Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: food – Page 176

Here’s my latest video!

Animal products, including meat, cheese, and eggs contain carnitine and choline, metabolites that are converted by gut bacteria into TMA, which is then converted by the liver into TMAO. Plasma levels of TMAO are associated with an increased risk of disease and death, so should we limit intake of these animal products?

Separately, fish contains relatively high levels of TMAO, and blood levels of TMAO spike after fish consumption, but there is a decreased all-cause mortality risk for fish consumers. To explain these disparate findings, other factors may be involved in the TMAO-health and disease story. In the video, I discuss the impact of kidney function on plasma levels of TMAO, disease and mortality risk.

Continue reading “Kidney Function: The Missing Link In The TMAO-Health And Disease Story?” | >

Scanning lasers—from barcode scanners at the supermarket to cameras on newer smartphones—are an indispensable part of our daily lives, relying on lasers and detectors for pinpoint precision.

Distance and using LiDAR—a portmanteau of light and radar—is becoming increasingly common: reflected beams record the surrounding environment, providing crucial data for autonomous cars, agricultural machines, and factory robots.

Current technology bounces the laser beams off of moving mirrors, a mechanical method that results in slower scanning speeds and inaccuracies, not to mention the large physical size and complexity of devices housing a laser and mirrors.

Read more | >

Circa 2017 o.o

When life gave one Chinese company giant panda poop, it decided to make paper — and profits. The Qianwei Fengsheng Paper Company in southwest Sichuan province has teamed up with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to recycle the animal’s faeces and food debris into toilet paper, napkins and other household products, state media reported Wednesday. The goods, soon to be released on the Chinese market, will be marketed as part of a “panda poo” product line decorated with a picture of the bamboo-eating, black-and-white bear. “They’re taking care of our garbage for us,” Huang Yan, a researcher at the giant panda centre, told the Chengdu Business Daily. Huang told Xinhua state news agency that the 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bamboo poo that adult pandas unleash daily are rich in fibre after absorbing the fructose from the shoots. In addition to their valuable dung, pandas also produce 50 kilograms of food waste every day from the bamboo husks they spit out after chewing. While the process of turning bamboo into paper generally involves the breaking down of fructose to extract fibre, this step naturally occurs in the pandas’ digestive tract, the paper company’s president, Yang Chaolin, told Xinhua. Fengsheng will collect the faeces from three panda bases in Sichuan a couple of times a week. After it is boiled, pasteurised and turned into paper, it will be tested for bacteria before going on sale. Boxes of “panda poo” tissues will be sold at 43 yuan ($6.5) a pop. “Pandas get what they want and we do too,” Yang said. “It’s a win-win.”

Read more | >

https://media.blubrry.com/drjohnday/p/drjohnday.com/podcasts/Podcast217.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS6 Foods to Reverse Aging with Lithium Could a microscopic dose of the psychoactive drug lithium, which occurs naturally in mineral water and certain foods, actually be the secret to less heart disease, better moods, and a longer life? In this article, I share how eating six foods may reverse aging with lithium.

Read more | >

MIT researchers have developed a new material inspired by camel fur made from two layers that can keep perishable goods cool without needing any power. The two-layer passive cooling system is made of hydrogel and aerogel. Researchers say that it can be used to keep foods or pharmaceutical cool for days without needing electricity.

The material can be seen in the photo above, its top layer is aerogel, and the bottom layer is a hydrogel. Material is inspired by camel fur, which helps keep the animals cool and helps them to conserve water in the scorching desert environment. It seems counterintuitive that a thick coat of fur would help camels to stay cool, but tests have shown that a shaved camel loses 50 percent more moisture than an unshaved one under ideal conditions.

The bottom layer of MIT’s material is a substitute for sweat glands made of hydrogel. This gelatin-like substance is mostly water contained in a sponge-like matrix that allows the water to evaporate easily. The upper aerogel layer plays the part of the fur, keeping out external heat while allowing the vapor to pass through. Hydrogels have been used for cooling applications in the past. Field tests have found that MIT’s material can provide cooling of more than seven degrees Celsius for five times longer than hydrogel alone despite being less than half an inch thick.

Read more | >

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and CEO of Bioquark, interviews Philip Lymbery, award winning author of books Farmageddon and Dead Zone and CEO of Compassion in World Farming.

Ira Pastor Comments:

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF)is a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organization which campaigns against the live export of animals, certain methods of livestock slaughter, and all systems of factory farming.

Philip Lymbery, founder of Compassion in World Farming:

Continue reading “Compassion in World Farming: Protecting Animals Means Protecting People and the Planet” | >