Fact 4: One dodgy protein = one mad cow

We have all heard of mad cow disease or BSE, but I bet you never knew that it isn’t caused by a bacteria or a virus but by one infectious protein or prion. Prions naturally occur in the body in the cellular form, where one of their functions is to help maintain parts of the nervous system. This cellular form however sometimes changes, and becomes “scrapie inducing” (scrapie is basically BSE but in sheep and goats). This dodgy prion is bad news! It acts as a template and goes around converting “good” cellular prions to bad ones! The problems happen because these bad prions cause plaques of fibrous protein to accumulate in the brain – this leads to memory loss, dementia and confusion (= mad cow). So, this is obviously bad news for a cow, but how do we get it? Simple, eat the cow. And how did the cow get it? You guessed it, it to probably ate dodgy beef. And why did the cow eat dodgy beef – because a lot of animal feed used to be made from waste meat products and bone meal because it was cheap (but as it turns out not so cheerful). BSE is not the only prion disease though; kuru is a disease that is similar in nature to BSE, initially seen in 1957 in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. The difference is this was transmitted by their canabalistic funeral rituals. So, if you ever needed a good reason not to eat your mates – there you have it!

Fact 3: A bit of sunlight could help fight infection, keep your bones healthy, stop diabetes, prevent cancer...

Sunlight seems to get nothing but bad press. Well I thought I’d put that right with a bit of good news for those of you who like to catch a few rays. UVB radiation (from the sun) allows you to produce vitamin D by a fancy chemical reaction in your skin. This vitamin is essential to keep us fit and healthy and has actually been found to play a role in the prevention of a number of diseases. It stops cancer by keeping your cells in check, making sure they don’t start reproducing to fast. It helps to activate a type of immune cell called a macrophage, causing to kill more microbes. Vitamin D, together with calcium is also essential for good bone health (as I’m sure your aware from practically any yogurt advert that’s ever been). And on top of all this, having lots of vitamin D in your body has also been shown to prevent type 1 and 2 diabetes. So there we have, for all its woes, the sun aint to bad after all!

Fact 2: Fat cells make you fatter.

Adipocytes are the cells in your body that store fat, and until a few years ago (well, 10 or 15 years ago) we all thought that was about all they did, but oh no! These little bad boys are one of the most important producers of hormones, and signalling molecules in your body. Leptin is one of the better understood chemicals they produce (there are tons that we really don’t have a clue about). It is thought that leptin is produced after we eat, and it sends signals to the brain causing us to loose our appetite and making us feel energetic – so we want to get of our butts and burn off that 3 shot, extra hot, grande caramel latte and triple chocolate muffin we just had. Now that’s all well and good, but what if your body has problems receiving signals from this chemical? Well that’s what often happens when people suffer from obesity, you just keep on feeling hungry and inactive. So, what dya recon, just an excuse to carry on being lazy or is this really why us Brits just can’t stop eating?

Fact 1: Food and Mutations

Eating certain foods could affect you very differently to another person because of mutations in your genes.

Your genes are constantly changing, this is known as mutation and it is the key to how evolution happens. But evolution aside some of these changes can also affect how your food interacts with your body. Genetics is simple (well it’s not really but for the purposes of this we will imagine it is). Basically your genes are coded for by a combination of 4 letters (each representing a chemical) A, G, C and T. These pair up and form a code. Just one change in this code can make a big difference. There are many examples but one I came across today was a mutation in a protein called methylenetetrahyrdrofolate reductase – we’ll call it MR. This protein is involved in breaking down the nutrient folic acid (look on the side of your corn flakes box) into things the body can use. Just replacing one letter for another in the gene for MR makes it faulty, meaning the body doesn’t get the important chemicals it needs, so much so it can lead to things like heart disease or alzheimers. There you are science fans – your first fun fact! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Geek out!