Hair is a more reliable source than food surveys to assess what we consume.
- Hair is a new way to assess a community’s diet and its health risks.
It may come as a surprise, but analyzing your hair can tell if you’re a vegetarian or a meat lover. As wicks are constructed from amino acids from food, they are “a new way to assess a community’s diet and its health risks,” explain researchers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
According to their new study, people in poorer areas of the United States have hair higher in protein from corn-fed animals, and are more likely to suffer from obesity.
Samples at the hairdresser
To achieve these results, the scientists collected nearly 700 samples from hairdressers in 65 different American cities. “This type of measurement is not biased by the recollections of respondents during dietary surveys. welcome the researchers. Hair should become the benchmark”to understand the food choices of different age groups and different socio-economic groups.”
Low in lysine and tryptophan, two essential amino acids, excessive corn can trigger a disease called pellagra, which causes eczema, diarrhea and – in the most severe cases – dementia. For several years, corn has also been at the heart of the debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because of the genetic modifications that have been made to it, potentially dangerous for health.
The links between nutrition and health
More generally, the links between nutrition and health are better and better known, and the risk of developing many diseases – cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes – can be increased by a poor diet.
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