By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization’s decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population. The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.

No abstract

Introduction. According to the World Health Organization, unhealthy diets are a major risk for noncommunicable diseases. These risks begin in childhood and develop throughout life. Scientists around the world are busy establishing optimal requirements for children’s diet that would contribute to their healthy development throughout the entire period of growing up. The quality of nutrition in childhood is a critical factor, since the physiological need for nutrients and energy during this period is especially high. Nutrition for preschool and school age children has its own specifics, e.g. lack of variety and functional products, preference for products with a high content of added sugar, fat, and salt, etc. Results and discussion. The article summarizes various recommendations on nutrition and physiological requirements for basic nutrients and energy. The recommendations are based on modern research on the nature and structure of children’s diet in Russia and abroad. The authors analyzed the Unified Register of State Registration Certificates of targeted functional foods. The paper also describes the main directions of improving the formulation of targeted confectionery products for preschool and school age children, based on taking global trends and principles of healthy eating. Conclusion. Most confectionery products have extreme content of critical substances, high energy value, and almost no dietary fiber, vitamins, or mineral matter. Therefore, new formulations of targeted confectionery products for children over three years of age are relevant and promising if developers take into account the principles of healthy nutrition. The existing regulatory framework for the production and sale of this group of products requires improvement.

According to the most progressive views on nutrition, the composition of food products should involve certain vital nutrients, hence the rapid development of functional, or fortified foods. An analysis of the diet of the Russian population showed a 33% lack of native proteins. Proteins serve as regulators of the genetic function of nucleic acids, participate as enzymes in all stages of the biosynthesis of polypeptides, store and transport oxygen, and perform an immunological function. The research objective was to develop a technology for producing jelly marmalade of high biological value by using milk protein. The studies were performed at the All-Russian Research Institute of the confectionery industry (a branch of V. M. Gorbatov Federal Research Center for Food Systems). The authors employed standard methods, e.g. physico-chemical, rheological, and organoleptic. The research featured jelly marmalade because it has a low nutritional value and a large amount of carbohydrates (70%). To fortify the product, the researchers used concentrated milk and whey proteins with a 80% protein content and a high biological value index (53%–170%). Gelatin served as the gelling agent. Its protein content was 87.2%. The experiment made it possible to establish the optimal ratio of sugar and molasses, the amount of gelling agent (8%), the amount of milk and whey protein concentrates (5%), and the influence of proteins on the viscosity of the jelly mass and its formation. The authors developed a method that makes it possible to introduce protein concentrates into the process of jelly boiling while preventing protein denaturation. The new technology produces jelly marmalade with milk protein content 11.2 g per 100 g, which means that the energy value of the product is 14.2%. According to regulatory documentation, such a product is deemed as a “source of protein”.