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When I wrote the Overcoming the Curse of the Mummies chapter in Protein Power, I wrote mainly about the evidence of disease found in the mummies of ancient Egyptians and correlated this disease with their high-carbohydrate diet. Along with all the material on mummies, which is the part everyone seems to remember, I wrote about a study done in the United States in the 1970s that persuasively demonstrated the superiority of the hunter diet as compared to an agricultural diet, which no one seems to remember. I came across that study a couple of days ago and decided to present it in a little more detail than I was able to in Protein Power. The anthropological record of early man clearly shows health took a nosedive when populations made the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture. It takes a physical anthropologist about two seconds to look at a skeleton unearthed from an archeological site to tell if the owner of that skeleton was a hunter-gatherer or an agriculturist.

Fungal treatment of a biodiesel byproduct can produce the omega-3 fatty acid EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), offering a potentially economical source of EPA from microbes.\nGrowing the fungus Pythium irregulare in a crude glycerol and a yeast extract can lead to production of an EPA-rich biomass that could be used as an omega-3 fortified food, according to researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.\n\nThe findings are published online ahead of print in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

People with viral diseases can benefit from a diet high in lysine and low in arginine. In the following chart, the foods at the top of the list have higher lysine to arginine ratios. Diet and vitamin supplements may influence viral replication. A total approach to nutrition should be used. Use this chart as a guide or a reference only, and see what happens. Look at the absolute figures for lysine and arginine content. There is no reason to avoid a food if it has a low lysine/arginine ratio and only a few mg of arginine in it. Ratio of Lysine to Arginine in Certain Foods, by James M. Scutero Transcribed and calculated using data from Agricultural Handbook, 1-23, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In an article published online on January 4, 2010 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Robert Krikorian of the University of Cincinnati, along with his colleagues from the US and Canadian Departments of Agriculture, report that consuming blueberry juice was associated with improvements in learning and memory in individuals with age-related memory decline. The trial enrolled five men and four women over the age of 70 who reported forgetfulness and memory lapses characteristic of early memory decline. Participants were given the equivalent of 2 to 2 ½ cups of a commercially available blueberry juice daily for 12 weeks. Cognitive assessments were conducted at the beginning of the study and during the final week of the trial. At the study's conclusion, learning and recall were improved, and depressive symptoms and glucose levels tended to be reduced. When subjects who received blueberry juice were compared with a demographically matched sample who received a placebo beverage in a companion trial, test scores for learning ability were significantly better.

Diet, evolution and aging--the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet. Frassetto L, Morris RC Jr, Sellmeyer DE, Todd K, Sebastian A. Eur J Nutr. 2001 Oct;40(5):200-13. Review. PMID: 11842945

nutrition - nutrition, free online encyclopedia,national agricultural library,nutrition information center,information dissemination since,nutrition explorations,nutrition publication,usda nutrition,c

Determination of Phylloquinone and Menaquinones in Foods by HPLC\n\nTerhi Koivu-Tikkanen\n\nAcademic Dissertation, January 2001. \nUniversity of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, \nDepartment of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2009) - Researchers have established the conditions that foster formation of potentially dangerous levels of a toxic substance in the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that is often fed to honey bees. Their study, which appears in the current issue of ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, may also have implications for soft drinks and dozens of other human foods that contain HFCS. The substance, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), forms mainly from heating fructose.

Robert P. Heaney is John A. Creighton University Professor, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Hominid evolution took place in an environment (equatorial East Africa) that provided a superabundance of both calcium and vitamin D, the first in available foods and the second through conversion of 7-dehydrocholesterol to pre-vitamin D in the skin, a reaction catalysed by the intense solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Seemingly as a consequence, the evolving human physiology incorporated provisions to prevent the potential of toxic excesses of both nutrients. For vitamin D the protection was of two sorts: skin pigmentation absorbed the critical UV wavelengths and thereby limited dermal synthesis of cholecalciferol; and slow delivery of vitamin D from the skin into the bloodstream left surplus vitamin in the skin, where continuing sun exposure led to its photolytic degradation to inert compounds. For calcium, the adaptation consisted of very inefficient calcium absorption, together with poor to absent systemic conservation. The latter is reflected in unregulated dermal calcium losses, a high sensitivity of renal obligatory calcium loss to other nutrients in the diet and relatively high quantities of calcium in the digestive secretions. Today, chimpanzees in the original hominid habitat have diets with calcium nutrient densities in the range of 2 to 2.5 mmol per 100 kcal, and hunter-gatherer humans in Africa, South America and New Guinea still have diets very nearly as high in calcium (1.75 to 2 mmol per 100 kcal) (Eaton and Nelson, 1991). With energy expenditure of 3 000 kcal per day (a fairly conservative estimate for a contemporary human doing physical work), such diets would provide substantially in excess of 50 mmol of calcium per day. By contrast, median intake in women in North America and in many European countries today is under 15 mmol per day. Two factors altered the primitive situation: the migration of humans from Africa to higher latitude

(NaturalNews) Levels of the beneficial, cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane in broccoli are reduced by 90 percent when the vegetable is cooked, according to a study conducted by researchers from TNO Quality of Life in the Netherlands, and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. "Consumption of raw broccoli resulted in faster absorption, higher bioavailability, and higher peak plasma amounts of sulforaphane, compared to cooked broccoli," the researchers wrote.

Researchers in Hong Kong are reporting new evidence that green tea - one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide and now available as a dietary supplement - may help improve bone health. They found that the tea contains a group of chemicals that can stimulate bone formation and help slow its breakdown. Their findings are in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. The beverage has the potential to help in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and other bone diseases that affect million worldwide, the researchers suggest.

Providing easy, online access to government information on food and human nutrition\nfor consumers.\nA service of the National Agricultural Library, USDA.

"Should you eat low carbohydrate and high saturated fat, or high carbohydrate and low fat, that is the question? This question is causing a tremendous back and forth in the medical and nutrition industry. It is unbelievable that the medical profession has not at least thoroughly tested the question. How is it that a magnificent experiment had been going on for 2.5 million years, the hunter gatherer Paleolithic life. This continued up to and until about about 10,000 years ago, with the advent of agriculture. After that time is when the diseases of the metabolic syndrome started to appear. This information is a matter of history. If a layman like me can recognize the validity of an experiment that continued for 2,5 million years, and produced healthy individuals, relative to the diseases of the metabolic syndrome, such as: obesity, diabetes type 2, cardiovascular disease and stroke, and some cancers to name just a few, then how is it, that the consensus opinion of the medical profession and nutritionists think that the hunter gatherer lifestyle of our ancient ancestors is unhealthful or dangerous? The consensus opinion says that low fat (trim all visible fat from the animal protein) and high carbohydrate food is the "healthy eating" choice for us. I personally know that instead of being healthy,it is unhealthy, because by following my doctors advice over the last 50 years many of the above mentioned diseases started to appear on my charts. "

"It's well known that African Americans have low levels of vitamin D in their blood. In fact, this seems to be generally true for humans of tropical origin. In a study from Hawaii, vitamin D status was assessed in healthy, visibly tanned young adults who averaged 22.4 hours per week of unprotected sun exposure. Yet 51% had levels below the current recommended minimum of 75 nmol/L (Binkley et al., 2007). In a study from south India, levels below 50 nmol/L were found in 44% of the men and 70% of the women. The subjects are described as "agricultural workers starting their day at 0800 and working outdoors until 1700 with their face, chest, back, legs, arms, and forearms exposed to sunlight" (Harinarayan et al., 2007). In a study from Saudi Arabia, levels below 25 nmol/L were found in respectively 35%, 45%, 53%, and 50% of normal male university students of Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian, and other origins (Sedrani, 1984)."

"The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race" by Jared Diamond, Prof. UCLA School of Medicine Discover-May 1987, pp. 64-66

Low-income families face multiple challenges related to eating healthfully, including the relatively high cost of healthy foods, the lack of healthful choices in urban neighborhoods, and limited knowledge on how to prepare nutritious meals. Family-focused interventions can help overcome such barriers and promote healthy diets among low-income populations.

The SNAP-ED Connection provides information on valuable training and continuing education resources for educators and facilitates access to educational materials developed specifically for SNAP participants and eligibles.