news 2021

A team led by Santiago Marco, professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering of the UB and member of IBEC, has optimised the use of a technique that analyses, at a molecular level, the present substances in the aroma of food. Therefore, it differentiates, among Iberian ham samples, those pigs that had been fed with acorn and those fed with feed.

Experts from the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar ( SERP ) of the University of Barcelona led a study based on the analysis of the remains of thirty-six dogs from the Bronze Age and the First Iron Age found in the site of Can Roqueta (Sabadell). The study, published in Journal World Prehistory , concludes that the food intake of these animals 3,500 years ago was conditioned by human activities, as it happens nowadays.

Results revealed that the daily pattern for the peripheral temperature was more robust in those individuals that ate from five to six meals a day. This means a higher contrast of temperature between day and night, which shows a more pronounced circadian rhythm, that is, a healthier one. Recerca Having from five to six daily meals regularly is linked to a lower body mass index (BMI).