The Human Imprint

UK FSA sets guidelines for saturated fat and sugar

Ausfoodnews reports that following a 2009 public consultation, the UK Food Standards Agency has recommended that food manufacturers reduce saturated fat in foods such as biscuits, cakes, buns, chocolates and added sugar in soft drinks.

The Agency also wants to see more smaller single-portion sizes available in some of these foods, which contribute much of the saturated fat and calories in our diet. This goes back to the post on the portion sizes in the paintings of The Last Supper. Check out the article.

 

Junk food could be addictive

I was interested to read in The Independent an article on recent research in high sugar and high fat food consumption. Do check it out.

Increasing meal size in the last supper

There has been a lot of media attention given to the research on the increasing meal size in artisitic depictions of the "Last Supper". If you want to check out the actual paper which makes fascinating reading check out the FoodPolitics link.

Vietnam to help Chad improve food security

FAO Media Centre reports that vietnamese experts will help Chad implement a series of activities aimed at improving the African country's food security under a tripartite South-South Cooperation agreement.

"The activities, which involve irrigation for rice growing and horticulture, increased cereals production, artisanal fishing, bee-keeping and food processing, are part of Chad's five-year, $200 million National Programme for Food Security, which FAO helped design.

Fifteen Vietnamese experts and technicians will help Chad implement the activities over two years. The $2 million in costs will be covered by Chad through a trust fund established with FAO, which will also be providing technical assistance". Follow the link to find out more.

Deforestation slows

I often write about natural capital, soil, water, flora and fauna and its key to underpinning human life so I was interested to read an article by BBC News. Forest covers about 31% of the Earth's land surface and does a valuable job of taking carbon dioxide and through photosynthesis producing food for the trees whilst releasing oxygen into the air, which is so crucial for life.

The article states that "the world's net rate of forest loss has slowed markedly in the last decade, with less logging in the Amazon and China planting trees on a grand scale... forests continue to be lost at "an alarming rate" in some countries."

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) undertook a Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 and concluded that the loss of tree cover is most acute in Africa and South America and that Australia also suffered huge losses because of the ongoing drought to the tune of half a million hectares per year.

"The last decade saw forests being lost or converted at a rate of 13 million hectares per year, compared to 16 million hectares in the 1990s. However, new forests were being planted to the tune of more than seven million hectares per year; so the net rate of loss since the year 2000 has been 5.2 million hectares per year, compared to 8.3 million in the 1990s".

Planting in China, has lead to a net increase in national forest area of three million hectares per year.

Chinese drought - the human impact

History shows that many regions of the world are susceptible to drought and that the impacts on humans have been catastrophic. Check out this Scientific American video on the drought affecting 50 million people. The dust storms even reached Beijing.

This follows the terrible dust storms in Sydney six months ago.

Volcano erupts in Iceland

The Independent reports that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has erupted. My daughter has been studying this volcano in geography classes especially the risk of flooding from the nearby glacier. Thousands of people have been evacuated. Check out the video - the power of nature is quite awesome.

One thousandth post!

This is my one thousandth post! It is a great milestone let's hope I get to the two thousand mark!

Cases of C diff and MRSA in England

Source of graph: HPA, 2010 

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has published data on MRSA infections between October 2007 and December 2009.  "Overall there has been a 59% decrease in the number of MRSA episodes reported during the surveillance period in England, from 1092 cases in Q4/2007  to 444 cases during the same time period in 2009." With C. difficile between Q4/2007 and Q4/2009, there has been a 58% decrease in the counts of trust-apportioned episodes and a 41% decrease in the number of all other episodes.

World Water Day

Today is World Water Day. The World Water Day 2010 and its campaign is envisaged to:

• "Raise awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management and
  
  
• Raise the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities, and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality e.g. in pollution prevention, clean up and restoration".
  

Think about water today and every day. Those with access to clean water often take it for granted.