Plastics have become an inseparable part of human life.  Offering many benefits, plastics have over time made our lives so much easier.  Contributing to some of the greatest advancements in modern technology, plastics are low cost, durable, and rapidly produced in a wide variety of products and have largely replaced wood, glass, and metal. Being used worldwide, the global annual output of plastic products reached a staggering 400,3 million metric tons in 2022.  China has emerged as the leading producer of plastics, accounting for 32% of global plastic materials, with the rest of Asia accounting for an additional 19%.  North America accounted for another 17% of global plastic production, about the same as Europe. The booming plastic production has also

Ancient man’s lifestyle of walking long distances daily in search of food and shelter, typified by opportunistic eating and either fasting or feasting, also meant that they had to go for long periods of time without food when none was readily available.  It makes you wonder if the human body was originally designed to have three square meals a day, with snacking on demand. The bodies of our ancestors must have been able to function without food for irregular and extended periods of time.  The body fortunately still has biological survival mechanisms that gets activated when deprived of food for extended periods. Modern man practices fasting for health reasons or for cultural or religious beliefs, such as the Ramadan fast

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that occurs naturally in the body.  It is essential for the creation of every cell in the body, as cholesterol is an essential component of cell membranes, where it provides fluidity to allow transporters, such as those for glucose and hormones, to transverse cell membranes.  Cholesterol is a precursor for the making of the most important steroid hormones in the body, such as cortisol, oestrogen, testosterone, and many others.  Cholesterol is also essential for making bile acids, which help with the digestion of food. Where does cholesterol come from? The cholesterol in our bodies comes from two different sources, it is either made “afresh” in the cells, a process referred to in biological terms as

When we eat, food gets broken down (digested) in the gut.  Digested food is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, supplying energy and nutrients to the body.  The body is made from organs and trillions of tiny, microscopic cells, which work together to keep us alive.  Our health relies on this community of organs and cells working together and looking after each other.  As nutrients in the bloodstream reach the cells, chemical reactions take place and molecules are built up, broken down, and used for energy.   Chemical reactions happen continuously inside cells, which converts the nutrient from the food we eat into molecules that are useful for the cells.  Life needs energy and chemical reactions in the cells extract