How Might We Overcome ‘Western’ Resistance to Eating Insects?

Entomophagy, the consumption of insects as a food source, occurs at a global scale with over 2 billion people seeing it as traditional. This practice does not extend into mainstream Western culture where its introduction is often met by a range of barriers, leaving entomophagy often seen as a taboo. The ‘disgust response’ of food neophobia and a lack of social and cultural contexts that reduce adoption may be overcome by strategic application of tools arising from innovation diffusion theory: relative advantage; compatibility; low complexity; trialability and observability. This chapter accessibly reviews known barriers to uptake and outlines the potential application of these concepts in promoting the wider acceptance of entomophagy

Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND)—Iron Review

This is the fifth in the series of reviews developed as part of the Biomarkers of Nutrition for Development (BOND) program. The BOND Iron Expert Panel (I-EP) reviewed the extant knowledge regarding iron biology, public health implications, and the relative usefulness of currently available biomarkers of iron status from deficiency to overload. Approaches to assessing intake, including bioavailability, are also covered. The report also covers technical and laboratory considerations for the use of available biomarkers of iron status, and concludes with a description of research priorities along with a brief discussion of new biomarkers with potential for use across the spectrum of activities related to the study of iron in human health. The I-EP concluded that current iron biomarkers are reliable for accurately assessing many aspects of iron nutrition. However, a clear distinction is made between the relative strengths of biomarkers to assess hematological consequences of iron deficiency versus other putative functional outcomes, particularly the relationship between maternal and fetal iron status during pregnancy, birth outcomes, and infant cognitive, motor and emotional development. The I-EP also highlighted the importance of considering the confounding effects of inflammation and infection on the interpretation of iron biomarker results, as well as the impact of life stage. Finally, alternative approaches to the evaluation of the risk for nutritional iron overload at the population level are presented, because the currently designated upper limits for the biomarker generally employed (serum ferritin) may not differentiate between true iron overload and the effects of subclinical inflammation

Inflammation and Nutritional Science for Programs/Policies and Interpretation of Research Evidence (INSPIRE).

An increasing recognition has emerged of the complexities of the global health agenda-specifically, the collision of infections and noncommunicable diseases and the dual burden of over- and undernutrition. Of particular practical concern are both 1) the need for a better understanding of the bidirectional relations between nutritional status and the development and function of the immune and inflammatory response and 2) the specific impact of the inflammatory response on the selection, use, and interpretation of nutrient biomarkers. The goal of the Inflammation and Nutritional Science for Programs/Policies and Interpretation of Research Evidence (INSPIRE) is to provide guidance for those users represented by the global food and nutrition enterprise. These include researchers (bench and clinical), clinicians providing care/treatment, those developing and evaluating programs/interventions at scale, and those responsible for generating evidence-based policy. The INSPIRE process included convening 5 thematic working groups (WGs) charged with developing summary reports around the following issues: 1) basic overview of the interactions between nutrition, immune function, and the inflammatory response; 2) examination of the evidence regarding the impact of nutrition on immune function and inflammation; 3) evaluation of the impact of inflammation and clinical conditions (acute and chronic) on nutrition; 4) examination of existing and potential new approaches to account for the impact of inflammation on biomarker interpretation and use; and 5) the presentation of new approaches to the study of these relations. Each WG was tasked with synthesizing a summary of the evidence for each of these topics and delineating the remaining gaps in our knowledge. This review consists of a summary of the INSPIRE workshop and the WG deliberation

Early Eocene clinoenstatite boninite and boninite-series dikes of the ophiolite of New Caledonia; a witness of slab-derived enrichment of the mantle wedge in a nascent volcanic arc

© 2016 Elsevier B.V.Clinoenstatite-bearing boninites (CE-boninite) from the serpentinite sole of the Cenozoic ophiolite of New Caledonia near Nepoui have been dated by the 40Ar/39Ar method, yielding two plateau ages of 47.4±0.9Ma and 50.4±1.3Ma. Coarser grained, geochemically similar boninite-series felsic dikes consistently yielded U-Pb zircon ages of ca. 54Ma.Nepoui CE-boninites display whole rock geochemical features similar to that of Cape Vogel boninites (Papua-New Guinea). They similarly have been generated by low degree hydrous melting of depleted peridotite. High contents in LILE and LREE, and some elemental ratios suggest source enrichment by subduction-derived fluids and melts. However, unlike the Cape Vogel boninite, moderately depleted MORB-like isotopic signatures (eNd50 =7.9) rule out the role of OIB-like, or E-MORB component that might account for the relatively high LREE and LILE contents measured in the rocks. Nd isotopic ratios and positive anomalies in Zr and Hf are closely similar to that of the slightly older felsic dikes (55-50Ma) that crosscut the peridotite from the ophiolite in New Caledonia. Most of these magmas have been generated by slab melting during the early stages of intra-oceanic subduction. The Early Eocene subduction started at or near the "oceanic" ridge and involved young and hot lithosphere; therefore, slab-derived melts may have reacted locally with hot depleted peridotites. Finally, water influx into the mantle wedge during the subduction of slightly older (cooler and hydrated) lithosphere initiated a low degree partial melting event in the mantle wedge and generated the CE-boninite magma.Geochemical modeling of hydrous melting of a depleted mantle re-enriched by slab melts suggest that the additional slab melt component was derived from the partial melting of a BABB-like barroisite-bearing eclogite, similar to some elements of the Eocene HP-LT Pouebo terrane. This potential magma source is similar to the BABB-like HT amphibolites of the metamorphic sole of the ophiolite, which have the same origin. Geochemical modeling also suggests that CE-boninite magma may have been in equilibrium with the enstatite-bearing gabbro cumulates that crop out in several places of the Massif du Sud.However, modeling fails in establishing that harzburgite of the same massif simply corresponds to the melting residue of this process. It appears that ultra-depleted supra-subduction peridotites of the Massif du Sud are probably not directly related to the overlying gabbro cumulates