WHAT MAKES A NOBEL LAUREATE? BRAIN OR FOOD?

Is there a relationship between between the brain power and attainment of excellence in life? Common senses does indicate that man endowed with superior intelligence has conquered the world and to day homo sapiens rule supreme, at least in planet called Mother Earth. To establish any such relationship one has to define what is excellence and how it can be quantified. Once human beings are recognized as supremely intelligent creatures there must be degree of excellence by which there can be differentiation among them. Can winning a Nobel prize be considered the ultimate in one's life achievement? Nobel prize is given in practically every branch of human endeavor and there fore can be a comparative scale for determining excellence.

Some time back there was a claim that Nobel prize winners invariably come from countries where chocolate consumption is high! Statistically analyzed the study referred above does reflect this fact. Looked from the perspectives of a food scientist or a nutritionist, probably this phenomenon can be explained by the fact that chocolate is one of the richest sources of Flavonoids which are endowed with high levels of antioxidant activity. Heath of human beings in general is directly related to the extent of inflammation at cellular level and resultant generation of oxyradicals adversely affecting the DNA metabolism. Flavonoids and similar antioxidants are supposed to neutralize these highly destructive oxyradicals as and when they are generated. Probably this may be a far-fetched theory but still plausible.

Following the chocolate report in comes another claim that Milk consumption has some thing to do with the ability of human beings to reach pinnacle of their career! Here again the science of statistics has contributed to this "discovery". According to the authors of above "study" Sweden has the highest number of Nobel laureates, about 33 per 10 million since its inception and their per capita milk consumption is estimated to be about 330 kg per year! This country is closely followed by Switzerland, that tiny country with 32 Nobel prizes per 10 million population with milk products consumption to the extent of 300 kg per person per year. A major deviation is Finland with the highest milk consumption, 350 kg per capita,  which has insignificant number of Nobel laureates!. Probably 300 kg per capita annual consumption may be the cut off point beyond which the "Milk effect" does not work! China, the second most powerful economic power in the world is not an admirer of milk with hardly 25 kg per year per person and it has only an insignificant number of winners of Nobel prize, about 9 in number for a population of 1.3 billion plus!. Same is true with India also, with hardly 8 Nobel prizes for its population of 1.2 billion.  

What could be the connection, if at all there is any, between milk and excellence of achievement? Viewed from a nutrition angle, it is very difficult to justify such a correlation though milk is often considered as a complete food containing almost all critical nutrients required for development of body as well as the brain. The theory that it is rich in vitamin D that aids brain development cannot be taken at its face value because people in many tropical countries make abundant Vitamin D through their exposure to sun. Could the affordability play a part in enabling the people from rich countries consuming high quantum of milk and milk products and if so Nobel laureates can come only from such countries.

Are the people from poor countries destined to be inferior human beings perpetually? Their could be another angle which could explain the milk effect and that is not related to milk but to the education standards and infrastructure available in these rich countries. Naturally a good education can definitely enrich the mind and the brain leading to achievement of excellence in whatever field one chooses. There are many bright and intelligent youngsters in countries like India with the right caliber to become Nobel laureates but the poor infrastructure for education and unimaginative policies that prevail here, there is very little scope for expressing their innate talents. Why is that except for a Sir C V Raman or a Tagore who won the Nobel prize working in India, all other winners were people of Indian origin achieving the excellence working in other countries?  

While per capita milk consumption is used for comparison in the above study, the major flaw is that there can be enormous variation among the population with some consuming high amounts of milk while poorer segment must be taking abysmally low quantities. Take the example of India, the top producer of milk in the world where average milk consumption is just about 100 kg per person per year but in the state Punjab it is almost 360 kg per year per person! Does it mean that future Nobel laureates are going to emerge from this state while others have no chance? Statistical correlations have a meaning up to a point but it need not be the absolute truth! Ultimately for excellence in achievement, it 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration! While in science and other finite subjects infrastructure for research has to be of very high order, in social sciences creativity, imagination, deep thinking, philosophy and a fertile brain may play a crucial role.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

TEA BEVERAGE-A CASE FOR CHANGING TO GREEN TEA!

The "Tea Vs Coffee" debate is an ever interesting one with people from southern part of India strongly backing coffee with out which their day does not start! In contrast those from the north, pitch for tea, not because it is better health-wise but for its characteristic flavor. No doubt both Tea and Coffee contain the stimulant Caffeine which makes one more alert and relaxing. That said, the distinction between tea and coffee is getting blurred day by day as India is progressively becoming a national village without any restraining state borders. Efforts of Indian Coffee Board years ago to popularize coffee in the north were some what futile as even to day tea continues to be the dominant beverage in most of the northern states. One of the reasons could be that the taste and flavor of brewed coffee are widely varying, depending on the variety of seed, seed processing method, roasting practice, particle size of the ground coffee and method of brewing. This makes coffee making an extremely adventurous task. As coffee drinking was prevalent in the south for centuries, the art of making good coffee got transferred from generation to generation. In spite of this situation, surprisingly tea gained a firm foot hold in the south during the last 5 decades with many people opting for tea as a change from the coffee drinking routine.

Tea is a historical beverage with its origin attributed to China. There seems to be evidence that tea was a popular drink in both China and India almost 5000 years ago, though its discovery was attributed to Chinese royalty. It was an accidental contamination of hot water with tea leaves and the finding that the tea leaves soaked water was flavorful to the King, led to popularity of tea in China. Its origin in India is shrouded in mystery. Interestingly Chinese discovered that the tea leaves soaked hot water was not only refreshing but also health protective which helped tea to be propagated all over the world. As fresh tea leaves were some what perishable, drying was resorted to reduce moisture and extend its life for some time. Again the observation that bruised tea leaves tended to darken with time and produced aromatic flavors, led to the modern CTD tea technology widely used in the manufacture of black tea. Coincidentally most of the world liked black tea in preference to green tea which led to a thriving tea industry that produces about 2.5 million tons of tea world wide out of which green tea constitutes roughly 20%.

One of the influencing factors that made Chinese population healthier than others might be that they consume green tea regularly in their daily lives and therefore it can be probably considered as their national drink. If that is so what does green tea contain which is not present in black tea? A look back at the massive scientific literature available to day, dwelling on various aspects of tea, will reveal that tea the leaves are a rich source of poly phenols, accounting for about 8-12% of its solid content. These include a number of flavonoids like catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin gallate (better known as EGCG) and proanthocyanidinsmost of them with high antioxidant properties. As antioxidants play a vital role in neutralizing oxyradicals in the human body that is considered one of the causative factors in cancer development, tea with its rich antioxidant content is the darling of the health purists world over.

One of the most startling discoveries during the last few years of research on tea poly phenols was that all of them are not equal in conferring health benefits on human beings and the most important component that makes the difference is EGCG which was found to have a significant but specific influence on boosting many enzymes involved in neutralizing oxyradicals at the cellular level and prevent on set of cancers of various types. Unfortunately during the extreme processing conditions involved in converting green tea leaves into black tea, EGCG is converted to theaflavins and thearubigins  with no therapeutic properties. Logically therefore green tea beverage will have to be consumed if the benefit of EGCG is desired. The bud and the first leaves of the tea plant contain highest concentration of EGCG and are therefore plucked for making green tea products.

Green tea poly phenols in general were found to increase the biological activity of several enzymes involved in neutralizing the activity of oxyradicals and detoxification and EGCG is the most potent one. The enzyme found to be positively influenced include glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S transferase, catalase and quinine reductase in small intestine, liver and lungs. EGCG is considered to have excellent therapeutical significance in preventing and treating a host of disease that include HIV, cancers affecting prostaglandin, brain, cervix and bladder, besides neurodegeneration. Drinking about two cups of green tea a day can confer most of the benefits attributed to EGCG, while consuming 4-6 cups a day is considered a therapeutic dose.

The health supplement industry seems to have got into the EGCG band wagon by putting in the market many products containing this phytochemical though most of them are non-standard ones containing very little or no EGCG at all! In the absence of a regulatory environment these fly by night operators are able to catch the attention of gullible consumers, laughing all the way to their banks! The most blatant use ( or misuse?) of green tea credentials is by the weight reduction products industry which is offering green tea solids containing health supplements based on some studies that a combination of EGCG and caffeine, when consumed,  produces thermogenesis in the body leading to depletion of fat, causing some weight reduction. However there is no standardization of these products and the claims are not substantiated by real time studies involving human subjects. 

One of the most surprising off shoots of studies using green tea  and the EGCG is the finding that sugar spikes that occur after carbohydrate ingestion by diabetic patients can be reduced significantly by consumption of green tea, provided they are consumed together. The scientific logic is that EGCG has an inhibitory effect on starch degrading enzyme alpha amylase which in turn slow down break down of starch into maltose and glucose in vitro. As the ptylin enzyme present in the saliva has also starch digesting ability, the starch hydrolysis which starts immediately after ingestion in the oral cavity itself is retarded. Further exposure in the small intestine to alpha amylase as the food is swallowed and as it travels down the digestive tract, glucose generation is significantly retarded in presence of EGCG. According to recent findings if Egcg and a starchy food are consumed without any gap of time, glucose spike can be slowed down by almost 50% which by itself is remarkable. This finding confers additional benefits on those consuming green tea regularly  include insurance against a host of modern day diseases affecting almost all organs in the body. Probably the health food industry will latch on to this discovery and it is a question of time before health supplements containing EGCG or green tea solids are marketed both for targeted consumer groups as well as general population.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE APPLE 'STORY'-A REALITY CHECK

The statement that"an apple a day keeps the doctor away", is literally taken as true and consumers do not mind buying this fruit even at sky high prices varying from Rs 60 to Rs 120 per kg in India. While consuming apple as a part of the daily servings of fruits and vegetables recommended for good health is understandable, how far the health tag attached to it, is justified cannot be easily discerned. No doubt the typical aroma and texture associated with apple are truly enjoyable and its suitability for long term storage under modified atmosphere conditions have made it possible to organize its cultivation and marketing into a successful industry in India. Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh account for almost all the apple production in the country. Consequent to economic liberalization and globalization under the WTO regime, apples grown in USA, Australia, China etc are available in the Indian market though the imported fruits cost almost double compared to that of the domestic produce.

Apple has the reputation of being associated with the healing God of Greeks and Romans Apollo who lived in 700 BC and probably the name must have been derived from this association. Cooked apple was a popular ameliorant for bowel disturbances, lungs and nervous system and ancient physicians Hippocrates and Galen recommended apple for facilitating digestion. Of course these legendary references to apple must have some basis and probably cannot be rubbished straight away. The fact that apple fruit is still revered by many reflects its popularity. With to day's scientific knowledge, it can be safely said that apple is a desirable fruit with some pro-health and healing properties. Many believe that regular consumption of apple helps in over coming anaemia, digestion problems, heart diseases,head aches, eye disorders, kidney stones and many other every day afflictions. There are apples with tints of green, yellow and red. While green apple is considered good for strong bones and teeth, vision and prevention of cancer, yellow ones are associated with heart and eye health, immune system and the red variety is linked to benefits of good memory, anti cancer traits and urinary tract health.

According to fruit 'astrologers', those who like apple are endowed with a personality that reflects their extravagant nature, impulsiveness, persistence, out spoken quality, moderate temper, good organizing capability, quick decision taking ability, travel craze, charming personality and infectious enthusiasm! It is not clear whether such a prediction is based on science or any statistical study. A look at the nutritive profile of apple does not reveal any thing extraordinary quality that qualifies it for any particular mention. Each 100 gm of its edible portion contains 10.39% sugar, 50 kC of energy, 2.4% of dietary fiber (1-1.5% pectin), 0.17% fat, 0.26% protein, besides small levels of micronutrients most predominant being vitamin C, about 4.6 mg% equivalent to just 8% of daily value. But where apple scores over other fruits is the extent of valuable phytochemicals present in it with many health protecting properties. Flavonoids and phenolics contained in apple makes it the second highest ranked source amongst fruits. Querceitin (mostly in the peel portion), catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acid in apple have very strong antioxidant effects and especially the relatively high content of free phenolics which are much more easily bioavailable to humans must have conferred on this fruit the awesome power to claim 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. In fact the antioxidant activity of the phytochemicals in one apple is equivalent to that from 1500 mg of vitamin C.

China is blessed with world's largest apple orchards, its production being 40% of the global out put of 55 million tons worth $ 10 billion while in India J & K and Himachal grows apple to the extent of 2 million tons. Considering that human DNA gets on an average 10000 hits per cell every day which can have high potential for derailing some of the important metabolic functions, apple phytochemicals, with its high density contents of flavonoids and phenolics, can provide the protection when consumed regularly without peeling. Technology for extending the life of apple is well developed in the country and the growers must be supported with necessary infrastructure to market the fruit at affordable prices to make it within reach of the common man of this country.



V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

CHOCOLATE-VILLAIN OR THE HERO?

Chocolates are based on the raw material Cocoa beans which are dried seeds of the plant Theobroma cocao L obtained from the ripe pods after fermentation. The process involves roasting of the seeds, breaking them into pieces, recovering the nibs, grinding the nibs into refined cocoa mass and compounding into chocolates with sugar, cocoa butter and other ingredients. There is a great attraction for chocolates for children, youngsters and grown ups because of the fine texture and delicate flavor. The characteristic melting profile of coco butter which becomes soft at body temperature gives the chocolates their unique sensory quality.

Chocolates are shunned by many consumers because of the presence of high levels of fat and sugar both implicated in life style disorders like obesity, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes etc when consumed in excess. Besides dental problems are also associated with high chocolate consumption. Though chocolates often symbolize happy occasions, regular consumption is discouraged amongst children by the parents due to the bad reputation these products have because of fat and sugar. More over cocoa butter is a saturated fat with potential for increasing serum triglyceride levels and consequently build up of low density cholesterol (LDL) leading to atherosclerosis. 45-55% fat present in cocoa mass has a restraining influence on consumers and naturally with such a reputation consumers cannot be faulted if they tend to avoid consumption of chocolates.

How far one can justify branding chocolate as a villain, given the scientific facts vis-a-vis chocolates.Cocoa is a rich source of flavonoids like epicatechin, catechin and procyanidins which are known to improve endothelial and platelet function as well as maintaining blood pressure. They are associated with acute elevation of circulating nitric oxide and enhance flow-mediated vasodilation. Catechins which are present in abundance in cocoa are good antioxidants that help protect the body against cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Theobromine, another phytochemical native to cocoa, is known to be a stimulant of Central Nervous System and it facilitates muscle function. Anandamide, a cannabinoid present in brain and responsible for the well being mood, is claimed to be present in cocoa also and acts on brain receptors to help promote the mood boost, enhancing the feelings of well being. Though the extremely small concentration of anandamide in cocoa may not be that effective, presence of two structurally related chemicals N-oleolethanolamine and N-linoleoylethanolamine could be responsible for the mood enhancing properties of cocoa as they are known to inhibit metabolism of naturally occurring anandamide in the brain, thus preserving its effect longer. Cocoa is also rich in potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E. Dark chocolates can reduce death due to heart attack by 50%. Chocolates are high in the amino acid Tryptophan that increases Serotonin which is known to reduce cravings for starch and sweet foods. Japanese scientists have recently come out with the amazing findings that regular consumption of cocoa every day boosts the beneficial HDL cholesterol.

Consumed in moderate amounts, chocolate, especially the bitter one, is a health promoter and deserves a place in the diet of normal healthy persons. Probably avoiding too much sugar and reducing the fat content to lowest level possible, cocoa based products can even claim the coveted role of a nutraceutical. Future R & D can further expand the use of cocoa through health-friendly formulated products which consumers may accept without reservation.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/