Education and abolition
Carlo Alvaro in Raw Veganism, 2020
People consume meat because the meat has been disassociated with those negative aesthetic values, violence, suffering, blood, confinement, and so on. Why, then, do people consume meat? There are many reasons to me mentioned. An obvious reason is that animal products are everywhere. Especially affluent societies in the world overemphasize meat and animal products. This is because corporations are trying to shove animal products down the throats of the public, for reasons that have nothing to do with health or morality. I believe that production is prior to consumption. It is not the consumers who create demand for products; rather, it is those who own the production system that make decisions for the public—the music they should listen to, how to dress, what to buy, and the food they should eat. The point here is that there is no inherent or natural reason that people should want to eat animal products. Eating animal products is like smoking cigarettes or using gasoline as a combustible—they produce them, we consume. In other words, animal products are just part of a long list of things that people consume because the market gives no serious options but to consume those products. The meat industry, magazines, doctors, TV shows, the health industry all sing in unison the song of meat—meat is good for you, buy it and eat it. Consequently, information and education alongside more options in the way of plant-based foods will likely facilitate the legal ban of animal products.
Water and foodborne contamination *
Jamie Bartram, Rachel Baum, Peter A. Coclanis, David M. Gute, David Kay, Stéphanie McFadyen, Katherine Pond, William Robertson, Michael J. Rouse in Routledge Handbook of Water and Health, 2015
When contaminated waters and/or crops are used as feed for livestock, meat and other animal products may also be contaminated pre-harvest. Pathogens commonly found in meat include Campylobacterspp., Clostridium botulinum, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and pathogenic E. coli.Raw milk is also a reservoir for pathogens warranting pasteurization prior to consumption when possible, notably: Brucella melitensis, Campylobacter spp., Coxiella burnetii, hepatitis E, Salmonellaspp., S. aureus, Cryptosporidiumspp., and T. gondii. One example of the role of water in animal production contamination occurred in Finland in 1998, when Campylobacter jejuni-contaminated lake water was shown as the cause of infection in dairy cattle (Hänninen et al., 1998).
An Overview of Molecular Nutrition
Nicole M. Farmer, Andres Victor Ardisson Korat in Cooking for Health and Disease Prevention, 2022
Our body can make certain amino acids on its own, but there are nine so-called “essential” amino acids that the body cannot make and thus must come from food (https://www.nap.edu/read/10490/chapter/12#591). Protein can come from a variety of sources such as animal products, seafood, soy, nuts, grains, and legumes. Both soy as well as animal sources of protein contain all nine of the essential amino acids and are called “complete proteins.” Other vegetarian proteins like nuts, grains, and legumes do not contain all of the essential amino acids and must complement each other to fulfill the body’s protein needs. This can easily be achieved by including a variety of foods in the diet. For this reason, vegetarians with limited soy intake are often advised to complement their diet with these “complete-protein” combinations. This is generally an effective approach because many plant-based foods vary in their amino acid compositions; Thus, combining two foods in your meal with varying amino acid compositions makes for a more complete intake of the essential amino acids are body needs.
Choline: The Neurocognitive Essential Nutrient of Interest to Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2020
Taylor C. Wallace, Jan Krzysztof Blusztajn, Marie A. Caudill, Kevin C. Klatt, Steven H. Zeisel
Choline and esters of choline are ubiquitous in food; however, animal products typically contain higher amounts of choline compared to plant foods. The most common forms of choline in foods are fat-soluble phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, as well as water-soluble phosphocholine, glycerophosphocholine, and free choline (USDA 2008). The bioavailability of free choline appears to be high: studies of cytidine-5′-diphosphocholine (CDP-choline) show virtually complete absorption of free choline after hydrolysis in the small intestine (Secades and Lorenzo 2006). Pancreatic and mucosal enzymes liberate free choline from about half of the fat-soluble forms and from some water-soluble forms (Hollenbeck 2012). Bioavailability of phosphatidylcholine varies depending on the food source, from about 100% in soybeans to 24% in canola meal (Emmert and Baker 1997).
Factors determining the oral absorption and systemic disposition of zeaxanthin in rats: in vitro, in situ, and in vivo evaluations
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Seong‑Wook Seo, Dong‑Gyun Han, Eugene Choi, Min‑Jeong Seo, Im‑Sook Song, In‑Soo Yoon
Zeaxanthin (β,β‑carotene‑3,3′‑diol) is a yellow‑coloured tetraterpene pigment with a molecular weight of 568.8 Da (Murillo et al. 2019). Zeaxanthin, along with lutein and meso‑zeaxanthin, is highly concentrated in the macula of the retina that is mainly responsible for central and fine‑feature vision (Billsten et al. 2003; Eisenhauer et al. 2017). These three carotenoids (called macular pigments) are efficient absorbers of blue light, protecting against age‑related macular degeneration (AMD), a degenerative disease that may lead to blurred or no vision in the centre of the visual field, owing to their blue light‑filtering and antioxidant activities (Kijlstra et al. 2012; Mares 2016). Dietary intake and plasma levels of these carotenoids have been associated with a lower risk of AMD (Hartmann et al. 2004). Additionally, zeaxanthin acts as a more potent antioxidant than lutein, protecting against oxidative stress in other tissues as well as the eyes (Murillo et al. 2019). Mammals are not able to synthesize zeaxanthin; thus, it must be obtained from dietary sources (Delgado‑Pelayo and Hornero‑Mendez 2012). Zeaxanthin is found in many plants, including green leafy and yellow‑orange vegetables and fruits, such as carrots, corn, orange, paprika, saffron, and wolfberries (goji) (Murillo et al. 2019). It can also be found in animal products, such as egg yolks and cheese (Murillo et al. 2019).
Impact of bee venom and melittin on apoptosis and biotransformation in colorectal carcinoma cell lines
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2021
Danijela D. Nikodijević, Milena G. Milutinović, Danijela M. Cvetković, Maja Đ. Ćupurdija, Milena M. Jovanović, Ivan V. Mrkić, Marija Đ. Jankulović-Gavrović, Snežana D. Marković
Beside plants, mushrooms and lichens, as the most investigated sources of active substances delivered from nature, the animal products were also examined, including the bee venom. Bee venom is mainly composed of protein-related components, where the most common is melittin, a lytic peptide with confirmed anticancer properties (Gajski and Garaj-Vrhovac 2013), including its proapoptotic effects on human colorectal cancer cells (Zheng et al. 2015). In our experimental conditions, bee venom significantly reduced the viability of colorectal carcinoma HCT-116 and SW-480 cells, but anticancer selectivity was not observed due to its cytotoxicity on normal HaCaT cells (Table 2). Our data were in accordance with other authors (Zheng et al. 2015) who confirmed the cytotoxicity of bee venom on colorectal carcinoma cells. The cytotoxic activity can be attributed largely to melittin, whose cytotoxic activity was also notable. Contrary to bee venom, melittin showed selectivity against cancer cells, considering the lower effects on normal cells in investigated concentrations.
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