International congress of multidiciplinary treatment models in eating disorders

Mexico is going to be hosting the 1st International congress of multidiciplinary treatment models in eating disorders in 2010. This event is going to take place in Guadalajara, Jalisco dates 18 to 20 of february and it is directed specially to medical doctors, phycologists, nurses and social workers.

It is going to be a space for all people to discuss and learn about different ways to treat people with these disorders. There are going to be three blocks, each in a specialized in different areas such as the nutritional, medical and phycological.

The costs:

Before december 20th For students is 900 pesos and for general public 1,200 pesos

After december 21 Fur students is 1,200 and for general public 1,500 pesos.

Here is the official web site for further information and take a look at the original poster shown below.

http://www.caita.com.mx/33/present.html

Have you noticed how many calories you drink each day?

People who often watch their weight try to count the calories they consume on each meal, but do they really count the calories they drink?

During the last few years, Mexico’s Secretary of Health has brought together an expert committee who was in charge of developing the Beverage consumption recommendations for the Mexican population. These guidelines were made considering that the percentage of calories drank per day should not exceed 10% of the total calories consumed each day. For example, for someone consuming 2,300 calories each day, they should not drink more than 230 calories.

The issue with beverages is that it takes a long time before our body realize that it is satisfied and do not need to drink anymore. This all reflects in people who consume a lot of extra calories and gain weigh easily and fast! During these last few years Mexicans have increased the consumption of 100 to 300 calories per day only in beverages. This issue can be a factor to develop obesity and diabetes that is why everyone should be careful to count the calories they drink as well !!!

Beverage consumption recommendations for the Mexican population:
There are six levels in the classification of beverages ranged form the healthier (level 1) to least healthy (level 6):
Level 1: Water
Level 2: Skim or low fat milk and sugar free soy beverages
Level 3: Coffee and tea without sugar
Level 4: non-caloric beverages with artificial sweeteners
Level 5: Beverages with high caloric content and limited health benefits like fruit juices, whole milk, and fruit smoothies with sugar or honey.
Level 6: Beverages high in sugar and with low nutritional value like soft drinks, juices, flavored water (in Spanish: Aguas frescas), coffee and tea with sugar added.

So next time we are still deciding what to drink in a meeting, a family meal or just hanging out with our friends try to choose the healthiest choices. It is up to you to keep fit and healthy.

For more information:
Rivera, J; Rosas- Peralta, M et al. (2008) Consumo de bebidas para una vida saludable: recomendaciones para la población Mexicana. Centro de investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica. Cuernavaca, Morelos. México.

4th Asia Pacific Nutrigenomics conference!!!!

Hello everyone, well it is my duty to inform you about this cool event that it is taking place in beautiful Auckland, New Zealand in february of 2010. It is taking place in the University of Auckland and it will address issues in basic research in nutrition, genetics, genomics, epigenetics, epigenomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, the microbiome, gut physiology and immunology.

So basically it is addressed to a lot of people. If you are a scientist, nutritionist, dieticians gastroenterologist, nurse, food scientist, members of the food Industry from managers to technologists or food regulator this conference can be really interesting for you!

If you are interested in how food can affect your health this can be a great opportunity to do that.

For more information access Nutrigenomics organization New Zealand or access directly from the link located in the right column under the title "Upcomming events"
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Genomics, public health and Mexico: What should we know?

Knowledge in human genomic variation in emerging economies is now in spotlight. Many countries in the developing world are nowadays investing in the field of genomics as they realize the importance to public health and economic development in short term.

What are the challenges for Mexico in genomics?
The main goal of genomic medicine is to improve in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, thereby enabling a reduction in health-care costs.

Gathering and meshing genomic information of the Mexican population will help understand specific causes of morbidity and mortality including macular degeneration, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, cancer, infectious and cardiovascular diseases.

The Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) in contribution with Public Health will help through health promotion campaigns aimed at those Mexican sub-populations that have higher risk of developing chronic diseases, based on the results of INMEGEN's genomic and clinical studies.

In case of the private sector, it is intended to foster growth of the local small to medium enterprises (SMEs or in spanish PYMES) trough government initiatives, such as investment in local research and development, which addresses local health needs and can secure a competitive advantage in the knowledge-based economy.

We should be interested in our own genomic patrimony. If we do not carry out studies of our own population then who will? Other countries will be interested on their own population. Imagine if in the future we need genomic information about our own people that is available only in other countries? That is going to cost us, that is why we need to develop our own genomic information. That is what mexican scientists call "genomic sovereignity" This is stipulated in mexican Health Law in order to prevent illegal exchange of genomic information.

Facts
-There are only 0.80 researchers per 1000 labor force in Mexico
- 6.4% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent in health care
-Only 0.33% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was spent in science and technology in 2006
-Weak and insufficient links between the knowledge- based public sector and the private sector
- In 2004, the Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) was created with the support of all political parties in congress, meaning that genomic medicine is a priority for mexican people

There are many things that still need to be considered for this important project, but I we do not start now then when?

If you are interested in Large-scale genotyping projects worldwide nowadays we will soon find resources of the following projects so you can get to know more about them.
- CartaGene (Canada)
- UK Biobank (UK)
- Western Australian Genome Health Project (Australia)
- Singapore Tissue Network (Singapore)
- KoraGen (Germany)

For more information consult the following article: Seguin, B. Hardy, B; et al. Human genomic variation iniciatives in emerging economies and developing countries. Nature reviews. Genetics. Macmillan Publishers Limited. October 2008