Food research (and funding) is becoming more and more focused on health. While researchers and product developers have made great strides in food engineering, there needs to be increased focus on what happens when the food is actually digested. How is the food absorbed? Do the benefits remain? Digestion is a complex topic, and this will be the first book aimed at food researchers. Authored by a physiologist and a food engineer, the book will be a welcome addition to the literature.
On July 9-10, 2014, the Institute of Medicine's Food Forum hosted a public workshop to explore emerging and rapidly developing research on relationships among the brain, the digestive system, and eating behavior. Drawing on expertise from the fields of nutrition and food science, animal and human physiology and behavior, and psychology and psychiatry as well as related fields, the purpose of the workshop was to (1) review current knowledge on the relationship between the brain and eating behavior, explore the interaction between the brain and the digestive system, and consider what is known about the brain's role in eating patterns and consumer choice; (2) evaluate current methods used to determine the impact of food on brain activity and eating behavior; and (3) identify gaps in knowledge and articulate a theoretical framework for future research. Relationships among the Brain, the Digestive System, and Eating Behavior summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.
This selection of key presentations from the Food Structures, Digestion and Health conference is devoted to the unique and challenging interface between food science and nutrition, and brings together scientists across several disciplines to address cutting-edge research issues. Topics include modeling of the gastrointestinal tract, effect of structures on digestion, and design for healthy foods. New knowledge in this area is vital to enable the international food industry to design of a new generation of foods with enhanced health and sensory attributes. The multidisciplinary approach includes research findings by internationally renowned scientists, and presents new research findings important and pertinent to professionals in both the food science and nutrition fields. - Describes the science underpinning typical food structures providing guidance on food structure in different conditions - Includes novel approaches to the design of healthy foods using real-world examples of applied research and design written by top leaders in the area - Describes and validates model systems for understanding digestion and predicting digestion kinetics
“Infogest” (Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process) is an EU COST action/network in the domain of Food and Agriculture that will last for 4 years from April 4, 2011. Infogest aims at building an open international network of institutes undertaking multidisciplinary basic research on food digestion gathering scientists from different origins (food scientists, gut physiologists, nutritionists...). The network gathers 70 partners from academia, corresponding to a total of 29 countries. The three main scientific goals are: Identify the beneficial food components released in the gut during digestion; Support the effect of beneficial food components on human health; Promote harmonization of currently used digestion models Infogest meetings highlighted the need for a publication that would provide researchers with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of respective in vitro and ex vivo assays to evaluate the effects of foods and food bioactives on health. Such assays are particularly important in situations where a large number of foods/bioactives need to be screened rapidly and in a cost effective manner in order to ultimately identify lead foods/bioactives that can be the subject of in vivo assays. The book is an asset to researchers wishing to study the health benefits of their foods and food bioactives of interest and highlights which in vitro/ex vivo assays are of greatest relevance to their goals, what sort of outputs/data can be generated and, as noted above, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various assays. It is also an important resource for undergraduate students in the ‘food and health’ arena.
You can not live without proper nutrition, and the digestive system aids in getting that nutrition into your body. Learn about healthy eating and the process of digestion with this great book.
"A Geography of Digestion explores the legacy of the Kellogg Company, one of America's most enduring and storied food enterprises. In the late nineteenth century, company founder John H. Kellogg was experimenting with state-of-the-art advances in nutritional and medical science at his Battle Creek Sanitarium. At the same time, he was involved in overhauling the form and function of the broader landscapes in which his health practice was situated. Innovations in food-manufacturing machinery, urban sewer infrastructure, and agricultural technology came together to forge an extensible geography of his patients' bodies, changing the way Americans consumed and digested food. In this novel approach to the study of the Kellogg enterprise, Nicholas Bauch asks his readers to think geographically about the process of digesting food. Beginning with the stomach, Bauch moves outward from the sanitarium through the landscapes and technologies that materialized Kellogg's particular version of digestion. Far from a set of organs confined to the epidermal bounds of the body, the digestive system existed in other places. Moving from food-processing machines, to urban sewerage, to agricultural fields, A Geography of Digestion paints a grounded portrait of one of the most basic human processes of survival--the incorporation of food into our bodies--leading us to question where exactly our bodies are located"--Provided by publisher.
