Changing Food Consumption Patterns and Land Requirements for Food in the Six Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria

Research on food consumption in Nigeria has mainly focused on food intake, household diversity, and purchasing power. We investigated a knowledge gap for food consumed by households and the land requirements for food resulting from household consumption patterns. The food consumed and the household size determine the land requirement for food. Therefore, a quantity-based analysis and a land demand methodology were applied to derive household food quantity and land requirements for food respectively. The results show that a greater percentage of household income is spent on cereals and starchy roots as the main source of calories and that cowpea is a secondary food option for households. In addition, households are changing their dietary intake from rice to maize and rice to cassava and yams as a cheaper alternative and experts’ measurements of food security at the household level indicates that households in our study are moderately food insecure. Other findings showthat the country’s specific and per capita land requirements for food have gradually increased between 2000 and 2018. Across the six geopolitical zones, Northern regions with higher populations have high land requirements for food, especially for rice and maize (cereals), while Southern regions have high land requirements for cassava and yams (starchy roots) due to their respective consumption and household sizes. In addition, from our study, the land requirements for food show the actual cropland area of South South fed 5000 households. Consequently, a scenario analysis shows that the land requirements for food in our study exceeds the entire geographical area of Nigeria. Therefore, continued population growth without improved living standards and adequate food production output per hectare will further exacerbate food insecurity and land shortage in Nigeria.

On eco-evolutionary dynamics of phenologies in competitive communities and their robustness to climate change

Global changes currently cause temporal shifts in the favourable conditions for different phases of species life cycles. Phenologies characterizing temporal presence, may adapt through heritable evolution in response to these changes. Given a community context, this evolution may cause a change in the phenology overlap and thus a change of interspecific interactions such as competition. Using a model in which phenologies compete and coevolve, we study the conditions under which diversity emerges, as well as their annual distribution. We find that the environment richness (food quantity, light, pollinators, etc) and competition constrain the diversity and spread of phenologies. A robust pattern of phenologies distribution emerges consistent with Swedish flowering observations. Once a stable community is reached, we apply a progressive change in environmental conditions. We found that adaptation eventually restored diversity, but that the simulated change often led to numerous extinctions due to increased competition. The percentage of diversity lost depends on the speed of change and on the initial diversity. Phenologies already pre-adapted to the new environmental conditions drive the restoration of diversity after the change. We finally study a spatial version of the model in which local communities are organized along an environmental gradient. Pre-change, allowing dispersal decreases the local adaptation of phenologies to their local fixed environmental conditions. Dispersal however largely enhances the maintenance of biodiversity in changing environments, though its benefits are not homogeneous in space. Evolution remains the only rescue mechanism for southern phenotypes.

Investigation of Food and Relative Risk Probability of Having Five Different Diseases, Including Diabetes Using Collected Food Data Over A 6.5-Year Period Based on GHMethod: Math-Physical Medicine (No. 492)

The author is a professionally trained mathematician, physicist and engineer. His view of health and medicine is similar to his past experience on designing a physical object, such as a building structure or a working machine, which he calls an “object”. The object’s strength or its expected lifespan is similar to the health conditions and longevity of a human being based on the following three key factors: (1) The original strength of the object’s material which is similar to the genetic factors of a human body. (2) The engineering design and site construction of this object are similar to the fundamental influential causes, including lifestyle details, life-long habits, and environmental factors, on the human health. Among those external causes, if the author has to pick up one category which has the most influence above of all that is the “food”. (3) The object endures different operational problems due to external forces or impacts which are similar to various diseases suffered by humans. After the object experiences external forces or impacts, we use some structural reinforcements to fix the building’s damaged cracks or replace the malfunctioned part of the machine. These engineering actions are similar to the “medical treatments” doctors provide patients. The medical treatments, including medication interventions (oral drugs or biochemical injections), necessary surgeries, or certain organ transplants are similar to the engineering repair of the damaged object. This article emphasizes the relationship between causes and results such as symptoms of diseases. It particularly addresses the inter-relationship of 5 selected diseases: cancers, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), chronic kidney diseases (CKD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and type 2 diabetes (T2D), where the most important cause for most diseases is “food”. This food category in his study contains 25 defined elements include input data of food are collected via the developed iPhone APP. There are 5 elements for “Food Quantity”: breakfast amount, lunch amount, dinner amount, amount of between-meals snacks and fruits, and the average daily food consumption amount. In addition, there are 20 selected elements for “Food Quality” (see Figure 1). The combined Food score is the average value of both food quantity score and food quality score.

Relationship Between Lifestyle in Relation to Food Quality, Food Quantity and Exercise Versus Estimated Risk Probabilities of Having 5 Metabolic Disorder Diseases Using 8 Pathologies of Metabolic Syndrome’s Intra-Cellular Pathways and Collected Data Over 6.5 Years Based on GH-Method: Math-Physical Medicine (No. 497)

The author was a professionally trained mathematician, physicist and engineer. His view of health and medicine is similar to his past experience on designing a physical object such as a building structure or a working machine, which he calls an “object”. The object’s strength or its expected lifespan is similar to the health conditions and longevity of a human being based on the following three key factors: (1) The original strength of the object’s material which is similar to the genetic factors of a human body. Generally speaking, the genetic (not “epigenetic”) portion only contributes 15% to 30%, approximately 20% or less, of having various chronic diseases. (2) The quality of engineering design and construction or manufacturing of this object are similar to the fundamental influential causes, including lifestyle details, life-long bad habits, and environmental damaging factors on human health. Among the external causes, one category that has the most impact on health is food, particularly with processed foods causing the most damage. Therefore, he tries to exclude all kinds of processed foods from his own food category. (3) The object suffers from different operational problems due to external forces or impacts which are similar to various diseases affecting humans. After the object suffers from external forces or impacts such as an earthquake or hurricane, we must use some structural reinforcements to fix the problems or replace the malfunctioned parts of the machine. These engineering after-actions are similar to the medical “treatments” post-injury/infection provided to patients by doctors. The medical treatments include medication interventions (either oral drugs or biochemical injections), necessary surgeries or organ transplants, which are similar to the engineering repair of the damaged object. Nevertheless, all type of medical treatments bring some degree of traumatic effects on the human body. In addition, up to now, there are no medications which can cure chronic diseases induced by metabolic disorders. The different medications given to patients only suppress the symptoms of different chronic diseases and do not deal with the root causes. Therefore, they are not able to reverse, repair, or cure chronic diseases.

Variable Fitness Response of Two Rotifer Species Exposed to Microplastics Particles: The Role of Food Quantity and Quality

Plastic pollution is an increasing environmental problem, but a comprehensive understanding of its effect in the environment is still missing. The wide variety of size, shape, and polymer composition of plastics impedes an adequate risk assessment. We investigated the effect of differently sized polystyrene beads (1-, 3-, 6-µm; PS) and polyamide fragments (5–25 µm, PA) and non-plastics items such as silica beads (3-µm, SiO2) on the population growth, reproduction (egg ratio), and survival of two common aquatic micro invertebrates: the rotifer species Brachionus calyciflorus and Brachionus fernandoi. The MPs were combined with food quantity, limiting and saturating food concentration, and with food of different quality. We found variable fitness responses with a significant effect of 3-µm PS on the population growth rate in both rotifer species with respect to food quantity. An interaction between the food quality and the MPs treatments was found in the reproduction of B. calyciflorus. PA and SiO2 beads had no effect on fitness response. This study provides further evidence of the indirect effect of MPs in planktonic rotifers and the importance of testing different environmental conditions that could influence the effect of MPs.

Feeding performance of the larval stag beetle Aegus chelifer (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) explains adult body size variation and sexual dimorphism

In stag beetle larvae, food availability is considered a major cause of body size variation in adults, but this has not been explicitly tested. To evaluate wood use and the effects of food quantity on growth and adult body size, the feeding performance of the tropical stag beetle Aegus chelifer MacLeay (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), which is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, was investigated by rearing larvae with different food quantities. Apparent digestibility was approximately 9%, and the efficiency of conversion of ingested food ranged from 0.7% to 1.7%. Feeding period, total food consumption, and adult body size significantly increased alongside food quantity. Males had higher consumption rates than females did at the same larval weight due to shorter food retention time. Males showed greater variation in feeding, growth performance, and adult body size than females. Differences in feeding performance that depend on food availability may enhance their fitness and may further result in sexual differences and adult body size variation.

Changes in Adolescents’ Dietary Intake Following the Initiation of an 8-Week Exercise Program

Purpose: To assess changes in dietary intake of adolescents following an 8-week aerobic exercise program. Methods: Twenty-six adolescents (14–18 years) participated in an 8-week aerobic exercise program on cycle ergometer at their high school in Quebec, Canada. Twenty-four hour recalls were collected pre- and post-intervention. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA and paired sample t-tests were used to assess differences in energy and dietary intake parameters (food quantity, diet quality, eating patterns) between pre- and postintervention. Results: A decrease in total daily energy intake (–287.8 kcal, P = 0.007), in meal size at lunch (–110.1 g, P = 0.02) and dinner (–143.7 g, P = 0.03), in food density at breakfast (–1.8 kcal/g, P = 0.04), in daily carbohydrate intake (–56.1 g, P = 0.005), and in percentage of energy intake consumed at school (–5.1%, P = 0.04) were observed following initiation of an aerobic exercise program. No change in healthy eating index scores or percentage of energy from processed foods was observed. Conclusions: Changes in energy intake, food quantity, and eating pattern but not diet quality (Healthy Eating Index or food processing scores) were observed following the initiation of an aerobic exercise program. Nutrition interventions may be needed, in addition to an exercise program, to target diet quality and promote healthy eating habits in adolescents.

Effects of nitrogen enrichment on zooplankton biomass and N:P recycling ratios across a DOC gradient in northern-latitude lakes

We used data from whole-lake studies to assess how changes in food quantity (phytoplankton biomass) and quality (phytoplankton community composition, seston C:P and N:P) with N fertilization affect zooplankton biomass, community composition and C:N:P stoichiometry, and their N:P recycling ratio along a gradient in lake DOC concentrations. We found that despite major differences in phytoplankton biomass with DOC (unimodal distributions, especially with N fertilization), no major differences in zooplankton biomass were detectable. Instead, phytoplankton to zooplankton biomass ratios were high, especially at intermediate DOC and after N fertilization, implying low trophic transfer efficiencies. An explanation for the observed low phytoplankton resource use, and biomass responses in zooplankton, was dominance of colony forming chlorophytes of reduced edibility at intermediate lake DOC, combined with reduced phytoplankton mineral quality (enhanced seston N:P) with N fertilization. N fertilization, however, increased zooplankton N:P recycling ratios, with largest impact at low DOC where phytoplankton benefitted from light sufficiently to cause enhanced seston N:P. Our results suggest that although N enrichment and increased phytoplankton biomass do not necessarily increase zooplankton biomass, bottom-up effects may still impact zooplankton and their N:P recycling ratio through promotion of phytoplankton species of low edibility and altered mineral quality.