Narrow Results

Future Foods for Health: Innovations in Dietary Modifications for Diabetes.

Kosmode Health: Technology that Expands Access to Health from Nature.

Halal Certified Food: Processing, Technology and Regulations.

Food waste is rich in organic molecules with desirable chemical or physical properties, such as poly/oligosaccharides, proteins, lipids, and bioactives or antioxidants, which can be exploited as high-value products. Using extraction or upgrading techniques (such as chemical, physical, or biochemical) to produce the desired product can open opportunities for natural alternatives to many existing synthetically derived products, such as those which rely on fossil fuels. This can include additives to enhance flavour, aroma, colour, or texture, supplements, or functional foods with nutraceutical benefits and positive effects for human health, as well as new fabrics and materials. These products can be used by many different sectors: food and beverage, wellness, cosmetics, fashion, domestic products, packaging, and construction. Although many such opportunities have been identified, research is still in its infancy, and therefore significant challenges exist for commercialisation (scale-up, logistical, regulatory, and evaluation of overall environmental impact). However, achieving valorisation through integrated biorefinery concepts could provide tremendous opportunities to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels and step towards a circular economy.

Now growing at a rate of over 5% per annum, the $3 billion ‘alternative health therapies’ business is now positioned in the top ten growth industries in Australia. With poor regulation of both therapeutic goods and the unregistered therapists who promote them, cancer patients may well be putting their health at risk when they place their faith in many so-called ‘natural’ or ‘traditional’ treatments. With a focus on what complementary therapists refer to as ‘energy medicine’ and ‘nutritional medicine’, this chapter explores the risks and benefits of some of the more popular alternative health-care choices. While investigating their histories, it outlines what influences cancer patients to try these unproven therapies, and the conflict and contrast in information relating to the claims made for them and the conclusions of evidence-based research. Although there are a number of complementary therapies that are of benefit to some patients, both during and after their cancer treatments, ‘natural’ does not always equal ‘safe’, may be expensive and may even compromise their health. More patients now want a greater say in their choices of treatment, and selecting complementary therapies that may help is another of the many challenges faced in trying to make informed choices, as we navigate along our individual roads on our journeys to recovery.