Scientists consumed by food research
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BETTER food, better life. Professors affiliated with Shanghai universities are making strides toward improving diets and agricultural methods in China.
Healthier rice
Li Jianyue, an associate professor of life and environment sciences at Shanghai Normal University, is working a healthier strain of rice with giant embryo called Shangshida No. 5.
"The white rice most of us eat has been processed by taking away the seed coat and embryos," Li said. "Unpolished brown rice, and with giant embryo, is considered more nutritious because it contains more healthy elements such as γ--aminobutyric acid, Vitamin E and dietary fiber."
In mammals, γ--aminobutyric acid is a powerful compound that is distributed mainly in the brain. In experiments on lab animals, it was shown to lower blood pressure and improves brain function.
“Brown rice with giant embryo works better than common brown rice on cutting down rat or mice blood-lipid level and enhancing animal's antioxidation," she added.
“We divided the guinea pigs，whose lipid metabolism is more similar to human than rat and mice， into five groups and fed each group with fodder mixed with different rices,” Li said.“ After 10 weeks, the group eating Shangshida No. 5 rice was found to have decreases in blood lipid levels and improvement in body’s antioxidation.”
Li's team also investigate effects of Shangshida No. 5 rice on high blood pressure rats (SHRs). Eight weeks of administration showed that Shangshida No. 5 rice can press down SHRs blood pressure, but no negative influence was brought to the normal blood pressure rats.
Shangshida No. 5 rice is now available in several local shopping malls, including Jiuguang Department Store on Nanjing Road W, Takashimaya Shanghai on Hongqiao Road and Bailian Binjiang Shopping Mall on Zhangyang Road. It is also sold online by Taobao.com.
Fish fanatic
“There is a saying in our field,” Du told Shanghai Daily. “You are what you eat.”
Cardiovascular disease, one of China’s top killers, and various chronic diseases can be effectively prevented by eating fish, the professor said.
“Every day we take in lots of Omega-6 fatty acids from the oil, mainly vegetable oil, which we use in cooking,” Du said. “Too much Omega-6 may lead to some diseases.”
Its counterpart, Omega-3, can relieve those negative effects and restore balance to the body. Some fish are rich in Omega-3.
Du’s research shows that sea fish, especially meat-eating fish, carry more Omega-3 than others. His team did tests on five kinds of common food fish: large yellow croaker, a seawater, meat-eating fish; river eel, a freshwater meat-eater; pomfret, a seawater eater of both meat and plants; tilapia, a freshwater eater of meat and plants; and grass carp, a freshwater plant eater.
Yellow croaker was found to contain the most Omega-3, concentrated in the stomach of the fish.
“The Omega-3 ingested from eating 100 grams of yellow croaker equals that of 1,250 grams of grass carp or 3 kilograms of tilapia,” Du said.
The American Heart Association’s daily-recommended intake of Omega-3 for persons seeking to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease is 500 milligrams.
One thousand milligrams of Omega-3 a day reduce the blood-lipid level, and 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams can help alleviate symptoms associated with high blood pressure, high lipids and a high glycemic index.
Given concerns about the effects of water pollution on aquatic animals, Du advises people to eat fish that is farmed rather than caught in the wild.
Du once tested pollutant-levels in fishes sold in five Chinese cities and found the levels of toxic substances in wild fish are higher than in those farmed. Still, he said, the fish available for Shanghai residents meets national food standards and may be considered safe to eat.
Problem solver
Zhang Caixi, a professor in the School of Agriculture and Biology at Jiao Tong University, has been working to upgrade agriculture in a poor region of the southwestern province of Yunnan.
Zhang, who is also a deputy chief in Yunnan’s Eryuan County, said farmers in the western part of the province had long suffered problems storing pears. The fruit typically rotted before it could be shipped to market.
He finally discovered the problem. Farmers were keeping the fruit attached to its rootstock rather than removing it before storage. The farmers believed the rootstock would lengthen the pears’ preservation. Zhang told them otherwise.
In the city of Dali, Zhang helped farmers improve their grape harvests by changing the volume of vines planted per hectare.
Instead of constantly trying to fix flaws in the agricultural system, Zhang finally decided that the best way to help farm development would be to introduce a new crop that would grow well in the local climate. He chose the Bing cherry from the US state of Washington, and the new cherry crop did extremely well in Yunnan with less use of pesticides.
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