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At age 23, Kylie Jenner is known for hustlingwith a TV show and cosmetics lineand never more so than when it comes to her fitness and diet. Leave em on red, she captioned an Instagram post yesterday, in which she showed off her gym-toned arms in a red midriff-baring top with leather pants, while sitting on a white outdoor couch. At the same time, an insider shared her workout with E! Onlineand days before, Jenner herself shared her workout on Instagram. Read on to see Jenners fit look in the new outfit, and learn more about her workout and diet routine.

Jenner prefers doing outdoor workouts because it's more distracting and feels nice to be in nature, the insider tells E! Online. Two days ago, Jenner posted on Instagram saying never miss a monday! The accompanying video has her climbing uphill, running along a trail, hitting the treadmill at a 12.0 incline, and 3.2 speed, and then doing core work: some crunches and planks. Perhaps that helps her fit into these red leather pants. Next, see what the insider told E! about her diet.

Jenner has a three-year-old daughter, Stormi. "She will go on long walks with Stormi on the trails by her house or go for a hike nearby," the insider told E! Online, adding, "Kylie has been watching what she eats at home but isn't restricting herself. When she goes out with friends, she eats what she wants. She has been super motivated recently and is loving the endorphins."

By never missing a Monday, Jenner ensures she can stay on target. Setting timely goals is one of the most effective tips to help my clients stay consistent, says Ilana Muhlstein, author of the bestselling weight loss book You Can Drop It. People like to make broad goals like I want to lose 10 pounds, and its not good enough. When you are faced with chocolate cookies at 4pm or 9pm, its too easy to say, Ehh, its okay, I can have some. However, if you know that you want to lose 10 pounds by that big presentation youre giving or an event you are attending, things will change. It will help you stay more focused and able to say I really dont need cookies right now.

Jenner's recent workout video started off with a cup of coffee, smart because coffee can cause fat cells to be used as an energy source as opposed to fat. Jenner may know that java can help fuel workouts. I usually stick to a splash of almond or whole milk and stevia, says Mulhstein on how to stay healthy.

Kylie promotes the moisture-sealing effects of her lip balm, and sells a hydrating face mask, so she knows how important liquid is: When running on the trail, Jenner is seen with a bottle of water. I always recommend choosing #waterfirst to meet your water goal, says Muhlstein, who recommends drinking a minimum of 16 ounces of water before every meal. For more on Jenners diet and workout, dont miss this essential list: Kylie Jenner Reveals Her Exact Diet and Exercise Plan.

Excerpt from:
Kylie Jenner Shares Crop Top Photo and New Workout | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Alishia McCullough, founder of Black and Embodied

In todays society, everyone is walking around with different levels of trauma from a culmination of life experiences. Healing from our past pains can create a better world for everyone; where we are all operating from a place of fulfillment and love. For many people of color, the continued traumas experienced as a result of systemic racism have a detrimental effect on health and wellbeing. Alishia McCullough is a North Carolina-based licensed clinical mental health therapist who focuses her work around the healing of emotional and mental distress that Black and brown people commonly experience. Alishia centers her work around folks living with eating disorders and upholds the values of body justice and fat liberation within Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color(QTBIPOC), and runs a successful Instagram page, Black and Embodied, that boasts nearly 250,000 followers. Alishia sat down with Forbes to discuss what healing looks like to her, why food is a beautiful delight that should not be avoided, and how we as a society can push back against anti-black and Eurocentric standards of beauty.

Janice Gassam Asare: Could you just share a little bit about yourself and your background for the Forbes readers who may not be familiar with you?

Alishia McCullough: Absolutely. So, my name is Alishia McCullough. I use she/her pronouns. I'm a licensed mental health therapist, a nationally certified counselor. I'm also the founder of Black and Embodied Counseling and Consulting, as well as the founder of the Holistic Black Healing Collective, the co-founder of Amplify Melanated Voices, and now I'm just starting the Black Body Liberation Collective as well. Also, published author of Blossoming, which is a poetry book that I published about three years ago.

Asare: The first question that I wanted to dive intoyou do a lot of work around diet culture and white supremacy, and how they're interlinked. Do you want to share a little bit more about that, because I don't think enough people are talking about this linkage between diet culture, anti-blackness, and white supremacy?

McCullough: Absolutely. I will go ahead and say upfront as well that I wasn't aware that there was a link at first, but when I got into the field, I was working professionally, leading groups, working with clients individually, as well as exploring my own journey. I got into the work of Sabrina Strings, and so her book is called Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. Through there is when I made the connection around how fat phobia actually was started here in America when enslaved people were brought over, and those who were enslavers were looking at our bodies and saying, oh, they're in bigger bodies. How do we continue to create distinctions to set ourselves apart from Black folks?

What they did was essentially moralized this slave diet and said, we're not going to eat like them, and so, because they eat the scraps that we give them or the leftovers, we're going to eat this certain way. They also said, thinness is now going to be the ideal, because here we are having all these diverse bodies and not just bigger bodies, but bodies of all shapes and sizes, and we need to be able to distinguish ourselves from those folks. That's what started this whole diet culture. That's what started fat phobia and this idea of escaping fatness, so fat phobia and diet culture are all rooted in anti-blackness, because that was the foundation of how it was started.

Asare: How do you think that people can push back against the white supremacist and anti-black culture that has become diet culture? We saw all of the backlash that Lizzo has been getting, which I find to be really interesting, because I think society says, how dare you be fat, Black, and a woman! We see all of the backlash that she's been receiving, where people are berating her because of her size, are making assumptions about her health because of her size, and then are telling her to love herself in the same regardhow do you think that we can, especially those of us who identify as folks of colorhow do you think that we can push back against the anti-blackness and the white supremacist culture that is telling us we have to lose weight? That is telling us we have to eat a certain way. White doctors that are telling us that we're too fat, or our bodies are too big. Even something recently that I learned is about the BMI, and the person that created it, and how anti-black that whole sort of calculation is. What do you think that people can do to push back against that?

"We have to be able to also just show up in the fullness of who we are, and take up space, and not ... [+] deprive ourselves, even when it comes to pleasure in our relationships, in our communities, we have to be willing to show up fully."

McCullough: I'm currently writing a piece about this now, and so what I talk about is that body image, diet culture, and well, body image, eating disorders, and disordered eating are all things that were injected on to us through that white supremacy culture. Essentially, the way that that has showed up for us is through unaddressed trauma, and so that can look like current trauma that we're facing, racial discrimination, medical discrimination. That can also look like ancestral trauma. Trauma that was not able to be processed through our ancestors bodies, that just got passed down to us biologically, sociologicallybeing passed on as well, but I also think there's a component, especially for those who do come from enslaved ancestors, of just the general biological starvation that was passed on as well. All of these things are affecting our eating and contributing to us having eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image issues.

What I say is that first we have to work on that relationship. In regards to the starvation relationship, there is biological studies that show that even for those who were starved, and then they were given adequate nutrition, that two generations afterward were still showing those symptoms of starvation. I think for us, when we know that we cannot continue to deprive ourselves and our bodies, and so when I look at starvation or deprivation, I look at it in a bigger scope of not just what we're eating, but how we're showing up and taking up space. We have to be able to also just show up in the fullness of who we are, and take up space, and not deprive ourselves, even when it comes to pleasure in our relationships, in our communities, we have to be willing to show up fully.

I think that's one aspect of it, and then when it comes to that complex trauma, ancestral trauma, I think that is going to take more of that mental and emotional work. That could look like going to therapy, that could look like getting involved in a spiritual group, or talking to somebody in a spiritual community to be able to commune with those ancestors and work through those intergenerational wounds. I think those are the things that our community can do, and then also to get more embodied within ourselves. I've been talking to a lot of dance instructors and people that do a lot of more sematic work, and they're saying that Black women and femmes are further behind in being embodied than other communities. We don't have that connection of being with ourselves in the present. I think that also taking that intentional moment of presence, being mindful, sitting in the here and now, those are also ways that we can get more into our bodies and access what we have either been trying to escape, or that hasn't become...maybe we've been numbing it out, or we just don't have access to that, because we've just been so far removed from our bodies over time, because of that white supremacy, and because of that violence that was done to our bodies.

Asare: I love the tie in, because you run a really informative Instagram page called Black and Embodied. Is that part of the reason why you decided to start the page and call it Black and Embodied? Was that part of the reason why you decided to focus some of the content on your page around this topic?

McCullough: Absolutely. As a therapist, I specialize within treating eating disorders and disordered eating, and so within that work, what I was finding is that I would lead groups, or I'd work with individuals and they'd all be white folks. I never see people like us in treatment, and if they were, they didn't have a diagnosis already of anorexia or any type of other eating disorder, binge eating, anything like that, but they exhibit the same patterns and symptoms that I would see in the white clients, but it just wouldn't be talked about. It would be either overlooked or misdiagnosed. I got intentional with the people that I would see, that looked like usmaking sure that we were having those conversations, exploring the complexities and not just like, what is your eating like, and what is your body image? but like, what's your relationship to your hair, and your skin tone, and your features? Because all of that ties in with body image as well.

It became more layered and complex. I was like, with us having these eating disorders and with statistics showing, even though they haven't done the research so far, but it's estimated that Black and brown folks actually struggle with eating disorders at higher rates than those in white communities, but still not getting the same adequate treatment. I said, this is an area with a gap, and I want to be the person that helps support, stands in that gap, and also provides resources so that we are getting the help that we need. I also find that a lot of times when Black or brown folks get eating disorders [it is] because of financial inaccessibility and other systematic barriers [and] we're not able to get the treatment that we need. Oftentimes we suffer in silence, or the eating disorders get worse and worse and worse, and we don't get the help that we need because of all of those barriersthat's why I'm doing the work that I'm doing with Black and Embodied. That's why I started a page, so that I could give voice and be a person talking about these things, so that people could get on and say, hey, there's someone who looks like me saying these things and knows my experience.

Asare: How do you grapple with the fact that food is supposed to be healing, and brings you joy, but also at the same time, you're being told that you have to be mindful of the way that you eat, so that you can look a certain way? All of that plays into white supremacy, but do you feel like food can be used as a form of healing the traumas that people are experiencing, especially the racial trauma that people are experiencing?

McCullough: I think thatour relationship with food can be healing if we bring back in that spiritual and emotional piece, but I think that being in this white supremacist society, everything is about how do we separate each piece from it? How do we just make it about this? How does it not become emotional? There's so much demonization around even emotional eating, and it's like, there's nothing wrong with being emotional when you're eating. That's just the way that we are. I think that if we kind of divest and dismantle this idea that everything has to be mechanical, or that we have to strive for certain eating habits that are mostly rooted in rules, and good and bad, and these dualities and binaries, and get more towards food just being a part of our life, and who we are, and our spirit, then I think that's where we start to cultivate that better relationship with food. I know that's a process, because there's just been so much injected oppression put on us over centuries, and so it will take a while to dismantle and unpack all of those messages that have been given to us.

Asare: Alishia, what does healing look like to you, and what does liberation look like for you?

McCullough: Yes. Okay. Healing for me looks like being able to fully be who I am, and know that I am fulfilling the purpose that I was put here to do. For me, the purpose that I feel like I was put here to do is heal myself, and my community, and my family lineage. In that, I know that it requires for me to be able to...go to therapy myself. It requires for me to be able to be in healing community. It requires for me to be able to heal parts of myself that I didn't even have access to, because some of these traumas and wounds came before I was even here. Healing for me looks like being able to do that work while also practicing that compassion and grace towards myself in the process, and feeling fully whole within myself throughout the journey.

I will say, I don't feel like healing has a destination, because I think we're always, as humans, adapting, and changing, and growing, and evolving, but it's the process of healing that...it's just like the beauty in the process of healing, if I can say that? Then in regards to liberation, I think that, and I learned this actually from a mentor of mine, Shawna Murray-Brown, who told me that freedom is more individual. It's like, I'm free so we're good essentially, but liberation is more like our community collective is free, and so, for me, I feel liberated when other folks are liberated as well. That's why I do the work that I do, because while I have access to this information, there's someone out there, and lots of people out there that might not know about this as well. I truly won't feel liberated until other people have access to this knowledge as well, and can also feel that same feeling too.

To learn more about Alishia and her work, click here.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Continued here:
Food Is Not The Enemy: Alishia McCullough Shares Why Fat phobia, And Not Food, Is The Problem We Should Be Addressing - Forbes

Yates County Cornell Cooperative Extension| The Chronicle Express

SNAP-Ed New York offers tailored nutrition education to balance health benefits with personal preference

This year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is urging Americans to personalize their plates for National Nutrition Month. From a young age, people are taught to celebrate their individuality. Unique dietary habits should be no exception. Whether based on age, sex, culture, ethics, or taste, everyone has different nutritional needs and preferences. The Academy recognizes that to prescribe a universal dietary solution to health would be unrealistic. In addition to individual preference and characteristics, there are also a variety of social and economic barriers to consider when examining food intake choices. Encouraging personal modifications to the recommended Dietary Guidelines for Americans is an effective compromise to balancing nutritional needs with dietary preferences.

National Nutrition Month was developed in March of 1973 as a mechanism to deliver nutrition education teachings. With nutrition as its cornerstone, the SNAP-Ed New York-Southern Finger Lakes Region team uses the month of March to invigorate its goals and teachings. This year, the team intends to collaborate with vital community partners to find effective ways to help residents across the region personalize and enrich their diets in a manner that fits within their lifestyles.

This month is an important opportunity for the SNAP-Ed New York-Southern Finger Lakes team to emphasize community partnerships in determining resident-specific barriers to healthy eating, said Justine Cobb, SNAP-Ed New York Project director. Right now especially, community members are facing unique hardships. Through working collaboratively with partner agencies, we are hoping to target and reduce these obstacles by offering nutrition education programs that can be personalized from participant to participant.

In line with the theme of Personalize your Plate, the Academy is advocating for eating right through the life stages, consuming nutrient-rich foods, and putting personal touches on traditional dishes. As humans grow and evolve, so do their nutritional needs. It is important to make dietary choices according to age to improve immunity and prevent chronic disease. Both immunity and disease prevention can also be optimized through using food as the primary source of nutrients. Evidence shows that diet is a more reliable source of vitamins and minerals than pills or supplements. Through making subtle, nutrient-dense swaps to favorite recipes, it is possible to maximize both nutritional value and joy from eating.

In program delivery, SNAP-Ed New York-Southern Finger Lakes nutritionists emphasize eating a variety of healthy foods from each food groups, offer age-specific curriculums, and encourage participants to make personal modifications to recipes. Through reinforcing these themes during program education, our team consistently aids community members in individualizing the Dietary Guidelines in a way that works for them, commented Olivia Dates, senior nutritionist of SNAP-Ed New York-Southern Finger Lakes Region.

For more information on available SNAP-Ed New York programs in the Southern Finger Lakes Region, tips on healthy eating, or recipes, visit http://www.snapedny.org. Ideas on how to participate in National Nutrition Month and information on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics can be found at http://www.eatright.org.

About Cornell Cooperative Extension & SNAP-Ed New York:

Cornell Cooperative Extension and its partnerships provide programs forresidents on youth and family development; nutrition, health, and food safety; community and economic vitality; and agricultural sustainability through Cornell based research.

Locally, SNAP-Ed New York in the Southern Finger Lakes region operates under Cornell Cooperative Extension Steuben County, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung County, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schuyler County, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Yates County. The SNAP-Ed New York Southern Finger Lakes region supports residents of Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates Counties.

SNAP-Ed New York is a federally funded evidence-based program that helps people lead healthier lives. SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education is FREE to all individuals who qualify for and/or receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP-Ed teaches people using or eligible for SNAP about good nutrition, how to make their food dollars stretch further and the importance of being physically active. SNAP-Ed New York provides nutrition education lessons, materials and sponsors education events and classes in communities across New York State. Visit http://www.snapedny.org to find a program in your community.

Excerpt from:
EXTENSION CORNER: Modifying diets to fit individual lifestyles, not the other way around - Penn Yan Chronicle-Express

As we get older, many changes happen to our body, we become frail, our hair turns white, and our skin wrinkles. We also become more susceptible to disease and may lose our cognitive abilities.

Aging is generally considered an inevitable part of life, but can it be delayed, prolonging our youthful years? We asked 8 experts the question,'Can aging be delayed?'Interestingly, there was a75 percent 'likely' consensus.Here is what we found out.

All living things are made of cells. Scientists often grow cells in the lab to study them. In 1961, researcherLeonard Hayflicknoticed that, on average, a human cell can only divide 50 times before it goes into a hibernation-like state called 'senescence'. It is thought that an accumulation of senescent cells in tissues of the body could damage other cells andplay a crucial role in aging.

There are many causes of aging and senescence at the cellular level. These includeoxidative damage, accumulations ofsmall errors in DNA,and the shortening of telomeres. Essentially, different components of the cell go through general wear and tear throughout the cell's lifetime. At some point, this damage means the cell can no longer function as it used to.

Whilst Hayflick noticed that normal human cells had a finite lifetime,some cellsare able to multiply indefinitely. These cells are normally from cancers or have been genetically modified. Bychanging certain pathways in cells, such as how they multiply or the maintenance of telomeres, we can overcome the normal process of aging.

Aging can therefore be delayed in cells and is routinely done so to aid research. Importantly, however, these cells are not the same as the healthy cells you would find in the human body.

Genetic manipulation can not only delay aging in cells but also in whole animals (also called 'model organisms'). Experiments to delay aging started in the nematode wormC. elegans. Due to how easy these animals are to work with in the laboratory, scientists have found awhole range of pathwaysthat can be tinkered to delay aging.

Interestingly, one of these pathways is connected to metabolism and diet. Restricted diets have been found to delay aging in a whole range of animals, fromfliestomonkeystodogs. The restricted calorie intake might prompt the cells in the body to go into a 'protective' mode, which slows down aging.

Dr Gerardo Ferbeyre, an expert in anti-aging from Montreal University,points outthat "[a]lthough not everything that works in model organisms will likely work in humans, some of the ideas coming from aging research may eventually lead to anti-aging therapies."

Professor Janet Thornton, an expert in anti-aging from the European Bioinformatics Institute,highlightsthat "[i]n humans, it is not ethical to perform mutations, and there are so many conflicting forces at work that it is difficult to assess the impact of dietary restrictions. In the lab, worms' life span can be increased 10-fold; in flies and mice, the max increase is just 1.5 fold, but an equivalent measure is not available in humans. It is likely that the human system is complex with many interconnections and buffering, so such extensions may not be accessible."

Despite these complications, there aresome drugsthat are undergoing clinical trials to see if they can delay aging in humans. So far, it is not clear whether these compounds will work.

Dr Marco Demaria from the Groningen Universitysays,"We have several lifestyle interventions clearly influencing onset and progression of aging (diet and exercise at the top of the list)." Many of the other experts suggested improving diet and exercise in order to delay aging. People who do regular exercise and live healthy lifestyles are usually more mobile andenjoy a higher quality of lifewhen they get older.

Whilst aging is stilllikely inevitablefor all living things, it is possible to delay it in cells and animals experimentally. For us humans, the best way to delay aging is to eat a balanced diet and do regular exercise.

Article based on 8 expert answers to this question: "Can aging be delayed?"

This expert response was published in partnership with independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter here.

Go here to see the original:
Scientists Think We Can 'Delay' The Aging Process, But How Far Can We Actually Go? - ScienceAlert

ByMichael Ormsbee, PhD,Florida State UniversityEdited by Kate Findley and proofread byAngelaShoemaker, The Great Courses DailyVitamin B12 and iron are essential for maintaining health and come from a variety of food groups, both plant and animal sources. Photo By Tatjana Baibakova / ShutterstockAvoiding B12 and Iron Deficiencies

One nutrient that plant-based dieters are often deficient in is Vitamin B12 since only animal products like meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products contain substantial amounts of it. You can get B12 from foods like cereals that are fortified with it, but otherwise supplementing might be needed.

Iron is also a nutrient that needs special attention when eating primarily plant-based diets. Heme ironmost readily absorbablecomes from animal products and makes up about 40% of iron in meat.

Non-heme iron is the less well-absorbed form of iron found in nuts, grains, vegetables, and fruit. Plant-based dieters need almost two times the amount of iron from plant sources to get the same amount of iron as meat eaters.

Research has found that vitamin C helps with absorption of the non-heme, plant-based iron, but calcium and tannins found in drinks like tea and coffee reduce non-heme iron absorption. Since many plant-based eaters consume a good amount of vitamin C from foods like peppers, kale, and broccoli, the absorption of iron might not be an issue at all. It just makes sense to combine iron intake with vitamin C and try to consume calcium supplements or tea and coffee an hour or two before you eat iron-rich foods.

Vitamin D is also a special concern for plant-based eating. Dairy foods are often fortified with vitamin D, meaning that vitamin D is added to the final food or drink during processing.

Some plant-based eaters avoid dairy as well as meat. Luckily, the best source of vitamin D is sunlight. Thus, if youre a vegetarian lacking in vitamin D and you dont get much sun, then you should talk to your health care professional about supplementing with vitamin D.

Plant-based eaters should also pay special attention to omega-3 fats in their diets. Cold-water fish provide ample supplies of omega-3 fats, but non-fish-eaters can go for walnuts, seaweed, hemp, and flax to take in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

ALA is then converted to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)the types of fatty acids that nutrition experts regard as the heavy hitters of the omega-3-fatty acids. These fatty acids can help with body composition and are also needed for warding off disease.

Unfortunately, the body uses the plant-based sources for omega-3s inefficiently. Thus, once again, supplementation is needed with a DHA or EPA product from fish oil, krill oil, or an algae-based product.

Other needs for plant-based eating include both calcium and zinc. Again, these can be consumed in the diet, but absorption of both tends to be low compared to non-vegetarians.

While zinc is found in many plant foods like lentils, peanuts, and quinoa, its absorption is lower than it is when you get it from animal products. This just means that plant-based eaters need to take in more zinc to fulfill the same requirements.

If you are very physically active and training for performance, a few other dietary considerations include traditional sports supplements like creatine and beta alanine. Creatine is made naturally in your body, but you also get some from your dietif you eat meat and fish, that is.

Those who only eat plants will have lower levels of stored creatine. Since creatine is used for short, explosive movementsand has shown to have some benefits for cognition, neurological disorders, and muscle massit might be needed as a supplement.

Additionally, vegetarians have about 50% less carnosine in their muscle tissues. Carnosine is a protein building block concentrated in muscles when they are working. Due to the link between carnosine concentrations and overall health, as well as evidence for exercise performance advantages emerging in the scientific literature, supplementing with beta alanine for the production of carnosine might be important.

Above all, if you are eating a plant-based diet, make sure to include a combination of plant proteins to meet your dietary goals. Include a good variety of non-starchy vegetables like greens, spinach, arugula, broccoli, and squash and good fats like nuts, seeds, and healthy oils.

Eat fruit, starchy vegetables like corn and peas, and starches like bread, whole grains, and potatoes to complete your energy needs. The health benefits that come from a plant-based diet can be achieved by simply eating more plants.

Michael Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Interim Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his MS in Exercise Physiology from South Dakota State University and his PhD in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University.

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Which Vitamins and Nutrients Are Plant-Based Diets Potentially Missing? - The Great Courses Daily News

Islamic Relief has been working with rural communities in South Sudan, where long-standing drought and conflict has led to a major refugee crisis, severe poverty and widespread hunger. Over 7 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from. We have been supporting communities to build thriving agricultural livelihoods and build peace.

In Warrap, South Sudan, poverty is rife, and many families have little to no income. Long periods of drought have had a devastating impact on agricultural livelihoods. Many farmers have been unable to harvest crops which are both a source of income and food for their families.

Communities now live on a diet consisting almost entirely of meat, as they have been unable to grow vegetables and grains. The lack of fibre in their diets and high meat consumption has caused health issues among communities, including heart disease and a loss of eyesight. Whats more, communities in Warrap have also experienced inter-communal conflict, making their situation even more challenging.

Islamic Relief has been helping 2,000 people in Tonj, Warrap, to create sustainable livelihoods and combat the effects of the changing climate. Bringing community members together in groups, we provided drought-resistant seeds and trained them in agricultural techniques to withstand periods of drought and maximising profit from their produce. We have also repaired a modern drip irrigation system, which produces thousands of litres of water every hour, helping crops to thrive.

Islamic Relief have also helped improve relations between communities in the area, where resources are becoming increasingly scarce as a result of the changing climate and loss of livelihoods fuelling an increase in conflict. We are helping to unite communities through a shared goal of becoming more resilient. Our peacebuilding work has received recognition and appreciation at all levels of government in South Sudan.

Akons story

Mother-of-9 Akon was previously a housewife, looking after her family. They were eating a diet comprising mainly of meat, and faced health problems as a result.

Meat is a traditional food for people in Warrap. The effect of eating too much meat has led to several cases of loss of eyesight.

As part of our project, Akon was provided with training and now practices small-scale farming to feed her family.

Now, were able to grow a variety of vegetables such as okra, tomatoes, collard greens and groundnuts. This has greatly helped our situation, and meant that the health and diet of my family has really improved, says Akon.

The project has meant that families now have a reliable source of income from selling their produce, a more balanced diet and improved relationships in the community.

Islamic Relief began humanitarian operations in South Sudan in 2003, before the country gained independence from Sudan. With your support, we provide lifesaving aid and development programmes for vulnerable people like Akon.

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Diversifying diets and improving health and livelihoods in South Sudan - South Sudan - ReliefWeb

GAZETTE:We dont have to give up meat?

WILLETT: I co-chaired the Eat Lancet-Commission, and we did conclude that theres room for about two servings of animal-source foods per day, one being dairy and one being some combination of fish or poultry a couple of times a week, or some eggs, with red meat just once a week. People could become vegans, of course, if theyre careful about getting enough vitamin B12, but this does provide a lot of flexibility. Were quite off target at this point in time though, especially in the United States.

GAZETTE:How aligned are the goals of human health and sustainability as a planet?

WILLETT: There are no serious conflicts in that, very broadly, the healthiest diet for humans will be a diet that is healthy for the planet. But there is this divergence in that you can have a diet that is relatively healthy for the planet, but very bad for humans. And thats the diet that is low in animal source foods but high in starch, especially if its refined starch, and sugar. We often call that a poverty diet in that the cheapest sources of calories are starch and sugar. That has a light footprint on the planet, but its not healthy.

GAZETTE:Would you tell us about your current research?

WILLETT: Were working on a lot of fronts so I will just briefly talk about our long-term cohort studies. This is the Nurses Health Study and the follow-up study. Weve been following over 250,000 people starting in 1980. Were able to look at the long-term consequences of diet, and we are really starting to see some things that we didnt see in the first couple of decades. We now see that the development of diseases like cancer occurs over many decades. What girls consumed during childhood turns out to be more important for their [risk of] breast cancer at age 60 than what they were eating at age 50. It really does highlight the importance of paying attention to what we feed our kids in schools as well as at home.

GAZETTE:What should we be eating?

WILLETT: Variety, but there are some parts of that are important to include in that variety. We do see, for example, that the dark orange and green leafy vegetables like carrots and greens are important for helping reduce breast cancer risk, and the cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage are related to lower risk of breast cancer later in life. For cognitive function, it looks like including tomato products, like tomato sauce, is important. Its not that theres one magic bullet there, but making sure we include these kinds of vegetables is important.

GAZETTE:And is such a diet sustainable?

WILLETT: In general vegetables have a light- to moderate-impact environmental footprint, but it varies tremendously. If we produce them in California and ship them across the country, there is an appreciable-impact carbon footprint, not from producing the vegetables per se but from the process of keeping the cold chain. Some colleagues at Michigan have shown that by very simple low technology, like greenhouses where they dont use fossil fuels for heat, they can produce greens pretty much year-round in Michigan with about 1/10 of the environmental footprint compared to those that are produced and shipped from California. So its not just what we eat, but how its produced.

GAZETTE:Does that mean we should be eating local?

WILLETT: All else being equal. But if you have a greenhouse in New England thats burning a lot of fossil fuel to produce tomatoes in January, that isnt necessarily going to be good. We do have pretty much every day whats called a fruit train come up the East Coast from Florida to the Boston markets. Were taking advantage of the warmth and sunlight in Florida, and train transportation is pretty inexpensive, so thats probably better than putting a couple of bushels of fruit in your pickup in Western Massachusetts and driving to Boston. We want to simplify things, but not oversimplify things.

Interview was edited for clarity and length.

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Excerpt from:
Walter Willett looks at what's healthy for you and the planet - Harvard Gazette

Aubrey Gordon describes herself as fat, specifically "very fat." She uses the word purposefully, as a descriptor, in the same way she has blondish-brown hair and is 37 years old.

For the past five years, she has been the anonymous writer behind "Your Fat Friend," the online essay series about the discrimination and hate fat people face. With the recent publication of her book, "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat," Gordon started putting her name to her stories, both online and for her Self Magazine column.

The book, a series of essays, delves into the roots of fatphobia, the failure of the "war on obesity" and why it's not okay to tell fat people to love themselves. A former LGBTQ community organizer, Gordon, who identifies as queer, is now writing full time and co-hosting the podcast "Maintenance Phase," which debunks wellness and diet fads.

From her home in Portland, Ore., Gordon talked about what she hopes people will get from her book, and why she felt now was the right time to publish it.

Q: Why do you think people hate and I mean openly hate fat people, particularly fat women, so much?

A: It's a doozy of a question, right? There's misogyny wrapped up in it. There's ableism wrapped up in it. There are deep, deep, deep racist roots to all of this ... like even with BMI, that was based on the bodies of White Western European men and not people of color, so it does about a 50 percent job of predicting obesity in White people and then it goes down from there. We've been talking about a war on obesity for years, and that facilitates this kind of open season on fat people. Not only is it okay to have comments and opinions about fat people in some ways, it's sort of like you are being helpful to the greater public health.

Q: You share anecdotes about how people treated you horribly, from airplane behavior to strangers taking fruit out of your grocery cart, telling you it's "too much sugar." What surprised me is that when you tell your friends and family, they ask if maybe it didn't happen that way, or if you incited it.

A: They are not trying to be hurtful, not in a million years. But it can be jarring and painful to hear about someone you care about in that situation. One of the ways we push away that knowledge is with straight-up denial. Part of it is that this is a world they don't actually personally experience, and that can be alarming.

Q: It seems there has been some success with the body-positive movement, with Cosmopolitan magazine putting plus-size women, such as yoga teacher Jessamyn Stanley, on the cover, for example. But that got a lot of pushback, with some people saying that it was "promoting obesity."

A: It does feel like there's some willingness to move forward from some media outlets, influential ones in women's and health media in particular. But the biggest thing I see is that there's a willingness to engage in a conversation about how we see and treat fat people. It's not as deep as a conversation as I'd like, but it's a start.

Q: As a fat woman myself, one of the things that really struck me in your book was that programs to address obesity, like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign, do not include people with obesity in the planning.

A: Right. Thin people are the masters of weight loss although they've never had to do it. There's a community organizer saying, "Nothing about us, without us." And yet there are all these people talking about us and making decisions about our bodies without talking to us.

Q: How does that show up for you?

A: It happens in our individual lives where strangers come up to you and are like "have you tried paleo?" without knowing us or anything about us. The other issue is on a policy or institutional level. (Some people are) constantly ringing the bell on how dangerous it is to be fat, but that's not making fat people thin. None of our practices 95-98 percent of diet attempts fail have been shown to be successful long term. So it just ramps up the stigma of fat people as failures. If only we would try at this thing, which has been shown not to work.

Q: What do you hope people take away from your book?

A: I hope that folks are willing to accept that their ideas about fatness and fat people have not been particularly charitable. And they also haven't been particularly grounded in data or research or information or the experiences of the fat people in their lives.

Maybe people are willing to think about how they think about and treat fat people. Even if it's something like I'm not going to ask the fat person I'm with at the restaurant if they really want to get those fries.

See the rest here:
The writer behind 'Your Fat Friend' has thoughts on diets, BMI and strangers' advice - theday.com

By Chris Hostetler, Ph.D., Director of Animal Science, National Pork Board

It may still only be February, but its clear the year wont be without challenges for U.S. pig farmers as feed costs continue to rise. As both corn and soybean meal prices surge, finding ways to reduce their impact on your bottom line is critical since combined they typically make up nearly 65% of the cost of production.

Regardless of the strategies producers use to lower feed costs, its critical to rely on the professional advice of swine nutritionists and other production experts. The focus should be on practices that optimize feed costs and efficiencies while maximizing profitability and maintaining a nutritionally balanced diet for the pigs.

1. Find alternative feed ingredients.Although you may find alternative feedstuffs and byproducts locally, you may need to look further for available sources. Many of the alternatives, outlined in the Pork Checkoffs Alternative Feed Ingredients in Swine Diets booklet, have become competitively priced during times of high grain prices as is the case with distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

Regardless of the alternative feedstuff you find, determine its nutritional profile and feeding value at the price quoted before you decide to use it. Also, make sure to understand the form in which it will be delivered so extra labor or machinery is not required to make it practical. Examples of alternative feedstuffs include bakery products, glycerin (byproduct of biodiesel manufacturing), poultry fat, etc.

You should work closely with a swine nutritionist when making decisions about alternative feeds so that you continue to feed a nutritionally balanced diet to your animals.

Sows and older market hogs can utilize higher percentages of DDGS in their ration than other pigs. However, high levels of DDGS in market hogs may negatively affect carcass quality.

Jim Pettigrew, animal science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, suggests the following: Buy DDGS from a plant where you have a good relationship Buy only light-colored DDGS Buy only DDGS with lysine at 2.8% minimum crude protein Avoid DDGS with a high level of syrup balls

Recommended levels of DDGS in swine diets (Univ. of Illinois)

From Stein, H.H. 2007. Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in diets fed to swine. Swine Focus #001, Department of Animal Sciences, College of ACES, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

For additional technical information on feeding DDGS to livestock, go the University of Minnesotas Biofuels Co-Products in Animal Feeds website. Much of this work was funded by Pork Checkoff and is summarized in this report.

2. Use more crystalline amino acids and less animal protein.

The costs of many feed ingredients fluctuate over time. This is true of many crystalline amino acids such as lysine, methionine, tryptophan, threonine, valine, and isoleucine. They have significantly decreased in price over the years and are now cheap enough to allow for the replacement of a substantial amount of soybean meal in the diet. The results can be a nutritionally balanced diet for the pigs at a real cost savings.

For starter pig diets, it pays to be very particular about animal protein ingredient sources and costs. For example, a starter diet can be nutrient-dense and high performance but still lower cost by using reduced levels of key ingredients. These include spray-dried animal plasma, soy protein concentrate, spray-dried blood meal and dried whey when high energy hulless oats and hard red spring (HRS) wheat are selected as basal grains.

3. Replace broken or damaged feeders and keep feeders in proper adjustment.Broken or damaged feeders can result in excess costs due to feed wastage or inadequate feed supply, resulting in poor pig performance. Consider replacing older or inefficient feeders with well designed, efficient feeders that minimize feed wastage and promote maximum pig performance.

Adjusting feeders to reduce feed wastage should be a routine practice. Minor adjustments of feed bins and transport systems can also result in big savings. Kansas State University recommends the following steps for proper feeder adjustment: Close feeder completely after cleaning before putting any feed in the feeder. Open feeder just enough to start small feed flow. Shake feeder to increase amount of pellets or meal in pan (to cover 1/3 of pan). Clean corners daily instead of increasing feeder adjustment to increase feed flow. Prevent moisture damage and spoilage in feed systems and storage. Eliminate all rodents, birds and other pests.

As a reference, these feeders show how much feed should be in the pans of properly adjusted feeders for nursery, grow-finish and lactation phases.

4. Be timely on culling sows, especially at weaning.

Injured animals, sows with irregular estrus, open sows and sows with reproductive abnormalities are costly to keep. Sow caregivers can be a critical help in identifying these unwanted cases. This makes teaching employees to be observant and to make daily observations so important.

Be consistent in pregnancy diagnosis to remove non-pregnant females as quickly as possible. Likewise, identify and market non-select gilts early before their growth curves change significantly making them more costly to feed for the gain realized. Marketing these animals early also prevents them from reaching a market weight out of the ideal range for your packer. This will help reduce some of these avoidable costs.

If pigs start off as poor performing, they tend to stay that way. Because of this, it often pays to be aggressive in culling of these animals before or at weaning since they are more likely to contract disease, grow more slowly and take more feed to reach an acceptable market weight.

While sick pigs may, improve after treatment, some may show little or no improvement. This makes timely euthanasia critical. Conversely, you can also try to market them in a lower weight channel. To help standardize this process, create a standard operating procedure that prescribes the conditions under which pigs should be sorted or euthanized to reduce losses and improve herd performance and economic returns.

5. Keep barn environments optimal for growth.

Dont underestimate the importance that a pigs environment plays in its ability to stay healthy and use less feed to grow to its full potential. Stocking density, air quality (in terms of ammonia levels), ventilation, air flow, humidity and ambient temperatures at pig level, all affect pig performance and comfort.

To keep tabs on these variables, be sure to review all ventilation settings to ensure they are appropriate for the pigs at each stage of production. Train employees and all caregivers to observe signs of pig discomfort such as piling or huddling. Similarly, they should check for drafts, gaps in building curtains and excess humidity levels.

On a regular basis, make sure all equipment is running at maximum efficiency and is appropriate for the job. This is especially true for any ventilation equipment and supplemental heating units to ensure proper environmental control and animal performance.

Stay Vigilant and Be Open to New Ideas

These are just five management practices that you can use to reduce feed costs during times of elevated grain prices. There are many more to consider, but the more important point is to review all management practices on a regular basis to identify areas of inefficiency so you can address them quickly. Doing so can mean the difference between black or red ink on your ledger.

Read more from Farm Journal's PORK:

2021 U.S. Pork Exports Forecast: Not Great, But Still Pretty Good

4 Things Animal Ag Can Learn from the Human Response to COVID-19

High Feed Costs? Review Your Health Program

The rest is here:
5 Ways to Reduce Feed Costs This Year - Pork Magazine

Scientists were worried that this surge was slowing efforts to fix the thin protective layer in Earth's atmosphere which absorbs most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Unfiltered exposure to the sun's rays can contribute to DNA damage and increase the long-term risk of skin cancer and other health issues.

Ozone Recovery Efforts Back on Track

But on Wednesday, two studies published in science journal Nature reported that atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 had once again dropped significantly. By late 2019, levels were falling by about 1% a year the fastest on record, according to the report showing that the world was back on track to repairing the damage to Earth's ozone layer, by mid-century.

Using data and measurements from air-monitoring stations in South Korea and Japan, scientists were able to determine that the largest source of the global increase in "rogue emissions" attributed to factories in eastern China was no longer active.

Stephen Montzka, an atmospheric chemist at U.S. scientific agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado, who led one of the studies, said the setback caused by the illegal emissions was expected to be "negligible."

Meg Seki, acting executive secretary of Ozone Secretariat at the UN Environment Program (UNEP), credited the reversal to international cooperation and action in line with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

The international treaty, agreed in 1987 to ban the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, has been signed by almost every country in the world. CFC-11, once used in refrigerants, as propellants in aerosol cans and in polyurethane foam insulation, has been officially banned since 2010.

"The [Montreal] treaty did its job," Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, an advocacy group based in Washington, told Nature. "Whoever the offending parties were including most definitely China they got their act together."

"China also did its part in strengthening its policies, regulations, monitoring and enforcement," Seki told DW.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment in Beijing could not be reached for comment. But in an April 2020 press release, the ministry announced the first results of a two-month crackdown on the illegal production and use of CFC-11. The campaign resulted in an executive with a thermal insulation firm near Shanghai being sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined 50,000 yuan (6,400/$7,700). The company was also fined 700,000 yuan and had to forfeit more than 1.4 million yuan in profits since 2017.

"The Chinese government has always attached great importance to international environmental conventions and has been resorting to strict law enforcement as a major guarantee to safeguard the achievement China has made in implementing these conventions," the ministry said in a statement after the sentencing.

Construction Industry Crackdown

The illegal emissions first came to light in May 2018, when researchers with NASA and the NOAA noticed an unexplained spike in atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 dating back to 2013. From 2002 and 2012, according to Nature, CFC-11 emissions fell by about 0.85% a year. But from 2013 that figure was cut almost in half, to about 0.4% the result of about 13,000 metric tons a year of newly produced CFCs in the atmosphere.

Scientists and researchers with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) were able to trace around 60% of the illegal emissions to eastern China. Posing as buyers, EIA investigators found the use of CFC-11 was widespread in China's plastic foam sector. The banned chemical is cheaper than the alternatives and was found to be widely used to produce more effective insulators for the booming construction industry.

"Our investigations revealed widespread illegal use of CFC-11 in China as a blowing agent for the production of polyurethane (PU) foams," said Clare Perry, a climate campaign leader with EIA. "The information we provided kickstarted a nationwide inspection and enforcement action by China, which has clearly been successful."

'Wake-Up Call' for Montreal Protocol

According to EIA, companies admitted to mislabeling the banned CFC-11 as hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) compounds and other chemicals. China, which joined the Montreal Protocol in 1991 and said it successfully ended the industrial use of CFCs in 2007, questioned the conclusions of the EIA study. Nevertheless, the government said in mid-2019 it would boost monitoring efforts and impose penalties on companies caught illegally producing the chemical.

"The action taken in 2018 by China in response to our investigations appears to have led to an immediate reduction of CFC-11 emissions," said Perry. "This issue should be a wake-up call to the Montreal Protocol the failure to detect the illegal CFC-11 production and use prior to its scientific discovery compels a very serious look at the current monitoring, reporting and verification systems."

Perry told DW the parties to the Montreal Protocol were already talking about how to expand the atmospheric monitoring network, but said more change was necessary. "They need to consider how they can ensure long-term compliance and enforcement, particularly considering the challenges of taking on new controls of HFCs with the Kigali Amendment."

The Kigali Amendment, which entered into force in 2019, aims to also phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which were developed to replace CFCs in the 1990s but act as potent greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change.

"Addressing the existing gaps in monitoring, and filling those gaps strategically with new monitoring stations, would help to improve the detection of regional emissions of ozone depleting substances," said Seki of UNEP.

At the projected recovery rates, UNEP has said the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere and the regions around the equator "will heal completely" by the 2030s, the Southern Hemisphere by the 2050s and the polar regions by the 2060s.

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Read the rest here:
Play With Your Cats and Feed Them Meat to Save Wildlife, Study Advises - EcoWatch

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