English and Italian speakers with dementia-related language impairment experience distinct kinds of speech and reading difficulties based on features of their native languages, according to new research by scientists at the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center and colleagues at the Neuroimaging Research Unit and Neurology Unit at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan.
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Patients who received Mohs surgery to treat the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma, reported a 95 percent long-term satisfaction rate with their results, according to a new study.
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Fat cells are filled with droplets coated by molecules that act like hotel doormen: These 'doormen' control cellular access for nutrients as well as for the exit of energy-supplying molecules called lipids. In healthy individuals, outgoing and incoming traffic in fat cells is finely balanced, supplying energy while preventing excessive spread of undesirable fat in the belly.
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Tom Stearns, who has both an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to get back to the roots of where his food comes from, started saving seeds when he was 18 years old. The drive to connect to the source of his sustenance in the most direct way possible led him to begin exploring how to grow seeds.
“Growing food wasn’t enough,” he said in an episode of “Growing a Greener World," a PBS series. “I was curious about the growing seeds and saving seeds part of it.” It’s an aspect of food production that many people overlook, yet it’s among the most important.
Growing a Greener World creator and host Joe Lamp'l makes a good point in that you can buy a seed or seedling and raise it organically with care, without any pesticides or other chemicals. And you can call it organic — but is it really? Not many people think about the seed that starts their plants, but Stearns did — deeply.
As he began his hobby of saving seeds, he realized he was saving more than he needed, and some of the varieties weren’t commercially available. With a desire to share the unique seeds with others, he packaged them up in small envelopes, learned about germination tests to ensure the seeds would grow and sold $2,000 worth of seeds in the first year.
“It was from those humble beginnings, 28 varieties planted in his own backyard, that one of the leading seed companies in the United States was born,” Lamp’l said.
High Demand for Organic Seeds
In 1997, Stearns' second year in the organic seed business, he grew 50 varieties and sold $8,000 worth of seeds. The year after that it grew to $18,000 in sales, then $34,000 — while still very much a hobby business.
Clearly there was a strong demand for organic seeds from people eager to know where their food, including the seeds, comes from, and by Year Four, Stearns reached a decision point regarding what he saw as a clear demand for high-quality, organic seeds.
The company continued to take off from there, becoming a half-million-dollar company by Year Seven or Eight. “And we had just barely gotten out of hobby stage at that point,” Stearns said. The company’s name, High Mowing Organic Seeds, has roots in northern Vermont, a hilly region that once centered on an agricultural term known as “high mowing.” The company noted:1
“When the early European settlers came to New England, they brought with them their livestock-based agriculture. The practice of mowing hayfields and storing winter feed was well-established, and became even more important when they encountered the long winters in northern New England.
But instead of calling such a field a “hayfield” like we do today, they called it a “mowing”. These fields, or mowings, were usually further identified by a descriptor referring to location: the “back mowing” was behind the farm, the “low mowing” was in the valley, and the “high mowing” was up on the hilltop.”
Organic Seeds From Organically Grown Plants
High Mowing Organic Seeds has become one of the only companies producing organic seeds from organically grown plants. Most seed companies don’t even grow their own seeds, which made High Mowing Organic Seeds stand out even more from its competitors, as it grows all of its seeds.
Similar to going to a farmers market to meet the farmer behind the food, this back-to-its-roots seed company allowed people to see where their seeds were coming from — going back to the source of their sustenance.
The company now has 60 acres of land, which is about the length of 40 football fields. Their mission is to grow organic seeds that come from an organic source; that have high disease and insect resistance; that have a high yield; and that produce high-flavor crops.
They now grow over 600 heirloom, open-pollinated (seeds that are pollinated by insects, birds, humans, wind or other natural mechanisms) and hybrid seeds, including vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers, for home gardeners and commercial growers.2
What’s more, Stearns notes in the film that choosing organic seeds is very important, as while there are rules regarding chemical usage for commercial food crops, they’re more lax when it comes to growing conventional seeds, which technically aren’t a food product:
“When you’re growing food conventionally, there are rules about all the different chemicals you can use and not use. When you’re growing seeds conventionally, there’s also rules, but there are a lot more chemicals that are allowed.
So seed crops get sprayed with a lot of things, because it’s not a food crop, so it’s not going to translate into that risk for people, but of course it’s still poisons in the environment. So when you grow seeds organically, you don’t have those poisons, and it’s a major reduction of them compared to the conventional comparison.”
Neonicotinoids are one such example. A majority of soybean, corn, canola and sunflower seeds planted in the U.S. are precoated with these insecticides,3 which have been shown to threaten the entire food chain, having toxic effects on pollinators such as bees as well as invertebrates, birds and other wildlife.
For instance, researchers tested how exposure to these chemicals influenced the behavior of migrating songbirds.4 Birds that ingested realistic amounts of neonicotinoids had reduced feeding and accumulation of body mass and fat stores, leading to delayed departure from stopover sites that could affect breeding and population levels.
Most Organic Crops Are Grown With Nonorganic Seeds
Another eye-opening fact revealed by Stearns is that 95% of the acreage of organic vegetable farms is planted with conventional seeds. This isn’t necessarily by choice, as the organic seed industry is still in its infancy, which means there isn’t always enough to go around or the correct varieties aren’t always available.
In fact, half the vegetables grown today have no commercial sources — you have to get them through seed trades.5 High Mowing Organic Seeds is trying to bring more organic seed varieties to organic farmers, which they say makes a major difference compared to using conventional seeds. Stearns states in the film:
“If you’re producing a seed organically for organic farms, it’s going to be better adapted for those conditions.
So when you’re planting a certain crop, you can do it when the weather and the soil conditions are favorable for that crop, so that you don’t need to come in with some ‘rescue’ chemical to help solve an issue that you shouldn’t have in the first place if you are paying attention to those things.”
Conventional seeds used on organic farms are not bred for the conditions in which they’re being grown, which means you’re missing out on the full potential of the organic crop. So why aren’t more companies growing organic seeds?
It’s a very different process from growing plants for food, as it requires them to stay in the ground for much longer. This means they’re even more susceptible to damage from diseases and pests, which conventional growers use chemicals to ward off.
Growing Robust, Resilient Organic Seeds for a New Food System
High Mowing Organic Seeds is focused on growing seed varieties that can grow in varied conditions across the U.S., varieties that will be hearty, robust and resilient in changing climates. They grow seeds thoughtfully, carefully selecting for plants that are slower to bolt and more resilient to stress. Bolting is defined as the rapid shift in a plant’s growth from leaf production to flower and seeds. It’s a process that many gardeners are eager to slow down.
The company removes plants that are quick to bolt, which is a sign that the plant may be less tolerable to stress. Paul Betz, sales manager, explains why this selection process makes a difference in the resulting plants’ tolerance to stress:6
“If you think about what the plant is doing when it’s bolting … the plant feels threatened, so that plant translates into “life is getting a little bit tough, and so it’s time to make some seeds.
And so if you can do anything to reduce the stress that the plant is under, that will prolong how long it grows before it starts to bolt. And your job as a gardener is to create the easiest environment for the plant to grow in.”
Stearns believes growing seeds organically and focusing on the health of soil and water are keys to rebuilding an entire food system:
“This new food system that we need to create needs to think deeply about how we take care of the soil, the water, the air, what tools we use, what types of seeds we use, what the nutrition is that goes into the soil, and then into the food and then into people.
And so this new food system that I feel to be a part of changing through these seeds is something that I think has a global effect and a global requirement. If we don’t try, we’re losing our capacity to grow food here …
It is the single biggest way that we engage with this Earth, and we are doing it wrong. There’s no arguments about that among people. We just need the courage to figure out the new ways of doing it.”
Toward that end, High Mowing donates over 100,000 seed packets annually to community gardens, school gardens, church gardens, food bank gardens, summer camps, seed libraries and disaster relief groups, helping to spread organic seeds across the U.S.7
While there’s increasing focus on the importance of growing food crops organically, it all starts with a seed. So, in addition to asking where your food comes from, remember to ask where the seed that grows that food came from as well.
You Can Save Seeds
If you garden, seeking out high-quality organic seeds will help you produce the most robust plants and healthiest food. Another alternative, however, is to save seeds from your own plants. When you save seed from your own best performing plants, on your land and in your own ecosystem, you gradually develop varieties better adapted to your own soil, climate and growing conditions.
Large seed suppliers rarely "rogue" the fields to pull out inferior or off-type plants, so the open-pollinated seeds they sell have inferior specimens in the mix. High Mowing is one of the rare seed companies that does do this, but you can also select your own seed for uniformity and quality.
You can control the gene pool for optimal germination, ripening time, flavor, storage, disease resistance and color. After a few seasons, more and more of your plants will have all of your personally selected traits.
Strictly speaking, a vegetarian is a person who doesn’t eat meat — red, white, fish or fowl. Vegetarian Nation1 helps further define the types of diets from which to choose if you are seeking a mostly plant-based diet. Some eat a highly restricted number of foods, while others have a more flexible outlook on their meal plan.
The most restricted eating plan is practiced by vegans who don’t eat any animal products or by-products. This includes all meat, all dairy products and honey, beeswax, insects, gelatin or other products derived from those sources, such as leather, silk or wool. Those following a less restricted meatless plan are lacto-, ovo- or lacto-ovo vegetarians.
Lacto-vegetarians allow dairy products, but not eggs; ovo-vegetarians eat eggs but not dairy products. Lacto-ovo vegetarians don’t eat meat but will eat dairy products and eggs. The remaining three levels of vegetarians are not strictly vegetarians, but practice eating a limited number or types of meats.
These levels fall under the umbrella term of flexitarian, or those who are flexible in the type or amount of meat they allow into the diet. A pescatarian restricts the type of meat to fish or seafood, while a pollotarian restricts meat eating to poultry and other fowl. A true flexitarian eats a mostly plant-based diet with a limited amount of meat of any type.
Are You Planning Veganuary?
Moving into the New Year, many resolve to make changes affecting their physical, mental and emotional health. The numbers who chose to move into a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle are so great in January, some experts have dubbed the month “Veganuary.”
A professor emeritus at Oregon State University2 was curious about why people consider the switch away from meat and launched a two-year survey across 14 states to find out. For answers, he and a co-investigator sought out people at animal rights conferences, vegan body-building lectures and vegetarian food festivals.
In general, those who completed the survey were women who had little experience around small farms, 4-H or other arenas where they might have encountered livestock. There was no single reason that stood out from the results, and many cited multiple motivations for the decision, including animal welfare, chemical/hormonal additives and health.
Vegetarians Face Real Risk of Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Tim Key, a longtime practicing vegan from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, expressed concern to BBC News3 that there is a real risk of vitamin B12 deficiency when people restrict their diet without researching the nutrients they may need to supplement.
While those who practice vegetarianism commonly consume more plant-based foods high in fiber and phytonutrients, they may also fall into the trap of eating more processed foods high in chemicals, toxins and carbohydrates. The added health risks of processed foods aside, neither plant-based nor processed foods deliver enough bioavailable vitamin B12 to prevent a deficiency.
The vitamin, also known as cobalamin, is one of a complex of B vitamins that helps the body convert food into fuel.4 All of the B complex vitamins are water soluble, but the liver will store some vitamin B12.5 Vitamin B12 is especially important to the nervous system, which explains many of the symptoms of deficiency.
Over a period of two months, one 62-year-old man developed symptoms leading to severe joint pain, jaundice and shortness of breath.6 Symptoms of deficiency are varied and sometimes confused with other health conditions. They may appear suddenly or come on gradually. But in any case, the various claims on the internet related to the notion that vegans do not need supplemental B12 are not based on scientific evidence.7
If the deficiency is left untreated it may be fatal8 or cause severe and permanent neurological disease. If you are a strict vegetarian or have any other of the conditions listed below that increases your risk of a vitamin B12 deficiency, it is important to talk with your physician about getting your B12 levels checked. Symptoms may include:9
Anemia
Mood swings
Headache
Swollen or inflamed tongue
Weakness or fatigue
Lack of motivation and apathy
Balance problems (loss of proprioception)
Mental fogginess and difficulty with memory
Numbness or tingling in the hands, feet or legs
After a deep dive into the research, experts found that those who eat a primarily plant-based diet do not live longer due to this single factor.10 When the endpoint of data is death from all causes, both meat eaters and vegetarians live approximately the same number of years.
Some studies have found a lower risk of all-cause mortality in vegetarian groups but also find vegetarians have a healthier lifestyle overall. One 17-year study11 compared vegetarians to omnivores who shopped at health food stores in the U.K. The data showed no difference in death rates between the two, but both lived longer than the general population.
Why You Can’t Get B12 From Plants
There are a few plant sources of B12, but these also have B12 analogues, or a substance blocking the uptake of true vitamin B12. In fact, this means as you eat more of the plant foods with the analogue, your need for B12 increases.12
True vitamin B12 is found almost exclusively in animal tissue, including foods like beef and beef liver, lamb, venison, poultry and eggs. Therefore, those who practice strict vegetarianism are often deficient and may be unaware of a problem until it's too late.
Some of the plant foods containing vitamin B12 are sea vegetables, algae like spirulina and fermented foods. However, along with active vitamin B12, they also contain the analogue that may ultimately make your levels worse.
Another argument for not using B12 supplements is that your body produces active vitamin B12 from bacteria living in the large intestines. However, since it's produced in an area of the intestines lower than where the vitamin may be readily absorbed, it is not bioavailable.
What Else Increases Your Risk of Deficiency?
B12 deficiency is not uncommon in the elderly, as they often have less stomach acid needed to absorb the vitamin. Other conditions or choices placing an individual at increased risk include:
Conditions reducing nutrient absorption such as Crohn’s disease, pancreatic disease or H. pylori infections
Some medications, such as metformin and proton pump inhibitors14
Eating disorders
Regularly drinking more than four cups of coffee daily15
Regular alcohol consumption as B12 is stored in the liver16
Exposure to nitrous oxide (laughing gas)17
In a review of the literature,18 researchers reviewed studies of those following different types of vegetarian diets for the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency. They found deficiency in infants could reach up to 45%, while in children and adolescents it could reach 33.3%.
While the exact prevalence of deficiency in the general population is difficult to estimate, adults and the elderly in this study had a greater range of deficiency, from 0 to 86.5% of those tested. However, with few exceptions the data revealed the highest prevalence was in practicing vegans. They also found other types of vegetarians also had a higher prevalence than the general public.
Your Heart and Nervous System Depend on Vitamin B12
Another effect of vitamin B12 deficiency is myeloneuropathy, a unique class of peripheral neuropathies.19 In one presentation of two case studies,20 doctors described how patients who suffered from cognitive impairment and some psychotic symptoms showed improvement after receiving vitamin B12 supplementation.
In a review21 of 51 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, researchers found low levels of vitamin B12 and recommended assessments of cognitively impaired patients for deficiency of this important vitamin.
In another study22 researchers evaluated the risks associated with vitamin B12 deficiency. They found that “vascular studies have demonstrated impaired arterial endothelial function” in people living in communities with poor access to B12-rich meats, dairy and eggs — but not in lactovegetarians.
Vitamin B12 supplements had a positive impact on patients, leading researchers to recommend regular monitoring for early detection and treatment of deficiency to prevent atherosclerosis related diseases. Unfortunately, even animal foods are a questionable source of B12 due to conventional farming practices. The recommended dietary allowance for vitamin B12 is:23
0.4 to 1.8 micrograms (mcg) for newborns and children up to 13, depending on their exact age
2.4 mcg for people age 14 and older
2.6 mcg for pregnant women
2.8 mcg for breastfeeding women
It is difficult to overdose on the vitamin, since it’s water soluble and your body flushes out the excess. Check the label for the form of B12 in the supplement. The best and most bioavailable to support your nervous system is methylcobalamin, which is the naturally occurring form in food.
Considering the many health risks associated with B12 deficiency, and the fact CAFO animal products — which are what most people eat — tend to be low in B12, it may be wise for most people to take a high-quality methylcobalamin supplement.
