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Countryfile farmer Adam Henson claims almond milk and avocados are environmentally ‘disastrous’

Farmer and Countryfile star Adam Henson has said that people who buy almond milk and avocados instead of British meat and dairy should consider the impact their diets have on the environment.

The 55-year-old presenter argued that people would be “better off” consuming dairy produced locally rather than buying nut milks that may have come from parts of the world that create deforestation through their agricultural practices.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Mr Henson, who owns a 1,600-acre farm near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, said: “If you’re drinking soya milk, that might have come from South America and caused deforestation, the destruction of species, the displacement of indigenous people.

“You’re better off drinking milk from a local dairy farm that’s been bottled there and delivered to your doorstep, where cows are wonderfully looked after and the family contribute to the local society and economy.”

He went on to describe avocados and almond milks as “disastrous for the environment”, adding: “Beef, sheep and dairy farmers are having fingers pointed at them quite a lot about health and climate change, but the industries are doing a huge amount about that.”

The farming of both soy and almond have been linked to some environmentally damaging practices.

Studies have linked the import of large quantities of soy from Brazil to deforested land in the Amazon and Cerrado regions, while almond production for almond milk has been linked to strain on honeybees in the US, where almonds are the largest specialist crop.

Producing almond milk also requires much more water compared to other plant-based milks such as oat or hemp seed milk. One glass of almond milk requires on average 74 litres (130 pints) of water to produce.

However, producing a glass of dairy milk results in almost three times more greenhouse gas emissions than any plant-based milk, and also requires nine times more land, a 2018 study by University of Oxford researchers found.

Additionally, the UK’s agriculture industry currently accounts for about 10 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (ADHB), the industry still needs to adopt new practices to reduce emissions and withdraw carbon from the atmosphere.

In a report published last year, government climate change advisers from the Climate Change Committee suggested the UK needed to reduce meat and dairy consumption by 20 per cent over the next decade if it was to reach the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Mr Henson insists farmers are more focused on the environment now, pointing to a target set by the National Farmers’ Union to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for agriculture in England and Wales by 2040, a decade earlier than the government’s goal.

He urged the public to “eat British food and don’t buy cheap food from abroad. It’s about understanding where your food comes from and making informed choices, not having a knee-jerk reaction because you’ve read something on social media,” he added.

Reference: Independent: Kate Ng

Dozens killed as fire sweeps through hospital coronavirus ward in Iraq

A fire has swept through a coronavirus ward in southern Iraq, killing at least 50 people and injuring dozens more.

The report said all those who died suffered severe burns in the fire at the al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in the southern city of Nasiryah.

The new ward, opened three months ago, contained 70 beds, said hospital officials.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known but initial reports suggest it began after an oxygen tank exploded.

Ammar al-Zamili, spokesman for the Dhi Qar health department, told local media there were at least 63 patients inside the ward when the fire began.

Khalid Bohan, head of Iraq’s civil defense, said in comments to the press that the building was constructed from flammable materials and prone to fire.

That incident brought to light widespread negligence and systemic mismanagement in Iraq’s hospitals. Doctors have decried lax safety rules, especially around oxygen cylinders.

Iraq is in the midst of another severe Covid-19 wave. Daily coronavirus rates peaked last week at 9,000 new cases.

It is the second time a large fire has killed coronavirus patients in an Iraqi hospital this year.

At least 82 people died at Ibn al-Khateeb hospital in Baghdad in April when an oxygen tank exploded, sparking the blaze. 

Scientists just discovered long-sought-after 'grandmother neurons'

What happens in your brain when you recognize your grandmother? In the 1960s, some neuroscientists thought a single brain cell called the "grandmother neuron" would light up only at the sight of your grandmother's face. Almost immediately, neuroscientists began to dismiss the theory — a single neuron could not correspond to one idea or person, they argued. 

More than 50 years later, new research in monkeys shows that "grandmother neurons" may exist after all. In a study published on July 1 in the journal Science, researchers found a small area of the monkey brain that responds only to familiar faces. Up to three times as many brain cells in this area responded to familiar faces than to unfamiliar ones. The study follows research showing that certain parts of the human brain respond to specific categories, including one region primarily dedicated to faces. One study even found that individual neurons in different parts of the brain responded only to specific celebrities and landmarks. But few studies had found any part of the brain that reacts specifically to personally familiar faces. 

Though the new research did not identify individual cells devoted to a single person, the brain cells the researchers found share some crucial qualities with the theorized "grandmother neuron."

"In some sense, you can say they are grandmother neurons," said Winrich Freiwald, a professor of neuroscience and behavior at The Rockefeller University in New York City, who led the new research. "They have this unique combination of vision and memory."

The researchers examined the temporal pole, a poorly understood area near the bottom of the brain that Freiwald and lead study author Sofía Landi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle, had identified as one of two areas that might be involved in familiar face recognition in a study published in 2017 in the journal Science. (The previous research was completed while Landi was a doctoral student in Freiwald's lab.) 

For the new study, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of two rhesus monkeys while they looked at images of monkey and human faces mixed with some other images. The brain scans served as a guide so the researchers could place electrodes in two areas of the monkey's brains — one in the temporal pole and one in another area of the brain that responds to faces in general but that past research suggested would not necessarily distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar ones. 

These electrodes enabled the researchers to monitor the activity of individual brain cells in the two areas. Brain cells in both areas lit up when the monkeys were shown images of monkey and human faces. But only the temporal pole cells distinguished between personally familiar and unfamiliar ones: When the monkeys saw photos of their pals and relatives, those temporal pole cells lit up three times more than when unfamiliar monkey photos were shown. These neurons barely responded to other faces, including both familiar and unfamiliar human faces as well as unfamiliar monkey faces. 

The discovery goes against prevailing wisdom in neuroscience. Generally, scientists believe that diverse areas of the brain must communicate with each other to process information. But this research indicates that "it's one area, this region, and it's there for this one purpose — recognizing people we know," Freiwald said. "That's amazing." 

The researchers also obscured the images of faces to varying degrees to see how the brain responses might differ. In the generic face-processing area, more cells gradually responded to the images as it became clearer and clearer that they were faces.But the response from temporal pole cells was different. They responded very little to highly blurred images, but as soon as the clarity reached a certain threshold, many of the neurons responded all at once to familiar faces. The researchers think this effect corresponds to the "a-ha" moment of recognition of a familiar face, say of your grandmother. 

When the researchers measured how fast the cells responded, they were surprised to find that there wasn't much difference between the two areas. The general face-processing area, which seems to engage only if an image is a face, responded to faces in about the same time as cells in the temporal pole area responded to only familiar faces. That is "very, very surprising," said Freiwald, because the assumption was that the grandmother neurons would take longer, since the person would first have to identify the image as a face, then associate it with a long-term memory of a specific person. 

The new research, though in many ways groundbreaking, comes with limitations. It was done on monkeys, not humans, and only on two individuals. However, Freiwald notes that rhesus monkeys, as highly social primates, are the best animal models to use for a study like this and are thought to have very similar face-recognition processing to humans. 

The researchers also don't know how exactly face information is being sent to this temporal pole region. The temporal pole doesn't directly process vision or store long-term memory, and because there aren't known pathways between the temporal pole and these other parts of the brain, the route that information might take to get there is still unknown. 

The insight could eventually help people who can't recognize others, said Freiwald. For instance, people with dementia and those born with prosopagnosia, or "face blindness," sometimes can't recognize close friends or even family members, something Freiwald imagines is "crushing."

Freiwald also noted that recognizing a person isn't a purely visual, or even sensory, experience. "There's also almost an emotional quality to it, like 'Huh, I know this person,'" he said. "That is ignited, we think, by this area, but there must be so much more involved in it." 

Reference: Live Science: Rebecca Sohn

7 common iron deficiency anaemia signs and symptoms

Tired, pale and generally exhausted? If you're feeling sluggish and you can't work out why, it's possible you might be deficient in iron. Iron deficiency anaemia is a common condition where a lack of iron leads to a reduction in the production of red blood cells. Since red blood cells help store and carry oxygen in the blood, if you have fewer red blood cells than normal, your organs and tissues won't get enough oxygen and your health may start to suffer.

We speak to Kajsa Ernestam, in-house dietitian at the global health app Lifesum, about iron deficiency symptoms, causes and how to ensure you hit your daily iron quota:

What is iron and why do we need it?

Iron is an essential mineral that can be found in a number of healthy foods. 'Your body needs it to make haemoglobin; a protein found in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of the body,' says Ernestam. 'Iron can also be found in myoglobin, which helps rebuild muscle tissue.'

'Iron comes in two main forms: heme and non-heme,' explains Ernestam. 'Plant-based foods, such as legumes, nuts, seeds, and wholegrains, contain non-heme iron only, whereas meat, seafood, and poultry contain both, making it easier to absorb. If you are on a plant-based diet, then make sure that you consume foods and drinks that are rich in Vitamin C, as it helps your body absorb non-heme iron.'

How much iron do you need?

The recommended daily intake of iron varies for women, men and children:

• Teenagers and women: 14.8 milligrams of iron per day.
• Men and women over 50: 8.7 milligrams of iron per day.

What is iron deficiency anaemia?

Most people get all the iron they need from the food they eat, but there are certain circumstances that can lead to iron deficiency anaemia.

'Low levels of iron lead to a reduction in the number of healthy red blood cells, which means that your body does not get enough oxygen, which can affect everything from your brain function, through to your immune system,' says Ernestam.

'The lack of red blood cells is called iron deficiency anaemia, and can cause dizziness, weakness, and fatigue.'

Who is at risk of iron deficiency anaemia?

Women who are pregnant or menstruating are more prone to iron deficiency anaemia. 'Menstruation depletes iron stores, which is why women have higher anaemia rates than men,' explains Ernestam.

'Pregnant women require much more iron than the recommended intake for women who aren't pregnant. Research by Harvard Medical School and Imperial College London found that a higher iron intake in pregnant women was associated with lower risks of maternal anaemia, as well as the reduction of low birth weight risks for the baby.'

'The exact recommended dosage will vary from woman to woman, which is why it’s important that you speak to your doctor before taking iron supplements,' she adds.

⚠️ Certain antibiotics and medications can be iron depleting. If you think that your medication is causing anaemia, then make sure to speak to your doctor, and do not stop taking the medication unless you are instructed to do so.

Iron deficiency anaemia symptoms

Look out for the following symptoms that may indicate you are have an iron deficiency:

1. Exhaustion

Iron is essential for moving oxygen around the body, so one of the first signs of iron deficiency is constant tiredness. Having normal iron levels is important for the the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.

2. Cold hands and feet

Cold extremities could be a sign of an iron deficiency as iron is needed by the body to generate heat.

3. Pale skin

Iron deficiency sees red blood cell levels decline which can result in a visibly paler complexion. If your face, toes, fingertips, inside of your lips, your gums, and the inside of your bottom eyelids are less red than usual, low iron may be to blame.

4. Brittle nails

Iron is necessary for healthy nail tissue growth. If you have noticed that your nails have ridges running down the length of them, or that they break or crack easily, it may be a sign that your iron levels are low.

5. Tongue troubles

If your tongue appears pale or smooth, it could be to lack of haemoglobin in the bloodstream which is a result of low iron levels

6. Shortness of breath

If you find that you are out of breath after climbing a flight of stairs or doing a low-key workout iron deficiency could be to blame.

7. Hair loss

Iron is one of the most important minerals for your hair and so if you find your barnet is looking lacklustre, or you lose hair, iron deficiency may be an underlying factor.

⚠️ Visit your GP if you experience iron deficiency anaemia symptoms. They should be able to diagnose the condition using a simple blood test and may prescribe iron supplements.

Should you take iron supplements?

You should be able to get all the iron you need from your diet, so always consult your doctor before taking supplements. 'If your doctor finds that you need more iron than your body is getting from your diet, then they might advise you to take iron supplements, which come in capsules,' says Ernestam.

'If the capsules cause you stomach pain then there are liquid forms of iron supplements available, and these can be found at Holland & Barrett or Boots,' advises Ernestam. 'For the best possible results, ensure that you take your supplement with foods or drinks that are high in Vitamin C, as this will make the absorption of iron easier.'

The best iron rich foods

There are a lot of healthy foods that contain iron. Ernestam recommends the following key foods to hit your daily iron quota and prevent iron deficiency:

Red meat

A 100 gram serving of ground beef contains roughly 2.7 milligrams of iron, which is 15 per cent of the daily recommended intake. Red meat is also high in protein, zinc, and Vitamin B. Red meat is the most easily accessible source of heme iron, and a recent study, published by Medline, found that people that consume red meat are less likely to suffer from an iron deficiency than those on a plant-based diet.

Legumes

The most common legumes are beans, lentils, peas, and chickpeas. These are a great source of iron for people that are on a plant-based diet. For example, roughly 200 grams of cooked lentils contain 37 per cent of the daily recommended intake.

Spinach

100 grams of spinach contain about 20 per cent of the recommended daily iron intake. While this is a non-heme iron, spinach is also rich in vitamin C, which helps the absorption of iron.

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds are a perfect snack or topping for a salad. A 28 gram serving contains 23% of the daily recommended iron intake. In addition, pumpkin seeds are a good source of zinc, manganese, and vitamin K.

Reference: NetDoctor: Medically reviewed by words by Rhalou Allerhand, Dr Juliet McGrattan (MBChB)