Plastic, yes or no?
Take home message How much more time are we taking? It is a well-known phenomenon: our society ‘solves its problems’ by taking a switch to the future. Or in other words, we are shifting the problem ahead of us to …
Author: Ton Baars
Plastic particles in food
Take home message Persistent plastic microparticles Researchers at the VU-Amsterdam, connected through the “Plastic Soup Foundation” have looked at, where plastic is found in our food. In a pilot, samples were taken from meat, milk, roughage and concentrates. They looked …
The taste of milk differs
Take home message German milk tested In February 2023, Germany’s Ökotest on milk published pasteurised milk in two forms, traditionally pasteurised (TP) and pasteurised plus mikrofiltration (MF). The difference between the two manifests itself in the shelf life of the …
It may cost something
A new concept is emerging, a new awareness about the actual price and the invisible costs for the future and generations after us on earth. German TV featured a contribution on this topic in relation to our food consumption (Planet …
Dance with the beast
There was another wonderful, informative broadcast on Arte-TV (German/French). This time about the phenomenon of mega-forest fires. They are devastating and ultimately threaten the survival of humans and animals on earth. The reason is, there is a flywheel, the impact …
Lactose intolerance and intestinal flora
Take-home message Lactose intolerance is not lactase non-persistence Complicated word choices due to double negations. The issue is whether and how you can (still) digest lactose from milk products, especially milk, later in life. Lactose tolerance is usually seen as …
Defining food after the protein transition?
Susanne Prescott, immunologist, describes her viewpoint on the necessary reduction of meat consumption in a recent article. Too many people eat too much meat and the earth is going under. However, there is a huge world of interests behind our …
Yak in Asia
Take home message The habitat of the Yak In northern India, Butan and China (including Himalayas, Ladakh and Highlands of Tibet), nomads live up to high altitudes. They can only survive at this altitude (3000 to 5400 m) because of their Yak (Bos grunniens). Yak are larger ruminants, domesticated by humans like the cow (Auerochs). Yak selection started in India about 7,500 years ago, and there too, like in French Lascaux, one finds petroglyphs depicting …
Water, milk or cola?
Take home message Six months diet of milk or Coca-Cola? A Danish study (Maersk et al., 2012) looked, how two types of Coke (regular Coca-Cola and Diet Coke) had effects on weight development and physiological and body parameters around Metabolic …
The origins of pasteurisation
Louis Pasteur Pasteurisation is related and derived from Louis Pasteur, a French scientist, (1822-1895). Pasteur started his career as a chemist, and it was not until 1854 that he shifted his work to micro-organisms. In 1854, he was commissioned by …
