What the scientists are saying…
Tomatoes to raise vitamin D
Around one in six people in the UK are deficient in vitamin D, which the body needs to maintain the health of bones, teeth and muscles. Now biologists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich have created a gene-edited tomato that is so abundant in the vitamin, that eating just two mediumsized tomatoes would be enough to bring most people up to their recommended levels. The plants were created using Crispr, a gene-editing tool that was used in this case to alter an enzyme in the tomatoes that usually converts provitamin D3 (a precursor to Vitamin D) into a carbohydrate. By slicing out part of the plant’s DNA, the researchers were able to put a halt to this conversion process, so that provitamin D3 accumulated in the ripe tomatoes. If outdoor trials prove successful, the tomatoes could be among the first gene-edited crops to be sold in English supermarkets. In the Queen’s Speech, the Government announced a new bill to allow the cultivation of gene-edited (as opposed to genetically modified) crops. Vitamin D can be acquired by exposing the skin to sunlight, but in northern climates, people don’t get enough sun in the cooler months to keep their levels topped up, and have to rely on dietary sources.
Women get more out of hugging
If women are more keen on hugging than men, it may be because they get more out of it. Researchers have found that women respond better to stress when they are embraced by their partner, but that men’s stress levels are not affected by a cuddle. For the small study, 36 heterosexual couples aged between 19 and 32 were split into two groups. In the first, the couples hugged each other for 20 seconds, then separated and plunged one hand each into a bucket of iced water for three minutes. In the second group, the couples plunged their hands into icy water without hugging first. Saliva tests showed that in women who did not hug their partners first, levels of the stress hormone cortisol rose 37% after the cold water dunk, whereas the huggers’ levels barely changed, rising by only 1.5%. Hugging made no difference to men’s cortisol levels, however. “These findings suggest that in women, short-term embraces prior to stressful social situations can reduce the cortisol response,” the authors concluded.
We “forget” three burgers a day
British adults eat 900 more calories per day than they are prepared to admit, a study has found. Researchers at the University of Essex asked 221 adults to complete detailed food diaries, and then used urine tests to calculate how much energy they actually used. On average, the adults claimed to eat 1,800 calories a day, but they burnt 2,700 calories on average – suggesting that they had under-reported their intake by the equivalent of more than three McDonald’s cheeseburgers per day. Men and women under-reported about the same amount; obese people underestimated how much they ate per day by 1,200 calories, whereas slimmer people undershot by 800; however, as a result of being heavier, obese participants used up 400 more calories. The study authors said their findings suggested that official health guidelines, which are often based on selfreported data, should be revisited. A separate study by Cancer Research UK found that within five years there will be more obese people in the UK than there are people of a healthy weight. Currently, 28% of adults are obese and 34% weigh a healthy amount; the analysis showed that, by 2027, 32.4% will be obese, while 31.9% will be classed as of healthy weight.
The stress of working for MPs
After years of dealing with the fallout from Brexit, the pandemic and other upheavals, half of parliamentary staff are suffering from clinical levels of psychological distress, a study reported in The Guardian has suggested. The survey of nearly 200 people who were MPs’ staff revealed that 72% find their job “emotionally draining”, and 19% find it “harrowing”. Some cited bullying as a source of stress; others the pressure of dealing with ceaseless requests for help from constituents in desperate situations. For the study, the staffers filled in a General Health Questionnaire 12, a tool widely used to measure levels of psychological distress. Their level was found to be far higher than in people with equivalent jobs and twice as high as in the general population.