A Comparison of Food Supply Over the Recent 25 Years and Degree of Dietary Westernization in Taiwan With Asian Countries and World Continents

Objective. To compare quality, quantity, and trends of food supply from 1984 to 2009 and degree of food westernization in Taiwan with Asian countries and world continents by using food balance data. Methods. We compiled data from food balance sheets of Taiwan and Food and Agriculture Organization, including five continents and three most populated countries each in Eastern, Southern, and Southeastern Asia over the period 1984–2009. Quantity of food supply per capita was referenced to Taiwan food guides. The population-weighted means of food supply from Europe, North America, South America, and Australia and New Zealand continents in terms of energy and nutrient distributions, animal/plant sources, and sugar/alcohol contribution were used as indicators of westernization. Trends of food supply per capita of six food groups were plotted, and linear regression was applied to evaluate food changes. Findings. Taiwan's food supply provided sufficient quantity in food energy, with the lowest cereals/roots supply and rice to wheat ratio, but the highest meat and oil supplies per capita among the 10 studied Asian countries. Taiwan food supply showed the most westernization among these countries. Conclusion. Food supply of Taiwan, although currently sufficient, indicated some security problems and high tendency of diet westernization.

The East Asian region is a vibrant and challenging part of the world when it comes to public health issues, with its diverse economies, ethnicity, cultures, and geographical and geological features. It covers about 12 million km2 or about 28% of the Asian continent and is about 15% bigger than Europe. More than 1.5 billion people or about 38% of the Asian population live in East Asia. The region is one of the world's most populated places, with a population density of 133 inhabitants per km2. While communicable diseases still plague the less developed nations of East Asia, noncommunicable diseases are predominant in the more developed nations and are also making their presence in the developing nations. Besides being threatened by environmental pollution from its rapid pace of urbanization and industrialization, it is also an area prone to natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, droughts, and floods. Therefore, not only human lives are at stake, but also the ecosystems, natural resources, and properties. These issues are multidisciplinary in nature and require a multipronged approach. Environmental epidemiology is such an approach that assesses and evaluates a public health problem from various angles and perspectives to derive a scientifically sound decision-making process. The outcomes of good environmental epidemiology should feed into sound risk management and risk communication practices for the protection of human health and safety. The accepted papers of this special issue comprise critical and new areas of research and recent advances on challenging issues in different fields of environmental epidemiology in addressing public health challenges in East Asia. In the study by C.-J. Peng et al., the authors used food balance data to compare quality, quantity, and trends of food supply from 1984 to 2009 and the degree of food westernization in Taiwan with other Asian countries and the world continents. They concluded that Taiwan's food supply provided sufficient quantity in food energy, with the lowest cereals/roots supply and rice to wheat ratio, but the highest meat and oil supplies per capita among the 10 studied Asian countries. Taiwan's food supply showed the most westernization among these countries. T.-Y. Yang et al. conducted a case-control study consisting of 70 pathologically confirmed skin cancer patients and 210 age-gender-matched participants with genotyping of 12 selected polymorphisms. Individuals carrying three risk polymorphisms of EPHX1 Tyr113His, XPD C156A, and any one risk polymorphism of the GSTs presented a 400% increased risk of arsenic-induced skin cancers compared to those with less or equal to one polymorphism. They concluded that GSTs, EPHX1, and XPD are potential genetic factors for arsenic-induced skin cancers. C.-K. Lin et al. reviewed the data from Taiwan Cancer Registry to determine the standardised incidence ratio (SIR) of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) in workers exposed to asbestos in Taiwan. They found that the highest risk of MPM was among male asbestos workers employed before 1979 and working for more than 20 years in asbestos-related factories. C.-C. D. Lee et al. used the general additive model (GAM) to understand the association between hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) and latitude, as well as meteorological factors for islands in East Asia, namely, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, from 2012 to 2014. They concluded that weather conditions and geographic location could play some role in affecting HFMD epidemics. Regional integrated surveillance of HFMD in East Asia is needed for mitigating the disease risk. Y.-F. Liu et al. collected a total of 177 consecutive patients who underwent the outpatient treatments at departments of cardiology. They were prospectively enrolled to investigate whether neck circumference (NC) is associated with factors of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among patients with cardiometabolic risk. They concluded that NC is associated with cardiovascular metabolic risks and can be measured easily and routinely in the future. C.-H. Chiang et al. enrolled participants who were 50 years old and older from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Participants were recruited from 2000 to 2004 and then followed up until death or the end of 2011. They found the incidence of dementia was significantly higher in the LUTS[+] group than in the LUTS[−] group (124.76 versus 77.59/1000 person-years). The authors concluded that LUTS are associated with increased risk of subsequent dementia among the elderly population.

In common with many nations undergoing a nutrition transition, micronutrient deficiencies, undernutrition and overnutrition coexist in The Gambia. Addressing these challenges simultaneously would require transformational changes in the country's food system. However, the evidence base that would enable informed decision-making in the Gambian food system has been scant, despite several sources of routinely-collected data being available. This descriptive study brings together data from four open-access global databases on food supply, political, economic, and demographic variables, and nutrition and health between 1990 and 2017 to study potential leverage points for improvement in the food system. It compares trends in food supply and nutritional outcomes in The Gambia against regional and global averages, and identifies potential drivers taken from a food systems framework. The data show that, over the past three decades, total energy supply has increased, and obesity is rising quickly, but iron deficiency persists in a proportion of the population. Overall diet composition is poor, with lower availability of fruit and vegetables and higher supply of sugar and oils compared to regional and global averages. Domestic production is low for most food groups and so a high dependence on imports from other countries bridges the gap in terms of energy supply. Measures of economic development, particularly GDP, were positively related with supply of cereals and animal source foods over time, but no such relationship was observed with fruit and vegetable supply. Food system policy to improve nutrition and health outcomes in The Gambia needs to focus on improving the diversity of food supply – especially fruit and vegetables - and maximizing national domestic production to reduce reliance on food imports. The use of open-source global datasets can be feasible in exploring food system characteristics and trends at the national level and could be applied in other contexts.

Two types of data may be used to estimate trends in food and nutrient intake by the US population: per capita food supply estimates and survey estimates of individual intake. Because these data vary markedly in measurement goals and methods, we examined whether trends in food supply and survey intake estimates for fat, carbohydrate, and protein are reflective of one another. The data selected for comparison included all available survey estimates of mean intake by the US population (i.e., periodic estimates from 1965 to 1988) and all available per capita food supply estimates from a comparable time period (i.e., annual estimates from 1965 to 1985). The two types of data generally did not reflect the same trends. Furthermore, expressing macronutrient levels as percentage of calories rather than in grams affected the trend relationships. Our findings indicate that caution is needed in the selection and application of available data to estimate trends in macronutrient intake by the US population and in the interpretation of these data with regard to public health research, policies, and programs.

To quantify changes in the diets of low-income women in Cali, Colombia between 1990-1995 and 2008, a period of increases in body size, and to situate these changes within national-level trends in food availability, as well as to compare these changes with those expected in countries undergoing a nutrition transition. Individual dietary intake was assessed via 24-hour recalls in both 1990-1995 (n = 85) and 2008 (n = 88). Dietary data were analyzed for intake of energy, macronutrients, and specific food items. National-level trends in food availability were evaluated using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Total energy and protein intake did not change over time, but in 2008 women consumed proportionally more fat (23.0 vs. 19.1% of calories; P = 0.002) and less carbohydrate (66.5 vs. 71.0% of calories; P < 0.001) than in 1990-1995. The increased fat consumption is attributable to vegetable oils. This increase in vegetable oil consumption, and a decrease in starchy vegetable consumption, fit with both national-level trends in food supply, and the expectations of a nutrition transition. On the other hand, the increased consumption of non-starchy vegetables, and the stability in consumption of added sugars and animal-source proteins was contrary to the expectations of a nutrition transition. The changes in diet among low-income women in Cali, Colombia between 1990-1995 and 2008 partially match national-level trends in food supply and the theoretical expectations of a nutrition transition, but are nonetheless a localized phenomenon. They do not help explain concurrent changes in body size.

BackgroundHigh consumption of refined carbohydrate, in particular sugar, has been identified as a possible contributory factor in greater risk of excess weight gain. In spite of data limitations, one recent paper suggests that Australian sugar consumption has decreased over the same time period that obesity has increased, a so called ‘Australian Paradox’. Given the significant public health focus on nutrition, we aimed to estimate Australian sugar supply and consumption over recent decades, to determine whether these data could be used to make any conclusions about sugar’s role in obesity.MethodsFoods high in sugar were identified. Data relating to sugar supply and consumption from 1988 to 2010 were obtained from multiple sources. Using these data we attempted to generate a time series estimate of sugar in Australia’s food supply.ResultsAustralia produces and exports sugar from sugar cane and the sugar in imported foods has received little attention. We were unable to produce a reliable and robust estimate of total sugars in the Australian diet due to data limitations and a lack of current data sources. However, available Import data showed large increases in the volume and value of imported sweetened products between 1988 and 2010 to over 30 grams of sugar per person per day. Value estimates of local production of sweetened products also show substantial increases in this period.ConclusionThe Australian Paradox assertion is based on incomplete data, as it excludes sugar contained in imported processed foods, which have increased markedly. A major Australian public health target is to improve the quality of the food supply, and actions have been set in terms of achieving broader environmental changes. However, evaluation of progress is hampered by lack of high quality data relating to supply and consumption. We recommend the regular collection of comprehensive food supply statistics, which include both local production and imports. This would provide an inexpensive addition to survey data and could assist in monitoring sugar consumption trends in food supply. Such information would also help inform public health policy.

Superbugs: the ever growing threat in our food supply

Estimated Protein Intake From Animal and Plant Foods by U.S. Adults, What We Eat in America, NHANES, 2015–2016

The nutrition and health situation in different countries of the European Union was first documented in 2004 in the European Nutrition and Health Report. Fourteen European countries participated in this project—13 member states of the European Union and Norway. The trends in food supply in the participating countries and the EU were calculated on the basis of food balance sheets of the FAO/UN (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). An increasing trend could be observed for most food groups. Only the average supply of potatoes, cereals and wine decreased in the EU average during the observation period of 1961–2001. The availability of the relevant food groups at the household level was derived from data of the DAFNE (Data Food Networking) databank. Differences in consumption habits between households of different countries and regions and between households with household heads of different educational level are presented. Apart from food supply and availability, the intake of energy and nutrients was assessed based on national surveys at the individual level. In general, the proportion of fat and especially of saturated fatty acids in total energy was too high, whereas the intake of complex carbohydrates was too low. Critical nutrients among the different age groups of the participating countries were in particular vitamin D, folic acid, calcium, iodine, and iron (in women only), but also potassium and magnesium were critical in some countries. The sodium intake was on average too high among all age groups of the participating countries. A major health problem in European countries was the high prevalence of overweight and obesity, which had already been observed in the younger age groups. Further, the average blood cholesterol levels were in general too high in European adults. In all participating countries the leading causes of mortality were cardiovascular diseases, followed by malignant neoplasms.

Understanding trends in food supply and demand are of great importance to the maintenance of China’s food security. We identified natural disasters (floods, drought, hail and frost), resource constraints, input constraints and growth of food demand as sources of risk, which could cause food insecurity. We therefore conducted an integrated three-step risk assessment, based on the Cobb-Douglas production function and scenario analysis method. The results predict that, irrespective of the total food demand and scenario, China could guarantee more than 90 % food self-sufficiency as long as the identified natural disasters occurred at no more than the historical average for the period 1986–2011. However, in a pessimistic scenario, consisting of the simultaneous occurrence of the worst natural disasters over this period, the consequent annual grain shortfall would put most provinces and cities into the medium or high risk range for food security in both 2015 and 2020. In such a scenario, the current grain stock is only sufficient to buffer China’s grain supplies for one year. In most scenarios, 10 of the 13 major grain producing provinces will have the ability to maintain their current food self-sufficiency rates over the next few years, but the food self-sufficiency rates of the more developed provinces and the largest cities will continue to decline, mainly because of the reduction in cultivated land and accelerating urbanization.

Aquatic foods (includes farmed or wild-caught fish, molluscs, crustaceans, miscellaneous aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic plants or seaweeds) represent a valuable source of essential dietary nutrients for the world population. Although at the global level, aquatic animal food products supplied over 3.4 billion people with over 20% of their total animal protein food supply in 2022, this was not the case for all regions. The composition of aquatic species consumed also varied between geographic regions. In the African region, aquatic animal foods were dominated by fish species (primarily captured pelagic and marine fish), whereas in the Asian region, aquatic animal foods were dominated by cultured freshwater fish species. In general, these differences generally reflect the seasonal availability and cost of aquatic foods, the level of consumer income, culinary traditions and preferences, and the existence of an organized productive sector; fish products generally being the cheapest source of animal protein and food available in most Asian and many African countries.

A More Focused Approach to Phosphorus Nutrition Education for the Adolescent Kidney Patient.

Fast food consumption trend has become very popular worldwide. Globalization has led to rapid rise in the number of fast-food outlets in Asian countries. The present study focuses on reviewing the consumption pattern of fast food among young adults of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Here a shift has been witnessed from consumption of traditional homemade food which included healthy nutritious locally available foods toward fast foods and processed foods. An extensive review of existing scientific studies in several South Asian and Southeast Asian countries was carried out to analyse fast food consumption patterns of young adults. Globalization, affluence, busy schedules, increase in number of working female population, mass media, increase in fast food production and delivery outlets are some of the main reasons contributing to increasing fast food consumption trends. Several western fast-food franchises are now well established in developing Asian countries. Dining out culture has increased in the Asian society and is socially acceptable. A rapid nutritional shift in Southeast Asia may be due to increase in food availability and food purchasing power. Consumption of fast-food items is associated with increasing obesity rates among young adults. Such trends are also associated with the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as indigestion, hypertension, asthma, and other several diseases among South Asian and Southeast Asian adults.

The present research examines U.S. lawful permanent residents' (LPRs) motivations to apply for U.S. citizenship (i.e., naturalize). Study 1 (N = 180; 61% male) LPRs have a mean age of M = 30.78, SD = 8.25. Participants completed a survey. Sixty-seven participants indicated their country of birth as a Central/South American or Caribbean country, 40 as a European country, 44 as an Asian country, 16 as a Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern country, and 13 as an African country. Study 2 (N = 218; 56% male) LPRs have a mean age of M = 30.33, SD = 8.37. Participants completed an experiment. Eighty-three participants indicated their country of birth as a Central/South American or Caribbean country, 55 as a European country, 37 as a Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern country, 31 as an Asian country, and 12 as an African country. Study 1 demonstrates that identity concerns, above and beyond perceived realistic concerns, are significantly related to motivation to naturalize. In particular, perception of belonging to the U.S. is positively related to a motivation to naturalize. Moreover, we test a theory-driven model such that higher perceptions of subgroup respect are positively related to a sense of U.S. belonging which, in turn, predicts a motivation to naturalize. Study 2 extends the previous study by manipulating subgroup respect and demonstrating that this affects a sense of belonging to the U.S. which, in turn, predicts a stronger motivation to naturalize. We discuss the implications of the present work for theory and the social issue of naturalization and citizenship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sustainable Development Goals 2030 is a sustainable development track approved by the United Nations in 2015. All member countries are trying to attain these SDGs. Unfortunately, Asian countries are still far from this track. Achieving SDG 2 (zero hunger) under the shadow of climate change (SDG 13) requires an indispensable line of action for the developing world and, specifically, Asian countries. Food security is the first step to achieving SDG 2 with changing climate. This study investigates the probable footprints of climate change and other socioeconomic determinants on food security in 8 Asian food-insecure countries from 1990 to 2019. The study secrutinizes climate change and food security literature as they relate to an SDG-oriented policy agenda. The study results reveal that climate change and socioeconomic determinants substantially affect food security. The Panel Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (PQARDL) outcomes illustrate that undernourishment prevalence (SDG 2.1.1) will likely be reduced due to increased agricultural productivity, food availability, and economic growth. However, this is compromised by the negative effects of greater variations in temperature and food supply. Increasing rainfall is likely to reduce the prevalence of undernourishment (SDG 2.1.1) in the long run. Contrarily, a temperature rise will exacerbate the prevalence of undernourishment (SDG 2.1.1). Based on the outcomes, comprehensive SDG-oriented policy recommendations have been put forward to realize the goals of SDG 2, SDG 8 and SDG 13 for Asian food-insecure countries.