Mussel consumption could help control obesity, reduce cholesterol, boost antioxidant enzymes and improve male reproductive health, National Taiwan Ocean University researchers have found.
While the high nutritional value and low cholesterol of the common mussel is well known, research indicates that eating mussels could have other health benefits, the university said on Tuesday.
Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy is to publish its paper on the subject in January, the university said.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The Matsu archipelago is the only source of farmed mussels in Taiwan, it said.
The research team said cellular tests and animal trials showed that glycoprotein in mussels could help with weight loss and reducing inflammation, said Kong Zwe-ling (龔瑞林), a coauthor of the paper and chair of the university’s Department of Food Science.
In cellular tests, glycoprotein from mussel extracts were found to inhabit lipid accumulation in rat cells, and reduce triglyceride and cholesterol accretion, Kong said.
When obese rats were fed mussel extract, they lost weight and exhibited reduced levels of triglyceride, cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins in their blood plasma, he said.
The research team reported a reduction of inflammatory agents and insulin resistance in the rats, while there were boosts to superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase enzyme activation, he said.
Animal trials showed that mussel glycoprotein appears to increase testosterone, making male rats more fertile, he said.
The university’s Matsu campus is home to the newly founded departments of marine biotechnology, marine business management, and ocean engineering and technology, university president Chan Ching-Fong (張清風) said.
The university works closely with the Lienchiang County Government and local businesses to improve the value of Matsu fish farming, food industry and tourism, with mussel research being part of the effort, he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,