Essay: India Hangings

Since the beginning of time women have been consider fragile, weak and even useless, they were always left in charge of the house and to taking care of the kids, because men considered that they were not capable or strong enough to hunt or to complete any other tasks as well as a man could do them.

Based on that, violence against women arose and nowadays it is something really common and almost "normal". That's what my notice is about, in the past weeks in India young women have been raped by gangs and then hung in trees causing them death. Until now there have been 4 of these cases and protestants have come out to the streets demanding justice and no more violence against women.

Sometimes, I wonder why people like these gangs act like that, why they do that. I know that scientifically talking there are reasons why they behave in that ways, like a mental disorder or a hormonal deficiency, but maybe they're trying to express something, to let us know something they can't put into words, as if they were protesting something. Maybe it is sort of a revenge to something they lived, like a rough childhood or anger towards their mother... There can be many other reasons, but I'm almost sure that there's something behind their behavior.

Weekly Topic #3: Anorexia nervosa

I chose this topic because I think every person knows what anorexia is, but not everyone knows exactly where it comes from, or that it is not only about eating, it is about how you feel and think.

Questions

1. Which are the phsicological/mental reasons why people suffer from anorexia nervosa? 

2. What are the external causes of anorexia?

3. Which are the main symptoms?

- Signs and Symptoms

- Causes

- Diagnosis

- Treatment

Signs and Symptoms

The first sign, is obviously, self-starvation; that's around 600 - 800 calories per day, sometimes even less. After that, comes anemia and/or hypokalaemia, a significant drop of potassium in the blood, the can cause fatigue, constipation, muscle damage and paralysis.

Amenorrhea, maybe purging, hypotension, halitosis and hair loss are some of the physical signs. However, there are physicological signs as well, like: depression and rapid mood swings. Patients with anorexia nervosa have also exhibit OCD.

Causes

There are 3 causes: biological, that can be genetic or obstetric causes, serotonin dysregulation, cerebral blood flow, etc. Sociological, such as cultural factors and promotion of thinness. And a relationship to autism.

Diagnosis

There are medical and psychological ways to diagnose anorexia. The medical way is through many kinds of genetic, blood or urine tests. On the other side, the physicological way, that consist on treating the patient with sessions and teaching them the habit of good nutrition.

Weekly Topic #2: Organic Food

In these weekly posts, I'll be choosing different topics related to nutrition. This is one of the topics I'm most interested in, and never really digged in it, so, I'm taking this opportunity.

Questions

1. When is food "organic"?

2. Which are the benefits of consuming organic products?

3. Where can I find these?

- Origin

- Differences between organic and conventional products

- Health and Safety

- Economics

Origin

Organic products are produced using methods of farming without the need of pesticides (only non-chemical ones, such as Bt toxin) and chemical fertilizers. They also aren't processed by the industry.

This movement began in the early 1940s and later was known as the Green Revolution.

Diferences between organic and convencional products

Studies have shown differences in nutrients, anti nutrients and pesticide residues between organic products and conventional products. These studies can't prove anything concrete because of the variability in the methods of studying the products. However, a 2012 survey didn't find any significant differences in vitamin content of organic and conventional products. Such as, vitamin A, vitamin C, beta-caroten and Vitamin E. This same study revealed that there's approximately a 7% of pesticide residues in some of the conventional food.

Health and Safety

There's still no scientific evidence of benefit or harm to human health from consuming organic food, and doing this sort of study is really difficult, because of many factors, like metabolism, allergies, age, disease, socioeconomics, etc. A 2009 analysis showed that in 83% of the studied people there was a antioxidant activity change.

Economics

Organic food is primarily demanded by people who are concerned about their personal health and the environment. Global sales went really high since 2002. Organic products cost 10 - 40% more than the conventional ones.

Organic food accounts for 1-2% of total food production worldwide. Apparently this market is growing really fast, especially in the United States and Europe.

Weekly Topic: Metabolism

Questions

1. How does the metabolism exactly works?

2. What controls the metabolism?

3. Which are the substances involved in the process?

- Key Biochemicals

- Catabolism

- Anabolism

- Xenobiotics

Key Biochemicals

Amino Acids (proteins): Many proteins are enzymes that catalyze the chemical reactions in metabolism. 

Carbohydrates: they are the main providers of energy of the cells.

Lipids (fat): after carbohydrates, they are providers of energy of the cells too.

Catabolism

Is the responsible of breaking down large molecules. The purpose of this is to provide the energy needed by anabolism. This includes digestion and energy transforming.

Anabolism

This is where the energy provided by the action of catabolism is used to synthesize complex molecules. Complex molecules make up cellular structures. It involves three basic stages.

Xenobiotics 

These are damaging compounds to which the human organism is always exposed, and cannot be used as food or be transformed to energy. For example, drugs, medicine, natural poisons, etc.

I've always been into anything that has to do with nutriology, therefore, I am interested in this topic because I think that this is the most intriguing and wonderful body mechanism.