Climate change a challenge for our global food systems: WHO

New Delhi, (IANS) Climate change is a challenge for the global food system, said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, at the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday.In a video message to the second Global Food Regulators Summit in Delhi, the WHO chief highlighted the important role of national food regulators in harmonising regulatory policies for the world.In addition to climate change, “population growth, new technologies, globalisation, and industrialisation" are other increasing challenges to the global food systems, Ghebreyesus said.Further, he said food regulators also play a critical role in combating unsafe food, which causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 4,20,000 deaths annually.He also lamented that 70 per cent of fatalities from unsafe food occur among children under five."The food regulator community has a critical role to play in addressing these global challenges," Ghebreyesus said.Meanwhile, stressing the need for innovative regulatory solutions, Dr Samuel Godefroy, President, the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) stated that food science is vital for human survival.He also applauded FSSAI for its contribution to strengthening the global food regulatory network.Steve Wearne, Chairperson, Codex appreciated India’s significant investment in Codex and food safety...

Read More........→September 24, 2024

Scientists studied twins’ diets. Those who ate vegan saw fast results.

A member of staff works inside ‘Rudy’s Vegan Butcher’ shop, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, October 30, 2020. Picture taken October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Henry NichollsAleksandra Shai Chai needed a moment to process the idea that she would be stuck eating a vegan diet for eight weeks.Shai Chai, who typically eats meat, was participating in a study to examine the effects of different diets on twins’ health. When Stanford University researchers randomly distributed slips of papers to the twins last year to indicate which diet they would follow, Shai Chai hoped hers would say “omnivore.”Instead, it said “vegan.” Her twin sister, Mariya Foster, would eat a diet of meat and vegetables.Shai Chai replaced her favorite foods – bacon, sushi and steak – with tofu, beans and vegetables. She didn’t love the diet, but when Shai Chai recently learned the study’s results, she felt thankful that she had briefly changed her eating habits.After examining 22 pairs of identical twins, researchers found that vegan eaters had lower cholesterol, insulin and body weight than participants who followed a meat diet, according to the results published last week in the JAMA Network Open journal.Vegan eaters’ low-density lipoprotein – bad cholesterol – dropped on average by 15.2 milligrams over eight weeks; omnivore dieters’ fell by...

Read More........→March 01, 2024