Seagrass: £24.m project launched to restore 'wonder plant' to Scotland's coasts
The new initiative is a partnership between the Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund (SMEEF) and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).Grants have been awarded to four organisations that cover areas from Shetland to the Kintyre peninsula.These are Mossy Earth's Wilder Firths project (based around the Black Isle), Kintyre Coastal Network's East Kintyre Biosphere, Wester Ross Fisheries Trust's seagrass planting project and Restoring Shetland's Marlie Meadows - a project by the University of the Highlands and Islands.Seagrass is home to a vast number of species, and is a food source for many others.It also takes in CO2, making it useful in tackling climate change.The partnership said Scottish seas are a special place for marine habitats like seagrass, with the country's coasts stretching 18,000km (11,185 miles) and containing 8,000 species or more.
SMEEF is hosted by NatureScot, whose chief executive Nick Halfhide said the programme was an example of business and the public sector "joining forces" to "improve the health of our seas, helping to tackle the nature and climate emergencies".He said: "Nature and climate are closely linked; if one is suffering, the other will be as well."So we need to take care of our seas, and our seagrass, and restore nature at scale."Shirley Robertson, SSEN's head of strategic planning and sustainability, said the support of the four organisations involved will enable the "vital" restoration of seagrass.She said: "The positive contribution of seagrass to the environment cannot be underestimated, which is why at SSEN we made the commitment in our 2023-28 business plan to help fund the restoration of these underwater meadows."Scotland's acting net zero and energy secretary Gillian Martin said: "It is great to see this investment by SSEN into seagrass restoration, which will benefit wildlife and coastal communities all around Scotland and which really demonstrates the value of SMEEF as an innovative vehicle to attract investment into nature."Tackling the twin nature and climate crises cannot be achieved by any government alone - securing private investment is vital to meeting the scale of these challenges."
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The Herald Scotland
37 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
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Powys County Times
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- Powys County Times
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North Wales Chronicle
10 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Eating fewer ultra-processed foods could boost weight loss, trial suggests
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Dr Dicken said: 'Though a 2% reduction may not seem very big, that is only over eight weeks and without people trying to actively reduce their intake. 'If we scaled these results up over the course of a year, we'd expect to see a 13% weight reduction in men and a 9% reduction in women on the minimally processed diet, but only a 4% weight reduction in men and 5% in women after the ultra-processed diet. 'Over time this would start to become a big difference.' Those on the trial were also asked to complete questionnaires on food cravings before and after starting the diets. Those eating minimally processed foods had less cravings and were able to resist them better, the study suggests. However, researchers also measured others markers like blood pressure, heart rate, liver function, glucose levels and cholesterol and found no significant negative impacts of the UPF diet. Professor Chris van Tulleken, of the UCL division of infection and immunity and UCLH, said: 'The global food system at the moment drives diet-related poor health and obesity, particularly because of the wide availability of cheap, unhealthy food. 'This study highlights the importance of ultra-processing in driving health outcomes in addition to the role of nutrients like fat, salt and sugar.' The Eatwell Guide recommends the average woman should consume around 2,000 calories a day, while an average man should consume 2,500. Both diet groups had a calorie deficit, meaning people were eating fewer calories than what they were burning, which helps with weight loss. However, the deficit was higher from minimally processed foods at around 230 calories a day, compared with 120 calories per day from UPFs. Professor Rachel Batterham, senior author of the study from the UCL centre for obesity research, said: 'Despite being widely promoted, less than 1% of the UK population follows all of the recommendations in the Eatwell Guide, and most people stick to fewer than half. 'The normal diets of the trial participants tended to be outside national nutritional guidelines and included an above average proportion of UPF, which may help to explain why switching to a trial diet consisting entirely of UPF, but that was nutritionally balanced, resulted in neutral or slightly favourable changes to some secondary health markers. 'The best advice to people would be to stick as closely to nutritional guidelines as they can by moderating overall energy intake, limiting intake of salt, sugar and saturated fat, and prioritising high-fibre foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses and nuts. 'Choosing less processed options such as whole foods and cooking from scratch, rather than ultra-processed, packaged foods or ready meals, is likely to offer additional benefits in terms of body weight, body composition and overall health.' Commenting on the study, Tracy Parker, nutrition lead at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'These findings support what we have long suspected – that the way food is made might affect our health, not just the nutrients it contains. 'The way this study was designed means it is more reflective of real-world conditions than previous research on ultra-processed foods. 'Unlike earlier observational studies, this was a randomised controlled trial where participants were provided with all their meals, and the diets were carefully matched to meet the Eatwell Guide – this allowed researchers to isolate the effect of food processing itself, making it more likely that the differences seen after eight weeks were due to how the food in their diets was processed, not just what was in it. 'Completely cutting UPFs out of our diets isn't realistic for most of us, but including more minimally processed foods – like fresh or home cooked meals – alongside a balanced diet could offer added benefits too. 'Mediterranean-style diets, which include plenty of minimally or unprocessed foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils and wholegrains, have consistently been shown to reduce our risk of heart attacks and strokes.'
