Breakthroughs Today

The application of shellac is wide-ranging than most people think it is. And one of those applications is as glaze on fruits and vegetables sold in your fruit stands and grocery stores.   “IT'S easy for Americans,” says former US Sen. Christopher Dodd, “to forget that the food they eat doesn’t magically appear on a supermarket shelf.” That may also be true for Filipinos.   While the use of shellac in pharmaceutical products may have ebbed in the last few decades, its use in food, particularly as a protective coating for fruits and vegetables, has not. Its use has the specific advantage of extending shelf life, which is critical in ensuring that they are sold before they start to get overripe.   The previous article (“Glaze of the lac bug”) noted that shellac is a natural form of plastic. On apples, for example, this “wax” coating increases the resistance of the skin from gaseous diffusion, particularly oxygen, which speeds up the ripening process.   It was mentio

The DOST Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) recently issed a survey showing that 34 to 53 percent of Vitamin C consumed among Filipinos came from vegetables. Fruits merely contribute around 19 to 29 percent as a source. More than 50 percent of Vitamin C intake among adults, the elderly, and lactating women came from vegetables. Adolescent and pregnant women comprised 42.2 and 41.7 percent, respectively. Children have the lowest use of vegetables as Vitamin C source, contributing only 34.6 percent to diets among 6-12 agers and 17,2 percent among those ageing 6 months to 5-year olds. Vitamin C-rich vegetables include leafy greens like malunggay, ampalaya, petsay, saluyot, peppers (red and green), sitsaro and raw cabbage. Despite this figures, only 3 in every 10 households met the estimated average requirement (EAR) for Vitamin C, which is 80 percent of the recommended intake of the vitamin. And worse vegetable consumpion is on the downtrend over the years. It has decreased

WITH the holidays behind, and the new year on, it will be a healthy year to go forward when you start it with good trim in your body fat, the natural way, or least a program geared to it. Here’s how: Be more housework involved.  The Banwell study in 2009 found that obesity related closely with little housework and gardening as well as spending more than... [ Read more .] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 5 January 2011.

Breakthroughs 2009 June 24 Turning Back the Weight Dial June 17 Anticipating Swine Flu War June 10 Best Places to Live Up to 100 Years June 3 Scales of Pandemia May 27 Swine Flu Facts May 20 Living 100 Years Anywhere Article users-- Cebu Informer (newslink); The Global Filipino (newslink) May 13 The Widow-Maker May 5 Disease of Passion April 29 The Curse of Polygamy April 23 A Way of Ending April 15 The Buzz Cut Article users-- Hugh Pages (newslink); Aywoh BizCentral ; April 8 Threats to a Healthy Faith Article users-- Hello Davenport, Local Davenport Crime News ; Hugh Pages (newslink) April 1 Celebrating Truths and Pranks Article users-- Spas Listings, Garden of Eden News sidebar ; Wow Cebu, Sunstar News Feeds ; March 25 The Function of Spiritual Unity Article users-- The Global Filipino ; Spiritual Healing ; March 18 Looking for Happiness March 11 Taming the Accursed Breath March 4 The Art of Movement February 25 Female Circumcision Article users-- Bellwave,