The rabid"Fatophobia"-Consequences of past practices now being felt!

There has been a frenetic pace in the criticism of fats present in the diet during the last 3 decades, attributing practically every ailments at the doors of this food component present in all foods in varying quantities. The food industry world over has been castigated for manufacturing high fat containing and tasty foods that attract the consumers and dietary guidelines have been telling the consumers to shun foods rich in fat. It is true that fats, especially saturated versions, that too present in animal derived foods do cause obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc when consumed in excessive quantities though precise data were never generated as to how much is too much! American consumers and their counterparts in many affluent countries were told that fat consumption through the daily foods should not be more than 30% of the total calorie needs of the body. This did create a perception all around that fat is a "dirty" component in a healthy food to be shunned as much as possible. Even a school going child "knows" fat rich foods are not good for health! What are the consequences of such a great fat phobia? They are there to see in a country like the US where industry started pandering to this trend developing thousands of products with the so called "low fat" claims! 

How far we have been right in taking the fat phobia to such great heights? It now emerges that such commonly perceived beliefs were highly misplaced as reflected by the failure of such low fat foods to prevent the increase of obesity and other related diseases in these countries during the last 3 decades. It now emerges that the recommendation to cap fat calories at 30% of total calories was wrong and in stead of reducing the incidence of obesity, such a policy created the opposite effect! Why? Because the place of fat in the diet was taken over by carbohydrates which seem to have contributed to health afflictions. Of course the emphasis on unsaturated fats and plant derived fats was correct as they are relatively less harmful compared to saturated fats. Even blaming carbohydrates may not be wholly justified becauser the quality of carbohydrates consumed makes a big difference in deciding the healthiness of a diet. Food technology may have some thing to do with decreasing the carbohydrate quality progressively during the last 5 decades by developing newer technologies to "refine" food which effectively means removing healthy components during the processing.  

Fortunately a spate of recent research studies have been able to establish the futility of focusing too much on low-fat foods. Many recent scientific observations do confirm the above reality. Studies using large randomized trials involving thousands of subjects between 2006 and 2013 brought out the stark reality that a low-fat diet had no significant benefits in ameliorating incidences of heart disease, cerebral stroke, diabetes or cancer risks. In contrast a high-fat, Mediterranean-style diet rich in nuts or extra-virgin olive oil providing more than 40 percent of calories in total fat was able to significantly reduced cardiovascular disease, diabetes and long-term weight gain. There are also other similar studies which have shown that high-fat diets can have same effect or better than, low-fat diets for short-term weight loss. The types of foods, rather than fat content, relate to long-term weight gain. It is not proper to rule out completely the perception that high-fat diets are not healthy  or low-fat diets are less harmful. A universal principle that should be borne in mind is that too much focus on a particular food component in the diets can be misleading and food has to be viewed in a holistic way. Focus on total fat or other abstract numbers printed on the labels of packed foods will have to be replaced with right emphasis on eating more minimally processed fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, fish, yogurt, vegetable oils and whole grains in stead of highly refined white grain flours, white potatoes, added sugars in what ever form and processed meats. 

Quantity of food eaten must be related to what we eat: As commonly believed cutting calories in the diet without improving food quality cannot be expected to cause long-term weight loss. It is this belated realization that has prompted health and food experts to modify the dietary guidelines, after singing the "song of 30% calories cap" for decades for consideration by the government without any upper limit on total fat. In addition, reduced-fat foods were specifically not recommended for obesity prevention. Instead, they want to encourage consumption according to healthful food-based diet patterns. The limit on total fat is an outdated concept, an obstacle to sensible change that promotes harmful low-fat foods, undermines efforts to limit refined grains and added sugars, and discourages the food industry from developing products higher in healthy fats. Fortunately, the people behind the Dietary Guidelines understand that but whether policy makers and the food industry take notice of this sane advice remains to be seen.

This discussion cannot be complete unless a mention is made about the life styles followed by the people to day,  especially with respect to their sedentary way of living with practically no exercise or any physical activity. The right way to lead a healthy life is to eat a balanced diet with adequate nutrition derived from whole grains, fruits, vegetables etc as mentioned above and do enough physical activity in any format that will burn the calories and achieve a dynamic metabolic activity in the body that can ensure sound health and mind.

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

RIVER GANGA-THE UNFOLDING TRAGEDY!

Indus Valley is the cradle of Indian Civilization and the river Ganga is ingrained in the ethos of this country through its association with various events spanning over the past 5000 years. Its 2500 km journey from Gaumukh to the Bay of Bengal provided sustenance to millions of people living on its banks. The seven kilometer human chain program stretching from Assi to Adikeshava Ghat on March 22 by school kids, college students and socially active citizens was organized by Sankat Morcha Foundation to create wide awareness about the continued neglect of this ancient river in spite of crores of rupees spent on its restoration by GOI. The occasion was the 'observance' of World Water Day by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), initiated in 1992 at Rio de Jeneiro to focus on the critical problems the world is facing vis-a-vis water.

As a nation ever ready to indulge in such public demonstration for any worth while cause, India has very little to show when it comes to implementation. It is true we have an exclusive Ministry for Program Implementation at Delhi but what it does is any body's guess! Other wise how one can explain the total failure of the 1984 Ganga Action Plan put in place by GOI with much fan fare with the honest intention of freeing this sacred water body from destruction through massive man-made pollution, investing more than Rs 15 billion. It is a tragedy of monumental proportion when it is realized that Ganga water has been declared unfit for drinking along its entire stretch from Haridwar down, as declared by no less an authority than Central Pollution Control Board of GOI. In some cases it is considered not even fit for bathing. Coli form bacteria in Ganga water, for which there are strict restrictions under the India Law, exceeds the safe limit in many places with great potential for many diseases.

It is estimated that River Ganga receives upwards of 1 billion liters of untreated sewage every day from the human settlement on its banks. In Patna alone 190 million liters of raw sewage flows through 29 drains. Under the Ganges Action Plan of 1984, 33 big sewage treatment plants were installed ostensibly to reduce the biological load of sewage flowing into the river. It is a tragedy that all these plants are lying idle, obviously because of apathy and callousness by the authorities concerned. How can we, as a responsible nation condone such colossal waste of national resources on life saving projects like this with no benefits accruing to its citizens. It is all the more pathetic to see public demonstrations like the 7- km human chain show to highlight the same problem even after 25 years of the Plan and realize that the water quality to day is worse that what it was in 1984!

More alarming are the findings by a group of scientists from University of Michigan that human beings are not the only ones affected by this pollution and even fish population undergo changes for the worse. Zooplanktons in River Ganga are so seriously affected by the pollution that they tend to develop tumors which find their way to human food chain through small fish first and then the larger varieties putting in jeopardy the safety of the food chain. Samples collected at Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Kolkata confirmed the presence of such plankton in the water. Whether drinking of this water in the form of sacred 'Theerth' in small quantities poses any danger is not known but this has not detered a state government in the South to ferry water from Ganga during the recent shivrathri festival for distribution to devotees in some major temples. While packing Ganga water in copper containers for preservation is widely practiced because of the oligodynamic properties of copper which is known to inhibit bacterial growth, whether copper can kill the tumor affected plankton needs to be verified.

The UNCED theme this year during the World Water Day is 'Transboundary Water', obviously to highlight the need for cooperation amongst nations in harnessing river bodies, forgetting the artificial barriers in the form of national boundaries, considered sacrosanct and inviolable by many. One wonders whether this is not an utopian dream in a world where there are countless and mindless water disputes, not only between sovereign nations but also between towns and cities, districts, areas, states and regions within a country, depriving the citizens of even the minimum needs of water for a decent quality of life.

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

THE CHINESE 'LESSON'-A WAKE UP CALL TO THE WORLD!

The sickening news about melamine tainted milk powder made in China will remain in memory for the sheer indifference by food industry there to the value of human life. If such a thing has happened in India, that will also be equally contemptible with no reservation. It may be recalled that last year Chinese made infant food formula killed 6 children and sickened 2, 94,000 others and the problem was traced to melamine, a chemical used in plastic dish wares with potential to cause urinary problems such as kidney stones and renal failure. It became clear that melamine was deliberately added to fluid milk to boost its Nitrogen content and consequently give a false protein reading enabling the milk vendors to collect higher prices for their consignments. Whether the perpetrators were aware of the consequences of their adulteration or it was deliberately done unmindful of the damages that would be caused, is still not known.

Close on the heels of the above tragedy comes the news that melamine is a 'darling' chemical in China as it finds use as a Nitrogen-boosting additive in many products. It was routinely added to feed formulations for fish and animals. As a preferred partner of China, the country that experienced the maximum damage was USA. In 2007 pet foods from China killed thousands of domestic dogs and cats but no one dared to challenge China, probably not to sour the 'cozy' relationship. Now that melamine was found to be in fish feeds also made in China, there are worries regarding the safety of fish imported from that country. USA is again the sufferer because it imported $ 2 billion worth of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, salmon and other fish in 2007. The situation is alarming because fish fed on such feeds containing melamine absorbs and accumulates the chemical in its body, posing serious health risks to fish consumers where as with cows and pigs residue might not be a serious problem.

Surprisingly US FDA does not have a melamine testing pre-requisite before clearing import consignments though they are strict with other countries when it comes to consumer safety. However increased vigil on Chinese shipments consequent to the melamine contamination episode has resulted in detention of more and more containers of fish originating from China at various US Ports. In November 2008 alone, 26 containers of imported Chinese shrimp have been detained suspecting safety problems with them. It is sad that such merchants of death exist in China also despite the authoritarian regime that boasts of severe punishment regime for crimes like this. These incidences do reflect on the Chinese system which allows manufacture of melamine in the country but did not anticipate its misuse in foods with lethal consequences.

The late awakening in USA regarding the vulnerability of Chinese safety monitoring infrastructure to such abuses, seems to have motivated the country to set up 3 regional offices of FDA in China vested with the responsibility of more intrusive inspection and assessment of foods originating from there before clearing the shipments. The lesson from this saga is that there is no substitute to eternal vigilance when it comes to food safety and no country, however powerful it may be, can lower its guard against social criminals who perpetrate such crimes against humanity for short term financial gains. A country like India with a Food Safety and Standards Authority in place to assure its citizens about the safety of food they eat every day, is thousand times more vulnerable than China because the so called "Authority" is a paper tiger with no power to do any thing in a federal structure as we have here. Democracy should not be doled out as an excuse to put in place a regime with "teeth" that will pursue the perpetrators of food related crimes even to the hell!

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

FISH EATING- THE IMPONDERABLES

Fish is considered a protective food with almost all essential nutrients for growth available from it. The presence of essential fatty acids, Omega-3 fatty acids in abundant quantities makes fish a much sought after food. In fact 14-16% of animal proteins world over are estimated to be coming from fish. There are over 27000 species of fish but only a few of them are considered tasty and acceptable. Commercial fishing is based on such a demand profile. Though there is no unanimity regarding how much fish one should consume to derive maximum benefits without any ill effects, the consumption rate at present indicates an annual per capita intake of 16 kg globally. Averages can be misleading as some do not consume any fish at all while others make fish part of their regular diets. A minimum of two servings of fish are considered good for deriving the health benefits attributed to fish. Eskimos depend on fish for a major part of their calories and proteins and they are one of the groups of population with practically no incidence of Cardio Vascular Disease because of abundant availability of Omega-3 acids from their diets. Long life span reported from Japan and Nordic countries is attributed to the fish-rich diets the population in these places consume regularly. Omega-3 acids are known to help reduce serum cholesterol, protect heart, improve circulation, reduce risk of arterial diseases and some types of cancers and improve brain development. The over whelming evidence in favor of Omega-3 acids has persuaded the industry to venture into extracting this nutrient from fish in the purest form with no smell or color and use it in many functional foods including juices and beverages. Besides Omega-3 acids, fish is also a good source of some essential minerals like iron, zinc, iodine and selenium. While there is no dispute about the value of fish in the diet, its consumption is hampered by two constraints. First the aversion by many people to fish which can be due to religion, eating habits, environmental factors and other socio-ethnic reasons. There is no way this can be overcome though future generation of youngsters may yet change this scenario. The second constraint is the wide spread contamination of fish with mercury which is known to cause life threatening life disorders if consumed regularly beyond a certain limit. Many species of fish are known to carry mercury in the range of 0.73 to 1.45 ppm which far exceeds the safe limit agreed upon by WHO. The current safety limit is 1.6 ug per kg body weight per week working out to about 112 ug for a normal adult. Two servings of fish therefore should not contain more than 0.112 ppm of mercury. The conflicting views of experts over the desirability of consuming fish by women during pregnancy have created uncertainty regarding the safety as well as the benefits of eating fish. While one group feels that two servings of fish a week have benefits far outweighing the potential harmful effects of mercury, others have taken the stand that eating fish during pregnancy must be avoided to prevent damage to the fetus. Four species of fish are reported to be high in mercury while species like Shrimp, light Tuna (canned), Salmon, Pollock and Cat fish are low in mercury and many experts feel that these can be consumed with least risk by expectant mothers. The Indian situation is some what hazy as no reliable data could be found regarding mercury contamination in fish from either fresh water or marine sources. But logically the fresh water fish may be a safer bet as they are not generally contaminated with industrial effluents except in some areas. It may be the onus of the newly created Food Standards and Safety Agency to look into this area to evolve a consensus as to the safety of fish caught inland as well as coastal areas. V.H.POTTY http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

FISH-THE OVER EXPLOITED FOOD SOURCE

Eating fish is considered a most healthy practice as they are the richest sources of EFA (Omega-3 acids), vital for sustaining human life, which are not synthesized by the body. There are hundreds of types of fish harvested from fresh water as well as the marine bodies while large quantities are reared under captivity through aqua culture technology. There are over 27000 species of fish known to mankind and 14-16% of animal proteins consumed world-wide comes from fish. Some of the most commonly consumed fish include Anchovy, Carp, Cat Fish, Dog Fish, Bass, Cod, Eel, Haddock, Herring, Mackerel, Marlin, Pom-fret, Pollock, Salmon, Sardine, Snapper, Tilapia, Trout and Tuna. World wide commercial fish catch is estimated at 95 million ton (mt) while fish farming yields another 50 mt annually. Aquaculture sector provides another 15 mt.

Increasing concern is being raised about the sustainability of fishing as a perennial source of food in view of over exploitation using modern trawlers. During the last 50 years of commercial fishing the effective population of 50 major species of fish has been reduced to 10% while many are on the brink of extinction. To day long line fishing is able to catch only one fish per 100 hooks as against 10 fish per 100 hooks 15 years ago reflecting the rapid decline in the fish population. According to fishery experts if the level of fishing is not reduced to 50% of what is being done currently, the day is not far off when commercial fishing will have to come to a grinding halt.

Nutrition experts recommend 300-600g of fish consumption per week for maintaining good health and at the rate fish is vanishing in the open water bodies due to over exploitation, 100% of the supply will have to come from fish farms and aqua culture, a tall order considering the constraints and limitations inherent in captive production. Even assuming that only 50% of world population consumes fish, the annual requirement to meet the needs @ 25 kg per capita works out to about more than 250 mt taking into consideration spoilage and non food uses and whether such production is sustainable is a big question mark. This assumes critical importance in view of the dwindling supply from the open seas and persistent call from the fishery experts to cut down on the catch by half for building up the resources to sustainable levels. Compounding this problem is the hypoxia condition generated in the oceans due to indiscriminate pollution and consequent depletion of oxygen when there is a shift in fish gender, males predominating the newly hatched population which further depletes production.

Marine Conservation Society (MNC) has sent advisories to the consumers to avoid eating a dozen species including Anchovies which face imminent extinction if conservation measures are not adopted immediately. MNC is doing a yeomen service in the field of fish conservation and has categorized edible fish species into five groups with rankings from 1 to 5 denoting the vulnerability of each variety. A rank of 5 considered worst from the sustainability angle is a danger signal and there are 69 species already with this ranking which include Monk fish from Spain, North Sea Cod, Dog Fish, Atlantic Salmon, Common Skate and Sword Fish. MNC does not label entire species unacceptable to eat but strives to explain whether a certain type of fish is sustainable or not based on how it was caught. Probably consumers may play a role in conservation if the information regarding this is available to them. How far it is practical to force the processors to declare the MNC rankings on the label of the product, remains to be seen. It is presumed that consumer awareness and resistance to purchase of such endangered species may eventually act as a deterrent to over exploitation and consequent extinction. It may be too much to except the retailers to know the origin of fish from which products sold by them are made and pass on this information to the consumers.

New products in the market under the functional food umbrella invariably include Omega-3 acids extracted from fish sources like Anchovy and how far this pull from the market will affect the population of fish is an unknown factor. Obviously those who cannot eat fish because of many considerations will plumb for such products containing odorless nutrients derived from fish to enhance the nutrition quality of foods they consume. A revisit of the olden days, when cod liver oil in capsule form as a source of Vitamin A was available which need not be 'eaten' but swallowed without the feeling the smell associated with fish, can increase the demand for fish and the world will have to cope up with such a surge in demand in the coming years through new innovations to increase production manifold.

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