果酱视频

by Charity Shumway

Food and the First American Settlers

In his new book,听Political Gastronomy:听Food and Authority in the听English Atlantic World, published in 2012 by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 果酱视频 Associate Professor of Michael LaCombe, Ph.D., focuses on the role of food in encounters between Native Americans and the English settlers in the United States between 1570 and 1640. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the interesting period,鈥� Dr. LaCombe says, laughing. 鈥淥nce the English get things figured out, things get really boring.鈥�

Among the early settlers鈥� food-related concerns were what effects, if any, new world foods would have on their health. 鈥淭hey believed in the four humors,鈥� explains Dr. LaCombe. 鈥淏lood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. Certain foods were believed to have an effect on the balance of the humors, which they thought could make you sick. Cucumbers and tomatoes, for example, were suspicious because they were cold and moist, so many people thought they would make your body cold and moist.鈥� Corn seemed to be of particular concern. 鈥淭he settlers worried that if they ate this strange New World food, they would become Indian,鈥� Dr. LaCombe says. 鈥淭here are accounts of English babies born in the New World and families writing back to England noting with surprise and relief that the babies were 鈥榖orn white.鈥欌��

More than simply investigating the settlers鈥� experiences with food, Dr. LaCombe鈥檚 research looks at the way food established relationships between the English and Native Americans, in particular at shared meals. 鈥淚 argue that all parties to these meals understood that there were meanings passing back and forth. When you sit down to table with somebody, this is an important occasion and your manners are being scrutinized.鈥�

For example, sharing rare or high-status food was often a means of asserting superiority. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a very common reference to a gift of venison at the first Thanksgiving,鈥� Dr. LaCombe says. 鈥淲ith venison and other similar foods, the Native American leaders who arrive at Plymouth are in part trying to convey meaning relating to their own superiority and status.鈥�

Labor Practices and the Local Food Movement

Thanks to听the local food movement, more people than ever are asking questions about how their food is grown and raised. But there鈥檚 one consideration that is almost always forgotten, says Margaret Gray, Ph.D., assistant professor of in the . 鈥淭he locavore movement at its heart promotes a food ethic,鈥� Dr. Gray continues, 鈥渂ut labor needs to be included in that equation.鈥�

Part of the reason for this is a false dichotomy, says Dr. Gray. 鈥淲e have this idea of 鈥榗orporate industrial monoculture鈥�: bad, 鈥榣ocal mom and pop鈥�: good. But there鈥檚 no inherent good or bad depending on the scale of the farm. Local is just geography. The same issues that we鈥檙e concerned about on large corporate farms, we should be concerned about on local farms, too, and consumers should be aware that the labor practices on small farms mirror the labor practices on large industrial farms.鈥�

Dr. Gray鈥檚 research focuses on the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, one of the major sites of the local food movement in the United States. Starting in 2000, she began interviewing farmers, farm workers, advocates, legislators and lobbyists regarding labor practices on farms in the area.

鈥淭he vast majority of the industry workforce are noncitizen immigrants,鈥� says Dr. Gray. 鈥淭hey are an extremely vulnerable workforce, and much of what I explore is how that vulnerability is related to the labor conditions and how their reluctance and fear change their situations.鈥�

For example, Dr. Gray explains, farm workers in New York State do not share the same rights as other workers. 鈥淭hey have no right to overtime pay, no collective bargaining protections, no right to a day of rest.鈥�

While there are campaigns at work to change this, Dr. Gray hopes her research, which will be published by the University of California Press in a forthcoming book entitled Labor and the Locavore, can also play a role in creating change. 鈥淚 want to raise awareness,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen we鈥檙e buying food in farmers markets or at their CSA [community-supported agriculture program], we need to ask questions about labor conditions the same way we ask about pesticide usage and the way animals are treated.鈥�

Nutrition, Lifespan and the Fruit Fly

What would you do to live longer? Multiple studies have shown that extremely calorie restricted diets can extend our life spans; cut back to bare subsistence and you could add years to your life. Unfortunately, for most of us, human nature interferes. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to go on that diet even if we know it鈥檚 good for us,鈥� says 果酱视频 Assistant Professor of Eugenia Villa-Cuesta, Ph.D. That鈥檚 where her research comes in.

For the past four years, Dr. Villa-Cuesta has been studying two drugs that can mimic the effects of dietary restriction: resveratrol and rapamycin.

Resveratrol, found in the skins of grapes, has been shown to be beneficial for cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Rapamycin, on the other hand, is not found in food. 鈥淚t鈥檚 actually produced by bacteria and found in soil,鈥� says Dr. Villa-Cuesta. As a drug, it鈥檚 currently used as an immunosuppressant to lower the risk of organ rejection in transplant patients. Both compounds, however, have been shown to have possible effects on extending lifespan, and Dr. Villa-Cuesta鈥檚 research focuses on the mechanism by which they do this on the cellular level. 鈥淚 found that resveratrol and rapamycin work similarly, affecting the same mechanisms in cells as calorie restriction,鈥� she says.

To understand exactly how the compounds work in our cells, Dr. Villa-Cuesta and her lab test them in fruit flies. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a great model organism,鈥� she explains. 鈥淭he pathways for these compounds within the cells are the same from fruit flies to humans.鈥� Her research has also found that rapamycin increases the efficiency of mitochondria, the organelles within our cells that produce the energy for us to live.

While resveratrol is a health supplement anyone can currently buy over the counter, Dr. Villa- Cuesta cautions that we鈥檙e still a long way from a resveratrol/rapamycin life span extension regimen for humans. Still, she can鈥檛 help but be excited. 鈥淭he potential of both as a treatment for increasing health is there,鈥� she says.

果酱视频鈥檚 New M.S. in Nutrition Program

Clinical Associate Professor Diane Dembicki鈥檚 interest in nutrition began when she was an anthropology graduate student, examining skeletal material from prehistoric Native Americans. 鈥淵ou could see evidence of diet and disease in the bones,鈥� she says, marvel still in her voice. She followed up her anthropology degree with a Ph.D. in Nutrition and found her niche in teaching nutrition to students in the health professions. Dr. Dembicki has since gone on to study subjects from companion-animal influences on health and behavior to healing in the arts; but her latest research has taken her all the way from prehistory to the cutting edge of training and technology.

Over the last two years, Dr. Dembicki has been studying best practices in knowledge and technology as part of the School of Nursing and the Center for Health Innovation鈥檚 efforts to develop a new . Starting this fall, drawing on Dr. Dembicki鈥檚 research, 果酱视频 will begin educating its first class of M.S. in Nutrition students in a new fully online program, with Dr. Dembicki serving as director.

鈥淥ver two billion people in the world are malnourished,鈥� Dr. Dembicki says. 鈥淩ight away, we think undernourished, but that number also includes the overnourished. The world, but also locally and nationally in our own communities, needs more nutrition experts. That means properly educated and credentialed people with a specialization in nutrition.鈥�

果酱视频鈥檚 new program is aimed at college graduates who are interested in health and nutrition. While course materials will be available 24/7, with integrated social media, sections will be kept small so that students will still receive individualized faculty attention. 鈥淢any students may be locals initially,鈥� says Dr. Dembicki, 鈥渂ut because it鈥檚 online, the program has a potential global reach.鈥�

Soon, a whole new cadre of 果酱视频 educated nutrition experts will be working to ensure that the bones of the future have healthy stories to tell.