Uma pesquisa do Núcleo de Estudos da América Latina (Nupal) revelou que os consumidores acreditam mais no vidente que previu a queda do avião em São Paulo do que nas promoções da Black Friday. O instituto ouviu 1200 pessoas em todo o Brasil e muitas delas conversaram com o pesquisador só para reclamar de vizinhos e colegas de trabalho, sem falar nada que tivesse a ver com a pesquisa.
A estimativa do comércio é que a Black Friday desse ano tenha 50% a mais de vendas, com liquidações que devem chegar a até 150% a mais no preço. De acordo com o levantamento do Nupal, 8 em cada dez pessoas são seres humanos. Os outros dois não souberam responder e apenas latiram.
Various homeopathic remedies (Photo by Wikidudeman via)
Dr Richard Hiltner is a really nice guy. He's in his sixties (but seems younger, in that way that Californians often do) and has a very West Coast way of making everything sound super positive all the time, up to and including the fact that, a few weeks ago, he and three other practitioners flew to Liberia to try and treat Ebola patients using homeopathy.
Hiltner says, "We landed in Monrovia on the 17th of October, then had to spend three days training to use the PPEs – the personal protective equipment, those big suits you see everyone wearing – before heading up to the hospital in Ganta."
It was only when they got to Ganta, a province hit hard by the Ebola epidemic, that problems arose.
The team suited up, broke out their homeopathic treatments and tried to get to work on some patients. At which point the medical staff and administrators at the Ganta Hospital realised what it was they were attempting, before completely
banning them from the ETU (Ebola Treatment Unit).
It turned out that no one in the hospital – or, it seems, the entire Liberian medical administration – had any idea that this team would be using homeopathy. The Liberian government had approved the expedition and issued visas on the basis that all four were medical doctors coming to support local staff.
So, Hiltner and his colleagues got in their jeeps and drove back and forth to Monrovia in a continued effort to sort out the paperwork. "It took over five hours to drive 100 miles – it was probably the scariest part of the trip," he tells me. "We did that journey five times in all."
But the authorities were clear: there was no way they were going to let Ebola patients be treated with what are essentially sugar pills soaked in water.
Non-homeopath Ebola response volunteers in Nigeria (Photo by CDC Global via)
For those who haven't yet been prescribed it on the NHS, homeopathy was developed in 1796 by the German scientist Samuel Hahnemann, based on the idea that "like cures like". It works like this: hay fever makes your eyes water, right? Guess what else makes your eyes water? Onions! Just soak a minuscule piece of onion in distilled water, then dilute that water a few hundred times, give it a shake and you're all done – hay fever will trouble you no more.
The Ebola virus kills you by essentially dissolving the walls of your veins, making you bleed to death from the inside in a massive internal haemorrhage. It's absolutely fucking horrific. Dr Hiltner says his team went to Liberia carrying 110 potential homeopathic Ebola remedies. Based on the "like cures like" principle they needed other substances that kill you by haemorrhage. Among their brightest hopes were arsenic and rattlesnake venom. So exactly the kind of thing you want to put in your body when you're
already laid out in the ETU.
Aside from the whole deliberately feeding sick people arsenic thing, the real controversy of homeopathic practice is that the remedies are so heavily diluted that no molecular trace of the supposed active ingredient – be it onion, venom or any other – actually remains. In chemical terms, it's literally just water dropped onto sugar pills. The theory is that the homeopathic agent "re-programmes" the "energy" of the water, in the same way one saves information on a hard drive – and it's the "water memory" that supposedly cures you.
Despite the claims of practitioners – and celebrity endorsements from MP Peter Hain, Prince Charles and other people without proper jobs – there is absolutely no peer-reviewed scientific literature indicating that homeopathy works any better than placebos.
So, it is perhaps understandable that, with the eyes of the world upon them, the Liberian authorities were unwilling to let this stuff anywhere near Ebola patients.
The thought of four experienced medical doctors stretching the resources of a poverty-stricken country in the grip of an epidemic, when they could be really helping, is kind of galling. This is certainly the view of Mike Noyes, head of ActionAid,
who is quoted on the MailOnline: "With this crisis, you can't be offering false hope. There is no scientific evidence that homeopathy has any impact on dealing with viral disease like Ebola. Coming in from the outside with these unproven approaches is damaging to the response and bringing the disease under control."
The team did eventually get to treat non-Ebola patients in Ganta with homeopathy, and reported good results. Of course, every one of those patients was also receiving all the prescribed conventional treatments, so those results are totally meaningless from any scientific or therapeutic perspective.
Actual real doctors and nurses practicing their medical skills at the army's Ebola training centre near York (Photo by Simon Davis/DFID via)
All in all, the whole trip just sounds like a massive disaster – four doctors running around Liberia, banned from peddling their quackery by bemused local medics. Even the obvious question of whether they underwent quarantine on their return – or were just planning on curing themselves with snake venom – is irrelevant, as they never actually came into contact with an Ebola patient.
While the expedition itself may come off as merely chaotic, there's also a slightly sketchier side to the story.
The mission was organised through two organisations: the Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, a key institution for homeopathy advocacy, and the German group Freundes Liberias, an organisation dedicated to promoting co-operation between Germany and Liberia.
Freundes Liberias raised donations for the trip with
this campaign. The page talks about a "team of 20 international doctors", but makes no mention of the fact that they will be operating only as homeopaths. This squares with the fact that the Liberian medical authorities backed the trip when they thought it was a "team of doctors", and were then shocked to learn about the homeopathy.
An actual real doctor removing his PPE as he exits a ETU (Photo by Athalia Christie via)
So, did the organisers of the expedition raise money and obtain visas and support in Liberia by telling people they were sending doctors, before actually sending homeopaths? If so, that would be pretty shoddy business.
When asked for comment, Thomas Köppig, head of Freundes Liberias, was emphatic:
"When LMHI first contacted Freunde Liberias asking if the association would be willing to support a trip [...] I received the four CVs [...] confirmation that all members of the group were physicians and obviously experienced in working in disaster areas [...] Furthermore, LMHI confirmed that the doctors would work as regular doctors and only secondarily as homeopaths."
The response from LMHI is rather less clear, claiming that the doctors "were not able to treat Ebola patients do [sic] [to] some diplomatic problems [...] We are not asking for donations for the Ebola relief action any more because the situation changed".
Among the doctors on the expedition, however, there was absolutely no confusion that they were going to Liberia specifically to practice homeopathy, not conventional medicine – and to also use the opportunity to promote homeopathy.
When this story broke, Karen Allen of Homeopaths Without Borders deleted
this message from Dr Ortrud Lindemann, one of the homeopaths in Liberia, from her Facebook page. Homeopath Dr Edouard Broussalian also deleted a post from his own site that claimed the mission would ensure "the makers of experimental vaccines will have to pack their bags". In fact, there was a real flurry of deleted pages regarding the mission from people connected to LMHI, which is never a particularly good sign.
Dr Hiltner himself is very open: "This was a golden opportunity to treat something that conventional medicine couldn't," he says. "Not only to help the people, but to show homeopathy works... there's got to be that day that conventional medicine will respect homeopathy – both have their strengths, both have their weaknesses; they need to stop calling each other names."
Speaking to Dr Hiltner, it's difficult to hold all this against him. He took the time to volunteer to go to Liberia and paid for his flight from California to Brussels, where the international team of homeopaths assembled and was flown to Monrovia (he does say he may be compensated for the ticket at some point).
For a guy who's been a practicing medical doctor for 44 years, Dr Hiltner is into some fairly whacky shit, not least Iridology and Medical Astrology, practices that make homeopathy seem positively vanilla. However, he's also clear that he knows these are controversial techniques and would never use them to interfere with
conventional medicine – including on the trip to Liberia. Essentially, his heart is in the right place, even if it's making him do some very silly stuff.
Which makes it all the more of a shame that he's been drawn into this fiasco. A couple of doctors pin-balling around West Africa carrying cases of highly diluted snake venom has a certain shambolic gallows-humour; sneaking a PR stunt for homeopathy into an epidemic under the cover of sending medical help is really pretty tawdry.
“Ghost cities” lined with empty apartment blocks, abandoned highways and mothballed steel mills sprawl across China’s landscape – the outcome of government stimulus measures and hyperactive construction that have generated $6.8tn in wasted investment since 2009, according to a report by government researchers.
In 2009 and 2013 alone, “ineffective investment” came to nearly half the total invested in the Chinese economy in those years, according to research by Xu Ce of the National Development and Reform Commission, the state planning agency, and Wang Yuan from the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, a former arm of the NDRC.
…The bulk of wasted investment went directly into industries such as steel and automobile production that received the most support from the government following the 2008 global crisis, according to the report.
Mr Xu and Ms Wang said ultra-loose monetary policy, little or no oversight over government investment plans and distorted incentive structures for officials were largely to blame for the waste.
Don’t forget this part:
Misallocation of capital and poor investment decisions are not the only explanation for the enormous waste in China’s economy. A significant portion of China’s post-crisis stimulus binge was simply stolen by Communist Party officials with direct responsibility for boosting growth through investment, according to separate estimates by Chinese and overseas economists.
Is this information about the work week good news or bad news?
But in reality, France’s 35-hour week has become largely symbolic, as employees across the country pull longer hours and work more intensely, with productivity per hour about 13 percent higher than the eurozone average. And a welter of loopholes lets many French employers outmaneuver the law.
All told, French workers put in an average of 39.5 hours a week, just under the eurozone average of 40.9 hours a week, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
A Sony definitivamente está em maus lençóis. O último ano fiscal não foi nada bom para ela, e boa parte da culpa recai sobre a divisão de smartphones, que sangra descontroladamente, ainda mais por conta de estratégias esdrúxulas. O setor de TVs também não anda muito bem das pernas (tanto que virou uma subsidiária quando a divisão Vaio foi vendida) e a única coisa que ainda faz os executivos sorrirem é, quem diria, a divisão PlayStation.
Agora os japoneses acordaram: a fim de cortar custos as linhas de televisores e smartphones sofrerão cortes severos, e o foco da companhia se voltará para o mercado de videogames, a única divisão que possui previsões pra lá de otimistas.
A Sony vem sofrendo uma concorrência pesada nos últimos anos principalmente da LG e Samsung, que também atuam em ambos os mercados de produtos voltados ao consumidor final. As sul-coreanas, rivais por excelência brigam em busca de supremacia e o resultado é uma evolução absurda de seus produtos. A Sony, que sempre primou pela excelência (isso vem muito da filosofia japonesa, que Steve Jobs incorporou à Apple; aliás, é fato notório que o ex-CEO admirava profundamente a Sony, tendo inclusive copiado dela o conceito de seu uniforme pessoal e chegado ao ponto de sugerir que o OS X fosse instalado na linha Vaio) se tornou reativa, ficando para trás em inovação e com isso perdendo terreno em ambos os mercados. Some-se a isso o fato de que a Sony sempre fixou preços maiores em seus produtos e pronto, os lucros despencaram.
A Sony tentou reagir, mas decisões erradas como emular o ciclo de atualizações da linha top da Samsung, lançando um novo Xperia Z a cada seis meses (em defesa da Sammy ela tem dois modelos para isso; independente do novo S ou Note substituir o anterior como smartphone mais avançado nas ações de marketing, o consumidor enxerga dois produtos distintos que são atualizados a cada doze meses) se mostraram ainda mais desastradas, o que só piorou a situação. No fim das contas a companhia voltou atrás, mas o estrago já estava feito.
Agora os executivos vão passar a katana: o recém-nomeado chefe da divisão mobile Hiroki Totoki informou em conferência para os investidores que as linhas de TV e smartphones serão reduzidas, e o foco se voltará para a divisão PlayStation. É compreensível, já que no novo plano de negócios a Sony espera um aumento de até 25% nas vendas de videogames em até três anos, com um lucro de até 1,6 trilhão de ienes (cerca de US$ 13,6 bilhões). Sobre as divisões de TV e smartphones, Totoki disse que planeja que elas voltem a dar lucro, mesmo que as vendas se reduzam em até 30%. “Não estamos mirando em tamanho ou participação de mercado, mas em maiores lucros”, disse.
É uma pena, a Sony sempre foi uma fabricante de smartphones excelente, mas é preciso aceitar que nos últimos anos ela deu muitos passos errados e chegou na situação atual, onde enxugar as contas é essencial. A ironia disso tudo é ela ver a divisão PlayStation como uma tábua de salvação já que 20 anos atrás, na época do lançamento de seu primeiro console a alta cúpula não queria entrar no mercado de videogames sozinha de jeito nenhum, depois do fiasco da negociação com a Nintendo.
Eu gosto de ouvir música e podcasts em qualquer lugar, a qualquer hora. Recentemente me peguei utilizando o Chromecast para ouvir meus programas e canções favoritas em determinadas situações, principalmente por ficar com as mãos e orelhas livres para fazer outras coisas e não ficar preso ao notebook. Claro que a mobilidade é reduzida, às vezes ouvir diretamente no smartphone é a melhor pedida, e para quem não quer usar fones de ouvido uma caixa de som Bluetooth é uma boa pedida.
Já vimos produtos interessantes como a linha à prova d’água da Sony, mas os nerds vão preferir muito mais essa novidade da ThinkGeek: um alto-falante no formato da lua estação espacial Estrela da Morte.
O iHome Death Star Bluetooth Speaker é um produto pra lá de bonito, possui 11,4 cm de diâmetro e vem com um suporte acrílico ideal para deixa-lo na sua mesa ou na prateleira quando você não estiver usando. Desavisados vão pensar que se trata de uma miniatura, até o momento em que você o ligar e sincronizar com seu smartphone via Bluetooth: suas luzes se acendem enquanto ele está executando suas mídias. Além do pareamento wireless ele pode ser conectado através da entrada P2 normalmente.
O alto-falante é equipado com uma bateria de lítio (carregável via porta Micro-USB) e a autonomia é de oito horas. O fabricante avisa entretanto que o gadget pode explodir se desmontado, exposto a água ou calor extremo ou se um rebelde atirar em seu exaustor térmico. O alcance também não é nada desprezível, podendo ficar até 9 metros distante do aparelho com o qual foi sincronizado.
O iHome Death Star Bluetooth Speaker, que é um produto oficial segundo o fabricante custa US$ 59,99 (canhão laser não incluso), salvo despesas de envio. Se eu tivesse grana sobrando eu levava ontem.
Hoje em dia é muito difícil que você possua apenas um único dispositivo que acesse sua conta do Google. Seja desktop, notebook, smartphones, tablets, Avaiana de Pau ou pombo-correio, quase qualquer coisa permite acesso a seus serviços. O problema é quando você tem gadgets demais, ou já se livrou de alguns, ou outros nem funcionam mais e o acesso ainda está ativo.
Mountain View está aos poucos fechando as brechas de segurança, mas não adianta muito se você não fornece meios simples que permitam o usuário fazer a sua parte. Para dar um jeito nisso a empresa está lançando duas novas ferramentas, uma para administrar seus gadgets e outra para proteger sua conta com uma mão nas costas.
A primeira é a página chamada Dispositivos e Atividades. Como o nome sugere ela lista todos os gadgets que possuem acesso à sua conta, quando eles se conectaram pela última vez, qual o navegador utilizado e quais não se sincronizam há mais de 28 dias, o que pode ter n motivos: no meu caso acima o Optimus Me (AKA LG p500h) está desligado desde então, mas caso você possua um aparelho na lista que porventura vendeu, teve ele roubado ou o perdeu você pode facilmente revogar o acesso à conta, a fim de evitar que pessoas indevidas possam fuçar nas suas coisas.
A outra ferramenta de segurança permite gerenciar a proteção de sua conta mais facilmente. É possível trocar a senha, impedir o acesso de apps suspeitos, verificar suas informações de recuperação de dados (telefone e e-mail alternativo) e administrar quais as permissões ativas, inclusive com um resumo detalhado de tudo que os apps ou dispositivos podem fazer.
Embora já fosse possível fazer tudo isso de outros modos, é importante que o Google facilite cada vez mais o acesso ao gerenciamento das contas, pois nem todo mundo tem conhecimento avançado. É preciso entregar tudo bem destrinchado para que todo mundo possa proteger seus dados e gadgets de modo rápido, prático e sem sujeira. Portanto, bola dentro de Mountain View desta vez.
Inseto que "saiu da toca" na região nos dois últimos dias possui cerca de 30% de gordura e 15% de proteína
IPATINGA Raridade em várias regiões, o içá, conhecido popularmente como tanajura, está em alta nesta época do ano. Pelo menos para quem tem o hábito de apanhar esses insetos quando eles saem do formigueiro para se reproduzirem. Nessa quarta (29) e quinta-feira (30), os adeptos a essa prática foram à forra, já que as tanajuras saíram da toca nesses dois dias.
Os içás saem da terra para reprodução geralmente no meio da primavera, quando começa a época de chuvas. Os insetos geralmente aproveitam um período de sol entre as chuvas para voarem para fora dos formigueiros. As tanajuras fêmeas, que são as maiores, cortam suas asas e furam o próprio buraco para depositarem seus ovos.
Nesse período, há quem fique de prontidão para apanhar os insetos, seja por hobby, terapia ou para consumo. Há restaurantes que servem farofa de tanajura, iguaria feita com a parte inferior do abdome do inseto (a fêmea da formiga saúva), que possui cerca de 30% de gordura e 15% de proteína.
Mesmo pessoas que não consomem o prato apanham as tanajuras para vender, ou simplesmente para passar tempo. É o caso do metalúrgico João Paulo da Silva, de 24 anos, que aproveitou seu tempo livre na tarde dessa quinta-feira para apanhar uma garrafa pet cheia de tanajura fêmea. Ele foi até um dos formigueiros dos içás na região, que fica no bairro Jardim Vitória, em Santana do Paraíso, na divisa com Ipatinga.
"UM LITRO DE TANAJURAS POR CINCO REAIS
Para mim é uma terapia catar as tanajuras. É uma tradição de família. Não tenho coragem de comer um prato feito à base da tanajura-fêmea, mas costumo vender para quem gosta de consumir. Vendo um litro cheio por cinco reais, em média. É um preço simbólico, já que esse inseto é visto pouquíssimas vezes no ano, podendo ser considerado uma raridade. Para quem gosta de saborear uma farofa feita com tanajura, por exemplo, o inseto tem muito valor, comenta João Paulo, que guarda sob sigilo o local exato do formigueiro das tanajuras no Jardim Vitória. É um segredo de família, brinca o metalúrgico.
RECEITA
Ingredientes: Formigas do tipo içá, Óleo, Sal e farinha de mandioca
Prepare assim: Retire as asas, as pernas e a cabeça com o ferrão das formigas; Deixe somente com o abdômen e a "bundinha" (dizem que esta é a melhor parte. Em uma panela, aqueça o óleo e coloque bastante sal. Quando estiver bem quente, coloque os içás. Eles vão pipocar e inchar. Deixe fritar até a casca ficar dura e crocante. Este é o ponto e a hora de adicionar farinha de mandioca aos poucos, mexendo bem, até virar uma farofa.
FAROFA DE IÇÁ
Farofa de içá é uma iguaria feita com a a parte inferior do abdome da tanajura (a fêmea da formiga saúva) que possui cerca de 30% de gordura e 15% de proteína. Como "rainha do sauveiro" ela pode viver mais de 14 anos.
O consumo de içá vem da cultura indígena e nos dias atuais é um hábito da região do Vale do Paraíba, típico da comida caipira do interior de São Paulo.
O escritor Monteiro Lobato, foi um grande apreciador da iguaria, chamando-a de "caviar da gente taubateana". O quadrinista Mauricio de Sousa também foi um apreciador de içá, quando ainda pequeno. A tradicional caça e sua respectiva culinária são retratadas na revista em quadrinhos da "Turma do Chico Bento".
Fonte: http://www.jvaonline.com.br e site www.euamoipatinga.com.br
VÍDEO: RECEITA - FAROFA DE IÇÁ (Bundas de Tanajura)
Christian Poincheval with one of his pills. Image by: pilulepet.com
A frenchman claims to have invented a pill that can make your farts smell like sweets or roses.
According to the Telegraph Christian Poincheval dubbed the pills Lutin Malin (Crafty Imp) and is selling them on his website pilulepet.com.
He apparently came up with an idea after enjoying a hearty meal with some friends, stating “Our farts were so smelly we were nearly suffocated. Something had to be done.”
That something triggered a quest, as he delved into natural ingredients that were said to help with flatulence. After months of experimentation, he perfected his pills.
He has even made one to honour Santa Claus, saying it is “The Father Christmas fart pill that gives your farts the scent of chocolate”.
The pills come in jars of 60, and sell for €9.99 (about R137). They aren't limited to humans either, he also sells a powdered version for dogs.
All of this should be excellent news to that guy on Reddit who claims he tried to vacuum his farts away.
"It turns out that between the negative pressure of a vacuum and the positive pressure of a fart, that the effect was stronger than anticipated. As the fart arrived, the gas was rapidly absorbed into the vacuum tube – along with the end segment of my large intestine," Reddit user Myideasreallysuck said.
Now he should have a much less, well, sucky solution.
The cartoons are the work of Italian artist, aleXandro Palombo
Mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Shows battered Disney princesses with black eyes and bloody lips
Marge Simpson and Olive Oyl also reimagined as domestic abuse victims
With painful looking black eyes and blood dripping from their noses, these cartoons show iconic animated characters shockingly reimagined as victims of domestic violence.
Disney princesses such as The Little Mermaid's Ariel and Snow White feature in the collection, as do TV favourites including Marge Simpson and Olive Oyl.
Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which takes place on the 25th November, AleXsandro Palombo, a contemporary artist and activist, decided to create the striking art to raise awareness.
Highlighting abuse: With black eyes and blood running from their noses, these well known female cartoon characters, Ariel, left, and Snow White, right, cast a distressing image
Poor Marge: Popular cartoons such as the Simpsons are included in the collection which aims to raise awareness of violence against women
Battered wives: AleXsandro Palombo, a contemporary artist and activist, decided to create the striking art including Lois from Family Guy, left, and Popeye's Olive Oyl, to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Let down by their leading men: The characters all hold the sign 'coward' to show how there is nothing heroic about domestic absue
Calling the collection 'Coward' Palombo depicts each woman holding a picture of their partner with the word stamped across his head in red.
According to the UN, 35 per cent of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime with up to seven in 10 women facing this abuse in some countries.
Not perfect princes: Jasmine from Aladdin and Cinderella are depicted holding a picture of their partner with the word coward stamped across his head in red
Rocky road: According to the UN 35 per cent of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime. This picture imagines Wilma Flintstone as one such victim
Famous for his striking and satirical art, Palombo has used characters from popular children's cartoons to highlight domestic abuse on previous occasions.
He said of the current campaign: 'Thousands of women are killed every year all over the world. Femicide is an unacceptable social issue.
DATE WITH MEANING
'As a man, I feel ashamed of the behaviours of those who use violence against women. These beings are not men but cowards.
'It's up to real men to persecute and fight these cowards'
The UN are encouraging people to 'Orange YOUR Neighbourhood' to support the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The website urges: 'Reach out to your neighbours, local stores, food-sellers on the corner of your street, gas stations, local cinemas, barbers, schools, libraries and post offices! Project orange lights and hang orange flags onto local landmarks, tie orange ribbons where you are allowed, and organize local ‘orange marches’ on 25 November to raise awareness about violence against women and discuss solutions that would work for your community.'
We’ve long known that that the gut is responsible for digesting food and expelling the waste. More recently, we realised the gut has many more important functions and acts a type of mini-brain, affecting our mood and appetite. Now, new research suggests it might also play a role in our cravings for certain types of food.
How Does The Mini-Brain Work?
The gut mini-brain produces a wide range of hormones and contains many of the same neurotransmitters as the brain. The gut also contains neurons that are located in the walls of the gut in a distributed network known as the enteric nervous system. In fact, there are more of these neurons in the gut than in the entire spinal cord.
The enteric nervous system communicates to the brain via the brain-gut axis and signals flow in both directions. The brain-gut axis is thought to be involved in many regular functions and systems within the healthy body, including the regulation of eating.
Let’s consider what happens to the brain-gut axis when we eat a meal. When food arrives in the stomach, certain gut hormones are secreted. These activate signalling pathways from the gut to the brainstem and the hypothalamus to stop food consumption. Such hormones include the appetite-suppressing hormones peptide YY and cholecystokinin.
Gut hormones can bind and activate receptor targets in the brain directly but there is strong evidence that the vagus nerve plays a major role in brain-gut signalling. The vagus nerve acts as a major highway in the brain-gut axis, connecting the over 100 million neurons in the enteric nervous system to the medulla (located at the base of the brain).
Research has shown that vagus nerve blockade can lead to marked weight loss, while vagus nerve stimulation is known to trigger excessive eating in rats.
This brings us to the topic of food cravings. Scientists have largely debunked the myth that food cravings are our bodies’ way of letting us know that we need a specific type of nutrient. Instead, an emerging body of research suggests that our food cravings may actually be significantly shaped by the bacteria that we have inside our gut. In order to explore this further we will cover the role of gut microbes.
Gut Microbiota
As many as 90% of our cells are bacterial. In fact, bacterial genes outnumber human genes by a factor of 100 to one.
The gut is an immensely complex microbial ecosystem with many different species of bacteria, some of which can live in an oxygen-free environment. An average person has approximately 1.5 kilograms of gut bacteria. The term “gut microbiota” is used to describe the bacterial collective.
Gut microbiota send signals to the brain via the brain-gut axis and can have dramatic effects on animal behaviour and health.
In one study, for example, mice that were genetically predisposed to obesity remained lean when they were raised in a sterile environment without gut microbiota. These germ-free mice were, however, transformed into obese mice when fed a faecal pellet that came from an obese mouse raised conventionally.
The Role Of Gut Microbiota In Food Cravings
There is growing evidence to support the role of gut microbiota in influencing why we crave certain foods.
We know that mice that are bred in germ-free environments prefer more sweets and have greater number of sweet taste receptors in their gut compared to normal mice. Research has also found that persons who are “chocolate desiring” have microbial breakdown products in their urine that are different from those of “chocolate indifferent individuals” despite eating identical diets.
Many gut bacteria can manufacture special proteins (called peptides) that are very similar to hormones such as peptide YY and ghrelin that regulate hunger. Humans and other animals have produced antibodies against these peptides. This raises the distinct possibility that microbes might be able to directly influence human eating behaviour through their peptides that mimic hunger-regulating hormones or indirectly through antibodies that can interfere with appetite regulation.
Practical Implications
There are substantial challenges to overcome before we can apply this knowledge about gut microbiota in a practical sense.
First, there is the challenge of collecting the gut microbes. Traditionally this is collected from stools but gut microbiota is known to vary between different regions of the gut, such as the small intestine and colon. Obtaining bacterial tissue through endoscopy or another invasive collection technique in addition to stool samples may lead to more accurate representation of the gut microbiome.
Second, the type of sequencing that is currently used for gut microbiota screening is expensive and time-consuming. Advances will need to be made before this technology is in routine use.
Probably the greatest challenge in gut microbiota research is the establishment of a strong correlation between gut microbiota patterns and human disease. The science of gut microbiota is in its infancy and there needs to be much more research mapping out disease relationships.
But there is reason to be hopeful. There is now strong interest in utilising both prebiotics and probiotics to alter our gut microbiome. Prebiotics are non-digestible carbohydrates that trigger the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, while probiotics are beneficial live microorganisms contained in foods and supplements.
Faecal transplantation is also now an accepted treatment for those patients that have a severe form of gut bacterial infection called Clostridium difficile, which has been unresponsive to antibiotics.
The use of such targeted strategies is likely to become increasingly common as we better understand how gut microbiota influence our bodily functions, including food cravings.
Vincent Ho does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
No corredor da loja de brinquedos, uma menina se encanta por um relógio com os super-heróis da Marvel, alguns de seus personagens favoritos. O problema é que nele está colado um adesivo que diz: "presentes divertidos para meninos". Aos 7 anos de idade, a pequena Maggie Cole não hesitou em reclamar com a sua mãe. Após uma foto postada no Twitter ser viralizada, a marca não só pediu desculpas pelo ocorrido como informou que está retirando os adesivos similares de todas as lojas.
O caso aconteceu nesse fim de semana em Dorset, na Inglaterra, na loja Tesco. Em seu blog, Karen cole, a mãe da menina, disse que fotografou a indignação de Maggie apenas para mostrar aos amigos no Facebook e se surpreendeu com a repercussão do caso. "Eu estava distraída procurando alguma coisa e não teria percebido (o adesivo) se ela não tivesse apontado", contou Karen, que começou a explicar à filha que brinquedos não devem ter gênero no ano passado - e ela não esqueceu a lição.
"No passado ela reclamou que alguns amigos estavam dizendo que alguns brinquedos são para meninos e outros para meninas. Expliquei que eles estavam errados. Se os brinquedos parecem divertidos, então todo mundo poderia brincar com eles. Ela poderia brincar com cavaleiros e dragões (a mania dela na época) e meninos poderiam brincar com bonecas e panelinhas se quisessem. Concordamos que 'todo mundo pode gostar do que quiser'", recordou. "Fiquei muito feliz que ela lembrou daquela conversa e me impressionei com sua indignação", ressaltou.
A expressão engraçada de Maggie na foto que se espalhou na internet já demonstra seu bom humor. "Estávamos andando pela loja quando ela começou a falar que seria muito legal se o Flash (personagem da DC Comics) estivesse lá. Eu concordei e sugeri que poderia dar a nossa lista de compras a ele para que comprasse todas as coisas muito mais rápido do que nós havíamos planejado. 'Não seja boba, mamãe. O Flash é rápido demais para fazer compras'", escreveu Karen.
Os amigos virtuais também adoraram a foto e a opinião da família e sugeriram que Karen mandasse uma mensagem para a Tesco e a associação Let Toys Be Toys, que luta para eliminar a segmentação dos brinquedos em gêneros específicos. A esperança era apenas que a Tesco visse as mensagens e, quem sabe, retirasse os adesivos - o que aconteceu muito mais rápido do que elas imaginavam.
"As crianças pequenas muitas vezes acreditam no que escutam e leem, e, se sempre veem mensagens dizendo que algo é 'para meninos' ou 'para meninas', elas podem começar a acreditar nisso, especialmente se os seus amigos também estão vendo essas etiquetas e zombando delas no colégio", ressaltou Karen. "Lembram do menino que tentou se suicidar neste ano porque os amigos fizeram bullying por ele gostar de My Little Pony (caso ocorrido em fevereiro, nos Estados Unidos)? É por isso que esses avisos e etiquetas são prejudiciais. Não é porque a minha filha não gostou deles, mas porque crianças estão sendo provocadas e intimidadas por não agirem conforme as regras de gênero determinadas", concluiu.
Que a maioria das ruas em nossas cidades foram projetadas para carros e não para pedestres, nós já sabemos. Só que o ilustrador sueco Karl Jilg resolveu escancarar a situação em um de seus trabalhos.
Encomendado pela agência que administra o trânsito da Suécia, o desenho mostra um quarteirão em que as faixas de rolamento para veículos foram subistituídas por grandes abismo. Quem anda a pé fica restrito a espaços pequenos em calçadas apertadas e faixas de pedestres que nem sempre garantem a segurança. Veja a ilustração:
Vincent Ho does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
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