Newsletter

Food, Work and Exercise In Finland

Author: Dris (date: 18.8.2008)

Internatonal Society of Food, Agriculture and Environment - ISFAE

According to the law of working hours (työaikalaki 28§) if the person is working 6 hours or more he/she must have at least 30 minutes break. According to the law of working security (työturvallisuuslaki 48§ 1mom.) in the working place or nearby must be appropriate dining room. Even though there should be possibility for dining during the working day, 25% of men and 20% of women don't eat anything while working (Finravinto 2002).Adult should eat 4-6 times per day. It is all the same, what time of the day is the lunch/dinner. Some people prefer to eat on the day time since the other eats dinner later in the evening.

Food and exercise :It is recommended to do some physical exercise 30 minutes per day and some special physical exercise 2-3 hours per week. A man, who is not doing any physical exercise needs energy 2490 kcal/day. A man, who is doing sports daily, needs energy 3190 kcal/day. A woman, who is not doing any physical exercise needs energy 1940 kcal/day. A woman, who is doing sports daily, needs energy 2500 kcal/day. As fuel during the physical activity we are using glucose and glycogen. If the physical activity is hard and lasting long, the body start to use as energy also fat and amino acids. In general, during the 2 hours physical exercise we need to drink only water. No food or no energy drink is needed. Athletics needs carbohydrates 50-100% more than those, who are not doing sports. The protein demand is also elevated. The need of protein for human being is in average 0,8g/kg. Those, who are doing hard physical exercise, needs protein 1,2g/kg. That elevated need is easily covered by the bigger amount of food, sportsmen are eating.

Tips for good choices : Eat one proper meal during working day ; Remember healthy snacks; Eat five handfull of vegetables, fruits and berries during the day; Drink enough non-energy drinks; Compare the nutrient value for the ready-to-eat foods; Eat whole grain products; Recognize your hunger! Eat while hungry, drink while thirsty.

Wild cassava confers useful characters upon the cultivate, transgenics cannot!!

Author: Nagib M.A. Nassar (date: 10.7.2008)
Professor, Depto. Genética e Morfologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil
Corresponding author: N.M.A. Nassar nagnassa@rudah.com.br

I wish to comment on what was published online in the Science and Development Network sometime ago on modifying cassava (an important food crop for all of the tropics, especially Africa) by introducing a segment of mosaic virus DNA into cassava plant cells in order to obtain cassava lines resistant to this virus.

It is not true that a productive type of cassava can be produced in this way, because the modified plant will lack fitness (ability to survive under natural conditions). It is also not true that the only way to control cassava mosaic virus is to use a massive quantity of insecticides to combat the whitefly. Strong and effective resistance to this virus was found in the 1920s in a wild relative of cassava, Manihot glaziovii, a species native to Ceará, in the northeast of Brazil. Storey and Nichols (1938), two English scientists working in Tanzania, at that time called Tanganika, discovered this resistance. They successfully transferred this gene from the wild to the cultivated species, through simple interspecific hybridization. The hybrid was so productive and resistant to mosaic virus that it saved cassava cultivation throughout East Africa. It continues to be a classic example of how genetic resources in the wild can be used for crop improvement.

In the 1970s and 1980s, with support from the Canadian IDRC, a germplasm of this wild species and its interspecific hybrids were provided to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria (Nassar, 1978). It enabled IITA breeders to develop cultivars that were resistant to both cassava mosaic virus and bacterial blight (Hahn et al., 1980). This family of cultivars, called MS, is now cultivated on about four million hectares in Nigeria. These cultivars have promoted Nigeria to the foremost producer of cassava in the world, as acknowledged by Rodomiro Ortiz, the IITA director (see www.geneconserve.pro.br/iita2.gif).

Although it would be interesting to produce a molecularly transformed plant through inserting virus DNA and RNA, it is essential to observe how these plants behave in the field under natural conditions, and how they face the challenge of natural selection.

An example of what I mentioned is the modified cassava for resistant to mosaic, produced by a certain multinational company. It showed so very poor performarce that no any farmer plants it in West Africa.

REFERENCES
Hahn SK, Howland AK and Tery ER (1980). Correlated resistance of cassava to mosaic and bacterial blight diseases. Euphytica 29: 305-311.
Nassar NMA (1978). Conservation of the genetic resources of cassava, Manihot esculenta: Determination of wild species localities. Econ. Bot. 32: 311-320.
Science and Development Network (2005). www.scidev.net July 15, 2005. Accessed November 12, 2005.
Storey HH and Nichols RFW (1938). Studies on the mosaic disease of cassava. Ann. Appl. Biol. 25: 790-806.