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WAKE UP. Take a coffee nap.

It’s late afternoon now. You had your perfect cup of coffee in the morning, but the day has taken its toll on you. Shall you go for another cup? Or perhaps a nap to wake you up?

I recommend to you not either or, but both! Yes, the best of both worlds: the coffee nap.

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Coffee Nap: a cup of coffee then a nap (see, I google “coffee nap” and I get sleeping animals).

Left: Wikimedia Commons – Julius Schorzman. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_small_cup_of_coffee.JPG

Right: Pixabay – Scheeze. https://pixabay.com/en/cat-sleeping-nap-bed-portrait-pet-2092451/

Why aren’t coffee naps a trend? Scientists discovered two decades ago that drinking a cup of coffee, then napping for 20 minutes will boost your energy way more than a regular nap or coffee. Sleepy people who took a 15-minute coffee nap before being tested in a driving simulator scored higher. Research also says that coffee naps wake you up more than face washing, bright light, taking breaks, and coffee or napping separately.

So how do coffee naps work? First let’s learn how caffeine wakes you up.

Caffeine, a chemical in coffee, enters your bloodstream about twenty minutes after you drink it. It makes it way to your brain where it fills receptors which are normally filled by adenosine, another chemical. This happens because caffeine is similarly shaped to adenosine.

The chemical structures of caffeine and adenosine. Note how similar they are: they both have N (Nitrogen), O (Oxygen), and ring structures in their chemistry.

Wikimedia Commons: Edgar181. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caffeine_and_adenosine.png

What does adenosine do? Adenosine builds up in your brain with each moment you are awake, and when it fills receptors it makes you sleepy. But when caffeine blocks adenosine, you don’t become sleepy.

A nap works in a similar way. Sleep doesn’t block, but removes adenosine from the brain. But if you sleep for more than twenty minutes, you fall into a deep sleep and become less alert when you wake up. So short, power naps are actually effective!

Now let’s put caffeine and napping together. First your nap removes adenosine from your brain so the receptors are less filled. Then, at twenty minutes, caffeine comes in and blocks more receptors than it could have without the help of adenosine. The result? Your afternoon rescue.

So take that coffee nap! Even half-sleeping for twenty minutes will be helpful, and you can also drink other caffeine beverages.

As for me, even though I still don’t drink coffee, and can’t nap either, I will give it a shot. Let me know how it goes for you!

Cheers,

Ivy Wu

4 Comments

Posted on November 2, 2017 by ivy wu in Admin

Tagged #coffee, Adenosine, biology, Caffeine, Energy, Food Science, Health

Why people have 5 fingers?

Posted on October 31, 2017 by xuan wang | 5 comments

Have you ever wondered why you have five fingers?? We have been using our hands for more than twenty years and you may have the same question as i do which is why we have 5 fingers.

To better understand the reason, let’s look at a special case of “polydactyly“. In short, polydactyly refers to the situation where there are more than five fingers in a hand (or foot). There are two types of polydactyly which refer to Type A and Type B. In Type A, the extra finger can function properly like other fingers and have a complete bone structure. In Type B, the extra finger is non functional and seems to be “floating”.

Type A of polydactyl http://https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly

Type B of polydactyly http://https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly#/media/File:Polydactyly_Left_Hand.jpg

To answer our question in the beginning, we have to know the cause of Type A. The duplication of the entire finger is due to an abnormal function of a gene called “Sonic hedgehog” gene or”SHH” gene which plays an important role in the growth of digits on limbs and organization of the brain. During the fifth week of an embryo development, SHH gene will synthesize a signalling protein called Sonic hedgehog protein which act on the ulnar side of the “hand” (at the black dot in the picture) and fingers start to form.

Hand of an embryo
https://dissolve.com/video/Human-embryo-close-developing-face-rights-managed-stock-video-footage/002-D30-11-319

When the concentration of the SHH signalling protein is lower than common level, less than five fingers will form. When the concentration of the SHH protein is too highly, it will result in Type A of polydactyly.

This is the reason of how five fingers formed, but you may still wondering that why five-finger structure is common. This is the result of evolution. About 380 million years ago, quadrupedalism can have six, seven even eight fingers depending on different species. Due to evolution, it has been simplified into a five-finger structure which ensure both the flexibility and the grasping ability. This is the reason why we all have five fingers not six or four.

Written by Xuan Wang

5 Comments

Posted in Admin

Tagged biology, evolution, genetics, Health, mutation

Ferrocene: A powerful organometallic compound that has various medicinal applications

Posted on October 30, 2017 by tarek el sayed | 1 comment

Research in medicinal chemistry has been booming in the last few years due to important discoveries made by fellow scientists. Ferrocene which is one of the most famous organometallic structures discovered in the early 1900’s can open many routes in cancer research. The discovery of the first sandwich complex opened a new area of research and since then many similar structures have been synthesized. Wilkinson and Fischer received a Nobel prize in chemistry for their remarkable work in developing sandwich structures using transition metals. A sandwich complex is defined as a metal center connected to aromatic rings. When ferrocene was discovered, its medicinal applications were not known. Recently, Ferrocene and its derivatives have found their way in medicinal chemistry as anti-cancer and HIV agents.

Figure 1: The structure of Ferrocene consisting of an iron metal centered around two aromatic rings. The name sandwich complex comes from the fact that the metal is sandwiched between two molecules.

In order to understand the mechanism behind ferrocene acting as an anti-cancer agent, basic understanding of anti-cancer agents is required. There is an enzyme in the body known as Topoisomerase that keeps the topology of DNA by unwinding the DNA for replication. Tumour cells increase the activity of topoisomerase; thus anti-tumor drugs act by lowering the activity of topoisomerase. Ferrocenium ions get reduced in the cell generating a hydroxyl radical. These radicals are responsible for biological damage in cancer cells. The ferrocenium species target specifically a protein complex that binds to a specific region of DNA. The above mechanism helps in inhibiting the activity of cancerous cells. Damaging the tumor cells responsible for increasing topoisomerase activity helps regulate the activity of DNA.

Figure 2: A detailed mechanism of how Ferrocene and its derivatives get reduced in the cell causing cancerous cells to die

Ferrocene derivatives are also used in regulating HIV virus which is responsible for AIDS. According to recent studies, 75,500 Canadians were living with HIV by the end 2014. The number of Canadians affected by HIV has increased dramatically in the last few years and many scientists are trying to find therapeutic agents that can target HIV. The same enzyme mentioned above known as Topoisomerase is also involved in HIV. Researchers have shown that topoisomerase is involved in HIV replication cycle. Viruses have the tendency to use the cell machinery to replicate and survive inside the body. Ferrocene derivatives are very effective in inhibiting the activity of topoisomerase involved in HIV replication. Some drugs containing ferrocene gave promising results as Anti-HIV agents. These compounds are thought to inhibit the synthesis of viral DNA.

Figure 3: Some common Ferrocene compounds and their use in medicinal chemistry

In Conclusion, organometallic compounds have unique properties that allow them to have wide applications in medicinal chemistry. Attaching ferrocene and its derivatives to biological drugs will serve in increasing the efficiency of drugs. The possibility of using ferrocene in medicinal applications are endless. Hopefully, this powerful class of compounds could find its way to market shelves soon.

By: Tarek El Sayed

1 Comment

Posted in Manufacturing, Synthesis

Tagged Anti-cancer, Anti-HIV agents, DNA enzymes, Ferrocene, medicinal chemistry, organometallics, pharmaceuticals

Robots’ moral choices: are we ready for self-driving cars?

Posted on October 30, 2017 by zhou wang | 2 comments

In a foreseeable future, Starbucks will hire robots as baristas, airports will adopt robots standing in front of the boarding gates, and of course, humans will no longer drive their own cars. A major trend for advancing science and technology is driven by facilitating daily lives, and humans have been dreaming about self-driving cars since 1920s. Autonomous vehicles (AVs), as knowns as self-driving cars or robotic cars, have developed incredibly fast in the past decade. In fact, California is ready to put AVs in use next year, but are we really ready for robots driving on the road?

“A Google self-driving car” by Michael Shick. Image from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

AVs are designed to reduce the traffic accidents, but how will the robots decide when they are forcing to choose between two evils, such as to run over pedestrians protecting the passenger or to sacrifice themselves and the passenger in the car saving pedestrians. This hypothetical situation, also called the Trolley Problem, requires a moral decision. A study showed that such decisions made by humans based on emotional engagements, yet robots can only follow the pre-defined algorithms. It is doubtful that AVs should be introduced to our lives before we trust robots can make moral choices.

A study conducted online surveys including their opinion on how to program AVs when facing moral decisions and how likely they are going to buy AVs if AVs are programmed as they wished. The results are summarized and visually presented below:

Figure 1. Survey in the study. Image created by Zhou Wang, the author.

Figure 2. Participants’ wills on AV programming. Image created by Zhou Wang, the author.

Figure 3. Participants’ will on tendency to purchase AVs. Image created by Zhou Wang, the author.

From figure 2, it is clear to see that survey participants show a trend of agreeing to sacrifice the passenger in the car and to save the pedestrians as the number of pedestrians increases. On the other hand, figure 3 and 4 concludes even the majority agrees to program AVs to sacrifice the passenger in the car when it is possible to save more pedestrians, the same group of participants also showed that the majority will unlikely to purchase an AV if the passenger’s life is not absolutely prioritized.

When the participants assumed themselves as pedestrians, most of them was rational and thought the robots should sacrifice the passenger as long as more pedestrians were saved. Conversely, when they considered themselves as consumers to buy AVs, they wanted AVs to protect themselves at all costs.

The contradicted results are not surprising, as the participants were always trying to maximize their own benefits. However, the results do suggest that our society may not be ready to let robots make moral decisions regarding life-prioritizing problems, because it is unsure on how to program the AVs. Before safer and more advanced technology is available, we may not be ready to trust robots to drive next to us.

Youtube: TEDx talk about driverless cars

-Zhou Wang

2 Comments

Tagged Analysis, Opinion, Robots, self-driving cars, technology

Secrets in Firefly

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Olivia Yang | 1 comment

Have you ever seen fireflies in your childhood? It’s hard to see them now, but I am still very interested in them.

Photo of firefly.

Why do fireflies shine?

The scientists found that the bioluminescence of the firefly’s abdomen has a small aperture of the luminescent layer. This luminous layer contains thousands of light emitting cells. In the light emitting cell, it contains two kinds of chemicals, one is called fluorescein, another kind is called luciferase. Fluorescein can react with oxygen in the air, release energy in form of photons and emit fluorescence in the catalysis of luciferase. In specific, magnesium and ATP combine with luciferase and the protein luciferin. This combination creates a very excited molecule. When oxygen is introduced into the mix, the excited molecule goes from excited state back to a stable state. This procedure releases energy and creates light. Therefore, firefly luminescence is caused by chemical reactions.

Specific bioluminescence reaction in fireflies.

Why do fireflies shine off and on？

The mechanism that turns on and off this light show is still the topic of some debate. The prevailing theory revolves around the firefly’s ability to control oxygen within trachea. When oxygen is abundant, the reaction is intense and the light is strong; When the oxygen is not sufficient, the reaction is slow, the light will be weak or even bleak. There is a high-energy compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in fireflies, which, when the light is weak, more ATP will be released by Mitochondria (the organelle that controls ATP production), and interact with fluorescein, so fireflies can glow again.

Do fireflies burn themselves?

The lighting reaction released almost all the energy in form of light, only a few in the form of heat release, so the fireflies light belongs to cold light. Therefore, fireflies won’t burn themselves due to overheating. Fireflies are more than 95% efficient in making this cold light.

Fireflies and bionics

Firefly has many beautiful fluorescent colours, like light green, light red and pale blue. The difference in colours are highly related to the type of fluorescence in the body. According to this feature, scientists have developed many applications based on the luminescence mechanism of fireflies. In medical science, scientists extract fluorescein from fireflies and use it in the study of cancer cells. By observing the glow of fluorescein placed in cells, they are able to judge the growing speed and growing environment of cancer. In industry, water pollution can be monitored with the help of fluorescein. The luminescence mechanism can be used in more area, because it is very simple and effective. What’s more, there are already a considerable amount of applications of cold light source, such as the flashlight for underwater operation. Cold light source can greatly improve the efficiency of converting chemical energy into light energy, so it can be developed further and applied to other aspects in our life.

Fluorescence microscopy images of sun flares pathology in a blood cell showing the affected areas in red.

-Olivia Yang-

1 Comment

Posted in Manufacturing

Tagged beetle, biology, bionics, cold light, Environment, firefly, glowworm, insect

Amorphous Ice: Its formation and uses in Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Posted on October 30, 2017 by nicole rogers | 2 comments

Water is a little bit strange relative to the vast majority of chemicals because its solid form is less dense than its liquid form. When ice forms naturally, it assumes a rigid crystal lattice structure which keeps the molecules more spaced out than when they’re in the liquid form. In fact, water expands 9% when it freezes and ice has a density of only 0.917g/ml. but it’s a little more complicated than that. Did you know that there are actually 16 known types of ice? They are categorized based on their physical and structural properties, which are due to their mechanism of formation. In the 1980s, scientists discovered a novel type of ice called amorphous ice or vitrified water, which can have a density higher than liquid water because it does not form as a crystalline structure. But how do you stop water from doing that?

Scientists figured out how to make amorphous ice and have since been able to utilize it for important biological applications. Amorphous ice can be classified as Low Density (LDA) at 0.94g/ml, High Density (HDA) at 1.17g/ml or Very High Density (VHDA) at 1.26g/ml. The form that the amorphous ice assumes depends on its mechanism of formation in which the key factors are temperature and pressure. Water has a Glass Transition Temperature (T_g), which is 136K or -137⁰C, and the water must melt at a temperature lower than this to form amorphous ice. When ice forms at a higher temperature than T_g it will crystallize spontaneously.

LDA can be formed by very slowly depositing water vapor onto a smooth metal surface at a temperature less than 120K. This laboratory method mimics the way LDA water forms in space when it comes in contact with extremely cold solids. HDA can be formed by compressing regular ice under 1.6 GPa which is about 15,790 atmospheres of pressure! This must be done at a temperature lower than 140K. If it’s done at 77K (the temperature of liquid nitrogen) then the pressure can be raised back to one atmosphere and the amorphous ice will remain in that form (with the temperature kept at or below 77K). It was discovered in 1996 that HDA could be further manipulated into a higher density by warming it to 160K under 1 – 2 GPa of pressure and then cooling it back down to 77K and ambient pressure for storage.

Amorphous water (or other solvents such as ethanol or ethane) is used in cryo-electron microscopy as a means of preservation of the delicate sample without it being destroyed by ice crystal formation (which would happen if it was just frozen normally). This type of microscopy is particularly important in the imaging on protein structure. Dehydration of biological samples and bombardment with UV rays can alter the structure of interest, causing the microscope image to be non-representative of the structure in a physiological environment.

This type of research is also Nobel Prize worthy! The 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”. Super cool stuff! (Pardon the pun).

Nicole Rogers

2 Comments

Posted in Admin

Destroying the Amazon Rainforest

Posted on October 26, 2017 by joseph krahn | 1 comment

In the last century, we as humans, have solidified our role as the most destructive species to ever live on Earth. Taking a step back and viewing humankind from an outside perspective illuminates our deplorable acts as we continually subdivide the planet that has given us all we need to advance and prosper. We have committed so many acts of planetary treason, yet deforestation of the Amazon may be the most horrible.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajg/2151857844

The Amazon Rainforest is a huge habitat for a wide array of all types of organisms including highly intelligent primates and dolphins.

Most people, including me, struggle to comprehend the absolute importance of the Amazon rainforest to innumerable aspects of life on Earth. The Amazon rainforest contains over half of the remaining rainforests worldwide. Appropriately nicknamed the ‘Lungs of the Planet‘, the immense size of this forest accounts for 20% of the oxygen produced into our atmosphere. To me, the most astonishing truth about the Amazon is that it is home to half of all of the species of plants and animals that live on Earth. Considering the Amazon is so dense, vast and teeming with untold biodiversity, its clear that unexplored regions far outweigh those where humans have ventured. It is exhilarating, and unimaginable to think how many organisms are still left to discover in this prosperous ecosystem. To this day, tribes people still exist in the Amazon remaining untouched by modern civilization. It is speculated that roughly 25% of the ingredients in modern medicine and up to 80% of the developed-world’s diet originated from the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest is vital to the health of the planet but is being destroyed at an alarming rate.

In the last 50 years, we have decimated nearly 20% of the Amazon for urbanization and agriculture. Now, 20% might not seem too substantial, but that is 300 million aces of land (1.1 million km2) destroyed, while we continue to chop down another 150 acres every minute! At this rate, it is projected that the amazon rainforest could completely vanish within the next 1-2 centuries. This destruction timeline is not a prophecy but a warning. The uncertainty in this projection is reliant on the decisions we make now.

Deforestation is a major contributor to the extinction of up to an astonishing 35 species every day in the Amazon. Obviously, forest loss destroys important habitats and destabilizes the ecosystem. But, what is often overlooked is the negative affect on an expansive number of organisms as the pesticides and fertilizers, along with urban sewage and runoff, pollute the rivers and soil that is vital to the prosperity of the Amazon. We are destroying the Amazon rainforest and it appears we will only realize our crucial oversight when it is too late.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Conférence_%22Océans_et_forêt_au_bord_de_l%27asphyxie_-_agir_pour_redonner_de_l%27air_à_la_planète%22.jpg

Chief Raoni is a powerful indigenous leader and environmental activist. Since the age of 15 Raoni wears a lip disc to signify he is ready to die for his land.

The Chief of the Kayapo indigenous Amazon people, Raoni Metuktire, is working diligently on a mission to save his home for future generations to respect and replenish. Chief Raoni is a worldwide symbol for the preservation of the natural world and is one of my greatest heroes. Along with the United Nations and environmental activist groups, indigenous people of the Amazon are trying to save one of the most vital environments on the planet. We consider ourselves to be advanced beings yet even when it is blatantly obvious that what we are doing is destructive to us, and all life on Earth, we are unable to stop. Changes need to be made. We must put our greed aside and fix our mistakes before we don’t have the option to.

Joey Krahn

1 Comment

Posted in Admin

Tagged Amazon Rainforest, Deforestation, Environment, Extinction, Health

Goodness that’s loud!

Posted on October 25, 2017 by joseph krahn | 1 comment

Imagine if each time you tried to have a conversation with a loved one, someone came up from behind you and blew an air horn in your ear. Horrible right? Now, try to imagine that that conversation was not just your only form of communication, but is also your directionality and means of obtaining nutrients. I agree, it sounds unbearable and ridiculous. But, this is the kind of struggle that cetaceans, intelligent marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, experience daily from human activities in the oceans.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toothed_whale_echolocation_01.png

A basic schematic of how sound travels for echolocation in cetaceans

Have you ever seen a photo of a beached whale bloated and dying? Its hard to admit that theres a good chance that the whale you’re feeling sorry for died because of human ignorance. In the expansive environments of the oceans, sound is vital for survival and is used as the primary source of navigation, long range communication, and food location for cetaceans. When these sounds are interrupted it can have dire effects on the health of the marine environment.

Beaked and pilot whales are common victims of stranding due to noise pollution

Noise pollution is an often misunderstood and under-appreciated form of environmental deterioration. Our activity in the ocean can be so loud that is damages the hearing of cetaceans, even causing organ damage in severe instances. Cetaceans that dive to avoid intense air gun blasts are afflicted with decompression sickness (‘the bends’) and often die from their injuries. Marine mammals are playful, loving, and emotional creatures. We are overlooking our destruction of their habitat for the means of industry and war. Whale populations around the world are decreasing at an alarming rate.

Our influence is destroying parts of the marine environment where cetaceans have thrived for nearly 50 million years. Increased shipping, military sonar, and the seismic search for fossil fuels are sending cetaceans on a rapid path to endangerment and extinction.

Noise pollution has doubled every year since 1950 (plot projected until 2020)

Scientists and environmental activists are working to educate the public on the consequence of noise pollution. Although noise pollution is gaining more international recognition, studies show that minimal action has been taken to restore these delicate marine ecosystems. We must determine the importance of a prosperous ocean and the value of a healthy planet for future generations to advance and replenish. The ocean is indispensable to all life on this planet. The time to act sustainably is now.

Joey Krahn

1 Comment

Posted in Admin

Tagged Cetaceans, Environment, Health, Marine Environment, Noise Pollution

The Invisible Blue Halo

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Jenny Zhong | Leave a comment

How do flowers attract bees? Well, you might have thought of their bright, colourful petals or their delightful scent, but there’s something else that is not that obvious. If you have looked carefully at certain flowers, like the Queen of the Night tulip, and noticed a certain blue hue when switching to different angles, you’ve got it – but what is it?

Queen of the Night Tulipa. source: Fine Art America

another beautiful tulip, source: Gardener’s Dream

This blue results from diffraction of light by microscopic ridges found in the cuticle (outer filmy layer covering the outer skin layer) of petals, researchers at the University of Cambridge found. Blue pigments, for unknown reasons, are hard to make naturally. The researchers, led by Professor Beverley Glover, found that distantly related flower species with different anatomies had surprisingly similar ridges of similar height, width, and spacing – a phenomenon of convergent evolution. The ridges run across the petal cuticles, parallel to each other, but were not perfectly shaped like artificial diffraction gratings. They scatter light and generate a blue halo only visible at a plane perpendicular to the direction of ridges, which is easily missed by humans.

To confirm what the blue halo does, researchers made artificial “flowers” with the ridges of either with perfect, artificial dimensions or simulating a natural messy-ness, and flowers with smooth surfaces, on underlying colour pigments – yellow, blue, or black – placed next to a sugar solution. The flowers with smooth surfaces appeared the same no matter the viewing angle, but those with microscopic ridges, perfect or messy, were iridescent – changing colour as viewing angle changes; but only those with disordered ridges have the blue halo. They found that bees found the iridescent flowers faster than the smooth-surfaced flowers with the same underlying pigment. The effect is reduced in blue-coloured flowers, likely because the blue halo and blue pigment appear quite the same.

Artificial “flowers” made on underlying black background. Sm= smooth surface, Di= surface with disordered diffraction ridges, and Or= ordered, regularly repeating ridges. Adapted from Figure 4 in “Disorder in convergent floral nanostructures enhances signalling to bees”.

So, why do bees like blue? Previous research has shown that bees, with more sensitive receptors to the blue-ultraviolet region of light, are more attracted to the shorter wavelengths of visible light, and blue flowers were found to produce more nectar. Interestingly, the appearance of neat ridges in two major classes of flowers, monocots and eudicots, coincided with the appearance of nectar-gathering insects, increasing the evidence of the blue halo attracting bees to flowers. Knowing how colour affect bees could help beekeeping and possibly increase pollination effects of a flower, if these ridged structures can be coated onto flower petal surfaces without harming them.

What about the flowers that do not have the microscopic ridges? Although blue is difficult to generate, it turns out flowers have a few ways to make blue: increasing the pH of vacuoles, the big cellular compartment that stores nutrients, ions, and pigments, or by making “metal-pigment complexes that blue-shift” the colour of anthocyanin, a pigment that is purple in neutral pH solutions, as the original research article states.

All in all, what I take away from this is: don’t judge a flower by its colour.

Got milk? It may not be as good for you as you think. Why is it such a common drink, and what’s in it?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by sayyed sina sayyedi alavi | 1 comment

Got milk? It may not be as good for you as you think. Why is it such a common drink, and what’s in it?

Indicated by the famous “milk mustache”, milk has been advertised by many famous athletes as the perfect beverage. Recognized as part of a balanced and nutritious diet, it is believed to strengthen bones and decrease the likelihood of developing osteoporosis in aging women. Contrary to what most people think with regards to milk being good for their bones, high milk consumption is not necessarily associated with lower rates of fracture incidence in adults. In fact, it way have the opposite effect of potentially weakening bones with time and excess consumption. A 20 year cohort study in three counties in central Sweden discovered that high milk consumption is associated with increased fracture rates in women aged 39-74. Of the 32793 female participants, 17252(52.6%) of women were found to have experienced a fracture, in which 4259(13%) of those fractures were of the hip. There was no negative association between the amount of milk women drink per day and fracture incidences. Instead, there was a positive correlation between milk consumption and fracture rates.

The Canada Food Guide indicates that men and women should consume up to 2-4 servings of milk a day. Why?

Dr. Walter Willet, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, states that the “Dairy industry has become a very powerful economic force”. During WW1, the American government shipped large amounts of canned and powdered milk overseas to combat soldier malnutrition. This large demand for milk caused farmers to focus primarily on the production of milk, and to focus less on their other crops (chickens, wheat, etc.). When WW1 ended, and the demand for milk decreased, milk supply in america was at an all-time high. So, what did America do in response to this? Well, they promoted drinking milk as part of a nutritious diet. Unfortunate to most, they developed a liking for milk, which is why the milk industry has become so powerful today.

Below, an informative video on government relationships with dairy industries:

So now, one may ask: What’s in milk? Milk is composed of mostly water, fat, protein, carbohydrates and trace vitamins/minerals. Within those categories, casein protein, Insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1), and lactose are examples of milk components that have been linked to adverse impacts on health: increased rates of colon cancer, acne and bloating/gas, respectively (See attached link in bottom for these studies).

Considering that 65% of the human population is unable to digest milk, I am skeptical on the Canadian Food Guide’s warranting it an entire dietary category. With regards to personal nutrition planning, I suggest folks do more research on milk and its components in order to make the best decision on its prominence in their diet.

For more information, please watch the following video:

Links to studies:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2715202/ – IGF-1, acne, cancer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166373/ – Casein – cancer

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance – lactose – bloating and gas

-Sina Alavi

1 Comment

Tagged Dairy, Health, milk

Communicating Chemistry 2017W1 Section 110

WAKE UP. Take a coffee nap.

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Why people have 5 fingers?

Ferrocene: A powerful organometallic compound that has various medicinal applications

Robots’ moral choices: are we ready for self-driving cars?