Could breadfruit be the next superfood? Researchers say yes

 

A fruit used for centuries in countries around the world is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers.

 

Breadfruit, which grows in abundance in tropical and South Pacific countries, has long been a staple in the diet of many people. The fruit can be eaten when ripe, or it can be dried and ground up into a flour and repurposed into many types of meals, explains UBC Okanagan researcher Susan Murch.

 

"Breadfruit is a traditional staple crop from the Pacific islands with the potential to improve worldwide food security and mitigate diabetes," says Murch, a chemistry professor in the newly created Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science. "While people have survived on it for thousands of years there was a lack of basic scientific knowledge of the health impacts of a breadfruit-based diet in both humans and animals."

 

Breadfruit can be harvested, dried and ground into a gluten-free flour. For the project, researchers had four breadfruits from the same tree in Hawaii, shipped to the Murch Lab at UBC Okanagan. Doctoral student Ying Liu led the study examining the digestion and health impact of a breadfruit-based diet.

 

"Detailed and systematic studies of the health impacts of a breadfruit diet had not previously been conducted and we wanted to contribute to the development of breadfruit as a sustainable, environmentally-friendly and high-production crop," Liu says.

 

The few studies done on the product have been to examine the glycemic index of breadfruit -- with a low glycemic index it is comparable to many common staples such as wheat, cassava, yam and potatoes.

 

"The objective of our current study was to determine whether a diet containing breadfruit flour poses any serious health concerns," explains Liu, who conducted her research with colleagues from British Columbia Institute of Technology's Natural Health and Food Products Research Group and the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanic Garden in Hawaii.

 

The researchers designed a series of studies -- using flour ground from dehydrated breadfruits -- that could provide data on the impacts of a breadfruit-based diet fed to mice and an enzyme digestion model.

 

The researchers determined that breadfruit protein was found to be easier to digest than wheat protein in the enzyme digestion model. And mice fed the breadfruit diet had a significantly higher growth rate and body weight than standard diet-fed mice.

 

Liu also noted mice on the breadfruit diet had a significantly higher daily water consumption compared to mice on the wheat diet. And at the end of the three-week-trial, the body composition was similar between the breadfruit and wheat diet-fed mice.

 

"As the first complete, fully-designed breadfruit diet study, our data showed that a breadfruit diet does not impose any toxic impact," says Liu. "Fundamental understanding of the health impact of breadfruit digestion and diets is necessary and imperative to the establishment of breadfruit as a staple or as a functional food in the future."

 

The use of breadfruit is nutritious and sustainable and could make inroads in food sustainability for many populations globally, she adds. For example, the average daily consumption of grain in the United States is 189 grams (6.67 ounces) per day. Liu suggests if a person ate the same amount of cooked breadfruit they can meet up to nearly 57 per cent of their daily fiber requirement, more than 34 per cent of their protein requirement and at the same time consume vitamin C, potassium, iron, calcium and phosphorus.

 

"Overall, these studies support the use of breadfruit as part of a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet," says Liu. "Flour produced from breadfruit is a gluten-free, low glycemic index, nutrient-dense and complete protein option for modern foods."

 

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Materials provided by University of British Columbia Okanagan campus.

Some But Not All US Metro Areas Could Grow All Needed Food Locally

 

Some but not all U.S. metro areas could grow all the food they need locally, according to a new study estimating the degree to which the American food supply could be localized based on population, geography, and diet.

 

The modeling study, led by Christian Peters at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, is published today in Environmental Science & Technology.

 

The model estimates whether 378 metropolitan areas could meet their food needs from local agricultural land located within 250 kilometers (155 miles). Local potential was estimated based on seven different diets, including the current typical American diet.

 

The results suggest:

 

* Metro centers in the Northwest and interior of the country have the greatest potential for localization.

* Large portions of the population along the Eastern Seaboard and the southwest corner of the U.S. would have the least potential for localization.

 

* Surplus land existed under all diet scenarios, raising questions about the best use of land for meeting health, environmental, and economic goals.

 

"Not everyone lives near enough agricultural land to have an entirely local or even regional food supply. Most cities along the Eastern Seaboard and in the southwest corner of the U.S. could not meet their food needs locally, even if every available acre of agricultural land was used for local food production. Yet, many cities in the rest of the country are surrounded by ample land to support local and regional food systems," said Peters, senior author and associate professor at the Friedman School, whose research focuses on sustainability science.

 

Peters and his team also modeled seven different diets to estimate whether dietary changes could make a difference in the potential to produce enough food for a metro area. The diets ranged from the current typical American diet, which is high in meat, to vegan. Reducing animal products in the diet increased the potential to produce all food locally, up to a point. Diets with less than half the current consumption of meat supported similar levels of localization potential, whether omnivore or vegetarian. Consumption of meat (beef, pork, chicken and turkey) for the baseline typical American diet was estimated at roughly five ounces per day.

 

"There would be different ways to do it. Imagine, if we cut back to fewer than two and a half ounces per day by serving smaller portions of meat and replacing some meat-centric entrees with plant-based alternatives, like lentils, beans and nuts. More diverse sources of protein could open new possibilities for local food. Nutrition research tells us that there could be some health benefits, too," said corresponding author Julie Kurtz, who was a master's degree student at the Friedman School at the time of the study.

 

Under all the diet scenarios, the model projected the United States having a surplus of land for meeting domestic food needs. In the current American agricultural system, some farmland is used for biofuels and export crops. The researchers point out that if metro centers focused on eating locally, many agricultural areas would face new questions about local land use priorities.

 

"It would be important to make sure policies for supporting local or regional food production benefit conservation and create opportunities for farmers to adopt more sustainable practices. Policies should also recognize the capacity of the natural resources in a given locale or region -- and consider the supply chain, including capacity for food processing and storage," Peters said.

 

Economic efficiency for food production was beyond the scope of the analysis. Also, the study is based on current conditions and does not consider how future climate change may affect future agricultural potential.

 

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Materials provided by Tufts University, Health Sciences

30 Simple Tricks to Make Your Produce Last Longer

Assorted berries

Have you ever stocked up your fridge with tons of healthy fruits and hearty veggies, only to watch them grow moldy and decompose just a couple days later? And during a time like right now when you're not going to the grocery store as often, going to grab a slice of bread just to uncover that it has mold on it already is not ideal. Not only is that a major waste of money, but when your fresh food supply is limited, you're going to want to make it last as long as you can.

Here, we've rounded up the best tips and tricks so you can keep all that food you've just stocked up on fresh for as long as possible. And next time you hit the supermarket, be sure to avoid doing any of these 10 Things You're Doing That Frustrate Grocery Store Workers.

Bread

Nope, it's not the fridge! You should keep your loaves stored on the counter, tightly wrapped and out of the light, or inside of a bread box. If your counter gets a lot of exposure to sunlight and you don't have a bread box, you can store the tightly wrapped bread in the pantry where it's dark and room temperature. If you cannot gobble up the loaf bread between three and five days, you'll want to freeze the remaining slices.

Potatoes

You'll want to place whole potatoes in a well-ventilated container, like a basket or a mesh produce bag (even a large cardboard box will do). Store in a cool, dry, dark place, like a pantry, cupboard, basement, or garage.

Avocados

If you have an avocado that's not ripe yet, the best place for it is on a counter. You'll want to keep the avocado away from other fruits and vegetables that might be on the countertop, though. Avocados produce ethylene gas, which can make other foods ripen faster.

Bananas

When they're still in the peel, bananas should be kept on the counter with the stems wrapped. If you're saving part of an opened banana, keep it in the fridge. And keep bananas away from your other produce, as they produce high amounts of ethylene gas.

Milk

The trick to keeping milk fresher for longer is mastering the placement of the milk in the refrigerator. Cow's milk should be kept between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit in order to prevent spoilage, so the more the milk is exposed to warm air, the faster it will lose its freshness. The coldest parts of your refrigerator will help keep milk from spoiling longer, so keep milk in the back and bottom portions.

Coffee beans

You might not be able to take a trip to your local coffee shop right now, so you're left to brew your own cup of Joe. For best results, you'll want to store the beans in a cool, dark place like your cupboard or pantry, located away from the stove and any other heat-generating appliances. Don't think you have to put them in the fridge—coffee actually absorbs odors from the environment, so if your refrigerator is packed with aromatic foods, your coffee will begin to take on those flavors if it's not in an airtight container.

Fresh baked cookies

There's a good chance you're baking more now that you're living that quarantine life, so you want these cookies to last right? Well, your best bet is to store the homemade cookies in a sealed air-tight container with parchment between the layers and a slice of white bread in the container. Yep, a slice of bread! So why is that? The moisture from the bread will help keep the cookies soft. If you prefer crisp cookies though, you can skip the bread and leave the container slightly open so air can circulate.

Peanut Butter

Your best bet is to store that jar of peanut butter upside down, especially if it's natural peanut butter. Since natural peanut butter consists of just peanuts and sometimes a sprinkle of salt rather than a slew of added hydrogenated oils, you'll notice a thick pool of oil floating at the top. This oil separation is totally natural, but you're just going to have to do a lot of stirring when it comes time for a scoop. The solution? Popping the jar in your pantry upside down will help evenly distribute the plant oils.

Wine

If you're thinking of putting those bottles of red wine in a rack on top of the fridge, just don't. See, you can end up getting more heat on top of the fridge, which is bad for the wine. Instead, you're going to want to be sure to keep that bottle in a cool, dark place around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. A low spot in your pantry would work great! And while you're at it, here are 15 Clever Ways to Use Leftover Red Wine.

Ketchup and mustard

Although restaurants keep their condiments on tables, you're going to want to keep ketchup and mustard in your fridge at home. It's a smart move to preserve the condiments' shelf lives and keep them fresh.

Onions

When you get back from the store, it's best to store these in a dark, cool place such as a pantry, basement, or garage. This gives the onions a shelf life of up to four weeks. It's also imperative to store the uncut onions in a mesh bag or open basket rather than a plastic bag because plastic bags don't have the proper ventilation to help the onions last longer.

Once you slice and dice up the onions though, you'll want to store cut onions in a sealed container or plastic bag in the refrigerator for 7-10 days.

Salad greens and fresh herbs

Store salad greens and fresh herbs in tightly-sealed bags filled with a small amount of air. If you leave your herbs in the package you bought them in, they'll have a greater chance of going bad before you get to use them.

And with chopped salad greens, store them in the fridge in a bowl lined with paper towels and cover with plastic wrap.

For more tips on keeping your herbs fresh, don't miss The Single Best Way To Store Fresh Herbs.

Celery

Weird, but true: Aluminum foil will keep celery fresh. Wrap celery in aluminum foil before storing it in the veggie bin of the fridge.

Pineapples

To store pineapples, cut the leafy top off and place the pineapple in the fridge upside down.

Mushrooms

Store mushrooms in a brown paper bag in the fridge or another cool, dry area.

Strawberries

Moisture causes mold, so do not wash berries until you're ready to eat them. Keep them in the fridge in a container that leaves room for airflow so they don't get moldy.

Root vegetables, including ginger and turmeric

Store roots such as ginger and turmeric in the freezer. They'll actually fare better in the cold.

Tomatoes

Keep tomatoes away from salad greens. They'll do best at room temperature, away from sunlight—and you're better off not storing them in plastic.

For home cooks, widespread techniques for judging doneness of chicken may not ensure that pathogens are reduced to safe levels. Solveig Langsrud of the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on April 29, 2020.

Chicken can harbor the bacterial pathogens Salmonella and Campylobacter. High temperatures can kill these microbes, but enough may survive to cause illness if meat is undercooked. Recommendations for monitoring doneness vary widely, and the prevalence and safety of methods commonly used by home cooks have been unclear.

To help clarify consumers' chicken cooking practices, Lansgrud and colleagues surveyed 3,969 private households across five European countries (France, Norway, Portugal, Romania, and the U.K.) on their personal chicken cooking practices. They also interviewed and observed chicken cooking practices in 75 additional households in the same countries.

The analysis indicated that checking the inner color of chicken meat is a popular way to judge doneness, used by half of households. Other common methods include examining meat texture or juice color. However, the researchers also conducted laboratory experiments to test various techniques for judging doneness, and these demonstrated that color and texture are not reliable indicators of safety on their own: for example, the inner color of chicken changes at a temperature too low to sufficiently inactivate pathogens.

 

Food safety messages often recommend use of thermometers to judge doneness, but the researchers found that the surface of chicken meat may still harbor live pathogens after the inside is cooked sufficiently. Furthermore, thermometers are not widely used; only one of the 75 observed households employed one.

 

These findings suggest a need for updated recommendations that guarantee safety while accounting for consumers' habits and desire to avoid overcooked chicken. For now, the researchers recommend focusing on the color and texture of the thickest part of the meat, as well as ensuring that all surfaces reach sufficient temperatures.

 

"Consumers are often advised to use a food thermometer or check that the juices run clear to make sure that the chicken is cooked safely -- we were surprised to find that these recommendations are not safe, not based on scientific evidence and rarely used by consumers," adds Dr Langsrud. "Primarily, consumers should check that all surfaces of the meat are cooked, as most bacteria are present on the surface. Secondly, they should check the core. When the core meat is fibrous and not glossy, it has reached a safe temperature.

 

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Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus' genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares "uncanny similarities" with an HIV-1 protein. Now, a study in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research refutes both ideas and suggests that scaly, anteater-like animals called pangolins are the missing link for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between bats and humans.

Understanding where SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic -- came from and how it spreads is important for its control and treatment. Most experts agree that bats are a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, but an intermediate host was needed for it to jump from bats to humans.

A recent study that analyzed the new virus' genome suggested snakes as this host, despite the fact that coronaviruses are only known to infect mammals and birds. Meanwhile, an unrelated study compared the sequence of the spike protein -- a key protein responsible for getting the virus into mammalian cells -- of the new coronavirus to that of HIV-1, noting unexpected similarities. Although the authors withdrew this preprint manuscript after scientific criticism, it spawned rumors and conspiracy theories that the new coronavirus could have been engineered in a lab. Yang Zhang and colleagues wanted to conduct a more careful and complete analysis of SARS-CoV-2 DNA and protein sequences to resolve these issues.

Compared to the previous studies, the researchers used larger data sets and newer, more accurate bioinformatics methods and databases to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome. They found that, in contrast to the claim that four regions of the spike protein were uniquely shared between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1, the four sequence segments could be found in other viruses, including bat coronavirus.

After uncovering an error in the analysis that suggested snakes as an intermediate host, the team searched DNA and protein sequences isolated from pangolin tissues for ones similar to SARS-CoV-2. The researchers identified protein sequences in sick animals' lungs that were 91% identical to the human virus' proteins. Moreover, the receptor binding domain of the spike protein from the pangolin coronavirus had only five amino acid differences from SARS-CoV-2, compared with 19 differences between the human and bat viral proteins. This evidence points to the pangolin as the most likely intermediate host for the new coronavirus, but additional intermediate hosts could be possible, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment.