How Important Are Wild Foods To The Survival Of Humans?

Communities who live in rural locations often gather their vitamins and minerals from foods that are grown in the wild. Now, doctors are saying that the diet and nutrition habits of those who forage for foods such as roots, leaves and wild eggs could be vitally important, and something that we could all learn a lesson from.

 

These types of wild foods are often overlooked when considering the serious topic of maintaining a healthy diet for all, but they could be vital to wellness and wellbeing. When there are times of food insecurity, these types of food remain as a constant – a food that can be accessed by many.

 

A recent conference on Forests for Food Security highlighted the importance of these natural kind of wild foods, and emphasised the important role that these could play in bringing adequate nutrition to millions of people in food crisis. Unfortunately, as well as being vital, these food sources are also under threat, and it is important that they are recognised as important to wellbeing so that they can be protected for future generations.

 

Wild foods include nuts, mushrooms, leaves, fruits, roots, animals and animal products and eggs. Research carried out in Tanzania into the use and effects of wild foods showed that whilst these contributed just two percent to the amount of energy required in the daily diet, they contributed more than 30 percent of the requirement of vitamin A, 20 percent of the requirements for vitamin C, 19 percent of the iron requirement and 16 percent of calcium.

 

This shows that despite not being enormously helpful for dealing with problems of food shortages in terms of starvation, wild foods can be vital to help people maintain adequate nutrition when food is scarce.

Categories: foods, survival, wild

Breast Cancer in The UK - How Does it Compare?

According to new research, the UK is lagging behind other countries in Europe in terms of cancer-female/">breast cancer survival rates. With the decreasing rates, in comparison to international standards, it seems that the UK is lacking the facilities and treatment centres to keep the rate of survival cases in keeping with those in Europe. The research shows that fewer women survived this form of cancer than in Australia, Norway, Spain and Canada. Currently, the survival rate in the UK for three-year survival is between 87 to 89 percent, compared to between 91 to 94 percent in the other four countries.

The UK isn’t the only destination with disappointing figures though, according to the data. Denmark also has similar results – however, unlike Britain, this is associated to the majority of women being diagnosed too late. Researchers claim that the reasoning behind the survival rates are very different for both countries. In the UK, while women are being diagnosed at the same stages as in other countries, the survival is lower at the same stages of the disease in women. The reasons behind this need to be investigated in order to find out how medical experts can boost the rates to help more women fight the disease.

The results of the research were interesting – it was discovered that older women fighting cancer-female/">breast cancer in more advanced stages were likely to be treated less aggressively in the UK than in other locations. Researchers noted that the results have offered key information in how the survival gap for cancer-female/">breast cancer can be closed. Early diagnosis remains to be one of the key ways to help fight the disease, so if you think you may have symptoms of the disease, it is vital that you seek advice from your GP who can determine whether or not further tests need to be carried out.

Breast Cancer in The UK - How Does it Compare?

Categories: breast cancer, cancer, countries, Rates, survival, survival rate, survival rates, treatment, Women