The increased cultivation of highly productive C4 crop plants may contribute to a second green revolution in agriculture. However, the regulation of mineral nutrition is rather poorly understood in C4 plants. To understand the impact of C4 photosynthesis on the regulation of sulfate uptake by the root and sulfate assimilation into cysteine at the whole plant level, seedlings of the monocot C4 plant maize (Zea mays) were exposed to a non-toxic level of 1.0 µl l−1 atmospheric H2S at sulfate-sufficient and sulfate-deprived conditions. Sulfate deprivation not only affected growth and the levels of sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds, but it also enhanced the expression and activity of the sulfate transporters in the root and the expression and activity of APS reductase (APR) in the root and shoot. H2S exposure alleviated the establishment of sulfur deprivation symptoms and seedlings switched, at least partly, from sulfate to H2S as sulfur source. Moreover, H2S exposure resulted in a downregulation of the expression and activity of APR in both shoot and root, though it hardly affected that of the sulfate transporters in the root. These results indicate that maize seedlings respond similarly to sulfate deprivation and atmospheric H2S exposure as C3 monocots, implying that C4 photosynthesis in maize is not associated with a distinct whole plant regulation of sulfate uptake and assimilation into cysteine.
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Obesity and other lifestyle-related diseases are, amongst others, the result of an unbalanced diet and lifestyle. Excessive intake of energy, salt, saturated fat and sugar are leading to increased risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes (WHO/FAO). Therefore, a healthier food intake (diet) is needed. But when is a food product healthier? From a nutritional perspective it is clear: the lower the levels of nutrients with a negative public health impact, the better the product fits in a healthy diet. However, when it comes to improving the health impact of the food supply through reformulation, other aspects are important as well. This article describes the ‘framework for product reformulation’, which integrates four essential disciplines: Nutrition & health, Foodtechnology, Legislation and Consumer perspective.
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Een stripboek helemaal gewijd aan de veldboon! Waarom? In het project Bean me up! is drie jaar onderzoek gedaan naar de vraag: kan de Nederlandse veldboon als eiwitbron de soja uit verre landen vervangen? Is de Nederlandse veldboon geschikt om te verwerken in voedingsmiddelen? De resultaten zijn veelbelovend! Wist je bijvoorbeeld dat studenten nieuwe producten ontwikkelen van veldbonen? Wat dacht je van borrelbonen en kaasvervangers? Maar er is nog veel meer te vertellen over de veldboon. En dat allemaal verpakt in strips, afgewisseld door enkele infographics en interviews. Zie de veldboon schitteren als held die de aarde redt, vind de veldboon die groen ziet bij de dokter, geniet van de veldboon die op zoek gaat naar zijn ideale vrouw voor zijn nageslacht. Ervaar zelf waarom de oer-Hollandse veldboon dit stripboek verdient!
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Due to a growing challenge to feed the world’s population and an increased awareness to minimize the impact of our food choices on climate change, a more plant-based diet has gained popularity with a growing number of plant-based products on the market. To stimulate a plant-based diet that also improves long-term health, data are needed to monitor whether these products are healthy alternatives to animal-based foods. Therefore, this study inventoried 916 plant-based meat, fish, and dairy alternatives from eight Dutch supermarkets. The nutritional quality of each product was assessed by (1) the Dutch food-based dietary guidelines and (2) the Nutri-Score. The results show that over 70% of meat, fish, and dairy alternatives have an A/B Nutri-Score (indicating high nutritional quality), but do not comply with the Dutch dietary guidelines. This is mainly due to high salt and low vitamin B12 and iron content (meat and fish alternatives) or low protein and calcium levels (dairy alternatives). In conclusion, the majority of plant-based products are nutritionally not full alternatives of the animal-based equivalents; however, there are still opportunities for reformulation. To aid the consumer in making healthy plant-based food choices, a better alignment between the Nutri-Score and the recommended dietary guidelines is needed.
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Developing a reliable method to compare food sustainability is gaining traction, with efforts like those by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This research aims to contribute to a comprehensive scientific comparison of food categories based on CO2 emissions linked not to weight but to their primary function: nutrient availability and uptake in the consumer’s body. The study utilizes a multi-criteria evaluation for sustainability, incorporating the Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) score, protein digestibility, and essential amino acid content. A case study compares one serving of semi-skimmed milk (SSM) with various plant-based beverages (oat, soy, rice, coconut, and almond), considering their carbon footprints in relation to nutrient content and environmental costs. The analysis integrates protein quality through essential amino acid proportion and digestibility. Findings reveal that achieving an NRF11.3 score of 50 requires more servings of unfortified plant-based beverages than semi-skimmed milk, resulting in higher carbon footprints, except for soy drink. However, when considering emerging farm management measures, semi-skimmed and soy drinks show comparable carbon footprints for a given NRF score. Fortified plant-based beverages (soy, oat, and almond) exhibit lower footprints relative to the calculated NRF scores. Yet, when converting carbon footprints to euros using the European Union Emissions Trading System and adding them to retail prices per kilogram, semi-skimmed milk emerges as the option with the lowest “societal costs” (environment and consumer costs). The research underscores that understanding a food product’s nutritional value requires more than knowledge of its composition; uptake into the body maintenance and potential synergistic effects of other components in the food matrix play crucial roles.
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VHL University of Applied Sciences (VHL) is a sustainable University of AppliedSciences that trains students to be ambitious, innovative professionals andcarries out applied research to make a significant contribution to asustainable world. Together with partners from the field, they contribute to innovative and sustainable developments through research and knowledge valorisation. Their focus is on circular agriculture, water, healthy food & nutrition, soil and biodiversity – themes that are developed within research lines in the variousapplied research groups. These themes address the challenges that are part ofthe international sustainability agenda for 2030: the sustainable developmentgoals (SDGs). This booklet contains fascinating and representative examplesof projects – completed or ongoing, from home and abroad – that are linked tothe SDGs. The project results contribute not only to the SDGs but to their teaching as well.
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Plant-based proteins, like water lentils, generally result in lower environmental impact compared to animal-based protein.
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Malnutrition is a serious and widespread health problem in community-dwelling older adults who receive care in hospital and at home. Hospital and home care nurses and nursing assistants have a key role in the delivery of high-quality multidisciplinary nutritional care. Nursing nutritional care in current practice, however, is still suboptimal, which impacts its quality and continuity. There appear to be at least two reasons for this. First, there is a lack of evidence for nutritional care interventions to be carried out by nurses. Second, there are several factors, that influence nurses’ and nursing assistants’ current behaviour, such as lack of knowledge, moderate awareness of the importance and neutral attitudes. This results in a lack of attention towards nutritional care. Therefore, there is a need to generate more evidence and to focus on targeting the factors that influence nurses’ and nursing assistants’ current behaviour to eventually promote behaviour change. To increase the likelihood of successfully changing their behaviour, an evidence-based educational intervention is appropriate. This might lead to enhancing nutritional care and positively impact nutritional status, health and well-being of community-dwelling older adults. The general objectives of this thesis are: 1) To understand the current state of evidence regarding nutrition-related interventions and factors that influence current behaviour in nutritional care for older adults provided by hospital and home care nurses and nursing assistants to prevent and treat malnutrition. 2) To develop an educational intervention for hospital and home care nurses and nursing assistants to promote behaviour change by affecting factors that influence current behaviour in nutritional care for older adults and to describe the intervention development and feasibility.
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Lupin plants can grow on marginal lands and in the cold regions of Europe. They produce lupin beans, which contain around 30-40 % proteins and 20 % fats [1]. The high protein and fat content puts the lupin plant into direct competition with soy, which is mostly imported. Despite these promising nutritional values, the potential toxic quinolizidine alkaloid content of up to 4 % leads to prior testing before consumption. Therefore, four different extraction methods were tested and compared.
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Even though mango productivity in Ethiopia is low due to moisture stress, there is no report on how such constraint could alleviate using Cocoon water-saving technology. Cocoon is small water reservoir technology which uses for plant growth in dry season. The objectives of this study were to introduce and evaluate effectiveness of water-saving techniques on mango seedlings survival and growth in Mihitsab-Azmati watershed, northern Ethiopia. In this experiment, five treatments of water-saving techniques with mango seedlings were evaluated. These were: Cocoon sprayed by tricel (T1), Cocoon painted by used engine oil (T2), Cocoon without tricel and oil (T3), manually irrigated seedlings (T4) and mango seedlings planted during rainy season (T5). The survival and growth performance of mango seedlings were recorded at six months and one-year after transplanting. Data on plant survival, height, number of leaves per plant, shoot length, stem diameter and crown width were subjected to analysis of variance and t-test. There were significant differences in the treatment effects on mango seedlings transplanted survival, plant height, number of leaves per plant, shoot length, stem diameter and crown width measured at six months and one-year after transplanting. The lowest survival rate (20 %) was found during both data collection time in T5. Six months after transplanting, the highest growth parameters were measured from T1 whereas the lowest was from T5. However, one-year after transplanting, the highest growth parameters were measured from T3. Plant heights increments between the two measurement periods for T3, T2, T1, T4 and T5 were 45.1, 38.5, 24.8, 9.8 and 7.0 cm, respectively; indicating that T3 performed better than the other treatments. The t-test on mean differences between the same growth parameter measured at 12 and six months after transplanting also showed significant differences. The Cocoon water-saving technology was superior in improving mango seedlings survival and growth in the study area. This study generalized that Cocoon seems promising, sustainable and highly scalable with mango seedlings at large-scale in the study area conditions. However, this technology should not be assumed to perform uniformly well in all environmental conditions and with all tree species before demonstrated on a pilot study.
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