Vegetarian Meal Research Articles

Targeting interventions to distinct meat-eating groups reduces meat consumption

Targeted interventions have important under-explored potential for reducing meat consumption. We hypothesized that group-specific interventions targeting reduction for reducer, moderate-hindrance, and strong-hindrance meat eaters would be effective. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions designed for these three meat-eating groups, or to a control condition. Following the intervention, up to 28 days of food diaries were gathered to measure their consumption of animal products, which were weighted according to their greenhouse gas emissions. The targeted interventions significantly outperformed the non-targeted interventions. That is, participants in the group-matched (i.e., targeted) conditions reduced their animal product consumption by 40 g of CO2 per day on average, which is approximately equivalent to replacing one chicken-based meal with a vegetarian meal per week, whereas participants in the mismatched conditions showed no significant reduction. The findings suggest that diet-related interventions should focus on supporting meat reducers’ existing behavior intentions, whereas emphasizing meat substitution is a more promising approach for habitual (strong-hindrance) meat eaters.

226-OR: The Mediterranean Diet Increases GLP-1 and Oxyntomodulin Compared with Vegetarian Diet in Type 2 Diabetes Subjects

Aim: To compare a Mediterranean dietetic pattern with a vegetarian pattern in terms of hunger-satiety perception through post-prandial assessment of appetite-related hormones glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and Oxyntomodulin (OXM), as well as self-rated Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) quantification, in overweight/obese type-2 diabetes (T2D) subjects. Methods: Twelve T2D subjects (M:F = 7:5), mean age 63 ± 8.5 years, were enrolled in our randomized, controlled, crossover study. Participants were given a vegetarian meal high in complex carbohydrate and dietary fiber (HFV, 35g fiber/1000 Kcal) as well as a Mediterranean (MED) meal in two different days over a one-week washout period. The two meals were isocaloric. Appetite ratings, glucose/insulin and gastrointestinal hormone concentrations were measured at fasting and every 30’ until 4 hours following meal consumption. Results: GLP-1 and OXM levels were significantly higher following MED meal consumption compared with HFV meal (240’ AUC, P <.022 and P <.023, respectively). Both MED and HFV meal resulted in a biphasic secretion pattern of GLP-1 and OXM, although MED meal was related to a delayed, significantly higher second GLP-1 peak at 150’ compared with that of HFV meal (P <.05). MED meal was related to lower glucose trend compared with HFV meal (P <.039), whereas we did not observe significant changes in terms of self-reported VAS scores and insulin trend. Conclusions: In T2D overweight/obese subjects, a MED-like meal is more effective than a vegetarian meal in terms of post-prandial plasma glucose homeostasis and GLP-1 and OXM release. These changes were not confirmed by VAS appetite self-assessment over a 4 hours period. Disclosure A. Di Mauro: None. D. Tuccinardi: None. R. Del Toro: None. L. Monte: None. R. Giorgino: None. L. Rampa: None. G. Rossini: None. S. Kyanvash: None. A. Soare: None. M.M. Rosati: None. Y. Khazrai: None. A. Piccoli: None. N. Napoli: None. P. Pozzilli: Advisory Panel; Self; Abbott, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company. Research Support; Self; Medtronic, Sanofi. S. Manfrini: None.

A digital meal nutritional score may influence food choices in a workplace restaurant: A pilot study

AbstractIntroductionFood choice is complex. Digital nutrition applications are emerging to help decisions about food choices. Nestlé's Meal Nutritional Score (MNS) is a number between 0 and 100 that provides a measure of the extent to which a meal meets US dietary recommendations. The objective was to evaluate if the MNS influences food choices in a workplace restaurant.Materials and MethodsA workplace education campaign ran over two weeks in order to introduce the MNS to employees. This was done during the lunch break at the entrance to the cafeteria of Nestlé's research centre, which serves around 250 hot meals at lunchtime every day. Employees choose between a typical Western meal, a healthy meal and a vegetarian meal. During the campaign, and for three weeks afterwards, LED screens displayed the MNS for the three different types of meal, every day. Employees’ voluntary feedback on the MNS was collected using a closed-ended questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were done for the scores and sales of each type of meals for one week before the education campaign, immediately after the campaign and three weeks later. Data are reported as mean ± 1 standard deviation.ResultsFeedback was obtained from 152 employees, of whom 96% said the MNS helped them to understand the nutritional balance of the meals, and 38% said the MNS influenced their meal choices. The MNS scores pre-campaign, post-post campaign and 3 weeks later were 52 ± 14, 50 ± 16 and 56 ± 11 for the Western meal; 54 ± 14, 62 ± 6 and 67 ± 6 for the healthy meal and 64 ± 11, 57 ± 14 and 57 ± 12 for the vegetarian meal, respectively. The percentage of sales pre-campaign, post-post campaign and 3 weeks later were 48 ± 10%, 43 ± 9% and 33 ± 9% for the Western meal; 25 ± 10%, 30 ± 8% and 36 ± 10% for the healthy meal, and 27 ± 4%, 27 ± 4% and 30 ± 8% for the vegetarian meal, respectively.DiscussionThe number of people selecting the healthy meal, which usually had the best score, increased during the three weeks following the education campaign, suggesting that the MNS positively influences food choices. The MNS may also help chefs to design more nutritionally balanced meals. Longer-term follow up is necessary to evaluate if these are sustained behaviour changes as well as to test the impact of the MNS in a different workplace environment.

Impact of increasing vegetarian availability on meal selection and sales in cafeterias

Shifting people in higher income countries toward more plant-based diets would protect the natural environment and improve population health. Research in other domains suggests altering the physical environments in which people make decisions ("nudging") holds promise for achieving socially desirable behavior change. Here, we examine the impact of attempting to nudge meal selection by increasing the proportion of vegetarian meals offered in a year-long large-scale series of observational and experimental field studies. Anonymized individual-level data from 94,644 meals purchased in 2017 were collected from 3 cafeterias at an English university. Doubling the proportion of vegetarian meals available from 25 to 50% (e.g., from 1 in 4 to 2 in 4 options) increased vegetarian meal sales (and decreased meat meal sales) by 14.9 and 14.5 percentage points in the observational study (2 cafeterias) and by 7.8 percentage points in the experimental study (1 cafeteria), equivalent to proportional increases in vegetarian meal sales of 61.8%, 78.8%, and 40.8%, respectively. Linking sales data to participants' previous meal purchases revealed that the largest effects were found in the quartile of diners with the lowest prior levels of vegetarian meal selection. Moreover, serving more vegetarian options had little impact on overall sales and did not lead to detectable rebound effects: Vegetarian sales were not lower at other mealtimes. These results provide robust evidence to support the potential for simple changes to catering practices to make an important contribution to achieving more sustainable diets at the population level.

Meat Eating and the Transition from Plant-Based Diets among Urban Indians

Meat Eating and the Transition from Plant-Based Diets among Urban Indians

Toronto: The Seventh Meeting of a Parliament of the World's Religions

Toronto:The Seventh Meeting of a Parliament of the World's Religions Katherine Marshall Many introductions to interfaith activities start with a momentous meeting in Chicago in 1893, a "Parliament of the World's Religions." It was a historic gathering and is seen as opening the way to both dialogue and understanding among diverse traditions. On the one-hundredth anniversary in 1993, also in Chicago, another ambitious gathering launched what has become an important tradition, a landmark in the interfaith world. A quite modest Chicago-based institution has kept the tradition alive, organizing large gatherings in Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009), and Salt Lake City (2015). The Parliament proudly proclaims itself the "oldest, largest, most diverse and inclusive global interfaith event." A new Parliament met in Toronto, November 1–7. The theme of the 2018 event was "The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation, and Change." Attendance was large, perhaps 10,000. It was remarkably diverse, with people from some eighty countries and a wide swath of religious traditions. Attendees included Canadian notables, Karen Armstrong, Rabbi David Rosen, Rev. Jim Wallis, Sakena Yacoobi (winner of the 2013 Opus Prize), and many others. The presence of indigenous representatives was a striking feature, as was large and active women's participation (not always the case in religious gatherings). The event included a bewildering array of programs: over 500, sometimes with over 40 ongoing at a time, in addition to large all-morning plenaries. A variety of artistic events was an integral part of the Parliament approach. The ethos and character of the event were clearly "progressive," with events punctuated by calls to action. A notable feature of this (as other parliaments) was the daily Sikh-offered langar, a vegetarian meal offered to all at no cost. Georgetown University and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs were among the participants. The Berkley Center and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), a nonprofit based at the center, have a history of involvement in interfaith events and with the Parliament, notably at the Melbourne Parliament, where we led a major series of events centered on poverty and development. I was also involved in the Salt Lake City Parliament. Broader interfaith/intrafaith activities include WFDD's interfaith report and various blogs that have reported and commented on the Parliament's work over the years. Among those participating were Professor Leo Lefebure (who also has a long involvement with the Parliament), Professor Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana, Susan Hayward, and several students. [End Page 307] The leadership of the United Religions Initiative (URI) was actively involved. The Parliament in Toronto featured efforts to bring different interfaith organizations together. The International Partnership for Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) participated actively, and I also participated in a panel that presented PaRD's work and focus on women and religion. The 2018 Parliament's six central themes (with a focus each day) were: 1. The Dignity of Women across the World's Wisdom Traditions. 2. Countering War, Hate, and Violence Track: Peace and Love: Not War, Hate, and Violence. 3. Climate Action: Care for Our Earth, Responsibility for Our Future. 4. Indigenous Peoples: The Spiritual Evolution of Humanity and Healing Our Mother Earth. 5. The Next Generations: Interfaith Has No Age, Youth Voices for Change. 6. Justice: Advancing Concrete Change toward a Just, Peaceful, and Sustainable World. Saturday, November 3, focused on women, starting with an elaborate and extended morning plenary. Audrey Kitagawa was presented as the new Parliament board chair (a first woman in that role). Among others featured prominently were our colleagues Azza Karam and Sakena Yacoobi. The plenary also highlighted an effort to ensure that 1,000 women religious leaders are featured in Wikipedia. The rest of the day featured panels and events centered on women's roles. I was part of a panel entitled "Are Our Stained Glass Ceilings Cracking Yet? Women and Leadership in the World of Interfaith." The challenge was described as follows: Women play vital roles in development and peacebuilding. As governmental, non-governmental and faith based organizations commit to the Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of engaging women is obvious. Yet, despite intellectual and...

Environmental impact of meal service catering for dependent senior citizens in Danish municipalities

PurposeThis study aims at defining and quantifying strategies to reduce the environmental impact caused by public and private Danish meal service supplying vulnerable home-dwelling senior citizens. Besides informing the scientific community, the goal is to inform decision makers at municipal and private commercial kitchens about their potential role in significantly reducing the environmental impact of the meal services by conscious, deliberate, and sustainable choices at each step of the meal-selection-production-packaging-delivery-chain.MethodsThe Danish meal service is represented by five public and private meal producers with a combined annual production of 1.2 million main meals targeted at sustaining senior citizens living at home throughout nine municipalities. Forty-seven main meal recipes, divided into five categories, represent the typically available meals: vegetarian, fish/seafood, pork, poultry, and veal/beef. The study quantifies the environmental impact of the five meal categories by consequential life cycle assessment, using three functional units (mass, energy, and protein content) to investigate if differential impacts among the meal categories can support sustainability-improving strategies. Two impact categories, global warming and the monetized overall environmental impact, were calculated for each recipe, including all ingredients and processing. The environmental impacts of packaging, meal delivery, and food waste were estimated separately.Results and discussionThe average environmental impact of main meals with veal/beef were 5–7 times higher than the average impact of all other meals, and 8–11 times higher impact than the impact of the average vegetarian meal. The ranges reflect differences in the chosen functional unit and impact category. Differences among the non-beef meal categories were smaller, with vegetarian and fish/seafood meals having the lowest impact. The average global warming impact of the average main meals was 3.70 kg CO2-eq and the overall monetized impact 0.62 €. Impact of waste was 0.03–0.18 kg CO2-eq and 0.007–0.023 € per meal in kitchens, and 0.031–0.329 kg CO2-eq and 0.006–0.041 € for consumers. The environmental impact of packaging added 0.07 kg CO2-eq and 0.006 €, and meal delivery 0.026–0.435 kg CO2-eq and 0.005–0.09 € per meal.ConclusionsThe most important strategy for reducing the environmental impact of Danish meal service is to reduce the number of meals containing veal/beef. Vegetarian meals were rarely more sustainable than fish/seafood. Packaging, food waste, and delivery of meals played minor roles in the overall sustainability of Danish meal service, and the most efficient strategy to reduce the environmental impact of these activities would be to deliver meals weekly rather daily.

Socio-demographic predictors of health and environmental co-benefit behaviours for climate change mitigation in urban China.

ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the patterns and socio-demographic predictors of health and environmental co-benefit behaviours that support climate change mitigation in a densely populated Asian metropolis—Hong Kong.MethodsA population-based, stratified and cross-sectional random digit dialling telephone survey study was conducted between January and February 2016, among the Cantonese-speaking population aged 15 and above in Hong Kong. Socio-demographic data and the self-reported practice of 10 different co-benefit behaviours were solicited. Ethics approval and participant’s verbal consent were sought.FindingsThe study sample consisted of 1,017 respondents (response rate: 63.6%) were comparable to the age, gender and geographical distributions of the Hong Kong population found in the latest 2011 Hong Kong Population Census. Among the co-benefit behaviours, using less packaging and disposable shopping bags were practiced in the highest frequency (70.1%). However, four behaviours were found to have never been practiced by more than half of the respondents, including bringing personal eating utensils when dining in restaurants or small eateries, showering less than five minutes, having one vegetarian meal a week, and buying more organic food. Results of multivariable logistic regression showed that frequency of practicing co-benefit behaviours were consistently associated with gender and age.ConclusionUrban residents in Hong Kong do not engage in the practice of co-benefit behaviours in a uniform way. In general, females and older people are more likely to adopt co-benefit behaviours in their daily lives. Further research to assess the knowledge and attitudes of the population towards these co-benefit behaviours will provide support to relevant climate change mitigation policies and education programmes.

Vegetarian Diet: A Boon or Bane for Health?

In recent times, there have been many scientific evidences which suggest that wholesome vegetarian diets offer significant advantages compared to diets containing meat and other foods of animal origin. The benefits ranges from lower intakes of cholesterol, saturated fats, animal proteins and higher intakes of dietary fiber, vitamin C and E, carotenoids, magnesium, folic acid, and other phytochemicals. However, it is often said that vegetarian diet lacks the nutrients like vitamin B12, proteins, zinc, calcium etc., but if an “Appropriate diet with proper planning” involving supplements is consumed, these deficiencies will never exist. Through the present editorial, I would like to show few benefits of having a vegetarian meal.
 Keywords: Vegetarian diet, Benefits, Cardiovascular diseases, Cataracts, Kidney stones, Hyperlipidemia, Obesity.

Occurrence of cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic in prepared meals in Italy: Potential relevance for intake assessment

Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb) and Mercury (Hg) were analyzed in different prepared meals. Baby food composite and school canteen lunches collected on a five-days basis were selected as potential surrogates of the diet of 9–12 months toddlers and of 4–9 years children, respectively. Five-days servings from an office canteen, three fast food meals, seven-days lunches from a hotel-school and duplicate 1-day portions including a vegetarian meal were surrogates of the diet of 18–64year adults. Occurrence data of pooled servings were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer including a Dynamic Reaction Cell (ICP-MS-DRC). From such surrogated diets, estimated intakes felt in the range for As (0.28–6.91μgkg−1 body weight (b.w.) day−1), Cd (0.09–0.96μgkg−1 b.w. day−1), Pb (0.14–1.50μgkg−1 b.w. day−1) and Hg (0.03–0.40μgkg−1 b.w. day−1). For Cd, the intake from almost all surrogate diets considered resulted close to the Total Daily Intake (TDI) suggested by EFSA (0.36μgkg−1 b.w. day−1).

Impact of ingredients on the elemental content of baby foods

The levels of the minerals: Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, and the trace elements: Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn were determined in foods for 4–6, 7+ and 10+ months old babies in a brand available on the UK market. The mineral contents in the vegetarian meals for all the age groups were similar, in contrast, when compared to the non-vegetarian options, the Ca, Na and P levels were higher in the former. Both the trace elements and minerals levels in the 4–6months vegetarian meal were the lowest of all the products analysed. The Cu, Se and Zn levels in all the meals were comparable to those in mature human breast milk. Calculations of the following molar ratios: Zn:Cu, Fe:Zn, and Fe:Mn, pairs of elements that have been shown to interaction antagonistically, were higher in the vegetarian meals.

Is vegetarianism bad for the environment?

ABSTRACT Search the internet using “vegetarianism and environment” and you will find several articles by prominent people espousing the view that vegetarianism is bad for the environment. One of the recent articles on the subject by Professor Mike Archer entitled “Ordering the vegetarian meal? There's more animal blood on your hands” attracted a lot of comment when it appeared in the Conversation in 2011. Archer, in his article, argued that “if you want to minimise animal suffering and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.” He claims that if we stop eating grazing animals and turn to a vegetarian diet then we will need to farm an additional area the size of Victoria plus Tasmania to meet our nutritional needs. Compared to rangeland grazing, clearing such large areas for crops means a loss of the vegetation and many of the resident animals. The livestock industries must relish this free promotion. But, the logic is wrong – dangerous...

Assessment of gastric emptying in children: Establishment of control values utilizing a standardized vegetarian meal.

Disorders of gastric emptying constitute an important group of conditions in children. The diagnostic gold standard is scintigraphy, and recommendations for standardization have been published with adult normative data. Pediatric literature lacks standardized age specific normative values. Our aim was to establish normal values of solid phase gastric emptying utilizing scintigraphy in children (5-18 years) using the recommended imaging protocol and standardized meal. Gastric emptying was assessed by scintigraphy of a (99m) Tc-labeled vegetarian meal. Image acquisition was dynamic for first hour and static at 2, 3, and 4 h. Results were reported as percent intragastric retention; lag phase defined as time to 5% emptying. Thirty (17 boys) healthy children, mean ages of 9.5 ± 3.1 (range 5 to 16) years, were enrolled. Median values (5th and 95th percentiles) for percent gastric retention at 30 min, 1, 2, 3 and 4 h were 90% (76 and 100%), 77% (56 and 96%), 33% (10 and 71%), 16% (3 and 44%), and 7% (0.5 and 22%). The median (5th and 95th percentiles) lag phase was 18 min (6 and 60 min). Lag phase had no correlation with gastric retention at 4 h. This study provides valuable normative ranges for solid phase gastric emptying in children. Using adult normative data in children may be inappropriate.

Resource use profile and nutritional value assessment of a typical Belgian meal, catered or home cooked, with pork or Quorn™ as protein source

The nutritional value of food and its environmental impact have received considerable attention, however an assessment of environmental sustainability of catered meals is lacking. We therefore assessed the nutritional value and resource consumption of a specific catered meal, pork tenderloin with potato croquettes, carrots and mushroom sauce (‘Canteen Pork’). The outcomes are compared with that of an identical meal cooked at home (‘Home’), for which ‘Low’ and ‘High’ scoring hypothetical alternatives were defined (e.g. whether or not frying oil as a waste product was reprocessed or recycled), as well as with that of a vegetarian alternative: Quorn™. The resource consumption impact is assessed from cradle-to-disposal, expressed as the Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment (CEENE). Exergy is the amount of useful energy. The CEENE approach accounts for all resource types and is unique since it considers the deprived natural net primary production (expressed in exergy) as the impact for human land occupation, highly relevant for crop and thus food production. The food production, processing and packaging stage accounts for the largest amount of resource consumption compared to food preparation and waste management. The ‘Home Pork High’ scenario has the highest resource consumption at 83 MJex meal−1. ‘Home Pork Low’, ‘Home Quorn™ High’, ‘Canteen Pork’, ‘Home Quorn™ Low’ and ‘Canteen Quorn’ have a 15, 18, 26, 32 and 40% lower resource consumption compared to ‘Home Pork High’, respectively. For all scenarios, biomass resources contribute 52–64% of the total CEENE, mainly through land occupation. The nutritional analysis, via nutritional density scoring (the higher the better), resulted in a score of 18.1 and 31.2 for the ‘Home Quorn Low’ and ‘High’, 10.4 and 23.4 for the ‘Home Pork High’ and ‘Low’ scenario and 17.0 and 27.3 for the ‘Canteen Pork’ and ‘Canteen Quorn™’, respectively. To conclude, the vegetarian meal scores best on both attributes, however, this effect diminishes considerably if one considers outcomes per energy or protein amount. With regards to catered vs home cooked meals, resource consumption is lower in canteen prepared meals than in the case of the home-cooked meal. However, the nutritional value can be lower or higher depending on consumer behaviour, namely the extent of the use, type and application of butter is key in altering this result.

Plant vacuoles

Plant vacuoles

Predictive analytics: the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die

Q & A with Author Eric Siegel Eric Siegel Why does early retirement decrease life expectancy and why do vegetarians miss fewer flights? These are two more colorful examples of the multitudes of predictive discoveries waiting within data. University of Zurich discovered that, for a certain working category of males in Austria, each additional year of early retirement decreases life expectancy by 1.8 months. They conjecture that this could be due to unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking following retirement. One airline discovered that customers who preorder a vegetarian meal are more likely to make their flight, with the interpretation that knowledge of a personalized or specific meal awaiting the customer provides an incentive, or establishes a sense of commitment. Predictive analytics seeks out such predictive connections and then works to see how they may combine together for more precise prediction. What are the hottest trends in predictive analytics? There have been many exciting improvements in the core technology of predictive analytics. One is uplift (a.k.a. persuasion modeling), which predicts influence . . . in order to do influence. The Obama campaign used it to influence voters in the 2012 presidential election; marketing uses it to more adeptly persuade customers; and medicine uses it to better select per-patient treatments. This topic is the focus of the final chapter of this book. Another hot trend is ensemble models. Like the collective intelligence that spawns the wisdom of a crowd of people, we see the same effect with a crowd of predictive models. Each model alone may be fairly primitive such as a few simple rules, so it gets prediction wrong a lot, as an individual person trying to predict also does. But have them come together as a group and there emerges a new level of predictive performance. Did Nate Silver use predictive analytics to forecast Obama's election? No--but Obama did. Nate Silver made election forecasts for each state as a whole: which way would a state trend, overall? In the meantime, the Obama campaign was using predictive analytics to make per-voter prediction. Moving beyond forecasting, true power comes in influencing the future rather than speculating on it--the raison d'tre of predictive analytics. Nate Silver publicly competed to win election forecasting, while Obama's analytics team quietly competed to win the election itself. Specifically, team Obama drove per-voter campaign decisions by way of per-vote predictions. What is the coolest thing predictive analytics has done? One of the most inspiration accomplishments of predictive analytics is IBM's Watson, which was able to compete against the all-time human champions on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! The questions can be about most any topic, are intended for humans to answer, and can be complex grammatically. It turns out that predictive modeling is the way in which Watson succeeds in determining the answer to a question: it predicts, Is this candidate answer the correct answer to this question? It knocks off one correct answer after another--incredible. What are companies predicting about me as a customer? Here are just a few examples: Microsoft helped develop technology that, based on GPS data, accurately predicts one's location up to multiple years beforehand. Target predicts customer pregnancy from shopping behavior, thus identifying prospects to contact with offers related to the needs of a newborn's parents. Tesco (UK) annually issues 100 million personalized coupons at grocery cash registers across 13 countries. Predictive analytics increased redemption rates by a factor of 3.6. Netflix sponsored a $1 million competition to predict which movies you will like in order to improve movie recommendations. One top-five U.S. health insurance company predicts the likelihood an elderly insurance policy holder will die within 18 months in order to trigger end-of-life counseling. Con Edison predicts energy distribution cable failure, updating risk levels that are displayed on operators' screens three times an hour in New York City.

Number of foods available at a meal determines the amount consumed

The number of foods available at a meal has been suggested as a major determinant of the amount consumed. Two studies conducted in humans test this idea by altering the number of foods available at a meal where participants eat the available foods ad libitum. In Study 1, dinner intake of twenty-seven young adults was measured. The amount consumed was measured when subjects were served either: (a) a composite meal (a protein rich food, a carbohydrate rich food, and a vegetable), (b) a low carbohydrate meal (protein rich food and vegetable), or (c) a vegetarian meal (carbohydrate rich food and vegetable). In Study 2, twenty-four subjects were given two different meals presented either as individual foods or as a composite meal (stir-fry or stew). Both studies show that the greater the number of foods offered at a meal, the greater the total intake. Study 2 demonstrated that the effects observed in Study 1 could not be attributed to different nutrient compositions, but was rather due to the presentation of the individual foods because the same foods that were offered as individual foods were combined to make the composite meal. The results demonstrate that the greater the number of foods offered at a meal, the greater the spontaneous intake of those foods. This finding is important because not only does it expand the concept of variety from the kinds of foods to the number of foods, but it presents an environmental variable that might contribute to overeating and obesity.

Carbon footprints of Indian food items

Carbon emission occurs during various stages of life cycle of food products. Greenhouse gases (GHG) emission from 24 Indian food items showed that animal food products (meat and milk) and rice cultivation mostly contributed to methane (CH 4) emission, while food products from crops contributed to emission of nitrous oxide (N 2O). Emission of CO 2 occurred during farm operations, production of farm inputs, transport, processing and preparation of food. The GHG emission during the life cycle of cooked rice was 2.8 times the GHG emission during the life cycle of chapatti, a product of wheat flour. Mutton emitted 11.9 times as much GHG as milk, 12.1 times fish, 12.9 times rice and 36.5 times chapatti. As Indians mostly consume fresh foods produced locally, 87% emission came from food production followed by preparation (10%), processing (2%) and transportation (1%). For a balanced diet (vegetarian) an adult Indian man consumed 1165 g food and emitted 723.7 g CO 2 eq. GHG d −1. A non-vegetarian meal with mutton emitted GHG 1.8 times of a vegetarian meal, 1.5 times of a non-vegetarian meal with chicken and an ovo-vegetarian meal and 1.4 times a lacto-vegetarian meal. Change in food habit thus could offer a possibility for GHG mitigation.

The iron-chelating potential of silybin in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis

Milk thistle contains silybin, which is a potential iron chelator. We aimed to determine whether silybin reduced iron absorption in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis. In this crossover study, on three separate occasions, 10 patients who were homozygous for the C282Y mutation in the HFE gene (and fully treated) consumed a vegetarian meal containing 13.9 mg iron with: 200 ml water; 200 ml water and 140 mg silybin (Legalon Forte); or 200 ml tea. Blood was drawn once before, then 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 h after the meal. Consumption of silybin with a meal resulted in a reduction in the postprandial increase in serum iron (AUC±s.e.) compared with water (silybin 1726.6±346.8 versus water 2988.8±167; P<0.05) and tea (silybin 1726.6±346.8 versus tea 2099.3±223.3; P<0.05). In conclusion, silybin has the potential to reduce iron absorption, and this deserves further investigation, as silybin could be an adjunct in the treatment of haemochromatosis.

Probable Toxin Induced Polyneuropathy- Case Report of Six Individuals From A Urban Family of Lucknow

Polyneuropathies due to toxins continue to pose a challenge to the medical profession. Early suspicion of the condition, correct identification of the toxin and timely institution of therapy is not only life saving but can also greatly reduce the morbidity burden of the condition. We report six cases (2 females, 4 males) belonging to the same family and presenting with similar features of an acute to subacute onset, symmetrical, predominantly distal, graded, painful, sensori-motor polyneuropathy. All these patients complained of recurrent episodes of vomiting which started within 30 minutes to two hours of ingestion of home cooked vegetarian meal. After a variable period of 2–7 days the symptoms of polyneuropathy appeared. Electrophysiological studies demonstrated an axonal type of sensori-motor polyneuropathy. The temporal onset of symptoms, involvement of several individuals at the same time and a consistent and similar pattern of clinical findings were features highly suggestive of a toxin etiology. Using a structured and a logical approach in the background of the characteristic clinical picture the diagnostic possibilities were significantly narrowed down. Since the patients presented late and due to financial and technical constraints all tests could not be performed the toxin could not be confirmed. doi: 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.2007.140405