing intestinal flora and have been shown to
selectively stimulate the growth and / or activity of health
promoting bacteria that confer demonstrated benefits upon the host.
Prehistoric populations that diversified their diet to include
paleobiotics would have enjoyed a selective advantage over
competitors.
Human Evolution, Nutritional
Ecology and Prebiotics in Ancient Diet
We discuss evidence for prebiotic use
in the archaeological record from select areas of the world. It is
suggested that members of our genus Homo would have had
sufficient ecological opportunity to include prebiotic-bearing
plants in diet as early as ~ 2 million years ago, but that
significant dietary intake would not have taken place until the
advent of technological advances that characterized the Upper
Paleolithic of ~40,000 years ago. more>>
Reconsidering
Prehistoric Yields of Cultivated Agave in AZ
The annual caloric return from harvested
agave has been overestimated by ~55% when you consider that inulin-type
fructans are the major storage carbohydrate in agave. As a nondigestible
carbohydrate, inulin and its subgroup oligofructose are not absorbed in
the small intestine, but are fermented in the large bowel and thus have a
lower net energy value than traditional carbohydrates such as starch.
more>>
Reconsidering
Prehistoric Yields of Cultivated Agave in AZ