Food

From "Parthian chicken" to melitoutta, the flavours of ancient Greece and Rome took centre stage on Ancient Food Day – helping to connect students to the civilizations they study

It was a feast fit for the gods.

Professors, graduate and undergraduate students enjoyed some of the same foods ancient Greeks and Romans served at dinners thousands of years ago at Ancient Food Day, organized by the Classics Students’ Union.

“Ancient Food Day is more than just a culinary festivity,” says Teodora Mladin, president of the student union and a sixth-year student with a double major in classical civilizations and French linguistics who is a member of Trinity College.

“Food is one of the primary ways we share and retain our cultures. So, by indulging in these recipes, we momentarily taste the traditions, stories and experiences of ancient peoples.”

The Classics Students' Union held its biannual Ancient Food Day event earlier this month (photo by Teodora Mladin)

Tasting those traditions included enjoying dishes such as: “Parthian chicken,” cooked with leeks, red wine, dried dates, garlic and cumin; and parsnip fries, cooked with olive oil, honey, apple cider vinegar, cornstarch, celery seed, rosemary, pepper and fish sauce. The event’s organizers said the dishes were very popular in 224 CE.

A plate of asparagus, meanwhile, was prepared with marjoram, which, students said, tastes like smoked fish when mixed with coriander.

There were also plenty of choices for those with a sweet tooth such as enkrides – the ancient equivalent to Timbits. These fried cheese dough balls are cooked in olive oil and then covered in honey. Or there was melitoutta, which are honey cakes that resemble scones. Apparently, this was a dessert deceased souls would bring to the underworld.

Asparagus was prepared with spices to give it a fishy flavour (photo by Sean McNeely)

Attendees also enjoyed “pear patina,” frittatas made with boiled cored pears and prepared with eggs, honey, olive oil, grape juice and white wine, offering both savoury and sweet flavours.

The dishes were washed down with beverages such as “Nectar of the Gods” – a mango-nectar-based drink and a mulled pomegranate drink called “Persephone in the Underworld.” Inspired by the myth of Persephone’s abduction by Hades, its Greek description translates to “fire burning at night,” referring to its spiced quality as well as its dark, glittery colour.

The event was the culmination of weeks of preparation that included searching for original recipes, translating them and then preparing dishes as true to the originals as possible. The group also created placards for each dish that contained the original Greek recipe, the English translation and fun facts.

Each dish was accompanied by a placard with the original Greek recipe (photo by Teodora Mladin)

Izzy Friesen, a fourth-year classics and classical civilizations student, says translating recipes was an enriching experience from both a language and history perspective.

"Getting to translate recipes allowed me to engage with Latin in a different way,” says Friesen, a member of Victoria College. “It was particularly valuable for us to attempt our own translations and look for recipes that caught our eye. It’s useful and exciting for language-learners but not necessarily something we’d get to do in the classroom."

Madeleine Andrasic, a second-year student with a double major in classical languages and history, and a member of University College, also found translating the recipes to be rewarding.

“It really becomes evident that Greeks and Romans saw food in both similar and different ways to us,” says Andrasic. “So much cultural and environmental history can be revealed in these texts, [sparking] further questions about food availability and food preferences in the ancient world."

Pear patina sits next to an apricot dessert (photo by Sean McNeely)

For Tessa Delaney-Girotti, a fourth-year student with a double major in classical civilizations and archeology, preparing the dishes strengthened her connection to ancient peoples.

“It’s not only a unique experience to be able to eat the same kind of food as someone from thousands of years ago, but there’s also something about cooking those recipes, putting yourself into their shoes, that brings to mind the everyday activities of their lives,” says Delaney-Girotti, a member of University College who is vice-president of the student union.

“Most of the time we feel far removed from the people we read about, but this brings a whole new perspective.”

A serving dish of Parthian chicken beside a tray of enkrides (photo by Sean McNeely)

Mladin, too, says gathering to share a meal is a timeless human experience and organizing and hosting Ancient Food Day further connected her to the cultures she’s studying.

She added that the Classics Students' Union has seen so much interest in the recipes that it intends to create an ancient recipe blog.

“The dishes we present are an emblem of history, a testament to the cultural exchanges, advancements and the ever-evolving human story,” she says. “We are reminded of the depth and breadth of the ancient civilizations that shaped the very focus of our department."

Link between coffee and kidney disease may depend on genetic variant, study finds

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:58:11 +0000

Link between coffee and kidney disease may depend on genetic variant, study finds

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 01/31/2023 - 10:58

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(photo by Nitat Termmee/Getty Images)

Jim Oldfield

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Food

Health

Nutritional Sciences

Research & Innovation

Researchers at the ��Ƶ and University of Padova have found that the association between heavy coffee consumption and kidney dysfunction hinges on a common genetic variation.

In a study, the researchers showed that markers of kidney dysfunction were nearly three times higher in heavy coffee drinkers with a variant of the CYP1A2 gene that makes them slow metabolizers of caffeine than for other heavy coffee drinkers who had a different version of the gene that enables faster caffeine metabolism.

Ahmed El-Sohemy

“We think fast metabolizers can eliminate caffeine from their systems more efficiently and avoid harmful build-ups of caffeine,” said Ahmed El-Sohemy, a professor of nutritional sciences in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. “These individual differences in caffeine metabolism help explain why previous studies on coffee and kidney disease have been inconsistent.”

The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, was observational in design and included data from more than a thousand participants in Italy, collected over a decade by Professor Paolo Palatini and colleagues at the University of Padova.

Some previous studies have found that caffeine is associated with impaired kidney function and kidney failure, while others have found that coffee may protect against kidney disease. Few have looked at whether individual genetic differences account for these positive or negative associations.

The amount of caffeine a person consumes also appears to be important. For the current study, risk of kidney dysfunction was only significant in people who drank three or more cups of coffee a day, which is about 300 mg of Italian espresso. Current guidelines in Canada and the US recommend no more than 400 mg per day for healthy adults.

The researchers also found that prevalence of the CYP1A2 gene variant that makes people slow metabolizers of caffeine was similar in both the study group and the general population: roughly 50 per cent.

Many companies and clinics now include CYP1A2 in personalized genetic tests, as different versions of the gene can affect risk for several conditions associated with caffeine consumption.

Sara Mahdavi

“Heart disease, prediabetes and hypertension are all affected by variations in CYP1A2, which can also alter athletic performance,” said Sara Mahdavi, lead author on the study and a former post-doctoral fellow in El-Sohemy’s lab. “We can now be confident that whether or not coffee is deleterious to kidney health depends, in part, on CYP1A2.”

The researchers studied three markers of kidney dysfunction: albuminuria (too much of the protein albumin in urine); hyperfiltration (high glomerular filtration rate in the kidney); and hypertension.

Estimates put the prevalence of kidney disease in Canada at about 13 per cent, with most cases going undiagnosed. Kidney disease is a leading cause of death globally.

“Hopefully, this study will raise awareness about the importance of personalized nutrition recommendations based on individual genetic make-up,” said Mahdavi. “This is an exciting area of research and clinical practice with a very bright future.”

El-Sohemy is the founder and Chief Science Officer of Nutrigenomix Inc., which provides genetic testing for personalized nutrition, including the CYP1A2 gene and caffeine metabolism.

To address iron deficiency in Africa, researcher develops fortified version of popular hibiscus drink

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:06:30 +0000

To address iron deficiency in Africa, researcher develops fortified version of popular hibiscus drink

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 10/19/2022 - 10:06

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Folake Oyewole, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, is developing an iron-fortified hibiscus drink that could help women with iron deficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa (photo by Safa Jinje)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Global Lens

Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Folake Oyewole’s doctoral thesis project was inspired, in part, by the potential health benefits of a refreshing drink: Zobo, a hibiscus-based beverage that is popular in Oyewole’s home country of Nigeria.

“People consume Zobo as a cold beverage in Nigeria because it’s refreshing and claimed to provide many health benefits,” says Oyewole, a chemical engineering PhD candidate in the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“I wanted to ascertain whether these drinks actually add micronutrients to the body, and if they didn’t, whether we could make it so that they did in a way that could be absorbed and used by the body.”

Supported by the Schlumberger Foundation’s Faculty for the Future Fellowship, Oyewole says she has always been interested in value-added processing of food and beverages, particularly ones with ingredients sourced from Nigeria. Her passion led her to join the lab of Levente Diosady, a professor emeritus in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, who specializes in food engineering.

Diosady’s lab group is developing a new way to fortify beverages like Zobo with iron – a mineral that many across Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly women, are lacking in sufficient quantities. The new iron-fortified beverage will make use of hibiscus sourced from Nigeria.

Iron deficiency is the leading cause of anemia world-wide. For women of reproductive age, iron-deficiency anemia can lead to poor health outcomes and pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, postpartum infection and low infant birth weight. In Nigeria alone, the World Health Organization estimates that 55 per cent of women of reproductive age have anemia.

That’s why fortifying foods with iron has been a key focus of Diosady’s Food Engineering Laboratory for years. Past projects have included a double-fortified salt, which in trials of 60 million consumers in India was found to significantly improve the iron status of women.

“Folake’s work continues our goal of improving the iron status of women and infants by providing a natural fortification of a locally produced beverage,” says Diosady. “If properly marketed, this fortified beverage could improve the iron status of women of reproductive age, without medical infrastructure or any change in dietary habits.”

Hibiscus calyces are used to make Folake Oyewole’s cold beverage, which is then fortified by adding ferrous sulphate heptahydrate, an iron salt that tops up the iron already present in the drink (photo by Safa Jinje)

Creating an iron-fortified beverage isn’t as simple as adding some mineral salts into the recipe. Oyewole’s new product needs to account for the unique challenges associated with the dietary habits of the population she is working with.

The human body absorbs iron from well-rounded diets that include meats, eggs and leafy greens, as well as foods fortified with iron. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, many households are limited to eating mostly plant-based diets with very little variety due to the prohibitive cost of iron-rich meat.

On top of this, many plants have an abundance of polyphenols. This family of naturally occurring molecules – which includes flavonoids, phenolic acids and resveratrol – has many disease-fighting properties, including inhibiting cancerous tumor generation and growth. But polyphenols also bind to iron in a way that prevents the latter from being absorbed by the body.

Oyewole’s fortified hibiscus beverage needs to address both the inadequate dietary iron intake, as well as the reduced iron uptake that results from a diet rich in polyphenols.

“The most at-risk groups who are dependent on plant-based diets often don’t realize that they can’t absorb iron efficiently,” says Oyewole.

“This is why when addressing micronutrient deficiencies at the population level through food fortification, it’s really important to choose the right food vehicle. We want to reach this population with something they are familiar with, something they already produce and consume widely so we can predict the consumption pattern of the population.”

It’s also important to choose a food that can be centrally processed so that the iron dosage can be controlled, adds Oyewole. And the fortification process shouldn’t be so expensive that it significantly raises the cost of the food.

Oyewole began her research by analyzing the iron content of the hibiscus calyces – the part of the plant that protects the bud and supports blooming petals – used to make Zobo. While Oyewole found it to be relatively rich in iron, 70 per cent is lost during the extraction process since most of the iron is bound to the residue that is not transferred into the beverage. She also found that the calyces contain 25 times more polyphenols than they do iron.

Oyewole then fortified the beverage by adding ferrous sulphate heptahydrate, an iron salt, to top up the iron already present. Her goal was to provide a total of six milligrams of iron per 250 milligrams – 30 per cent of the target recommended daily allowance for women of childbearing age.

To prevent the iron-polyphenol interaction, she introduced disodium EDTA into the beverage. Previous results in the lab suggest that this substance can release iron from the iron-polyphenol complex and make it available to be absorbed by the body.

Oyewole is also working on ensuring that her iron fortification method will preserve the organoleptic properties of the original beverage – that is, the flavour, texture and colour.

“Iron has a very distinct, metallic taste, so another layer of my work is to make sure that the sensory properties of the fortified beverage – the taste, mouthfeel, aftertaste and colour – matches the original,” she says. “Otherwise, we risk formulating a fortified beverage that will be rejected by the consumer.”

Once this is achieved, the next step will be to form partnerships with stakeholders, including government agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa, to make the fortified beverage accessible for the target population.

“Working in the Food Engineering Laboratory has been a great privilege,” Oyewole says. “From an outside perspective, it may seem like we just add micronutrients to food and that’s it. But there are a lot of complexities with the materials we are dealing with, including preventing unwanted interactions between the food vehicle and the added micronutrients.

“Our research outcome has the potential for significant impact globally. Invariably it challenges poverty, increases productivity and promotes health – it is all intertwined.”

A simple, eco-friendly chocolate-hazelnut spread? 'Real food only' startup has you covered

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 23:40:16 +0000

A simple, eco-friendly chocolate-hazelnut spread? 'Real food only' startup has you covered

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 08/30/2022 - 19:40

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Mounib Real Food Only, a startup founded by U of T Scarborough alumna Iman Mounib, makes a spread consisting only of hazelnuts, honey and organic, fair-trade cocoa powder (photo courtesy of Iman Mounib)

Topic

Iman Mounib’s chocolate-hazelnut spread – made of just three local ingredients – is a refreshing take on the iconic breakfast topping.

The ��Ƶ Scarborough alumna’s startup, Mounib Real Food Only, sells a spread made only of hazelnuts, honey (courtesy of local Mennonite communities) and organic, fair-trade cocoa powder – with a vegan option that swaps honey with organic cane sugar.

The company also sells a chocolate and peanut butter spread (with its own vegan edition), and offers an almond-chocolate version at its farmers’ market booths.

“The end goal is to create an alternative that’s beneficial for your health and tastes really good,” Mounib says. “All of our spreads are good for your health and good for the planet.”

Mounib began developing the skills needed for her business early in life – in part because she grew up in a low-income household. “We didn’t have healthy, affordable options,” she says, “and that was big in inspiring me to start making my own foods at home.”

In addition to running her startup, Iman Mounib works as a marketing manager at the yogurt company Yogen Früz (photo courtesy of Iman Mounib)

Health issues later forced Mounib to stop eating refined sugar, but she still craved her favourite sweets: Nutella and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – both of which inspired flavours for her spreads. So, she started making her own versions with what would eventually become her three-ingredient recipe.

Today, Mounib Real Food Only products are sold in almost 20 restaurants, cafes and stores in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as at one location in Ottawa. Most retailers sell the jars themselves, but two locations use the spreads on breakfast items such as bagels and lattes. The company also appears weekly in the Woodbridge, Leslieville and Roundhouse famers’ markets in Toronto, and sells the spreads on its website.

The company’s glass jars, lids and labels are all purchased in Canada; Mounib even exclusively hires local graphic designers. Customers can also return the jars for reuse through the company’s in-house recycling program. The only plastic is in the legally required food seal, though Mounib is trying to find a workaround. She’s also trying to make the label biodegradable.

“As cheesy as it sounds, I really do believe that however you impact the environment impacts your soul,” Mounib says.

There are 46 startup companies currently operating out of The Hub at U of T Scarborough (supplied photo)

Mounib’s approach has been shaped by Ontario farmers. For six years, she spent every Saturday at a farmers’ market, helping sell baked goods from her friend’s local bakery. After the pandemic shut the market down in 2020, Mounib began selling her own products on Instagram, where her so-called “healthy Nutella” took off. In December 2021, she officially launched her company.

“Farmers are entrepreneurs too,” she says. “That farmers’ market taught me that even if you’re spending a little bit more to source local, the impact is so much better for the environment and the community.”

Mounib initially used her own kitchen and blender to make spreads. Now, she has a facility in Toronto, her own employees and an industrial blender. She’s working with The Hub, U of T Scarborough’s entrepreneurial incubator, to scale the business up and get into as many GTA cafes, grocery stores and restaurants as possible.

“Mounib has overly impressed me, she’s spinning really fast,” says Donovan Dill, interim director at The Hub.

Next, Mounib says she wants to expand throughout Canada before tackling U.S. cities such as New York and Miami – and beyond.

Student-run program helps redirect surplus food to those in need

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000

Student-run program helps redirect surplus food to those in need

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/26/2022 - 11:02

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Ana Laura Noda González, a second-year student, is co-leading the U of T chapter of MealCare, which partners with campus eateries and grocery stores to collect, redistribute and deliver surplus food to local shelters and meal programs (photo by David Lee)

Tina Adamopoulos

Topic

Our Community

Adams Sustainability Celebration

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Entrepreneurship

Faculty of Arts & Science

Upon moving to Toronto, Tamara Altarac and Ana Laura Noda González were shocked by the mountain of food thrown away every day in Canada’s largest city – even as many residents face ongoing barriers to food access.

“Coming to the city, I got to see how people interact with food here and how it is taken for granted,” says Altarac, who is studying criminology and cognitive science at the ��Ƶ.

She adds that it is a similar story on campus, where “I saw a similar pattern as in the wider city.”

So, she and Noda – both second-year undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science – sought a way to tackle the problem.

Enter MealCare, a non-profit organization whose mission is to decrease food waste and fight food insecurity in Canada. MealCare teams up with partners such as campus cafeterias, restaurants and grocery stores to collect, redistribute and deliver surplus edible food to shelters and soup kitchens, while ensuring food safety. Volunteers also sort, weigh and record food waste data to help businesses track waste-management and their weekly, monthly and yearly trends.

The initiative was originally founded by Sanchit Gupta and Milton Calderon Donefer when they were first-year undergraduate students at McGill University. Similar to Altarac and Noda, the two co-founders wanted to build a sustainable solution while helping people in need.

“We wanted to address these two large social issues of food waste and insecurity,” says Gupta, who is now operations lead at MealCare and a second-year medical student in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“In having conversations with other large-scale food donations companies like Second Harvest, we found that there is still a gap in cutting food waste for small and medium-sized grocery stores and university cafeterias.”

One in seven Canadians face food insecurity, yet a study for Second Harvest found that nearly $49.5 billion worth of food is wasted annually in this country – enough to feed every person living in Canada for five months. MealCare is hoping to break this cycle by ensuring surplus food doesn’t end up in landfills – and by building awareness about how Canadians can reduce their food waste footprint through workshops and events.

“MealCare is providing a meaningful solution by contributing to sustainability while helping people find food security, a basic human right,” says Noda, a 2020 Pearson Scholar from the Faculty of Arts & Science who will lead U of T’s MealCare chapter with Altarac.

“We also want to spread awareness and education about how to maintain practices to reduce waste – and it's all a community effort.”

MealCare recently took home the top $10,000 award from the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize Competition. The annual competition – which offers $25,500 in prizes and is part of the annual Adams Sustainability Celebration – was established to fuel U of T start-up companies that present innovative solutions to sustainability. The second-place $7,500 prize in the competition went to Arbre, an environmentally-friendly sun care brand producing dry shampoo for all hair types. The $5,000 third-place prize was scooped up by the Yayra-Si Youth Foundation, an early-stage NGO which seeks to empower women and youth in Ghana with equal access to economic, educational and health development through the manufacture of Banana Fiber Bags, a sustainable alternative to plastic bags.

The three $1,000 runner-up prizes, meanwhile, were awarded to: Reper Technologies, which turns post-consumer plastic waste into polyethylene precursors, providing waste collectors with landfill alternatives for contaminated plastic waste and plastics manufacturers with recycled material identical to virgin plastics; BioBlends Diesel Solutions, a biofuels and diesel company providing Albertan farmers with high-quality recycled fuels at discounted prices; and Lente, a one-stop-shop for ethically produced slow-fashion brands.

As for MealCare, the startup has delivered more than 50,000 meals to people in need since inception – and continues to function in the midst of a global pandemic. The initiative is operated by more than 100 student volunteers at universities in eight cities in Ontario and Quebec.

“We decided to create hubs around universities and leverage young talent who are passionate about these issues and want to address them in their local communities,” Gupta says.

Altarac and Noda are building a team of volunteers to help operate the project before expanding to U of T Scarborough and U of T Mississauga.

The pair have already secured a partnership with U of T Food Services and hope to secure another one with the ��Ƶ Students’ Union (UTSU). That, in turn, would allow them to create a program that will see surplus food donated back to the U of T community, including the U of T Emergency Food Bank.

The university’s food bank currently provides fresh food to 50 students per week – but Altarac and Noda want to help more people.

“We believe we can help expand this program,” Altarac says.

From the university’s perspective, the MealCare partnership is part of a broader U of T effort to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and build a sustainable, climate positive St. George campus. By addressing the often invisible – and stigmatized – barrier of food insecurity among students and reducing hunger, MealCare is helping contribute to the second SDG of zero hunger.

“When MealCare approached us, it was an important opportunity to work with a student-led organization on campus that would address something that is real and happening in our community, which is food insecurity,” says Colin Porter, executive director of U of T’s ancillary services.

“Food Services continues to look at how we can play our part in building towards a climate-positive campus and this is one for us in terms of reducing our environmental impact and salvaging food for its intention – to feed people.”

MealCare plans to use the money raised through the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize to develop analytics software for food vendors to track their food waste efforts. It also hopes to expand into eight new cities and grow the footprint of its current chapters – including at U of T.

To that end, the Toronto-based team will purchase essential equipment for handling and transporting food, including packaging, coolers and backpacks.

As Altarac and Noda work to launch MealCare’s U of T chapter, they are already thinking about its potential long-term impact.

“The main thing we want to do is establish a sustainable relationship with the university and make a difference, not just on campus but in the city,” Altarac says.

“The goal is to look back years from now and know we’ve made a difference.”

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:12:19 +0000

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/25/2021 - 09:12

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Researchers looked at at more than 3,800 lobbying interactions in the three years before the Child Health Protection Act failed and found that over 80 per cent were by industry (photo by Chalisa Thammapatanakul/EyeEm via Getty Images)

Jim Oldfield

Topic

Our Community

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition

Food

Marketing

Nutritional Sciences

Research & Innovation

Researchers at the ��Ƶ have found that food industry interactions with government heavily outnumbered non-industry interactions on Bill S-228, also known as the Child Health Protection Act, which died in the Senate of Canada in 2019.

The researchers looked at more than 3,800 interactions – including meetings, correspondence and lobbying – in the three years before the bill failed. They found that over 80 per cent were by industry, compared to public health or not-for-profit organizations.

They also found that industry accounted for over 80 per cent of interactions with the highest-ranking government offices, including elected parliamentarians and their staff and unelected civil servants.

“Industry interacted with government much more often, more broadly and with higher ranking offices than non-industry representatives in discussions of children’s marketing and Bill S-228,” said principal investigator Mary L’Abbé, a professor in nutritional sciences and at the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The study was published in the journal CMAJ Open this week.

The researchers drew data from Health Canada’s meetings and correspondence on healthy eating database, which was set up in 2016 and details the type and content of interactions between stakeholders and Health Canada on nutrition policies. They also used Canada’s Registry of Lobbyists, which tracks the names and registrations of paid lobbyists but provides limited details on the content of the meetings.

“We’re fortunate to have access to this information in Canada, as it offers insight into the story of government bills,” said Christine Mulligan, a doctoral student in L’Abbé’s lab and lead author on the study. “Industry stakeholders bring important viewpoints, but the volume and breadth of their lobbying on this bill was clearly disproportionate, especially compared to public health.”

The food industry has a long history of effective lobbying in Canada and other countries, and a growing body of research has documented both that extensive influence and the need for policy-makers to be aware of it when creating policy that promotes the health and safety of all citizens.

Health Canada met with industry 56 per cent of the time regarding the 2016 Healthy Eating Strategy, researchers at the University of Ottawa found last year. During the creation of the recent Food Guide, Health Canada restricted industry lobbying – so effectively that industry persuaded officials at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to lobby Health Canada on their behalf, as the Globe and Mail and other organizations reported.

Mulligan says the disparity in interactions with government among stakeholders was even greater for S-228, and that it marks a stark contrast between this bill and interactions on the Healthy Eating Strategy more broadly.

Industry lobbying has also been prominent on a stalled bill to introduce front-of-package labelling that would inform consumers about foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat, said L’Abbé, who advised Health Canada on both bills and the Healthy Eating Strategy.

L’Abbé said that more transparency on interactions with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and other federal departments would help, as would more detail in the Registry of Lobbyists. All stakeholder comments related to proposed regulations are part of a public docket in the U.S., and some groups have called for a similar approach in Canada.

“We desperately need better management of the consultative process on legislative bills for public health policy in the public good,” said L’Abbé.

The research was funded by the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

U of T Mississauga recognized as Canadian leader for commitment to fair trade

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 18:38:14 +0000

U of T Mississauga recognized as Canadian leader for commitment to fair trade

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 01/21/2020 - 13:38

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Students take a break for a meal at U of T Mississauga, which is the first university campus in the country to receive a silver designation from the non-profit Fair Trade Canada (photo by Scott Norsworthy)

Topic

The ��Ƶ Mississauga has become the first campus in Canada to receive a silver designation from Fair Trade Canada.

The designation by the national non-profit organization helps cement U of T Missisauga’s reputation as a leader in sustainable and progressive food services. In 2016, U of T Mississauga also became the first campus in Canada to offer a gluten-free food station.

“UTM has a commitment to sustainability, so it makes sense to incorporate that goal into food services on campus,” says Sarah Holden, project manager for the fair trade initiative and a marketing and communications strategist with U of T Mississauga’s Hospitality & Retail Operations team.

“This commitment to fair trade provides the UTM community with dining options that support the rights of producers and standards for environmental protection.”

The Fair Trade Canada program supports small-scale farm organizations that meet specific social, economic and environmental standards. Working with certified suppliers helps ensure better prices and working conditions for farmers and workers in the program.

U of T Mississauga achieved a bronze designation from Fair Trade Canada in 2016 by offering fair trade teas, coffees and sugar at catered events and non-branded food outlets across campus, and using fair trade ingredients in its kitchens. The initiative proved so successful that U of T Mississauga’s Hospitality & Retail Services team was encouraged to pursue the next level of designation.

To meet silver designation requirements, culinary director and chef Donna Tobias expanded the program, launching a Fair Trade Café in Maanjiwe nendamowinan and a new Fair Trade Corner in the revamped Meeting Place. Now, all tea and coffee offered at non-branded campus food stations are certified fair trade, including an expanded menu of loose leaf and bag teas. Sugar offered at the stations is also now exclusively supplied by fair trade-certified producers, as is the cinnamon and cocoa used in kitchens. In some cases, U of T Mississauga has surpassed the requirements set by Fair Trade Canada, such as offering five types of fair trade chocolate instead of the required three. Fair trade beverage supplier Doi Chaang Coffee Company supported the educational requirement by hosting coffee tasting and information sessions.

Tobias has been instrumental in supporting the program by sourcing fair trade suppliers for food services and in developing recipes to support the program. In the fall, she developed a bespoke granola bar recipe that uses 80 per cent fair trade and local ingredients, including cocoa, sugar and cinnamon – plus honey from the U of T Mississauga bee hives. Tobias hopes to make the signature treat available in the coming months.

“We believe in supporting local and sustainable food options. Using fair trade ingredients is part of that commitment,” Tobias says, noting that she also hopes to offer a fair trade fruit in 2020.

“We are committed to providing more options for fair trade goods,” adds Holden, who says the team is investigating suppliers to offer more fair trade goods, including cotton clothing, metals for graduation jewelry, wine and even sporting equipment such as soccer balls and volleyballs. “The UTM community has responded positively, so we know that this is something they care about,” she says.

To celebrate the new silver designation, U of T Mississauga will host a Fair Trade Fair on Jan. 28 in the Great Hall in Maanjiwe nendamowinan where the UTM community can sample fair trade treats and buy goods from certified fair trade vendors.

Does sugar raise blood pressure? It depends where it comes from, U of T researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 14:01:16 +0000

Does sugar raise blood pressure? It depends where it comes from, U of T researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 12/13/2019 - 09:01

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A study by U of T researchers suggests that sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful, but the same can't be said for fruit, small amounts of pure fruit juice and dairy and grains with a small amount of sugar added (photo by Robin Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Topic

Research & Innovation

St. Michael's Hospital

Combined data from over two dozen nutrition studies show that while sugar-sweetened drinks are linked to elevated blood pressure, healthier foods that contain some sugars do not share the same relationship – and in fact may have a protective association when it comes to high blood pressure, according to ��Ƶ researchers.

Sugar-sweetened beverages were linked with a 10 per cent increase in blood pressure (also called hypertension) in the review, which pooled results from more than 900,000 participants in the other studies. Fruit, small amounts of 100 per cent fruit juice, and dairy and whole grains with moderate amounts of added sugar all showed some protective associations with hypertension, the researchers found.

The findings were published this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“The food source matters,” says John Sievenpiper, an associate professor in the department of nutritional science in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine and principal investigator on the study.

“Many dietary guidelines for sugar are based on evidence that sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful, but we shouldn’t necessarily extrapolate that to whole fruit, or low-fat yogurt or a whole-grain cereal that contains sugars.”

The results should provide some relief to consumers and patients concerned about high blood pressure, and who may count teaspoons of sugars in the many foods they eat over the course of a day, Sievenpiper adds.

“We’re seeing more patients in the clinic asking if they should give up sugars, and some even wonder if they should give up fruit,” says Sievenpiper, who is a staff physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital. “That focus on single nutrients can interfere with overall eating patterns that can be healthy, especially in the context of the DASH diet, which is a very fruit-forward diet for the treatment of hypertension.”

The DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) emphasizes whole fruits, including fruit juice, and vegetables, low-fat dairy, including sweetened yogurt, whole grains, legumes and nuts with lower amounts of meat, sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets. It has been shown to reduce blood pressure significantly.

The DASH diet and findings from the current study fit well with the new Canada Food Guide and recent dietary guidelines from Diabetes Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, says Sievenpiper. “There’s been a move away from prescriptive limits on specific nutrients towards broader patterns of eating that emphasize whole, unprocessed foods,” he says. “It’s a more liberal, modern approach, which also allows for moderate amounts of fat, sugars and salt.”

The study follows a similar analysis by Sievenpiper and colleagues earlier this year, which found that sweetened drinks elevated the risk for gout, but fruit did not. The group has preliminary results from related analyses of other cardio-metabolic risks and outcomes, including obesity, diabetes and heart disease; results from these analyses appear mostly consistent with the current findings on sugars and hypertension.

The researchers graded the certainty of evidence from studies in their current meta-analysis as low and in some cases very low. This was due in part to the observational nature of many of the studies, which can confound research findings. Consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages, for example, often have other lifestyle habits that raise their health risks, and researchers struggle to control for those habits.

Large, randomized, controlled trials offer a higher quality of evidence, but they are uncommon in nutrition research – often due to ethical concerns and the difficulty of following subjects over a long period of time.

Sievenpiper and his colleagues call for more research on sugars and cardiovascular health, but say results from their study show clear signals that sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with increasing the risk of hypertension and that whole fruit and nutritious foods with moderate amounts of added sugars can be part of a healthy diet.

“Foods are more than their nutrients,” Sievenpiper says. “They are complex matrices and we can’t simply predict the effect a food will have based on a single nutrient.”

The study received support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, PSI Foundation, Canadian Diabetes Association, St. Michael’s Hospital and U of T’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre.

A food blogger’s guide to Toronto’s best on- and off-campus eats

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 04:00:00 +0000

A food blogger’s guide to Toronto’s best on- and off-campus eats

noreen.rasbach Fri, 08/23/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

Food blogger and influencer Joanna Luo, an alumna of U of T Mississauga, is a connoisseur of Toronto cuisine (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

Buttery hotpot. Crispy sweet-and-sour pork. Creamy strawberry shortcake. This year, ditch the go-to fast food picks and treat yourself to all the delicious and diverse food options that the ��Ƶ’s three campuses have to offer.

Food blogger and influencer Joanna Luo walks us through her favourite places to eat near U of T’s three campuses. The U of T Mississauga alumna is no stranger to the Toronto food scene. As the creator and editor-in-chief of Toronto Diary, a food blog with around 700,000 followers across its various social media channels (WeChat, Weibo, Instagram and Facebook), she is a connoisseur of Toronto cuisine.

U of T News met with Luo to solicit her expert advice on finding tasty eats around the Greater Toronto Area. Here is Luo’s curated guide to dining near the St. George campus, U of T Mississauga and U of T Scarborough.

Grey Gardens restaurant (photo by Steve Russell/Toronto Star/Getty Images)

St. George campus in downtown Toronto

Luo frequents areas like Kensington, Chinatown and Baldwin Village – all within walking distance from campus – for their wealth of budget-friendly eats. “You are so lucky if you graduate from U of T downtown,” she gushes, praising the ubiquity of good food around campus.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

“This brand is so popular in Japan,” Luo says of Hokkaido Ramen Santouka. With a new location that’s a 15-minute walk from campus, this is the perfect spot to try authentic Japanese cuisine.

Liuyishou Hotpot

Head to Chinatown for Luo’s go-to hotpot spot. Liuyishou Hotpot has over 1,000 locations worldwide, one of which is fortuitously close to campus at Dundas and Spadina. The restaurant serves its most popular hotpot dish with a quirky twist: an intricate cow-shaped pat of spicy butter that’s added for flavour. “[They start with a] spicy soup base…and they put the butter-cow in the pot to cool down the soup,” Luo explains.

LeTAO

People know and love Uncle Tetsu (which itself is within walking distance of U of T) – but Luo’s favourite place for Japanese cheesecake is LeTAO, one subway stop away from campus.

Grey Gardens

For students looking for a drink after a long day of classes, Luo recommends Grey Gardens in Kensington Market. The restaurant boasts upscale ambience, unique cocktails and a fully stocked wine bar. “Their food is delicious, too,” Luo adds.

While Luo recommends students venture beyond campus for meals, you don’t need to go far to eat well. U of T’s St. George campus has shifted its food platform toward options that are healthy, sustainable, diverse and delicious. Now you can get a variety of offerings, from ramen to pesto pasta and butter chicken, without ever leaving campus.

Learn more about on-campus food options on St. George campus

U of T Mississauga

Luo says that while the St. George campus is brimming with nearby restaurants, the other two campuses may require a short drive to reach the good stuff – but it’s worth the extra mileage.

Apricot Tree Café

The Apricot Tree Café is a less than ten-minute drive from campus, with delicious eats that will satisfy any craving and an open-concept kitchen where patrons can watch their food being prepared. “Their crepe is really good,” Luo says.

168 Sushi Buffet

The 168 Sushi Buffet is a popular student hangout, and for good reason. For $30 and a short 10-minute drive from campus, you can feast on all-you-can-eat sushi, as well as other delectable Japanese dishes.

French Corner Patisserie

Luo suggests you follow your sushi dinner with dessert at the nearby French Corner Patisserie. “I always go there to buy strawberry shortcake – it’s really good,” Luo raves. “The strawberries are so fresh and the cream is handmade, not just some cream you buy from the supermarket.”

U of T Mississauga students don’t need to rely on a drive for good food, however – there are tons of tasty on-campus offerings as well. From locally grown vegan dishes at Vegilicious to gluten-free Asian-fusion picks at Fusion 5, there is something to whet everybody’s appetite.

Learn more about on-campus food options at U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

YuanYuan Restaurant

Luo recommends Scarborough’s YuanYuan Restaurant, located less than a 10-minute drive from campus. “Their popular dish is Tianjin-style crepes,” Luo says, explaining that these speciality crepes are made with flour and egg and filled with sauce and youtiao (strips of deep fried dough). “This is very traditional food in Tianjin,” Luo says. The dish is perfect for those seeking something unique: “The texture is crispy and a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy,” she adds.

The Old House Chinese Restaurant

The Old House is another tasty option near campus. “They are famous for their sliced fish,” Luo says. She recommends supplementing the dish with lvdagun, a popular Chinese snack that Luo describes as a “red bean rice cake.”

For those of you staying on campus, there are a host of tasty on-campus eats to accompany your off-campus outings, from curry dishes to burrito bowls and more.

Learn more about on-campus food options at U of T Scarborough

Toronto’s diverse food scene

Toronto is bursting with hidden culinary gems and nascent food phenomena just waiting to be discovered. Luo recommends the sweet-and-sour pork at Fantasy Eatery to anyone looking for eclectic eats. The piping hot pork is served in a dish of ice cubes, so the sweet-and-sour sauce instantly solidifies, creating a crispy shell for each piece of meat. “[Usually] you need to eat fried [pork] immediately,” Luo explains, “but for this dish…when it cools down and you eat it, it’s still crispy.”

Luo encourages students to take advantage of the diversity of Toronto’s culinary scene. She recalls her surprise at finding a traditional Hungarian restaurant (such as this one) where she could order beef goulash soup, after having sampled the dish in Hungary. “That’s why I really love Toronto,” she says, “because it is multicultural and you can try different countries’ food here.”

While many of Luo’s picks are meat- and carb-heavy, Toronto is full of vegan and health-conscious options. Near the St. George campus, Luo suggests Whole Foods (a 15-minute walk) for groceries, Calii Love (a 20-minute walk) for takeout and Early Bird (a 25-minute walk) for a sit-down meal. She recommends Early Bird’s eggs benedict – the Hollandaise sauce is made with beets, adding a pop of pink colour to your brunch plate. “I love this place,” Luo says. “The presentation is so beautiful…and [the food is] so healthy.”

From writing papers to writing restaurant reviews

Luo double majored in economics and history at U of T Mississauga, where she made the transition from student with a hobby to full-time food blogger. Her studies helped her navigate the media world of tight deadlines and cramped schedules: “time management is really [important] and [U of T] taught me…how to make good use of my time.”

Luo emphasizes the importance of considering the cultural and historical narratives behind the food you eat, and is grateful that her time studying history has made her a more mindful eater. She recalls blogging about a food market in Korea’s Jeju Island where she sampled omegi-tteok, a type of Korean rice cake native to the region. Learning about the snack’s history shaped the story Luo shared with her followers beyond the food’s taste and presentation.

“A long time ago, the Jeju people in Korea were so poor…[that they] had no money to buy rice,” Luo explains, “so they used other food materials to [create] this snack”. Omegi-tteok is made using millet, which, unlike rice, can be cultivated locally despite Jeju’s rocky terrain and harsh climate. Luo aims to continue telling the stories behind the food she promotes and hopes to inspire others to consider the implications of what they consume.

When asked what her go-to food place was as a U of T Mississauga student, Luo laughs and answers, “to be honest, Tim Hortons”. For her, the coffee shop’s cheapness holds its allure: “I liked to order the chicken noodle soup combo, with sweet tea…and a muffin – so cheap.”

While many students similarly rely on economical staples for the bulk of their on-campus sustenance, Luo encourages students to break that habit this year and take full advantage of the GTA’s booming food scene.

Read last year's picks by food writer and CBC Metro Morning contriubutor Suresh Doss

The future of meat is shifting to plant-based products: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 13:21:55 +0000

The future of meat is shifting to plant-based products: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/17/2019 - 09:21

Cutline

Demand is hot for plant-based food options like the lentil-based veggie burger seen here (photo by Shutterstock)

Topic

Rotman School of Management

U of T Mississauga

With summer just around the corner, it’s not just the weather heating up in Canada. The plant-based foods sector is also starting to sizzle.

Consumers are increasingly following the advice of the new Canada Food Guide, which highlights the nutritional benefits of protein sources like nuts, beans, legumes, pulses and tofu in place of meat, eggs, fish and dairy products. And these eating habits are expected to stick, with a recent report anticipating that up to 60 per cent of “meat” may come from non-animal sources by the year 2040.

Consistent with these shifts in consumer preferences, plant-based meat company Beyond Meat recently saw its stock price surge almost 40 per cent, after its first performance report as a publicly traded company revealed far better-than-expected sales.

This is the same company that also enjoyed one of the hottest initial public offerings of the year, rising more than 150 per cent on its first day of trading earlier this year. Overall, the stock’s price is up about 400 per cent since its debut.

Restaurants, grocers offer plant-based foods

Adapting to shifting consumer preferences, several Canadian restaurant chains have introduced plant-based items to their traditionally meat-laden menus. When A&W Canada launched the Beyond Meat Burger last fall, restaurants across the country sold out within days and took months to restock sufficient supplies to ensure a smooth relaunch.

Tim Hortons now sells vegan breakfast sausages, Quesada introduced tacos made with veggie meat and Earl’s has launched its own Beyond Burger as well as a new vegan menu.

Canadian grocery stores are now stocking Beyond Meat, and some are developing their own in-house options (photo by Shutterstock)

Canadian grocery stores are also catering to consumers’ predilection for plant-based meats. Last month, mainstream supermarkets across the country began carrying the Beyond Burger, with some opting to place the product not in the health food aisles but instead in the butcher section alongside steaks and ribs.

And some retailers have additionally developed their own in-house varieties of plant-based foods, including the President’s Choice selection of veggie burgers, chicken-less fingers and beef-free crumble. Furthermore, shoppers now face an embarrassment of riches in the dairy section, with anyone seeking to avoid cow’s milk enjoying a choice of beverages made from soy, almond, coconut and oat.

These developments are indicative of a sea change in the market for vegan foods, with demand coming not just from vegetarians. Meat eaters, too, are drawn by the lower health risks associated with non-animal sourced proteins, a desire to reduce the environmental impact of their food choices and concerns about animal welfare.

A backlash

But some industry groups are attempting to push back against the plant-based food movement. In January, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency received a complaint about non-dairy products “being labelled as ‘cheese’ when they are allegedly not.”

A cheese by any other name would taste as cheesy? Tofu feta is on the offer in this photo (photo by Shutterstock)

Likewise, the Quebec Cattle Producers Federation recently expressed concern that calling veggie burgers “plant-based meat” is misleading to consumers, noting that the regulatory definition of meat is “the carcass of a food animal, the blood of a food animal, or a product or by-product of its carcass.” Yum?

But studies support the view that consumers are not the least bit confused by the use of monikers such as “milk” or “meat” in reference to plant-based foods. This makes sense, given the products’ labels tend to feature prominent information about their origins. And so prudent producers and retailers are preparing for the future by catering to consumer preferences for these foods rather than fixating on the past.

An important lesson emerges from another industry that faced a major shift in consumer demand. When digital photography was emerging as a new technology, a then-leader of the photography sector, Kodak, faced a difficult choice.

The company could cannibalize its own camera film sales to become an early leader in the digital space, which would be painful but potentially lucrative. Or it could try to postpone the inevitable and cling to a fading technology. Kodak chose the latter path, and the competition ate their lunch.

Now tech companies like Panasonic, Sony and Samsung stand alongside Canon and Nikon to dominate the world of digital photography, leaving Kodak a mere shadow of its former self.

Forward-looking meat-producing companies must reframe their thinking to recognize that they are in the protein production business. With many consumers avoiding animal-sourced protein, the opportunity emerges to shift focus to developing and producing alternate types of food.

Adapting to the future

The federal government stands ready to facilitate such changes, recently introducing more than $150 million in funding for the Proteins Industry Canada “supercluster,” aiming to encourage farmers and entrepreneurs in the Prairies to use new technology to increase the value of Canadian crops such as canola, wheat and pulses.

Another reason such a shift makes sense is the fact that raising animals as food is expensive. To produce a pound of animal-based protein requires many more pounds of crops and litres of water than are needed to produce a pound of plant-based protein.

With a surge in demand for commodities like peas, which are a key ingredient in products like the Beyond Burger, savvy Canadian farmers and producers are pivoting to adapt. Industry giant Maple Leaf Foods, for one, recently announced an investment of US$310 million to expand their plant-based offerings.

With all of these changes, investors in companies that are in the business of producing plant-based food stand to be winners, as does anyone who aims to enjoy the taste and texture of meat without the downsides of conventional meat.

Lisa Kramer is a professor of finance at the ��Ƶ.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A food blogger’s guide to Toronto’s best on- and off-campus eats

St. George campus in downtown Toronto

Learn more about on-campus food options on St. George campus

U of T Mississauga

Learn more about on-campus food options at U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Learn more about on-campus food options at U of T Scarborough

Toronto’s diverse food scene

From writing papers to writing restaurant reviews

Read last year's picks by food writer and CBC Metro Morning contriubutor Suresh Doss

Read more about Back To School at U of T

The future of meat is shifting to plant-based products: U of T expert

Restaurants, grocers offer plant-based foods

A backlash

Adapting to the future