Features

Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016
Pp. 305 

Spanning two continents and nine generations, Yaa Gyasi unfolds a family saga that is by turns thrilling, heartbreaking and inspiring. This is no ordinary family but one divided by the vicissitudes of colonialism and slavery. While one branch of the family remains in Africa, the other is transported into slavery in the United States.

“Homegoing” is a historical novel, but more than simply illustrating slavery’s long-term effects on Africans and African-Americans, Gyasi makes one feel the experience with her vibrant prose, a set of unforgettable characters, and her recreation of African culture and how it morphed into African-American culture. 

In an Asante village, Maame, the family matriarch, tells her daughter, Esi: “Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves”. (p. 38)

Obviously, this wisdom is ignored by colonialism, but with Britain’s penetration of what is today Ghana, Fante and Asante chieftains seem to forget it as well. Faced with an unknown enemy and lured by the chance to enrich themselves, they begin selling their fellow Africans to British slave traders. While the British stay safely ensconced in the Castle on the coast, the chieftains compete for their favours, weakening the fibre of their own society.

It all starts with a greedy, superstitious mother who marries Effia off to a British slave trader in a ceremony where the girl must “repeat words she didn’t mean in a language she didn’t understand”. (p. 16)

This keeps Effia in Africa, but irrevocably sunders her from her own people. She is also in for some terrible shocks. Living in the castle, she hears the moans of slaves kept in the dungeons below, but little does she know that one of them, Esi, is her sister — Maame, not the woman who married her off, being her real mother. Esi’s transport to America marks the family’s definitive division. From then on, the stories of the two branches are told in alternating chapters, generation after generation.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the members of the family experience tragedies and alienation from their original culture. While the fate of those sold into slavery is most horrible, those who remain in Africa suffer from escalated tribal wars incited to provide more captives to be sold.

But successive generations produce brave souls ready to defy their fate. Esi’s daughter, a slave on a cotton plantation in Alabama, sacrifices herself to procure her son’s freedom. Effia’s grandson leaves an arranged marriage and crosses the tribal divide to marry an Asante woman who is also eager to break out of the mould. Having lost her brothers in tribal wars, she declares, “I will be my own nation.” (p. 99)

The next generations in America discover that freedom is contingent. The son who escaped to the North has his life turned upside down by a new law allowing the recapture of escaped slaves. Even after slaves are emancipated, his son is arrested on false pretexts and sold to work as convict labour in the coalmines. He “could hardly remember being free, and he could not tell if what he missed was the freedom itself or the capacity for memory” (p. 162).

By now, memories of Africa have faded, and the next generations struggle to make a life despite racial discrimination, enforced poverty, lack of jobs, availability of drugs and the unjust criminal justice system — conditions which still prevail, making Gyasi’s story of more than historical relevance. 

Meanwhile, back in Africa, young women are also seeking freedom but discover the difficulties of defying tradition. One is caught between savouring Gyasi’s poignant prose and compulsively reading ahead to see if any of them reach fulfilment and if the two branches of the family will meet.

Marjorie, the last of the African line, is a voracious reader who spends three years searching for a book “that she can feel inside her”. (p. 270) 

“Homegoing” is such a book, for Gyasi is a gifted storyteller, adept at describing the world from unexpected angles to create a you-are-there effect and make one think about things in a new way. With so many characters, one might expect each to be sketchy, but for all the expansiveness of her plot, Gyasi never sacrifices depth. Each major character is full-blown and their environment is described in concrete detail, whether it is an African village, a southern plantation or New York City. Knowing that the author was born in Ghana and raised in Alabama may partially explain how she so deftly captures the landscapes and cultures of both Africa and America. 

While most of the characters are victimised in one way or another, they are so much more than victims. There are great talents and strengths on both sides of the Atlantic, and great loves — between man and woman, parent and child, and between kindred spirits who may not be related, for despite the focus on family, Gyasi’s subtext is that it is not blood lineage but how one leads one’s life that matters.

WILLISTON, Vermont — At Tomorrow’s Harvest farm, you won’t find acres of land on which animals graze, or rows of corn, or bales of hay. Just stacks of boxes in a basement and the summery song of thousands of chirping crickets.

It’s one of a growing number of operations raising crickets for human consumption that these farmers say is more ecologically sound than meat, but acknowledge is sure to bug some people out.

Once consumers get beyond the ick factor, they say, there are a lot of benefits to consuming bugs.

“We don’t need everybody to eat insects,” said Robert Nathan Allen, founder and director of Little Herds, an educational nonprofit in Austin, Texas, that promotes the use of insects for human food and animal feed. “The point we really like to highlight with the education is that if only a small per cent of people add this to their diet, there’s a huge environmental impact.”

Cricket fans say if only 1 per cent of the US population substituted even just 1 per cent of their meat consumption with insects, millions of gallons of water in drinking and irrigation would be saved, along with thousands of metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions from machinery and animals.

At least one study finds the claims overstated that crickets are a viable protein source to supplement or replace meat, but bottom line, it generally takes fewer resources to raise and harvest crickets than, say, cattle.

Interest in entomophagy — the consumption of insects — was fuelled in part by a 2013 report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations on the viability of edible insects to help curb world hunger.

Since then, the number of producers of food containing crickets, from protein bars to chip, has jumped from zero to about 20, and cricket farms for human food have grown to about half a dozen in the United States, Allen said.

The protein-packed food can be ground into powder and added to other foods or eaten whole, dried, sauteed and spiced. Crickets have a nutty or earthy flavour that’s masked by other flavours in protein bars.

Self-described adventurous eater Matthew Monroe, 53, of Portland, Oregon, said he’s fond of blueberry-vanilla Exo bars containing cricket flour and dines on them when he gets that “protein bar jonesing feeling”. They also taste better than other protein bars, he said.

There’s no problem selling crickets as long as manufacturers ensure the food they produce for the US market is safe, and complies with all relevant laws and Food and Drug Administration regulations, including proper labeling.

Raising crickets doesn’t take much space, but there are complexities.

Stephen Swanson, proprietor of Tomorrow’s Harvest, said he constantly checks conditions — water, food, temperature, air flow and humidity — in the basement where he’s raising roughly half-a-million crickets.

Swanson, who just started selling cricket protein powder online, hopes to get into a warehouse where some of the work could be automated.

“The sky’s the limit. This is the stone age right now as far as insect farming,” he said. “So we have nowhere to go but up.”

Kevin Bachhuber knows that firsthand. He started the first US cricket farm for human food in the Youngstown, Ohio, area, according to Allen. It operated until lead in his water supply prompted him to close it, Bachhuber said.

Now, Bachhuber said, he is helping new cricket farmers get started or existing farms that raise crickets for reptile feed and fish bait get up to food grade standards.

“For the first couple years, you know, we always struggled with having enough supply. Now that we’re starting to be able to add some of these older farmers into our supply chain. ... It’s not quite so heavy pressure,” Bachhuber said.

The first US academic conference devoted to insects for food and feed was held in Detroit in May. Now the young industry is forming The North American Edible Insect Coalition , a trade group, with the priorities being research and public education.

“Half the battle if not more is educating people why. You can’t just say, ‘Eat crickets, please.’ You have to tell them why,” Swanson said.

Many breastfed infants may not get enough vitamin D because their mothers prefer not to give babies supplement drops, a study suggests. 

Paediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants until at least six months of age because it can reduce babies’ risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, childhood obesity and diabetes.

Because breast milk typically does not contain enough vitamin D to help infants develop healthy bones, the American Academy of Paediatrics advises nursing mothers to give their babies daily supplements of 400 IU (international units) of vitamin D. As an alternative, women can take vitamin D supplements themselves — typically 4,000 to 6,000 IU daily — to give babies enough in breast milk so that drops are not needed.

The research team surveyed 184 breastfeeding mothers, including 44 mothers who also gave their babies formula, in addition to breast milk.

Altogether, just 55 per cent of the women said they gave their babies vitamin D drops and only 42 per cent supplemented with the recommended 400 IU. 

“Many mothers were not aware of the need for vitamin D supplementation or their physician had not recommended supplementation,” said senior study author Dr Tom Thacher, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. 

“Others believed that breast milk had all the needed nutrition, and some mentioned the inconvenience of giving a supplement or their poor experience of giving a supplement to previous children,” Thacher added by e-mail. 

Severe vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets, or soft bones, seizures due to low calcium or heart failure in infants. While adults may get some vitamin D from sunlight, direct sun exposure is not recommended for babies. 

About 76 per cent of mothers said they took vitamin D themselves, and most of them preferred daily supplements to longer acting versions taken less often. Overall, nearly nine in ten women said they would prefer to take supplements themselves rather than give drops to their babies. 

Women who did not give babies vitamin D most often cited safety concerns, the survey found. 

One limitation of the study is that it included mostly white mothers, and the findings might not apply to women of other racial or ethnic groups or with a high risk of vitamin D deficiency, the authors note in the Annals of Family Medicine. 

Still, the findings highlight the need to educate new parents about vitamin D and make sure breastfeeding mothers take supplements themselves or give babies drops, said Dr Lydia Furman, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. 

“Infants can only receive adequate vitamin D if their mothers receive adequate vitamin D and thus there is adequate vitamin D in their breast milk, or if they are supplemented,” Furman, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Some infant formulas may contain enough vitamin D to make drops unnecessary. But babies who consume both breast milk and formula may not get enough vitamin D and still need drops or mothers who take supplements. 

Many women who breastfeed incorrectly believe that this gives babies all the nutrients they need, said Dr Carol Wagner of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. 

“There is an inherent belief that breast milk is the perfect food for their baby,” Wagner, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

It’s no surprise women prefer taking supplements themselves, because infant drops can be hard to remember and hard to get babies to swallow, Wagner added. 

“We have found that mothers are more apt to take medications and vitamin supplements themselves than to give anything to their infants,” Wagner said. “It is much easier to give a vitamin to an adult than to an infant.”

Even as you read this today, I will be quietly turning one year older. More than half a century of living in this planet has taught me many lessons. The most enduring one is that time is the greatest asset we have, but unfortunately, that is the one thing we fritter away carelessly. There are many things I wish I could have done differently and given half a chance I would go back into my past and correct them instantly. 

Twenty-two years ago, a day after my birthday, I lost my mother-in-law. Her name was Swadesh, which is a combination of two words in Sanskrit that are joined together to mean “one’s own country”, or literally “my country’. My Saasuma (as mothers-in-law are referred to in India) was nothing like the other Saasumas who I had seen in a television serial called “Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thhi” that translated to “because a mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law too”. This Indian soap opera was one of the longest running daily serials and was dubbed in Sinhala language where it was known as Maha Gedara meaning “Big Home” in Sinhalese. It was also dubbed in Dari language and was aired in Afghanistan, but here I digress. 

My Saasuma, like I was saying, was not plump, old, limping or grey-haired, not at all. She was slim, agile and stylish with long black tresses that she tied into a fashionable bun at the nape of her neck or left loose to trail below her shoulders. When I met her for the first time I could not believe that she was who she was. Enveloping me in a bear hug she told me she would love me to be her new daughter, and that is what I became, from the moment I married her eldest son.

True to her word, she never introduced me to her friends as her daughter-in-law but always called me her daughter. This led to some hilarious situations where I got mistaken for my husband’s sister and was asked when my school term was ending. My Saasuma was a fantastic cook and an extremely fastidious homemaker who could not stand untidiness. She painstakingly taught me the little tricks that were used to make certain dishes, which were passed down from her own grandmother. Extremely diligent about supervising her children’s schoolwork, she emphasised that I must do the same with my own child.

Once we moved out of India, my interaction with her was limited to our annual vacations for which the countdown started days in advance. The last time I met her, she was bedridden. The autoimmune disorder that she suffered from had adversely affected her limbs and she had lost most of her luxuriant hair. 

Her favourite activity was asking whoever came to her bedside, to run a comb through her scalp with a baby brush.

“Will you comb my hair?” she asked, the minute she spotted me.

“I just combed it,” I protested.

“Four times already,” I added.

As I bent down to hug her, she pulled out the gold bangles from her arms and put them on my wrist.

“Happy birthday dear daughter,” she said.

“But it is not till next month,” I corrected.

“I might not be around then,” she murmured.

“You will be, don’t worry,” I assured.

“Can you comb my hair?” she requested again.

“Sure,” I said, running the brush on her scalp.

“Thank you,” she exclaimed, closing her eyes.

LOS ANGELES — Fox’s “Hidden Figures” pulled off a surprise at the North American box office, beating Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” into second place, industry data released on Monday showed. 

Early estimates had indicated the “Star Wars” spin-off would hold onto top spot for a fourth consecutive week but the final numbers showed a reversal, with “Hidden Figures” winning the race by a slim margin of just over $700,000.

The biographical comedy-drama, based on a book of the same name, got a wide release of nearly 2,500 theatres in its third week and netted $22.8 million. 

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae, it recounts the story of African-American mathematicians who helped NASA put the first men in space, while dealing with segregation in the workplace.

“The Force was with us. It took over 50 years to tell the story of these three brilliant African American female protagonists... This weekend we only had 2,471 theatres, while ‘Rogue One’ had 4,157 locations,” Monae told her 1.3 million Instagram followers.

The first stand-alone episode in the eight-film “Star Wars” series, “Rogue One” follows the mission of rebel alliance fighters trying to steal plans to the Empire’s feared Death Star.

The movie pulled in $22 million over the weekend, according to box office monitor Exhibitor Relations, bringing its four-week total to $477.4 million.

Universal’s animated musical “Sing” fell to third, with a $20.7 million take over the weekend and an accumulated total of $214.5 million. 

The actors who voice the cartoon characters — Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson and Reese Witherspoon — also do their own singing.

The horror film “Underworld: Blood Wars”, starring Kate Beckinsale as a vampire death dealer clinched fourth place with $13.7 million in its debut weekend. 

“La La Land,” a nostalgic tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, took fifth with $10.1 million, bringing its cumulative receipts after five weeks to $51.8 million.

The whimsical film featuring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone won a record-breaking seven statuettes at Sunday’s Golden Globes, considered the launch of the entertainment industry’s awards season.

Launched globally late last year as a 2017 model and soon due in Jordanian showrooms, the new second generation Peugeot 3008 compact crossover SUV — or CUV — is part of the French automaker’s aggressive move into the ever-popular segment and marks a distinctly more premium-inspired approach. Promising to become a popular seller, the new 3008 more neatly slots into the compact CUV segment and sheds its predecessor’s MPV-like influences. Entry level of two petrol engine options at launch, the 3008 PureTech 130 S&S compact turbocharged 3-cylinder engine proves frugal but feisty.

Pouncing posture

A well-pitched and compact package that is practical and spacious, manoeuvrable and agile, and stylishly up-market yet expected to be reasonably priced, Peugeot has a potential hit on its hands. Expressively stylised and feisty in appearance as well, the 3008’s fresh design has the sense of futuristic glamour worthy of a motor show concept. Complex and charismatic with chunky, sharp, jutting and defined lines, and surfacing and pinched flanks, the 3008 also distinctively features blacked out pillars for a flowing “floating roofline” silhouette not too dissimilar to a Range Rover Evoque. 

Assertive in demeanour and evocative in detail, the 3008 more openly references to brand’s iconic lion emblem than previous models, with its distinct new fascia. Browed and moody, the 3008’s headlight cluster feature claw-like surfacing seemingly cutting through and extending to frame its lower intake, while high-set rear LED lights similarly feature a three-claw motif. Pert and seemingly ready to pounce, the 3008’s urgent posture is complemented by its aggressively sporty scalloped, ridged and clamshell bonnet and weaving chequered grille, while lower black cladding and a metallic front lip lends it a rugged SUV aesthetic.

Perky PureTech

Perky, torquey and efficient, the entry-level 3008’s turbocharged direct injection 1.2-litre 3-cylinder PureTech engine develops 128BHP at 5,500rpm and 169lb/ft torque throughout 1,750-3,500rpm, yet with small displacement and stop/start system, returns fuel-sipping 5l/100km fuel consumption and low 115g/km CO2 emissions figures on the combined cycle. Driving the front wheels through a 6-speed manual gearbox as test — or optionally with an automatic — the 3008 PureTech powers through the 0-100km/h benchmark in 10.6 seconds and onto a 188km/h top speed, while eager mid-range flexibility allows for 10.6 second 80-120km/h on-the-move acceleration in fifth gear.

As smooth and refined as three-cylinder engines get, the PureTech features a balancer shaft to minimise the inherent vibrations of its three-cylinder configuration. Delivery is eager and intense for its size, with a brief moment of inertia at idle before its turbo spools up and yields a broad, rich and flexible mid-range. Eager to be wrung right to its redline, power wells up a distinct but muted three-pot growl, letting up just after lift-off on the over-run. With precise shifts clicking into place with gentle movements and intuitive clutch travel, the PureTech engine is well suited for a manual gearbox.

Agile and alert

Brisk, fun and eager to be driven flat-out to exploit its “just right” power and torque using its manual gearbox for more driver involvement, the PureTech 130 is the lightest, nimblest and most agile model in the 3008 line-up. Shedding 100kg over its predecessor across the range owing to a new EMP2 platform with aluminium front wings and lightweight tailgate, the PureTech, however, weighs in at just 1,254kg, with most of the weight saving at the front owing to its smaller engine. Consequently, the 3008 PureTech is crisper, tidier, dartier and more eager turning in and weaving through narrow switchbacks.

Offered only with front-wheel drive — without heavy and costly four-wheel drive unnecessary for the compact CUV segment — the 3008 is consequently lighter, more alert, engaging, fluent and with more intuitive chassis and handling control. Meanwhile, the PureTech model’s slimmer 205/55R19 tyres lend its steering a greater degree of road feel and benefits fuel efficiency. Stable and refined at speed the 3008 pitches slightly over crests but settles with buttoned-down rebound control, while ride quality is smooth and forgiving. Agile through corners with good body control and little lean, the 3008’s tyres and chassis have the right compromise between outright grip and chassis adjustability.

Stylish and spacious

Well-finished, stylish, ergonomic, spacious and with a long standard and optional features list including convenience and driver aid features, the 3008’s refined cabin has a distinctly premium ambiance well worthy of more luxuriously positioned brands. Driven with smart fabric upholstery in PureTech guise, the 3008’s cabin can also be optionally specified with real optional oak trim and leather seats, while other optional features include scented air circulation, high quality sound system and massaging seats. Meanwhile, front seating is well adjustable and supportive and rear seating and access are genuinely and comfortably accommodating even for larger passengers.

With a higher seating position and flat top and bottom steering wheel, the 3008 is the best application to date of Peugeot’s contemporary cabin configuration of positioning the instrument panel above the steering, and provides clear views of the road ahead and of the 3008’s advanced and configurable digital i-Cockpit instrument panel. Meanwhile, the 3008’s user-friendly centre-mounted and driver-angled tablet-style infotainment screen provides access to most functions and reduces button count for a clean uncluttered design. Additionally, and in lieu of four-wheel drive, the 3008 can be optioned with brake and traction control-based electronic off-road assistance systems.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.2-litre, turbocharged, transverse 3 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 75 x 90.5mm

Valve-train: 12-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive

0-100km/h: 10.6 seconds

80-120km/h (5th gear): 10.6 seconds

0-1000-metres: 31.9 seconds

Maximum speed: 188km/h

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 128 (130) [96] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 106.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 102BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 169 (230) @1,750-5,500rpm

Specific torque: 191.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 183.4Nm/tonne

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 6.2-/4.8-/5 litres/100km

CO2emissions, combined: 115g/km

Fuel tank: 53 litres

Length: 4,447mm

Width: 1,841mm

Height: 1,615mm

Wheelbase: 2,675mm

Track, F/R: 1,601/1,610mm

Overhang, F/R: 923/849mm

Ground clearance: 219mm

Approach/departure angles: 20°/29°

Boot capacity, min/max: 591-/1580 litres

Headroom, F/R: 915/912mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1493/1484mm

Kerb weight: 1,254kg

Tyres: 205/55R19

Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres
Jamie Woodcock
London: Pluto Press, 2017
Pp. 200

In the tradition of investigative journalism and inquiry into workers’ conditions, Jamie Woodcock, a fellow at the London School of Economics, took a job at a UK call centre in order to find out how such workplaces operate from the inside. Focusing his research on employee-management relations, he compared what he observed to conditions at other work places as well as to classical Marxist theory about capital and the exploitation of the working class, and newer interpretations about the possibilities for workers’ control. 

While one may associate call centres with India, or consider them a marginal part of today’s world economy, Woodcock presents facts and figures that prove otherwise: Starting in the mid-1990s, the most dynamic area of growth in white-collar employment internationally has been in call centres. One million people are estimated to work in call centres in the UK alone, leading some to dub them “the factories of our times”. Call centres are, moreover, emblematic of the shift towards a post-industrial service economy and the growth of neoliberalism which promotes deregulation, privatisation and cut-backs in state-provided social welfare. Thus, Woodcock has every reason to extrapolate from his experience at a particular call centre to draw conclusions about the situation of workers today around the globe. 

Call centres did not just emerge because they were convenient for some businesses. Woodcock explains how they proliferated in the 1980s, based on capitalism’s drive to maximise profits and reduce costs in the context of the neoliberal economy. There are different kinds of call centres, but his research pertains to those where employees make unsolicited calls trying to sell products or services, in this case insurance.

The workforce and conditions at the call centre where Woodcock worked were typical. Most of the employees were young, female, considered unskilled and low paid. Working conditions were poor, and employment was precarious; there was no job security and no union; management techniques were rigid and sometimes abusive. There was also a high degree of stress with workers cajoled or threatened to meet targets for the number of calls and sales made. There was also the pressure of having to perform emotional labour to meet targets. Management required that employees sound happy and positive all the time in order to persuade customers to buy. In short, emotions are used to make money in sales call centres, increasing the employees’ alienation from their work.

Woodcock poignantly describes the high level of stress he observed among employees, and attributes it to the combination of technology, aggressive management techniques and emotional demands made on them. While viewing call centres as factories can be misleading in some ways, the work process does create a kind of assembly line in the heads of the workers. They no longer dial numbers themselves; rather, outgoing calls are automatically dialled and connected, while incoming calls are queued and distributed, vastly increasing the volume of calls to be handled and thus the pressure on workers. 

Woodcock reminds that technology is never neutral and explains how the integration of computers and telephones makes for constant, detailed supervision and data collection. Digital recording means that every encounter with a customer is stored away, able to be recalled at any time. As a result, his fellow employees felt the power of management’s gaze constantly. The fear of a recorded conversation coming back to haunt a worker — or worse deny them of their monthly bonus — kept behaviour in check.

The ultimate aim of Woodcock’s research was to find out if workers resist in such conditions. Interviews with people working in other call centres revealed that there were occasional strikes, but most resistance was more low-key. At the call centre where he worked, he witnessed instances of refusal to work and cutting work time shorter without being discovered. The book also explores strategies for how call centres could be managed in a less stressful, more fulfilling way. For example, what would happen if workers controlled the call centre? Woodcock concludes that most would like to stop making unsolicited calls and so would simply turn off the system and leave. This highlights the fact that sales call centres produce little in the way of social value. “Working the Phones” is an invitation to ponder the meaningfulness of work or lack of same in our modern age.

Parents should feed babies creamy peanut butter or puréed food with nut powder when infants are four to six months old to help lower the risk of life-threatening allergies, new US guidelines urge. 

For most babies — kids without severe eczema or egg allergies that make peanut allergies more likely — new guidelines from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommend introducing foods containing peanuts as soon as babies are able to tolerate other solid foods.

“For most infants, introduction can be done at home,” said allergist Dr Matthew Greenhawt, chair of the food allergy committee for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and a co-author of the guidelines.

“Whole peanuts should never be given to any child under the age of 4, as it they are a choking hazard,” Greenhawt added by e-mail. 

The new guidelines are a radical departure from recommendations in 2000 that advised against giving babies peanuts before age 3. Revised recommendations in 2008 had suggested no food be delayed past four to six months but failed offer specific guidance on when to feed babies peanuts.

Peanut allergies are a leading cause of death from food allergies in the US and the new guidelines aim to alter this statistic by helping babies get an early taste that will make severe allergic reactions less likely. 

Some allergic reactions can be mild with symptoms like hives or nausea, but more serious reactions can lead to anaphylaxis, when the airways tighten to the point where it is impossible to breathe. People with anaphylaxis can die if they do not get immediate medical help.

As doctors and parents change their approach to peanuts to follow the new guidelines, early exposure should help dramatically curb the number of children who develop severe allergies, doctors say.

Under the new guidelines, most babies can have peanuts introduced at home by parents or caregivers, but infants with severe eczema or egg allergies should see an allergist first. A specialist can test for peanut allergies and if necessary, give babies their first taste of peanuts during a doctor visit. 

These precautions are for infants with severe eczema that does not respond to treatment with moisturiser or corticosteroid creams or ointments, not babies with temporary rashes. 

“Infants without severe eczema or egg allergy are unlikely to have peanut allergy by 4-6 months, although they still have a risk for developing peanut allergy later, especially if they are not fed peanut in early infancy,” Dr Robert Boyle, a researcher at Imperial College London who was not involved in the guidelines, said by e-mail.

In infants without eczema or any food allergies, parents should feel comfortable giving babies a taste of peanuts after they are accustomed to eating other solid foods, said Dr Sandra Hong, an allergy and immunology specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio who was not involved in the new guidelines. 

“These guidelines are different than what some doctors may be currently recommending because, previously, the practice was to avoid the highly allergenic foods for risk of developing an allergy,” Hong said by e-mail. 

The new advice follows trial results reported in February 2015 that showed regular peanut consumption begun in infancy and continued until 5 years of age led to an 81 per cent reduction in development of peanut allergy in infants deemed at high risk because they already had severe eczema, egg allergy or both.

“Monumental trials have shown that prevention or food allergies can occur with early introduction of peanut and egg into the diet,” Hong said.

The guidelines are being published simultaneously in several journals, including the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Omega-3 fatty acids in fish and dietary supplements are associated with lower odds of heart disease even in people already at elevated risk because of excessive levels of fats or bad cholesterol in their blood, a research review suggests.

The American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week and considering supplements of omega-3 fatty acids when that’s not possible. Previous research has linked omega-3s to a lower risk of abnormal heartbeats, less fats in the blood, reduced risk of artery-clogging deposits known as plaque, and slightly lower blood pressure.

For the current study, researchers examined previously published research on two omega-3s: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). They found that consumption of omega-3s in food or supplements was associated with a 16 per cent lower risk of heart disease in people with high triglycerides, or fats, in the blood, and a 14 per cent lower risk for patients with elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the bad kind.

“The collective evidence from all studies supports a beneficial role of EPA and DHA on coronary heart disease, and stronger associations were observed among those who may benefit acutely from EPA and DHA, such as those with elevated triglyceride levels and those with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol,” said lead study author Dominik Alexander of EpidStat Institute, with offices in Seattle, Washington, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

To examine the connection between omega-3s and heart disease, researchers analysed data from 18 trials that randomly assigned about 93,000 people to get a certain amount of these nutrients.

Across these randomised trials, they found omega-3s associated with a 6 per cent lower risk of heart disease, but this was too small to rule out the possibility it was due to chance.

The study also reviewed results from another 17 previously published trials that observed about 732,000 people over long periods of time while they followed their usual diets. Over all of these studies, omega-3s were tied to a statistically meaningful 18 per cent reduction in the risk of heart disease.

The study was funded by the Global Organisation for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), an advocacy group with manufacturers and sellers of omega-3 dietary supplements among its members. Several study authors have also served as consultants to manufacturers of omega-3 supplements.

Limitations of the study include the wide variation in study designs for the randomised trials, which included patients with a range of eating habits and heart disease risk factors and tested omega-3s over different time periods, the authors note in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Some studies in the current analysis also did not track heart health or the amount of omega-3s in people’s diets at the start, making it harder to determine how much these nutrients might directly influence heart disease risk over time, the authors also point out.

Even so, the results from an analysis of data on close to 1 million patients suggest many people may benefit from boosting the amount of omega-3s they get from eating fish or taking supplements, said Dr Chip Lavie, of the Ochsner Clinical School-University of Queensland School of Medicine in Australia.

Very few people in the US or other countries who follow a typical Western meat-and-potatoes diet eat enough fish, so they might need to take dietary supplements to achieve close to 1,000 milligrammes a day of EPA and DHA, Lavie, senior author of an accompanying editorial, said by email.

“Omega-3 fats are very important for health and well being, especially for the heart,” Dr James O’Keefe, lead author of the editorial, said by email.

“Try to eat 2 or 3 servings of naturally oily fish like salmon, sardines, and trout each week,” advised O’Keefe, the director of preventive cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “If you can’t or won’t do this, consider taking a daily omega 3 supplement containing about 1,000 milligrammes of EPA and DHA.”