NUTRITION BITES

PLANT FOODS FOR HEALTH

Both young adults and postmenopausal women who eat a lot of healthy plant foods have fewer heart attacks, according to two new studies in the Journal of the

American Heart Association. They are also less likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Young adults who scored in the top 20% on long-term diet quality, including eating more plant foods, were 52% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

MANUFACTURED FISH

German bioscience company Bluu GmbH is developing a production system to manufacture cell-based fish from natural fish cells grown in a bioreactor. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates about 90% of global fish stocks are maximally exploited or overfished. Cell-based fish production would remove the need to slaughter fish and facilitate fish production in a land-based factory. This is unlike aquaculture, which opponents have criticised for causing water pollution.

PROTECTING BABIES

Lactating women infected with Covid-19 produce antibodies against the virus in their breast milk, thus protecting their infants. So, Spanish researchers recently investigated the effect of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on breastmilk production. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that lactating women given this vaccine also produce specific antibodies against the Covid-19 virus in their breast milk. Furthermore, the antibody levels increased after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.