New Discovery to Influence Food Preference in Brain, Gene-Manipulated Salmon and Canning Ground Meat
Welcome back to my weekly review in which I share three interesting things I have learned this week.
We can Influence Food-Choice Preference in the Brain!
Scientists just figured out how to influence specific neurons in the brain allowing them to shift food choice preferences in rats. By targeting the neurons, they were able to change the food choice preference from a desired stage to a less-desired one. Two years prior to this experiment, the same team found that the brain region which might influence different food preferences is called the ventral pallidum. This is interesting research and gives us a better understanding of how we crave foods. More info can be found here.
Gene-Manipulated Salmon is Here!
I am sure you have heard that we are currently overfishing around the globe. This is a huge issue since fish are an important food source for people and crucial for ecosystems to function properly. To tackle this, a company called AquaBounty thinks it has found a possible solution: genetically-engineered salmon. They call their creation AquAdvantage, which has undergone gene-editing to make the fish grow much faster. In 2015, the FDA approved the breeding and land-based farming of this salmon with the understanding that they would be sold as food in the US. However, last week the U.S. District Court for the Northern Dirstrict of California judge ruled that the FDA did not analyze a scenario in which the new salmon could escape into the wild and survive. The fear is that these new salmon could threaten normal salmon populations and ecosystems around the globe. Read the full story here.
Canning Ground Meat!
I have always looked at canning meat as a useful, traditional preservation method. However, for some reason, this is something people rarely talk about these days. All the canned meat I have had in the past has been cubed pieces, but this week I learned that it is possible to can ground meat as well. The following recipe works for beef, pork, elk or venison. Check it out here.
