Category Archives: Diet And Food

In July 2016, The Washington Post published a story about an Italian couple who lost custody of their 14-month-old son.

The boy had been admitted to the hospital weighing about as much as an average 3-month-old baby.

He required emergency surgery for a congenital heart condition aggravated by low calcium levels.

The reason for the low calcium levels and general malnourishment?

His parents had been keeping their young son on a strict vegan diet since birth without providing any supplements to make up for the nutrients he was missing out on.

According to the Post, this case was not unique.

In fact, it was the third case of a child in Italy being hospitalized as a result of a vegan diet.

And there have been similar cases around the world dating back to 2004. In one case, a couple in the United States was sentenced to life in prison after their baby died as a result of malnourishment.

Read more: Best vegan blogs of 2017

At the 50th annual meeting of the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) earlier this month, experts decided to speak up about the dangers of a vegan diet for children without proper supplementation.

It is difficult to ensure a healthy and balanced vegan diet in young infants, and parents should understand the serious consequences of failing to follow advice regarding supplementation of the diet, Dr. Mary Fewtrell, chair of ESPGHANs nutrition committee, said in a press statement. The risks of getting it wrong can include irreversible cognitive damage and, in the extreme, death.

Dr. Myriam Van Winckel, a professor in the department of pediatrics and medical genetics at Ghent University in Belgium, had something similar to share.

The more restricted the diet of the child, the greater the risk of deficiency, and this is by far highest in vegan children, Van Winckel said in a press statement. But the risk does not stop there. Vegan mothers who breastfeed also need to be aware that their children can develop vitamin B-12 deficiency between 2 and 12 months because of the lack of reserves in their body at birth, even if the mother is not showing any signs of deficiency herself.

Officials at ESPGHAN are not the only ones to sound an alarm.

A 2010 article by the Canadian Paediatric Society showed data compiled from several studies of strict vegan preschoolers and school-age children.

Concerns were raised regarding protein, fiber, essential amino acids, iron, zinc, calcium, fat, fatty acids, vitamins B-12, D, A, and riboflavin.

The researchers added that energy levels may be impacted as well, requiring calorie dense foods to provide for adequate growth.

The article concluded that while a vegan diet can be safe for children, those children should be closely monitored for appropriate nutrition, growth, and energy levels.

Read more: 8 great sources of vegan protein

Members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also expressed their concerns.

Childhood is a critical time for growth and brain development, Dr. Sheela Magge, an endocrinologist at Childrens National Health System, told Healthline. There are critical vitamins and minerals which can be deficient in a vegan diet, particularly vitamin B-12, vitamin D, iron, calcium, zinc, and riboflavin. Vegan diets can also increase the risk of vitamin A deficiency. B-12 comes from milk and eggs and is a specific concern for people on a vegan diet. A lack of sufficient vitamin B-12 can lead to neurological symptoms. Children on vegan diets may also have slightly higher protein requirements than non-vegan children.

She added that the first few months and years of life are particularly important.

Infancy is a special consideration, Magge said. The ideal first nutrition for babies is breast milk, but if a mother does not or cannot feed the baby breast milk, the only other option is a soy-based formula. Also, during infancy and weaning the amount of food needed to meet energy needs on a vegan diet may be increased and can exceed gastric capacity. Therefore, frequent feeds are recommended.

Read more: The 10 most vegetarian-friendly cities

So what are the options for parents who are committed to a vegan lifestyle?

According to Magge, it can be done but only with careful monitoring.

A child can be on a vegan diet safely, but it should be done in consultation with the childs pediatrician or primary caregiver, she said. A nutritionist may also be involved. Childhood is a critical time for growth and development, and it is very important that adequate amounts of critical vitamins and minerals are taken in the childs diet at specific times in development.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD, a licensed, registered dietitian, who is a wellness manager at the Cleveland Clinic, agreed, but she added parents need to carefully assess the willingness of the child to go along with such a strict dietary plan.

This plan will most likely not work in a very picky eater and could lead to nutrient deficiencies, she said.

When considering a vegan diet for a child, experts say consulting with a pediatrician is the best way to ensure proper nutrition.

The rest is here:
Is a Vegan Diet Safe for Children? - Healthline

What would you eat if you could eat anything you wanted with zero consequences and maybe even a little weight loss as a welcome bonus? If youre like us, it would probably look something like this: ice cream and more ice cream.

One brand is claiming that you can, selling pints of ice cream that only set you back by about 240 calories, depending on the flavor. Thats about one-fifthas many calories as generic brands. It also has only one-sixthof the fat content, one-thirteenthas much sugar, and boasts a whopping 25 percent more protein than typical ice cream. But most importantly, it actually tastes like ice cream.

Created by a small L.A. creamery, Halo Top is marketed as a healthy ice cream. And to the untrained eye, it seems like something of a miracle. Of course, its gained a cult-like following of people eating nothing but Halo Top, evenincluding Yahoo editors, who attempted a three-day Halo Top diet with a goal of losing weight.

But if you havent heard of Halo Top, dont get too excited, and definitely dont ditch all of your regular foods for ice cream. I would definitely not recommend eating Halo Top ice cream every day, especially more than one [serving], says holistic nutritionist and wellness coach Dorit Jaffe of Whole Healthy Glow. Also, just because products are marketed as being healthier than something else, for example Halo Top being healthier than full fat ice cream, doesnt mean you need to eat this every day. You can indulge from time to time, but overeating any food, healthy or not healthy, isnt beneficial for the health of your body.

And all of that protein with such low sugar content? Its not as healthy as you might think. Halo Tops emphasis on protein is a marketing ploy, says Jaffe. Whey protein [the ingredient in Halo Top] can be a good source of protein, but the ingredients in Halo Top are highly processed and sweetened with chemical sugar substitutes, which dont have a high glycemic index but are not beneficial for your digestive system.

You may think that chemical, low-calorie sugar substitutes are preferable because of the misconception that they are less likely to cause weight gain, but this isnt the case. These kinds of chemicals can kill healthy gut flora.You might notice symptoms like bloating, gas, indigestion, or stomach pains after eating this ice cream, says Jaffe.

Also, studies have shown that low-calorie sweeteners, even natural ones like stevia and erythritol, both used in Halo Top, can actually cause more weight gain in the long run than just eating sugar. This is in part because when your body tastes sweetness without the calories to go with it, it negatively impacts appetite control mechanisms, causing greater food cravings.

Even Halo Top CEO Justin Woolverton agrees that Halo Top can be addictive. Honestly, if youre the type of person who can take a bite of ice cream and put it back, youre a better person than I am, Woolvertontold the New York Post. Most people sure as hell arent eating only a quarter of a pint.

Still not convinced? If you eat too much Halo Top at once, you might not be able to eat it at all later on. Your body can develop intolerances to the foods that you eat all the time, says Jaffe. Thats why its important to include a variety of real whole foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, and animal protein. Emphasis on the quality of the food youre including in your diet is important. Halo Top ice cream is a prime example of a manmade food thats marketed as being as beneficial as whole foods, but this isnt the case.

But if you want to eat a lot of ice cream with little sugar and high protein, youre not at a loss. You can make your own banana nice-cream and add your protein powder of choice to it and blend different fruits in this as well, says Jaffe. This is a healthier and even more flavorful substitute.

Banana nice-cream has no weird ingredients. (Photo: Whole Healthy Glow)

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.

Read more:
Why the Halo Top Diet Is 'Dangerous' - Yahoo Health

When a baby is learning how to crawl, its parents dont say, Thats not good enough; you have to walk! And when that baby does start to walkafter countless failed attempts without any loss of enthusiasmthe parents dont say, Not good enough! You must run!

When you want to get fitter, you dont run a marathon straight away. That would be insane and you could seriously injure or exhaust yourself. Instead, youd start by running for 10 minutes. Thats enough.

Its the same if you want to start lifting weights. You dont put the heaviest weight on the bar and try to lift it; you should load the lightest amount that seems a minor challenge, see how you do, and adjust from there.

Ditto forwhen someone starts playing basketball. If they tried shooting three-pointers right away, theyd probably miss every single one because theyd have no idea what they were doing; their only strategy would be to throw and hope. Then theyd feel discouraged, figure that basketball just wasnt for them, and probably give up (especially if they have a fixed mindset.)

How would this approach ever lead to success? How would this not lead to failure?

And yetthis is exactly how weve been told to diet.

By going from one extreme to the other.

One day, youre eating anything you want and completely over-indulging. Pizza, cakes, sweets, chips, caramel macchiatos. The next day, youre expected to not only cut all those things out, but to starve yourself. Because, supposedly, thats how you lose weight.

For some reason, most of us have accepted this reality. Weve accepted that this is the way to diet and lose weighteven though when we see the metaphors above we immediately know they lack any kind of strategy, are as close to impossible as you can get, and will inevitably lead to failure.

A baby isnt born with the skills to crawl or walk. A baby has to learn them. A baby has to invest in its many, many, many inevitable failures in order to learn how to even crawl, let alone walk. A baby cannot be forced to crawl or walk. It just doesnt work that way.

If you want to get fitter and increase your endurance, you dont start by running a marathon. You run for 10 minutes for a few days a week. 15 the next week. Then 20. Then half an hour. In other words, you practice getting fitter. And, eventually, a marathon would be a realistic goal. A challenge, yes, but a realistic one.

When you start lifting weights, you start small. You start with something thats a little bit uncomfortable but still doable. You dont walk into the gym, try to lift the heaviest weight, fail miserably, and then get angry and sad and start crying because you cant do it; it would be outrageous to expect that you could. Eventually, though, after practicing for long enough, you will easily lift weights you couldnt even pick up before. Its inevitable.

Same with basketball. Youd start working on your shot by going as close to the basket as possible and getting your technique rightyour footwork, where you hold the ball, how you release it. Whether you scored or not at the beginning wouldnt even matterit would only be about developing your technique, and ingraining it through practicing it over and over.

And yetAnd yetAnd yet!

I mean, you can see it, right? This is exactly what dieting is. You expect, with no practice whatsoever, to change years (and probably decades) of eating habits literally overnight, and then keep this up forever.

And you wonder why dieting doesnt work? Why you hate going on a diet?

Going on a diet is exactly why going on a diet fails.

Well, thank goodness theres another way.

A way that involves not starving and restricting yourself, but eating enough of the good stuff. A way that involves practicing making healthy choices, thats all about developing a healthier relationship with food.

Let me be clear: you are making it SO hard for yourself, and it doesnt need to be.

None of them happen overnight and youre totally OK with that concept. You understand it, you get itto be frank its f*cking obvious!

Your relationship with food is the same. Its a practice, not some arbitrary result you measure on a scale.

Isnt it time to treat it as such?

__

Photo credit:Getty Images

Daniel is the CEO of EvolutionEat, where he'll teach you how to master your diet, stop overeating, and take control of your health.

Daniel is exceptionally good at high performance coaching, as it pertains to diet and lifestyle. As a world class motivator, lifestyle designer, and dietary strategist, he specializes in unpacking motivation, disentangling emotions and distractions from intentions, and getting to the bottom of what really influences our choices.

Sign up today to access his free, 3-hour online training program designed to help you master your diet once and for all. Follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

View original post here:
4 Obvious Metaphors to Show Why Diets are Freaking DUMB! - The Good Men Project (blog)

Houston, TX, June 01, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Many people who struggle with weight loss believe that the solution can be found by simply changing what they eat. Fad diets are constantly changing or repackaging certain strategies that dont often tackle the common underlying issue, emotional eating. In our daily lives, there are a number of overt and hidden stressors bombarding us; whether they be job related, financial, health related, relationship-based or otherwise. Even when one doesnt feel emotionally stressed out, symptoms of stress can be sneaky, as managing and coping with ongoing stress can feel commonplace. A major symptom of stress emotional eating/food addiction, and this is what derails many dieters without them even realizing it.

The simple truth is, you may eating emotionally and not even know it. Many symptoms of emotional eating can seem quite benign, while others are more harmful. Some of the most common symptoms are:

Not only can emotional eating be a sign of larger issues, it is also very unhealthy, leading most commonly to:

Fortunately, Diet Doc has created a collection of great medical weight loss programs focused on helping individuals overcome the real problem, stress-based emotional eating. By tackling the true underlying cause Diet Doc is helping lose weight faster, and move towards long-term habit changing activities. Our doctor created and supervised medical weight loss plans combat emotional eating in many different ways, ranging from simple doctor supervision and evaluation to powerful prescription weight loss aids specifically designed to address the causes of emotional eating.

These medications can range from our Low Dose Naltrexone, which helps reduce appetite between meals and reduce stress levels in the body, our prescription Appetite Zap, a simple appetite suppressant designed to safely and effectively curb hunger.

Our clients who utilize our unique medical weight loss system experience:

Improvement in mood and a sense of wellbeing

Simply give us a call orsend us a messagefor a free, no-obligation consultation, and ask about our medically-supervised weight loss plans. Well get you on the path towards a better you! Diet Doc offers a team of doctors, nurses, nutritionists and motivational coaches, Diet Doc products and individualized coaching help individuals lose weight fast and keep it off. Existing patients are losing up to 20 pounds per month safely and effectively. New patients can get started immediately, with materials shipped directly to their home or office. They can also maintain weight loss in the long-term through weekly consultations, customized diet plans, motivational coaches and a powerful prescription program. With Diet Doc, the doctor is only a short phone call away and a fully dedicated team of qualified professionals is available 6 days per week to answer questions, address concerns and support patients.

Getting started with Diet Doc is very simple and affordable. New patients can easily visit https://www.dietdoc.com to quickly complete a health questionnaire and schedule an immediate, free online consultation.

About the Company:

Diet Doc Weight Loss is the nations leader in medical, weight loss offering a full line of prescription medication, doctor, nurse and nutritional coaching support. For over a decade, Diet Doc has produced a sophisticated, doctor designed weight loss program that addresses each individual specific health need to promote fast, safe and long term weight loss.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DietDocMedical

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DietDocMedicalWeightLoss/

LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/diet-doc-weight-loss?trk=biz-brand-tree-co-logo

CONTACT INFORMATION

Diet Doc Contact Information:

Providing care across the USA

Headquarters:

San Diego, CA

(800) 581-5038

[emailprotected]

Homepage

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f729cf70-f385-4af8-8e90-e7073b37eced

Link:
Diet Doc Works to Address Underlying Cause of Weight Gain; Emotional Eating - ForexTV.com

Its here. Hope youve been practicing your high-fives. (Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portlands epic month of bike rides and events starts tomorrow. Yes, thats right, its time for the annual Pedalpalooza festival. Its the 16th year in a row Shift has helped us celebrate the social exhiliration and of bicycling with a slate of rides organized and led by people in the community like you and me. Its a phenomenonal display of community connectedness unlike anything Ive seen in the cycling world and we hope you plan to be a part of it

If you are going to join in any one of the 262 rides on the calendar (so far) this month, there are a few things you should know to make sure your experience reaches its full potential. And on a more serious note, there are a few things you should do to make sure your experience doesnt end up making bad memories (or worse) for you, your friends, or the people around you.

For our annual Pedalalooza primer we once again turn to bike funnist and Shift volunteer Chris Fool McCraw. He recently shared some important pits of wisdom:

A well-stocked pannier is always a good idea.

Get that tune-up, stock up on spare tubes, and make sure your butt loves your saddle. Its the last minute NOW because you want to have your bike ready before the fun really gets started on June 1st!

Now get yourself tuned up do you know where your summer bike clothes are? Been putting off that doctors appt? Been to see the barber? Nobody wants to stop riding with a few thousand of their closest friends to take care of stuff that could happen anytime, and you know you wanna be in top shape to enjoy the rides and be looking sharp for the cutie youre sure to meet on the happy streets. Might not be a bad idea to get caught up on laundry, too.

Next up its time to get stocked! Easy frozen meals to heat & eat when you get home exhausted and just wanna crawl into bed? Favorite hangover cure available in quantity? Portable intoxicant of choice need to hit costco or stumptown to get enough? Beer is easy on the fly, but if youre more of a liquor is quicker, candy is dandy kinda person do it in advance: visit your local dispensary, or anyway get the things you cant make happen at a quickie mart mid-ride or en-route done on your schedule instead of missing the pre-party for Loud and Lit because you have to find the last liquor store in town still open.

Almost ready but is your pedalpalooza survival kit all ready to go? Picnic blanket, hearty snacks, condoms, band-aids & aspirin, flat-fix kit, extra headlight batteries, and fliers for your ride to hand out to folks at other rides are all recommended. Got Costumes for the WNBR and beyond? Might as well figure all that out during the calm before the storm!

Pedalpalooza is a wild ride, with too little sleep and sometimes too much booze. While were out having fun, I want to ask YOU to help take care of yourself and others. These three steps go a long way toward creating inclusive, safe(r) bike fun!

1) Have a plan & Look out for your own well being

When you go on rides that may take you out of your comfort zone, know thyself might you end up riding longer than expected without a food stop that fits your diet? Might you end up somewhere youve never been before? These are near-certainties, so make sure youre prepared have a spare inner tube, have a bike map, have a friend you can call if you get stranded (very few rides will leave the cell service area, and those that do are generally described as fairly long rides), and have some substantial snacks and water. Make friends on the ride so that even if you dont have what you need you now know someone who might let you borrow their phone or share their snack or patch kit.

2) Be aware of your situation

Both on and off the bike, be aware of your environment. We are traffic, but we are mortal, so watch out for anyone operating a vehicle erratically and be defensive about not getting creamed or even bumping someone else on a bike or in a car! Having a dance party on the springwater? Cool! Just be aware of nearby residents and of wandering off by yourself to pass out or even make out safety first (or third but think about it as you go!)

3) Look out for each other

This one is a bit less obvious than the other two, but as a community of bike funnists, we have to take care of each other. Specifically, be on the lookout for folks who seem so intoxicated that they wont be able to ride safely home, and try to help them figure out a remedy be that getting them a ride buddy or an Uber. On a similar note, CONSENT IS SEXY. This goes for sexual stuff of course be the person you want to wake up and see in the mirror tomorrow but also goes for peer pressure and intoxication if your new friend doesnt want to drink another beer or take another toke, dont shame them into it. We dont need to make any more depressing statistics or have someones life get fucked up. Check out these resources on consent that I hope youll read itll take 2 minutes and youll be an awesomer person for reading them and helping others who havent read them keep them in mind even when drunk.

Have fun out there Portland! Ill miss the first few days (headed to Montral tomorrow!) but I cant wait to join you in the streets when I get back.

Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

BikePortland is supported by the community (that means you!). Please become a subscriber or make a donation today.

Front Page, Rides/Events chris mccraw, Pedalpalooza, pedalpalooza 2017

Read the original post:
Heed this wisdom to be a Pedalpalooza pro - BikePortland.org

COLORADO SPRINGS -

'Gluten-free'products are becoming more prevalent in the local grocery store. But for folks who suffer from celiac disease, 'gluten-free'is not a trendy diet it's necessary to keep their disease in remission.

Celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder that causes folks to experience gastrointestinal distress after consuming foods with gluten, which is protein from wheat, rye and barley.

According to Donald Kirby, M.D., of Cleveland Clinic, the biggest challenge for folks with celiac disease is finding foods that they can safely eat.

"Gluten is hidden in so many different things that it's not easy to go to the annual picnic and find things that you can actually eat. You can't have those hamburger rolls or the hot dog buns,and you've got to be careful of so many different things,"said Dr. Kirby.

Celiac disease is one of the most common genetic diseases in the world, affecting around one percent of the population. Adult women are most frequently diagnosed with the disease.

Symptoms that signal a need to be screened include bloating and alternating of diarrhea and constipation. Likewise, folks who have been diagnosed with irritable bowel disease should be checked.

Screening is very simple, it's done through a blood test. Dr. Kirby said that if the test comes back positive, doctors will perform a small bowel biopsy during an upper endoscopy procedure. If a person is diagnosed, parents and children should also be tested, because celiac disease is genetic.

Dr. Kirby said it's important to treat celiac disease, because when left untreated, it can cause a person to develop other auto-immune disorders, as well as nutrient deficiencies, or disorders such as lymphoma.

He said the cure is a gluten-free diet and that while challenging, making those dietary changes can greatly improve a person's quality of life.

"By changing the diet to exclude wheat, rye and barley, hence, a gluten-free diet, you can treat the disease very well have the disease go into remission,"said Dr. Kirby.

Going on a gluten-free diet for celiac disease is for life, but it's easier to tackle with the help of a registered dietician. Dr. Kirby said even if the disease gets better with dietary changes, it's a good idea for folks to be followed by a doctor to make sure that it is still in remission and that their vitamin levels are where they should be.

Read the original:
Your Healthy Family: Celiac Disease: When Gluten-Free is a Necessity - KOAA.com Colorado Springs and Pueblo News

Under a new version of the citys proposal, diet drinks would not be taxed, in addition to other changes. A final vote by the full council likely will be scheduled for Monday.

Seattle City Council members moved a proposed soda tax Wednesday toward a final vote and amended it to exclude diet drinks.

Mayor Ed Murray sent legislation to the council in April calling for a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce on distributors of sweetened beverages, including sugary and diet soft drinks, among others.

Under the new version of the proposed tax, diet drinks would not be taxed, small manufacturers would be exempted and medium-sized manufacturers would pay a reduced rate.

The amended plan would raise about $8 million less annually than Murrays plan, according to city estimates.

The councils finance committee made the changes Wednesday before voting 5-2 to move the ordinance forward.

For me, the main object of this legislation is to reduce the consumption of this unhealthy product, Councilmember Mike OBrien said.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Kshama Sawant cast the dissenting votes, while Councilmembers Tim Burgess and M. Lorena Gonzlez were behind the major changes.

Herbold proposed lowering the tax rate to 1 cent per ounce and keeping diet drinks in the tax, but her amendments were rejected by the committee.

Councilmember Rob Johnson proposed taxing syrups and powders based on their dry weight rather than their weight once mixed into drinks, saying that would be simpler. His amendment also was rejected.

Herbold and Sawant said they couldnt support a tax that would disproportionately burden low-income people and people of color. Herbold called the existing proposal unfairly regressive and warned a rate set too high could expose the tax to repeal via citizen ballot measure.

A final vote by the full council likely will be scheduled for Monday.

Many health advocates are supporting the tax, while soft-drink companies, some business owners and unions with workers in the beverage industry oppose it.

The Martin Luther King County Labor Council and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce issued a joint statement Wednesday against the tax, saying it would harm the local economy.

Revenue from the tax would be used by the city to support healthful eating and education.

Seattle leaders have been having trouble agreeing whether to tax diet drinks.

Diet drinks werent included in Murrays initial plan. The science on sugary drinks being unhealthful is solid, but evidence of artificially sweetened drinks being harmful is less clear.

The mayor added diet drinks to his plan after a racial-equity analysis showed their popularity among wealthy people and white people. And now council members have taken them back out.

In pushing for diet drinks to be excluded from the tax, Burgess pointed to unclear health findings on artificial sweeteners and to concerns about the tax leading to job losses.

Leaving diet drinks untaxed gives consumers an alternative, he said. And Im concerned about what weve heard from labor.

Taxing sugary and diet drinks at 1.75 cents per ounce, as the mayor proposed, would initially raise about $23 million annually, while taxing only sugary drinks at that rate would raise about $15 million, according to estimates Herbold obtained from the citys budget office.

Herbold argued for taxing sugary and diet drinks at 1 cent per ounce in order to raise 15.5 million annually.

Read the original post:
Diet drinks excluded as Seattle soda-tax moves toward final City ... - The Seattle Times

May 30, 2017 Waterfowl beaks vary along a duck-to-goose gradient (left to right), primarily because of differences in diet. Credit: Aaron Olsen

From Charles Darwin's famous finches to a new study that takes a rare look at a common order of birdswaterfowlevolution has a tendency to reveals itself through bird beaks.

And this new study confirms through a rigorous analysis that the main evolutionary force driving the shape of duck, goose and other waterfowl beaks is their diet.

"This is the most comprehensive look to date at the relationship between diet and beak shape," said Aaron Olsen, author of the study in Functional Ecology and a postdoctoral researcher in Brown University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

"Waterfowl have really interesting beaks relative to other birds," Olsen said. "They are very curvy with very diverse shapes."

Working at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History, Olsen sought to determine what accounts for that diversity.

He expected that diet might play a substantial role, but rather than just compare simple dietary categories with beak caliper measurements as many naturalists have, he engaged in a more detailed analysis. He carefully measured the 3-D form of the beaks of 136 specimens of waterfowl, covering 51 species and 46 genera, including two extinct species. One fossil, Presbyornis, dates back tens of millions of years. Then he paired those measurements with detailed data that he gathered from the research literature on the diet of each bird.

Regardless of his expectation, if diet and beak shape had little to do with each other, the math would have yielded low correlations.

"What this analysis asks is, 'What are the patterns of correlation between these two datasets?'," Olsen said. "What's nice about that is you are going in a little bit naively about the relationship between the two."

More for pruning than preening

But the mathematical result was a strong correlation between dietary preferences and beak shape. It makes physical sense, Olsen said. Ducks, which primarily filter-feed little bugs and seeds from the water, have relatively long, wide-tipped bills that can bring in a lot of water. Geese, which evolved to prefer the leaves and roots of plants over filter feeding (though some still do), have shorter, narrower beaks that give geese a more forceful bite for pruning tough plant parts.

The correlation is so strong, Olsen said, that diet likely dominates other influencers of beak shape that researchers have demonstrated, such as preening and shedding body heat. But Olsen said his analysis doesn't preclude those factors from still having roles, too.

Duck then goose

The data Olsen gathered, combined with several lines of prior research, also led him to hypothesize that the early ancestors of modern ducks, geese and other waterfowl were duck-like. Geese-like beaks are newer phenomena, though they've evolved several times in several places.

First of all, Olsen said, a mathematical reconstruction he performed that accounted for modern waterfowl and the early ancestor in the waterfowl phylogenetic (or evolutionary family) tree, Presbyornis, showed that the duck-like beak is the most likely ancestral form. Moreover, the widespread emergence of grasses occurred after the origin of waterfowl, supporting a later origin for geese within waterfowl.

The other extinct specimen whose bill Olsen surveyed, the fern-eating moa-nalos goose, may be a good example of the kind of transition he suspects played out multiple times over waterfowl's evolutionary history. Other researchers have shown the moa-nalos likely had a duck-like ancestor, but after its ancestors ended up in Hawaii, it adapted to its final plant-eating status by evolving goose-like features over time.

All that said, Olsen acknowledges his assessment of waterfowl lineage remains an open hypothesis. He said he invites further research, even if it ultimately ruffles his feathers.

"I would love to see someone publish a paper and argue the opposite," he said.

Explore further: Up to 600 waterfowl die in western Idaho from avian cholera

More information: Functional Ecology (2017). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12890

An estimated 500 to 600 ducks and geese have died due to avian cholera in western Idaho.

A study of the super-diverse bird groups, which include Darwin's finches, has found that modular skull parts helped them adapt to different roles.

Citizen scientists and bird lovers across the world have helped researchers at the University of Sheffield and the University of South Florida uncover new secrets about the evolution of bird's beaks over time in a ground-breaking ...

Migratory waterfowl around the world travel hundreds to thousands of miles annually, stopping at lakes, ponds and marshes to refuel and breed. Some of these aquatic rest stops may be at sites polluted by remnants of radioactive ...

(Phys.org) To female coastal plain swamp sparrows, male bill size matters.

Beak shape variation in Darwin's finches is a classic example of evolutionary adaptation, with beaks that vary widely in proportions and shape, reflecting a diversity of ecologies. While living birds have a beak to manipulate ...

Imagine being a scuba diver and leaving your oxygen tank behind you on a dive. Or a mountain climber and abandoning your ropes. Or a skydiver and shedding your parachute. That's essentially what humans are doing as we expand ...

What happens to a cane toad's internal chemistry when it has to shed its skin to replace worn out skin cells?

Slow and steady wins the race.

No experience with human speech is necessary for budgerigars to perceive the difference between "d" and "t", according to a study published May 31, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mary Flaherty from The State ...

Some migratory bats are attracted to artificial green light which may interfere with their flight paths, according to a study published May 31, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Christian Voigt from the Leibniz ...

Subgroups of tuberculosis (TB)-causing bacteria can persist even when antibiotics wipe out most of the overall population. The need to eliminate these persistent subpopulations is one reason why TB treatment regimens are ...

Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank

Display comments: newest first

The author of the article continues to interject the words like "evolution" and "evolutionary force" (whatever that means---very unscientific) and "which evolved to prefer". Fact is that none of these are supported by any science, and is complete guesswork.

We can observe animals that may prefer something. But to say as a scientific fact that evolutionary forces made this happen is complete nonsense. Those are 2 completely unrelated propositions. Scientists should not be so confused.

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Visit link:
Fowl-mouthed study finds that diet shaped duck, goose beaks - Phys.Org

Kansas City Star

Vegan bloggers say their diets can stop menstrual 'toxins,' and doctors aren't pleased Kansas City Star Freelee the Banana Girl seemed so excited to tell her YouTube following how she lost her monthly period. It happened when I first came to a 100 percent raw vegan diet, the popular Australian health blogger said in a 2013 video called How I lost my ...

Read this article:
Vegan bloggers say their diets can stop menstrual 'toxins,' and doctors aren't pleased - Kansas City Star

Raw diet for pets? Maybe not such a good idea, vet says Miami Herald A: The AVMA, veterinary medicine's leading professional group, thinks feeding raw diets to pets is a definite no-no. According to its formal policy statement on this subject, the organization discourages the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal ...

More here:
Raw diet for pets? Maybe not such a good idea, vet says - Miami Herald