-Down to Earth Document emphasises on importance of a ‘One-Health’ approach to manage and prevent zoonotic disease outbreaks and pandemics About 60 per cent of known infectious diseases in humans and 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to a new report published recently by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Preventing the Next Pandemic:Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain...

-TEDMED Foundation/ The Telegraph ‘Virus hunter’ Peter Piot on the way forward with SARS-CoV2 Boston: Director of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Peter Piot answers 100 questions on The Virus with Director, TEDMED Foundation 1. TEDMED: Let’s start with the basics. What is a virus? A virus is a very tiny particle of RNA or DNA genetic code protected by an outer protein wrapper. 2. How common are viruses? Viruses are everywhere. It’s amazing...

-The Telegraph With malnutrition levels as bad as sub-Saharan African countries, a vegetarian diet is just an imposition for Indians Indian cuisine is not a homogenous entity, and food habits differ along regional, religious, caste, and class lines. Yet there is an assumption in dominant discourses that India is a vegetarian nation. According to Dr Veena Shatrugna, former Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderbad, contrary to any such assumption, about 80 per...

-The Hindu Bengaluru researchers say that animal product protein is better digested Chennai: About 38% of children in India below the age of five years are stunted. Research suggests that the reason for this is that young children consume mainly cereal-based food, which lacks quality protein that can be well digested and is limited in the content of certain essential amino acids such as lysine. Researchers at St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru measured...

-Mongabay.com * A recent first of its kind study provides the first scientific targets for a healthy diet from a sustainable food production system that operates within planetary boundaries for food. * Compared with current diets, global adoption of the new recommendations by 2050 will require global consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar to decrease by more than 50 percent, while consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes must...