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Weve all been taught the same diet myth since we were tweens. Diet, lose weight, get a perfect body, be happy. Go from your before photo to your after. Its a clean, linear journey that we buy into in the form of products, programs, and the zeitgeist of weight loss in our world today.

If I fail at this clean, linear transformation, we think, theres something wrong with me.

We get in our heads and internalize dieting failures. Im lazy, I lack discipline, I dont want it badly enough, Im (gasp) an emotional eater. Put down the cookie and get it together, honey! We tell ourselves terrible things when we dont achieve the transformation we are seeking from dieting.

Happiness is just six weeks away. If you could just stop being such a fat slob and stick to your diet plan--right?

The "diet myth" promises us a clean, one-time, linear journey to happiness: Diet, lose weight, get a perfect body, be happy. . But this clean, linear journey doesn't really exist. Many women don't succeed at losing weight through dieting. . Even if you do, @neda has found that 95% of dieters will regain their lost weight within 5 years. . The diet myth is just that--a myth. And you have better things to do with your precious time, money, and energy than spend it all buying into yet another diet plan, program, or "get thin quick" solution. . Dieting isn't the answer, Loves--choosing to love your body, exactly as it is, and taking the best possible care of that body right now, is. | @bryanwhitely hmu @laurenolearybeauty

A post shared by Melinda Parrish (@melparrishplus) on Mar 16, 2017 at 8:15am PDT

The diet myth is just that--a myth. And you have better things to do with your precious time, money, and energy than spend it all buying into yet another diet plan, program, or "get thin quick" solution.

The reality is that most people dont lose very much weight from dieting. Those that do lose weight tend to gain it back, plus more. 95% of dieters regain their lost weight within 5 years, according to NEDA. Not only that, but multiple studies have shown that dieting is actually associated with greater weight gain, rather than weight loss.

The unicorns among us that do manage to lose 10, 20, 50, 100 or more pounds get to their weight loss goal and still find flaws with what they see. Plastic surgeons are now marketing solutions specifically to patients who are successful at losing weight through gastric bypass. The after photo, if you even manage to get there, is not all that its cracked up to be.

Were spending upwards of $60 Billion on diet and weight loss here in America. Based on the statistical truths about dieting, we would be better off throwing that money out the window while we cruise down the freeway.

Or funding Planned Parents annual operating budget 60 times over. Or giving 60 Million pets a forever home. Or building 7.5 Million wells to provide clean drinking water to the developing world. We could do a great deal more with those resources than simply chasing an unattainable standard of body perfection.

Reading this might make you feel deflated or hopeless--but it shouldnt! This is an incredibly liberating truth. You are free from feeling obligated to buy into another plan or program. You dont have to go through your days restricting your eating. You dont have to use up your brain power assessing your food choices against the latest diet craze. You dont have to use up your precious time, energy, and resources buying into the diet myth.

Whether you just inhaled a bag of Cheetos or ran a half marathon, you are free to love the body that you have right now. Even if you do want to lose weight, improve your health, or transform parts of your exterior, it starts with loving your body exactly as it is. Reinforce that love for your body every single day. Celebrate what your body is capable of doing.

When you approach your diet and exercise choices from a place of self-love, it all comes together, and youll be able to make the true transformation to a more healthy lifestyle.

So please, I beg of you. Dont go on another bikini body diet. Just love the body that you have, harder than ever before.

Want a weekly dose of Body Love? Sign up for the #healthyatanysize community with Melinda Parrish.

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Diets Don't Work, Body Love Does | The Huffington Post - Huffington Post

A moderate reduction in food intake, known as dietary restriction, protects against multiple aging-related diseases and extends life span, but can also suppress growth and fertility. A research group from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne has now developed a diet based on the model organism's genome, which enhances growth and fecundity with no costs to lifespan.

What is the best path to a long and healthy life? Scientists had a relatively simple answer for many years: less food. But it turned out that this could have unpleasant consequences. Experiments showed that putting flies or mice on diet could impair their development and fecundity. How could we take advantage of the beneficial effects of dieting, and at the same time avoid the damaging effects?

Genome-based diet

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London have now designed a diet based on the model organism's genome. In the study they calculated the amount of amino acids a fruit fly would need, thereby defining the diet's amino acid composition.

"The fly genome is entirely known. For our studies we used only the sections in the genetic material that serve as templates for protein assembly - the exons, which collectively make up the 'exome.' Then we calculated the relative abundance of each amino acid in the exome, and designed a fly diet that reflects this amino acid composition," explains George Soultoukis, scientist in the department of Linda Partridge, director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London.

Using a holidic fly diet previously developed by the team to enable manipulation of individual nutrients such as amino acids, the group found that flies eating this exome-matched diet develop a lot faster, grow bigger in size, and lay more eggs compared to flies fed a standard diet. Remarkably, the flies on the exome-matched diet lived as long as slower-growing, fewer-egg-laying flies fed with "standard" diets.

"The flies that had free access to the exome-matched diet even ate less than controls. Thus, high quality protein, as defined by the genome, appears to have a higher satiety value," said Matthew Piper, who conducted the work at UCL and is now working at Monash University.

The study also found that similar phenomena may occur in mice, and future mouse work could further improve our understanding of how and why diets affect mammalian lifespan.

"Our aim now is to characterize the effects of genome-based diets upon mammalian lifespan," says Soultoukis.

Human diet

In theory this approach is applicable to all organisms with a sequenced genome including humans.

"Dietary interventions based on amino acids can be a powerful strategy for protecting human health. Obviously factors such as age, gender, health, and personal lifestyle also have to be taken into account. Future studies may still employ novel -omics data to design diets whose amino acid supply matches the needs of an organism with even higher precision. Understanding why we need amino acids in the amounts we do will be key, and such studies provide novel and powerful insights into the vital interactions between nature and nurture," explains Soultoukis.

Read more here:
Genome-based Diets Maximize Growth, Fertility, Lifespan - Laboratory Equipment

DuPont says its new enzyme combination for inclusion in Indian layer diets has the ability to improve egg production by 2% and feed conversion ratio by 3%.

This week, DuPont Industrial Biosciences announced the launch of Axtra XBPHY, a new three-in-one enzyme product that promises to improve layer performance in hens whose diets are high in phytate and non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs).

The enzyme combination was developed specifically with the fast-growing Indian layer market in mind, but DuPont told FeedNavigator it could have application in other markets.

While it is still early, we are already experiencing great feedback from customers. Because of this initial encouragement, we will now look to other local markets to better understand diet composition nuances and the specific challenges customers face in achieving optimum layer performance. The outcome of that work will help us develop the best solution to meet customer needs in those markets, said Dr Ajay Awati, poultry segment manager atDupont Industrial Biosciences.

Indian layer diets usually consist of ingredients with lower digestibility caused by high levels of NSPs like bajra (millet), cotton seed meal, rice distillers dried grains with solubles, de-oiled rice bran, rapeseed and sunflower meal.

Internal ingredient profiling work conducted by DuPont found that this diet is high in the anti-nutrients phytate and NSPase.

The phytate in the diet not only makes valuable phosphorus unavailable but also has anti-nutritional effects that bind nutrients and make them unavailable for digestion. Similarly, NSPs, especially present in the cell wall structure of the feed ingredients, can hinder access to nutrients inside the cell and reduce digestibility of those nutrients, affecting the overall performance of the birds, explained Dr Awati.

Layer hen trials designed to examine the effectiveness of its enzymes to target specific anti-nutrients led DuPont to the development of Axtra XBPHY - a combination of phytase, xylanase and beta-glucanase.

Explaining how this trio of enzymes works to increase nutrient availability, Dr Awati said: By increasing the degradation of phytate with a fast acting phytase, you release much needed phosphorus, along with bound nutrients. Combining that with xylanase and beta-glucanases to degrade fibers and NSPs from the cell wall makes the nutrients that were trapped inside the cell wall accessible to the birds own enzymes. This increases the overall nutrient availability from low cost, high fiber diets and is reflected in the performance improvement of laying hens.

He said that DuPont had observed egg production and feed conversion ratio improvements of up to 2% and 3% in its own research, and had observed a significant increase in egg weights when adding the NSPase portion of the enzyme on top of a diet.

Depending on whether a customers objective is feed cost reduction or laying hen performance improvement, the enzyme can be applied either with nutrients and energy matrices or over the top of current diets, he said.

The enzyme combo is formulated in free-flowing granular form for adding directly or via a premix at a rate of 0.2kg/ton (0.02% of complete feed).

To date, the benefits of Axtra XBPHY have only been tested in internal trials, but DuPont confirmed that it is running trials with customers to demonstrate its effectiveness in commercial settings.

In addition, a number of DuPonts layer customers are testing the product within their facilities.

We are positive that the outcome will confirm the value provided by Axtra XBPHY to Indian layer customers, said Dr Awati.

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DuPont cracks enzyme combo for boosting Indian layer production - FeedNavigator.com

Which diets are most effective, according to science? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

The obvious question about what diets work best, is are theyeffective for what? Im going to assume we mean most effective at helping us achieve and/or maintain a healthy weight and maximize our health in doing so.

I think diets that make us leaner and healthier are the diets that remove those components of the diet that cause us to get fat and cause the chronic diseases that associate with obesity and diabetes. As I clearly believe the worst offenders there are added sugars (sucrose and HFCS) and then refined, easily digestible carbohydrates, then the most effective diets are the ones that remove the sugars and high-GI carbs. And diets that work, regardless of the fat content, do so because they remove these carbohydrates. Indeed, by merely trying to avoid added sugars as part of a healthy diet, that means well have to avoid virtually all of the processed foods in the grocery stores, which means well be avoiding a significant amount of the other processed carbs, virtually all of the vegetable oils, etc. Well be healthier and we wont even know why or whether I was right that the sugar was the problem.

The flip side of that is my believe that if a diet like Dean Ornishs very low-fat diet works, its primarily because it, too, removes the sugars and white flour (for the same reason I think any diet should). If vegan and vegetarian diets work, or when they work, its for this reason as well.

That said. my reading of the existing clinical trial on diets is that the ideal diets for most of us (who arent necessarily world class athletes trying to enhance their performance) are indeed low-carb, high-fat or at least some variation like the paleo diet. I recognize that these diets will raise LDL cholesterol or LDL particle number in some proportion of the people who eat them, but because they seem to do such an effective job at resolving insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, I would bet that theyre more than worth the trade-off. (Again, if Im wrong, I apologize.)

Ketogenic diets, in which carbs are restricted almost entirely and replaced by fat, clearly have remarkable clinical efficacy in resolving a host of disease states, from obesity and diabetes to epilepsy and perhaps other neurological problems as well. I expect theyd even go a long way to preventing cancer and dementia, but thats speculation and has yet to be rigorously tested in any meaningful way.

This question originally appeared on Quora. -the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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Which Diets Are Most Effective According to Science? - Huffington Post

The term marginal gains became familiar during the 2012 Olympic games in London. As team GB demolished the world, head coach Dave Brailsford talked about marginal gains as being one of the keys to their success.

At the elite end of the spectrum, making athletes fitter, stronger and faster becomes increasingly difficult. The law of diminishing returns means that the better someone gets, the harder they have to train for smaller gains; until the point is reached where no matter how hard you train, you will only get a tiny bit better, if at all. So how can you improve? How can you improve so much that you beat every other team in the world. Marginal gains.

Instead of focusing on one seemingly obvious but difficult goal like making an athlete fitter marginal gains instead looks to make small improvements to many small areas of the sport. Although some of these areas and changes may seem inconsequential, added together they are the difference between bronze and gold.

At British cycling the athletes were taught how to wash their hands properly. This means less infections and colds; so more training time. They started wearing heated trousers before and between races to ensure their muscles were at optimum temperature to perform. They changed the shape of their helmets. They got slightly lighter wheels. Each small, marginal gain might only be tiny 0.2% perhaps. But added together they equal much more. Enough to win. By applying this theory to health and weight loss, what may seem an impossible task can be made easy.

Physics dictates that to lose 2lbs a week, we need to eat 500 calories less than we need every day. Thats a lot - more than a whole meal. But instead of just trying to eat a lot less, by making small changes to both input (food, drink) and output (metabolic rate, exercise) this large amount can be chipped away into achievable amounts.

Marginal gains will help you to burn more calories with less energy. Get a smart watch that counts your steps or tells you to get up from your office chair every hour. Thats 50 calories a day burned. Walk around the office when on the phone; thats another 30 a day. Use a basket at the supermarket, not a trolley. And park further away. Thats another 50 calories a day. Do some short, challenging strength training. Even once a week will be enough to boost your metabolic rate by 25 calories a day. Do some very short, but intense intervals. A couple of these a week gets you 50 calories a day.

Already those small changes add up to 205 calories a day. Now you only have to eat 295 calories less per day to lose those 2lbs.

Applying the theory of marginal gains to food works too! Get some smaller plates and bowls. -50 calories a day. Drink more water, making you feel fuller; -50 calories a day. Include protein in every meal, making you feel fuller; -50 calories a day. Swap wine for prosecco in the evening. Thats another 50. Look at the menu before eating out so that you can make a slightly smarter choice; another 95 calories saved. 295 calories saved. Add in the extra calories burned, and thats your 500.

So try to make small, achievable changes in lots of different areas to make a big change in your health and weight. Marginal gains will help you get your own gold medal.

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Diets Don't Work: Marginal gains - Maidenhead Advertiser

An internist who changed her career and turned around her health after discovering the peer-reviewed power of a plant-based diet, Dr. Saray Stancic comes to Maine next month to deliver the keynote address at the annual Maine Nutrition Council conference. Her speech will focus on her personal journey and the shift she says needs to happen in health care.

What I speak to is evidence-based, Stancic told me by phone from her practice in Ridgewood, New Jersey. We need to get this message out to everyone. We need to get this into the curricula of U.S. medical schools. This is going to require society to change.

Sonja Carvalho, who manages food programs for Catholic Charities and chairs the Maine Nutrition Councils board of directors, said the council decided to focus on plant-based nutrition in response to requests from conference attendees. The council choose Stancic as speaker, Carvalho said, because she had an interesting story and was experienced in the field, not just professionally but personally.

The conference is scheduled for April 10 at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta. The days programming also includes a talk about water quality, a panel on diet and disease prevention, a plant-based cooking demonstration (see sidebar) and an all-vegan lunch.

In addition to the keynote address, Stancic will deliver a talk on managing autoimmune disease with diet, which led to her entering the field of plant-based medicine. It happened years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 28 while working an overnight shift at the hospital.

By 2003, Stancic had been suffering from MS for years, needed a cane or crutch to walk and was taking a dozen medications a day to manage the condition. One day, she came across a study that found a blueberry-rich diet helped reduce fatigue in MS patients. She was skeptical In all my training, never did any mentors or professors mention a connection between diet and disease, Stancic said but the idea that they might be linked persisted.

I started to read the peer-reviewed medical literature, and I found that diet was the most important variable in preventing disease and treating chronic disease, Stancic said.

She adopted a plant-based, vegan diet herself, and even though MS is considered an incurable, degenerative disease, her symptoms gradually faded. Soon she no longer needed a crutch to walk. She stopped talking her medications. Six years after she became a vegan, she was able to run a marathon.

Meanwhile, she was working as an infectious disease specialist and often consulted with patients who had diabetes and other chronic conditions. She began to share information with them about the impact of a plant-based diet, and she saw that their own conditions improved when they changed their own diets.

Dr. Saray Stancic left her career in infectious diseases five years ago and opened a practice devoted to plant-based, lifestyle medicine. Photo by Marcia Machado

Five years ago, she left her career in infectious disease to open Stancic Health & Wellness, a practice focused on plant-based, lifestyle medicine. She is interested in both helping her patients and in spreading the word.

I have a lot of patients in my practice who are doctors, Stancic said. If I get that doctor healthy, they can apply the information to their patients.

She also mentors Rutgers New Jersey Medical School students who are interested in lifestyle medicine.

We have to equip and educate not only our patients but our doctors, Stancic said. Its no fault of their own that they dont know this. Theyre not being taught.

Her latest project is a feature-length film called Code Blue, produced with documentarian Marcia Machado. The films title refers to hospital lingo for a patient who needs resuscitation. In the film, its a metaphor the patient is the American health care system. The film will examine the wave of plant-based lifestyle medicine sweeping the nation, include interviews with many of the movements leading figures and address the hurdles that keep plant-based medicine from being more widely practiced.

When we spoke, Stancic was considering bringing the film crew to Maine for her talk.

I wholeheartedly believe this a movement that is taking off in medicine and redefining medicine, Stancic said, adding that such a transformation cant come soon enough. Were in trouble. Our health care system cant support much more of this chronic disease epidemic were in. It will implode. We need to act now.

THAI-INSPIRED COOKING DEMO TAKES AIM AT THE ANTI-TOFU CROWD

Tom Mellette knows some people have issues with tofu. This is why at this years Maine Nutrition Council conference the clinical dietitian for MaineGeneral Medical Center will demonstrate how to cook a Thai dish with tofu.

One of the biggest complaints I get about tofu is that it is flavorless, Mellette told me by phone, and marinating is a great way to add flavor to tofu, especially with strong Thai flavors.

The Maine Nutrition Council conference attracts up to 125 attendees annually from across the state and a wide range of organizations and agencies. Mellette assumes the number will include tofu skeptics. Im hoping this quick demonstration will show how easy and how delicious tofu can really be, Mellette said.

The noodle and vegetable dish with a choice of marinated tofu is one of the options in a new program the hospital is rolling out that offers staff and visitors pre-portioned ingredients to cook at home. The service, which is similar to mail-order meal kits, is among the many resources Mellette says the hospital and its dining services offer to people looking to move toward plant-based eating.

The Augusta Winter Farmers Market sets up in the cafeteria every Tuesday through the end of April. During the month of March, the hospital is showcasing plant-based dishes and working to reduce the amount of meat on peoples plates. For instance, the cafeterias featured burger for March is made from half vegetables and half meat.

We have been getting more and more interest in vegetarian and vegan options from patients, staff and visitors alike, Mellette said. There is a big push for moving toward a plant-based diet.

Avery Yale Kamila is a freelance writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at:

[emailprotected]

Twitter: AveryYaleKamila

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Woman who adopted plant-based diet, saw MS symptoms fade will speak at nutrition conference - Press Herald

What exactly is sodium?

Sodium is a mineral that occurs naturally in foods and has an essential role in our bodys function. Sodium can also be added to foods during the manufacturing process, causing excess amounts of sodium consumption. Most commonly known in the form of sodium chloride or table salt, many of us can admit that our diets consist of a larger dose of sodium then what is recommended, and for those who really are not sure if they are taking in too much, evaluate what you are eating! While proper amounts of sodium are necessary, excess amounts of sodium negate the benefits and actually can be harmful to your health.

Sodiums Role in Body Function

Maintain Fluid Balances

The kidneys are responsible for regulating sodium levels in the body. When sodium levels are lower than they should be, the body will retain sodium to prevent any adverse side effects. Hyponatremia is a condition caused by abnormally low sodium levels in the body. When sodium levels are too high, the body will actually excrete sodium through urine. This is known as Hypernatremia, which can cause water retention and can become dangerous to the heart and other organs.

Remember.... Sodium is an Electrolyte

Electrolytes generate electrical impulses, muscle contractions, and move fluids throughout the body. Electrolytes require balance in order for the body to work correctly and efficiently. In relation to exercise and physical activity, hydration is extremely important! Taking in too much fluid (water) will actually dilute sodium levels in the blood and not taking in enough fluid to replace what was lost during activity through sweat can cause dehydration.

Blood Pressure

Sodium is dissolved in the blood and attracts and retains water, which helps to maintain the water content of our blood. Too much sodium will cause blood to hold more water, therefor increasing blood volume. This will cause the pressure inside of the blood vessels to rise and because the vessels cannot expand to meet the demands of the extra volume, blood pressure will increase.

Remember: High Blood Pressure is a risk factor for many diseases and conditions including heart failure and stroke!

Tip! There are 3 Main Factors that Influence Blood Pressure

Read the full article here!

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Low Sodium Diet - How Much Is Too Much? - bctv.org

I chuckle when I think about a tweet years ago from famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: The likelihood that a person uses the word toxin correlates strongly with how much Chemistry the person does *not* know (punctuation his).

We are pummeled by that word and its cousin detox. Despite that, those who know chemistry agree some foods and drinks are more protective than others. So is there anything true or helpful about the notion of detoxing?

I posed that question to Rebecca Katz, author and founder of the Healing Kitchens Institute. She is the author of The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery and Clean Soups: Simple, Nourishing Recipes for Health and Vitality. I asked her, by phone and email, for her insights on detoxing.

Q: Do our bodies actually built up toxins during weeks of holiday partying?

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A: A toxin is a substance thats considered poisonous, so unless those extra cookies youve been eating are laced with arsenic, I dont think you have to detox. Besides, our bodies are designed to detox 24/7. If they didnt, we wouldnt survive.

Q: So we dont need to do something drastic to correct for all the sugar and alcohol we consumed?

A: Going on a seven-day juice cleanse in the middle of the winter is not how your body is going to necessarily detox from feasting over the holidays. You can engage in the occasional feast if you take care of yourself throughout the year. Cutting back on sugar and highly processed foods and adding ample vegetables to your plate year-round will enhance your bodys ability to do its own self-cleaning.

Q: How do you think the word detox has been misused?

A: The word has been so overused in the marketing of products that ... people tend to either recoil or think they have to go on some severe, punishing cleanse. Marketers who peddle goods that promise to detox your body, especially in a limited amount of time, are usually fear mongering and playing on our vulnerabilities to sell products. The best products I know for enhancing our bodies ability to detox dont have fancy packaging or labels. They are the fruits and vegetables in the produce section.

Q: How does detoxification actually work in our bodies?

A: The liver and kidneys do much of the heavy lifting of removing harmful substances from our bodies. The liver breaks down harmful compounds everything from pesticides to alcohol and converts them into water-soluble molecules so they can be flushed from your system. If the detox process is efficient and if you are generally healthy and eat well, it will be ordinary toxins roll merrily along through the bodys liquid waterways, exiting most often as either urine or bile.

Q: How can we optimize our bodies natural detoxification systems?

A: There are plenty of nutrients that keep the body happy, including one you may not expect: fiber. Some of the final products of detoxification are heavy metals from the environment. If everything is working right, those heavy metals hitch a ride out of the body with dietary fiber. Another way we can optimize the bodys natural detox system is by staying well hydrated. Studies show that the more water, broths and herbal teas we drink, the better the kidneys flush numerous metabolic byproducts. Also, adding colorful plants rich in phytonutrients will go a long way to strengthening your immune system and vacuuming out unwanted compounds.

Q: What are some of the top detoxifying foods, and why?

A: This is my shortlist of delectable foods that enhance our bodies natural detoxifying process. Each is full of powerful antioxidants, phytochemicals, and antibacterial and antimicrobial properties that keep our metabolic and immune systems running smoothly: Artichokes, avocados, asparagus, beets, cilantro, mint, parsley, all the cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli (particularly broccoli sprouts), cauliflower, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, wasabi, horseradish, radishes, turnips, kale, cabbage, arugula, garlic, onions and lemons all help our bodies haul out the livers metabolic trash.

Falling in love with vegetables, herbs and spices natures best cleaning crew will boost your bodys ability to rid itself of internal debris. In the kitchen, that might mean adding some freshly chopped herbs to your plate or a spritz of lemon in your tea, roasting some broccoli, or sauteing garlic and onions as the base of a soup or sauce. Every little shift counts.

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Don't fall for so-called detox diets, eat your veggies (and fruit) - The Oakland Press

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WASHINGTON Eating like a caveman meant chowing down on woolly rhinos and sheep in Belgium, but munching on mushrooms, pine nuts and moss in Spain. It all depended on where they lived, new research shows.

Scientists got a sneak peek into the kitchen of three Neanderthals by scraping off the plaque stuck on their teeth and examining the DNA. What they found smashes a common public misconception that the caveman diet was mostly meat. They also found hints that one sickly teen used primitive versions of penicillin and aspirin to help ease his pain.

The dental plaque provides a lifelong record of what went in the Neanderthals mouths and the bacteria that lived in their guts, said study co-author Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA in Adelaide.

Its like a fossil, he said.

While past studies showed varied Neanderthal diets, genetic testing allowed researchers to say what kind of meat or mushrooms they ate, Cooper said. The 42,000-year-old Belgian Neanderthals menu of sheep and woolly rhino reflected what roamed in the plains around the Neanderthals home, he said. The research is in the journal Nature .

I do wonder what rhino tastes like, said study lead author Laura Weyrich, a paleo microbiologist at the University of Adelaide. Im not a big fan of sheep. I think Ill take the rhino.

There were no signs of meat in the diet of the two 50,000-year-old Spanish Neanderthals, but calling them vegetarians would be a stretch, Cooper said. Their own bones showed that they were eaten by cannibals.

The two specimens in Spain were a female adult and a teenage male, who wasnt a son or brother but may have been some other relative according to their DNA, Weyrich said.

The young male was obviously sick, with an infected mouth and other injuries, she said. But on his teeth and only his were two residues. One was from the poplar tree where doctors would later get a key ingredient in aspirin and the other was from mold that had a version of the antibiotic penicillin.

The primitive penicillin was a surprise, Cooper said. Its too premature to say the mold was being used for that purpose, but it does make me wonder, he said.

The research gives direct evidence for what was already suspected about their diverse diets and use of medicine, said University of Colorado Museums Paola Villa, who wasnt part of the study. She called the new study very significant.

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Scientists bite into Neanderthals' diet - The Columbian

"We have been reasoning from farm to fork. We need to reason from fork back to farm"

Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever and Kellogg are among the companies to have signed up to a global initiative aimed at improving food sourcing, reducing waste and supporting "adjustments" in food production methods to promote "healthy and sustainable diets". Ben Cooper looks at the Food Reform for Sustainability and Healthprogramme, which has initially been backed by 25 companies.

Acronym aficionados may feel the convenors of the Food Reform for Sustainability and Health initiative have played a little fast and loose with the rules by shortening it to FReSH but in one important sense it is an apt moniker.

What this coalition of diverse companies including many food manufacturers aims to do is look afresh at global food systems, change the agenda and contribute to a paradigm shift in how food is produced and consumed. While the name might be short and sweet, the challenge the initiative faces is far from it.

Having been created last year by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the EAT Foundation, FReSH is at a very early stage. However, even in its launch phase, there appear to be some promising portents.

With an overarching aim "to accelerate transformational change in global food systems, to reach healthy, enjoyable diets for all, that are produced responsibly within planetary boundaries", FReSH is taking on the critical challenge of uniting and harmonising environmental and nutritional goals.

For Fokko Wientjes, managing director of the programme, it is the focus on tackling multiple and diverse challenges relating to both environment and nutrition which potentially sets the initiative apart. Searching for business solutions which meet multiple challenges, rather than focusing on single issues, is the "essence" of the FReSH initiative, he says.

Companies have sought to make supply chains more sustainable by taking a "farm to fork" approach but an important refinement of this idea is required, Wientjes continues. "We have been reasoning from farm to fork. We need to reason from fork back to farm. So, we need to start reasoning around the beneficiary of the system, the consumer, and then back. What does the system need to deliver to get a healthy diet and a diet that is produced within planetary boundaries."

It is something of a dichotomy that the "people, profit, planet" rationalisation of sustainability, while aiming to unite these three elements, can at times result in them being seen as separate "pillars".

Wientjes does not see the "people, profit, planet" concept as problematic but says a disconnect between agriculture and nutrition has been a problem. The focus on ensuring the agriculture system can continue to deliver, in spite the growing global population and climate change, has become "disconnected" from the important objective to keep people healthy, he suggests.

"We have created a bit of an artificial divide between agriculture and food," he says. "What you for instance see is agriculture policies are very much focused on yields but with yields only we will not create a healthy diet."

An overarching objective, and one where food companies clearly have a telling contribution to make, is to orientate consumers towards diets that are not only healthy but sustainable. "So we need to get the consumer on board and help the consumer, empower the consumer to be better able to make better choices. That's certainly one of the areas that we'll be working on."

There is a need for greater clarity in consumer communication. Wientjes says there are also occasions when environmental and nutritional objectives can conflict, for example when less nutritious products have a better environmental footprint. "If you only want to keep people alive, you would probably only feed them high-energy products. If you want to have people not only survive but also thrive you need to make sure they get nutrition. So there will be typically a trade-off we have to make between the energy density and the nutrition density of products."

Interestingly, Kristian sterling Eriknauer, vice president corporate responsibility at Arla Foods, one of the partners in the initiative, refutes the suggestion that environmental and social objectives compete with one another. "I don't think the two aspects compete with each other, but rather you need to consider both aspects at the same time, together with social or cultural aspects," he tells just-food.

Nevertheless, he concedes there has been a tendency to tackle environmental and social challenges separately rather than holistically. "I think there has been a tendency to look at the various aspects in isolation and we need to change this." The diverse membership of FReSH may give it a crucial advantage in doing so.

In addition to major food companies such as Nestle, Arla, Kellogg and PepsiCo, the coalition has some unexpected names such as Google, along with important players from other sectors including chemicals (Dupont) and finance (Rabobank).

Crucially, its aim is to grow. "We want to have more companies come on board. The challenge is big so we need to certainly make sure that we get those on board that see there is a need for change." In fact, even since January, when it announced 25 companies had joined, three more names have been added.

The founding partners have also made it clear they are not only looking to recruit multinational companies. "Both multinationals but also smaller companies have joined," Wientjes says, "and what we will be doing over time is work as much as we can also with national companies." FReSH intends to work with the UN's Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) programme which has also sought to involve local companies. Given the fragmented profile of the food sector, the focus FReSH seeks to place on involving smaller players could be a considerable strength.

Outreach to and involvement of the scientific community is also a defining feature of the coalition. In particular, FReSH plans to draw on the work of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets, a multi-disciplinary group of world-leading scientists working to synthesise existing evidence to establish targets for healthy and sustainable food systems.

The commission, which comprises 20 respected academics in the fields of health, nutrition and sustainability, has met three times since its launch in June, and aims to publish a report by the end of the year. Given the Commission is effectively looking at the same challenge, the synergy between its work and that of FReSH, and the potential benefits of the two working together, seems clear.

Along with engagement with scientific community, the FReSH initiative intends to work closely with civil society organisations and NGOs. "In the food space, trust of course is an extremely important issue and to help build the trust and help build the endorsement of what we're doing, it will be critical that we get civil society partners to join us," Wientjes says.

In addition to the credibility this brings, FReSH will benefit from the "complementarity" of the competences of civil society and the private sector, Wientjes suggests. "The private sector is good at certain things, the public sector is good at certain things and civil society is good at certain things. It is the complementarity we need to look for. The challenges are too big to be handled by just business or just civil society, or science, or government."

A further potentially significant strength of the FReSH initiative is the intention to align closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In extending to environmental and social factors, the SDGs represent an extremely useful guiding framework. Increasingly, food companies are looking at the SDGs to help frame their sustainability agendas.

Moreover, the SDGs are being seen not simply as a framework for international development and tackling problems such as poverty, malnutrition and climate change. A report by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC), published in January, highlighted the potential for the SDGs to be a catalyst for innovation and economic growth. Specifically, the report says the SDGs could unlock economic opportunities worth at least US$12 trillion per year by 2030, including US$2.3 trillion for food and agriculture.

The BSDC, which brought together 36 leaders from business, finance, civil society, labour and international organisations, was also initiated by the WBCSD, and Wientjes says the launch of the FReSH initiative is part of the "action agenda" following on from the Commission's report.

That is a further synergy which augurs well for FReSH which appears to have more in its favour than just a catchy name.

Read more:
Food giants aim for fresh start for food systems - analysis - just-food.com (subscription)

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