By carbon testing tissues exposed to nuclear fallout in post WWII tests, scientists have found that despite repeated high-impact loading, the Achilles tendon is not renewed, but stays the same throughout adult life.

Achilles tendon injuries are notorious among athletes and trainers as career killers.

“Tendon injury is a very common disease, which hinders many people from enjoying the numerous benefits of sports and recreational activities,” said Katja Heinemeier, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Institute of Sport Medicine and Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

“We hope that these new results will provide the essential knowledge necessary for the development of effective treatments of tendon diseases,” he added.

(more…)

Cut down on your meat portions and fill your plate with vegetables if you cared at all about your planet.

That is the advice Professor Mark Sutton, a scientist from the United Nations Environment Program, has given, who suggested that said we all need to become ‘demitarians’, that means eating half the amount of meat we’re currently consuming, before it costs us the planet.

According to Dr Sutton our love of meat is not only selfish, it’s fatal, news.com.au reports.

She said that we apparently ate significantly more meat than people who lived one to two generations before us.

This demand for meat has doubled the amount of grain needed to feed the cattle. In order to keep up with this demand, farmers are relying on pesticide and fertilisers to speed up the grain production.

(more…)

Some high-fibre foods, which are sold as low in calories, may actually contain, in the extreme, up to 25 per cent more calories than the label suggests, nutritional experts have said.

It means that some high-fibre foods targeted at people on a diet are actually more fattening than people are led to believe, said Geoffrey Livesey, an independent nutritionist based in Britain who has advised the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Dr Livesey told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston that consumers have been unknowingly consuming extra calorie in high-fibre food for decades because the system for assessing calories goes back to the 1970s and even earlier, according to the Independent.

It means that if people follow the daily recommended intake of 18 grams of fibre, they could be consuming more than 250 extra calories each week without realising it, he said.

(more…)

Nutrition and Dietetics expert, Parvathy Radhakrishnan answers readers’ questions on nutrition. Get your doubts cleared and see them featured on our FAQ page every Wednesday.

My son is 23 years old. Since his birth weight was very low he was awarded by frequent illness as dehydration/diaarhea/fever /cold and cough being this reason he always fought for life. Some time he experienced snow phl. At present his muscle is underdeveloped looks thin. Please advise what fruits/diet should be taken by him.
P.C. Sharma

Has your son been evaluated by a physician?Is he anemic? Is he allergic to any foods or does he have lactose intolerance?Since these info, blood tests, his height and weight are not mentioned I do not have a complete picture of his health. Anyway, generally speaking for someone of his age, your son should eat a normal diet including all kinds of fruits and vegetables, milk/buttermilk, pulses and beans, starch like rice, rotis, etc.

(more…)