- Author: Alec Rosenberg
The U.S. government's new dietary guidelines take a bold stand on reducing sugar intake but should do more to promote drinking water, according to nutrition experts from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) has led a push to get the government to make water the drink of choice in the guidelines and add an icon for water on the MyPlate food guide. The guidelines don't go that far, though they do include information that recommends drinking water – in the fine print.
“The guidelines'...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Americans consume nearly three times the recommended amount of sugar every day, and about half the U.S. population consumes sugary drinks on any given day.
Excess sugar consumption contributes to obesity, tooth decay, early menses in girls, and chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease. To add to the damage, doctors are now attributing too much dietary sugar to
- Author: Chris M. Webb
In June of this year, three University of California scientists went to the Kitui District of Kenya on a USAID mission.
Food and water scarcity are simply a part of life for most in this region. Since 1992 the Sahelian Solution Foundation (SASOL) has been constructing dams and working with Kitui communities to address water scarcity and issues of community development and agricultural production.
Agricultural production in Kenya is full of challenges. Water is carried by hand from wells or dams for household and agricultural needs. Previous to this mission, crops were watered...
- Author: Janet L. White
In most California homes there are few commodities more precious, or more taken for granted, than clean tap water. We use it without hesitation for drinking, cooking and washing produce.
However, recent news reminds us that not everyone can take clean water for granted. In rural California, where some households rely on well water, up to 2 million people have been exposed to unhealthy levels of nitrates in their water at some time during the last 15 years.
Synthetic fertilizers used in agriculture are major contributors of nitrates to our water, but a growing number of farmers are taking steps to reduce this problem by adopting micro and drip irrigation technologies, and by...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
Home cooks know the secret to peeling tomatoes is a quick dip in hot water to loosen the skins. It takes a lot of water (and heating energy) to peel three million pounds of processing tomatoes in California each year. New UC Davis research is fine-tuning a novel way of peeling all those tomatoes with almost no water — using infrared heat.
Two methods are used to remove skins in processed tomatoes — a hot water/lye dip, or steam. The dip method uses a lot of water, a lot of energy, and creates a lot of salts . . . which presents its own disposal problem. Steam treatment heats too much of the tomato, resulting in reduced yield and quality.
“The...