Recommendations For Healthy Nutrition Research Articles

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food choices among the working-age adult residents of Lithuania

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic affected the nutrition of various populations. Assuming that the majority of the population of working-age residents of Lithuania know healthy nutrition recommendations and that food selection criteria might serve as an indicator of the following them, we aimed to assess the food selection criteria during and after the COVID-19 pandemic among working-age adult residents of Lithuania. Materials and methods Three cross-sectional surveys among working-age adult residents of Lithuania were carried out: in 2019 (before the pandemic), in 2021 (during the pandemic), and in 2022 (after the pandemic). In 2019, this study included 1007 residents, 1600 residents were surveyed in 2021, also, 1600 residents were surveyed in 2022. Distribution of the respondents by food selection criteria was compared between the samples according to gender, age, marital status, education level, place of residence, employment, income. Results The COVID-19 pandemic affected the food choices of Lithuanian residents (p < 0.05). In 2019, products’ benefits for health criterion was in the third place when choosing foods. It was indicated by 22% of the respondents. In 2019, the most prevalent criterion for selecting foods was taste. It was indicated by 37% of the respondents. The second most prevalent food selection criterion was the price. It was indicated by 24% of the sample. In 2021 selection of foods because of products’ health benefits became the most prevalent and accounted for 31% of the sample. In 2022, it returned back to the prepandemic level and accounted for 19% of the sample. In all social and demographic groups changes in food selection criteria remained as well (p < 0.05). Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the food choices of working-age adult residents of Lithuanian. Changes of food selection criteria were observed within the different groups of gender, age, marital status, education level, place of residence, employment, income. Key messages • The COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the food choices of working-age adult residents of Lithuanian. • Less than a year after the pandemic food selection according to its health benefits rapidly decreased and returned back to the prepandemic level.

Comparison of The Nutritional Habits of Individuals With and Without a COVID-19 Diagnosis: An Online Cross-Sectional Study From Türkiye

Objective: Türkiye, which is located in the European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) has been also affected by the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study was conducted between January and April 2021, in which the number of daily COVID-19 cases increased from an average of 8,500 to 50,000. This cross-sectional online study aimed to compare the dietary habits of individuals with and without a COVID-19 diagnosis. 
 Material and Method: The study included a total of 1,448 individuals aged 18-64 years. Study data were collected through the Google platform using a questionnaire that included sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 status, anthropometric measurements, physical activity status, and nutritional characteristics. 
 Results: Those with COVID-19 had higher Body Mass Index (BMI) than those without COVID-19. The rates of those who had regular physical activity, considered nutrition important for protection from COVID-19, and ordered food online were lower among those participants with COVID-19 than those without COVID-19. The rates of those who lost appetite and weight, used nutritional supplements, increased their nutritional budget during the pandemic, and shopped for food from online marketplaces were higher too among those with COVID-19. Those with COVID-19 were found to consume red meat, fruit, and herbal tea more frequently and soft drinks less frequently than those without COVID-19. 
 Conclusion: In line with these results, it may be considered that those with COVID-19 try to comply with healthy nutrition recommendations. Our results can be used to prepare appropriate nutritional guidelines for pandemic and quarantine periods.

Optimisation and Characterisation of the Protein Hydrolysate of Scallops (Argopecten purpuratus) Visceral By-Products.

In this research, scallops (Argopecten purpuratus) visceral meal (SVM) and defatted meal (SVMD) were analysed for their proximal composition, protein solubility, and amino acid profile. Hydrolysed proteins isolated from the scallop's viscera (SPH) were optimised and characterised using response surface methodology with a Box-Behnken design. The effects of three independent variables were examined: temperature (30-70 °C), time (40-80 min), and enzyme concentration (0.1-0.5 AU/g protein) on the degree of hydrolysis (DH %) as a response variable. The optimised protein hydrolysates were analysed for their proximal composition, yield, DH %, protein solubility, amino acid composition, and molecular profile. This research showed that defatted and isolation protein stages are not necessaries to obtain the hydrolysate protein. The conditions of the optimization process were 57 °C, 62 min and 0.38 AU/g protein. The amino acid composition showed a balanced profile since it conforms to the Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Health Organisation recommendations for healthy nutrition. The predominant amino acids were aspartic acid + asparagine, glutamic acid + Glutamate, Glycine, and Arginine. The protein hydrolysates' yield and DH % were higher than 90% and close to 20%, respectively, with molecular weight between 1-5 kDa. The results indicate that the protein hydrolysates of scallops (Argopecten purpuratus) visceral by product optimised and characterised was suitable a lab-scale. Further research is necessary to study the bioactivity properties with biologic activity of these hydrolysates.

Characteristics of Nutrition in Adolescent Patients Undergoing Orthodontic Treatment

Background: Organization of healthy and balanced nutrition for children undergoing orthodontic treatment should have a compensatory and preventive focus. Materials and methods: A 24-hour dietary recall was used to assess actual nutrition of 57 adolescents aged 13–14 years divided into two groups: cases wearing orthodontic bracket systems and controls having no dentoalveolar anomalies. A comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative parameters of the diet was carried out based on current regulatory documents. Results: We observed an imbalance in the intake of macro- and micronutrients in the diets of all adolescents caused by an imbalanced food set and being more pronounced in those undergoing orthodontic treatment. The diet of the controls was noted for an adequate daily calorie intake (94.0 % of the recommended value) as opposed to the case group (78.1 %). The diets in the control group were deficient in total protein (94.6 %) and carbohydrates (89.4 %) but excessive in fats (104.6 %). In the case group, the dietary intake of macronutrients was, on the average, 78.3 % of the norm. Restrictions on consumption of certain foods in the diet of adolescents with braces led to a significant deficiency in meat consumption (66.3 % of the recommended value), fish and seafood (37.6 %), eggs (55.0 %), bakery products (45.6 %), potatoes (80.1 %), fruits (51.6 %), and vegetables (51.0 %). Conclusion: Braces used for orthodontic treatment of dentoalveolar anomalies in some patients become a risk factor for both malnutrition and demineralization of tooth enamel in adolescents. It is therefore necessary to develop recommendations for healthy nutrition of pediatric patients undergoing orthodontic treatment.

Eating Competence, Food Consumption and Health Outcomes: An Overview.

Eating Competence (EC) is one behavioral perspective of eating practices that has been associated with a healthy lifestyle. It emphasizes eating pleasure, self-regulation of eating, body weight satisfaction, and regular meal frequency that includes food variety without focusing on dietary guidelines. EC is composed of four components (Eating Attitude, Food Acceptance, Internal Regulation, and Contextual Skill), and its assessment is performed using the Eating Competence Satter Inventory (ecSI2.0™), developed and validated in English for an adult population. EC has been associated with diet quality and health indicators for various population groups and the development of skills that increase EC might be a strategy to improve nutritional health, and prevent obesity and other chronic diseases. In this sense, this study presents an overview of the background, concepts, features, and possible associations among EC, food consumption, and health outcomes. The high prevalence of diseases associated with food/nutrition draws attention to the necessity to broaden the view on food and its relationship with health and well-being, considering not only nutrients and food combinations but also the behavioral dimensions of eating practices. Healthy nutritional recommendations that take into account attitudes and behaviors are in accordance with the EC behavioral model. Studies on eating behavior emphasize the need to better understand attitudes towards food and eating in the general population using validated instruments. In this context, measuring EC and its association with health outcomes seems to be relevant to nutritional health. The complexity of food choices has been examined in social, behavioral, and biological sciences, representing a great challenge for applying unique and simple theoretical models. Multiple methods are required, as no single theory can fully explain food selection.

Modern Problems of Food Security and Nutrition in Russia

The most important target indicators of food security in Russia are rational norms of food consumption and norms of physiological demand for energy and nutrients on average per person. An analysis of actual consumption shows that the diet of Russians is unbalanced and there is a deterioration in the quality of the diet in a number of positions, especially noticeable negative changes occurred after 2014 as a result of the introduction of the food embargo, the devaluation of the ruble and the subsequent decline in household incomes and effective demand for food. Unbalanced diet is one of the main reasons for the increasing prevalence in Russia of overweight and obesity, anemia, iodine and other micronutrients deficiency, diabetes, high prevalence of high blood pressure. In this regard, it is necessary to take policy measures in the area of nutrition, in particular, improving the system of assessing the quality of nutrition of population, to implement mandatory salt iodization, and fortification of bread with vitamins and minerals, implement a program of domestic food aid, including in the area of school meals and, in particular, the implementation the "school milk" programs, aimed at ensuring all children of preschool and school age free milk in accordance with the recommendations for healthy nutrition in educational institutions, as well as measures to inform the population and promote education in the field of healthy nutrition. In modern conditions of the pandemic and overcoming its consequences, the relevance and importance of food aid, which should mitigate the deterioration of the economic situation and the decrease in incomes, are increasing. In addition, recent events show that healthy nutrition is a significant factor in the resistance of the COVID-19 pandemic, from which humanity does not yet have vaccines and specific medicines.

Current breastfeeding practices in Bulgaria

AbstractThe results obtained by the national monitoring of dietary intake and nutritional status of Bulgarian infants, conducted during the last ten years, show some negative characteristics and trends associated with risk of chronic non-communicable diseases and micronutrient deficiencies later in life. The data on nutrition in infants were collected through active interviews with the mothers and information from the medical documentation of their GPs during the surveys in 2007 and 2014. Wrong practices of infant feeding and serious problems in their nutritional status, such as short duration of breastfeeding, low prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding, early and inadequate complementary feeding, high prevalence of stunting, underweight and anaemia among infants, especially in minorities, were identified. Results obtained during the survey in 2007 were: the rate of children breast-fed in the first days after their births were 90.7%. Only 1.8% was breast-fed during their first hour according to WHO and UNICEF recommendations; 12.5% of the infants were at exclusive breast-feeding. Data were compared with the results obtained for children at the same age from national surveys conducted in 2014, as the rate of infants who were breast-fed in the first days after their births was 86.3%; 9.9% were breast-fed during their first hour and 21.7% of the infants were at exclusive breast-feeding. The total duration of breast-feeding was short according to both surveys. The rate of breast-fed infants in the first days after birth is high in many European countries, however, the breast-feeding practices in Bulgaria do not comply with the international recommendations. The exclusive breast-feeding has a low prevalence rate. The breast-feeding period is very short. It is necessary to develop the national recommendations for healthy nutrition of infants that will concern all these problems and will aim to improve knowledge of the mothers regarding the best practices of healthy nutrition of their infants.

Indices of diet quality as a tool for integrated assessment of dietary intake

The review presents an analysis of the construction and properties of indices of diet quality (IDQ), developed in different countries and known under different names: Diet quality index (DQI), Healthy eating index (HEI,) and other names. The analysis of the data on three directions of research on validation of IDQ - correlation with its components (internal validation), association with risk assessments of morbidity and mortality, and association with biomarkers of nutritional status and risk of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCD), which strongly indicate the possibility of IDQ as a tool for epidemiological studies of the relationship of nutrition, nutritional status and health has been submitted. Analysis of the composition of various types of IDQ allowed to formulate general principles of their development (construction). IDQ are based on recommendations for healthy nutrition of the population and assess the degree of commitment of the population to adhere to the recommendations. The design of the IDQ should be applicable to all categories of the population, regardless of gender, age (older than 2 years), national and regional characteristics of nutrition of the population, which allows a comparative assessment of the diet quality of different categories of the population. IDQ focus on the assessment of four main aspects of a healthy diet: food diversity, adequacy of consumption of adequacy of consumption of major groups or some subgroups of the most valuable foods, moderation and balance of the diet. All IDQ consist of two groups of indicators-components: indicators of adequacy of food consumption and indicators of consumption of critically important food factors, the consumption of which should be limited, i.e. indicators of risk factors of NCD. The standard values of adequacy of consumption of both groups of indicators should be expressed in the «density» of consumption of foods and nutrients per 1000 calories or as a percentage of the total calorie intake. Based on these principles, it is planned to develop and evaluate the reliability and objectivity of IDQ according to the study of the dietary intake of Russian population.

Heart healthy integrative nutritional counseling (H2INC): Creating a Chinese medicine + western medicine patient education curriculum for Chinese Americans

ObjectivesCurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) nutrition guidelines do not take into account Chinese medicine (CM) principles. We created a heart healthy integrative nutritional counseling (H2INC) curriculum consistent with CM principles and current nutrition guidelines. MethodsWe conducted three phases of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (CM and biomedical providers and Chinese American (CAs) patients with CVD) followed by iterative development of H2INC. First, we interviewed licensed CM providers (n = 9) and laypeople with CM foods expertise (n = 1). Second, we interviewed biomedical providers (n = 11) and licensed CM providers (n = 3). Third, we conducted four focus groups with CAs (n = 20) with CVD. ResultsStakeholders emphasized different principles for creating H2INC. Phase one emphasized alignment of CM diagnoses to biomedical CVD conditions. Phase two overlaid CM concepts like the nature of foods and constitution (hot/neutral/cool) with heart healthy nutrition recommendations such as MyPlate, and avoiding excess salt, fat, and sugars. Phase three demonstrated patient acceptability. ConclusionBy integrating CM foods principles with biomedical nutrition, this integrative approach yields culturally relevant health education for an underserved population. Practice ImplicationsIntegrative nutritional counseling shows promise for CAs and could support biomedical providers with little knowledge about patients’ use of CM for CVD.

School Food Environment Promotion Program: Applying the Socio-ecological Approach

Background Despite of healthy nutrition recommendations have been offered in recent decades, researches show an increasing rate of unhealthy junk food consumption among primary school children. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of health promotion intervention on the school food buffets and the changes in nutritional behaviors of the students. Materials and Methods In this Quasi-interventional study, eight schools agreed to participate in Tabriz city, Iran. The schools were randomly selected and divided into an intervention and a control group, and a pretest was given to both groups. A four weeks interventional program was conducted in eight randomly selected schools of the city based on the socio-ecological model. A check list was designed for the assessment of food items available at the schools’ buffets, a 60-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess the rate of food consumption and energy intake. Results evaluation and practice were analyzed using the Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney-U and Chi-square tests. Results The findings revealed reduction in the intervention group between before and after intervention with regard the range of junk food consumption, except for the sweets consumption. The number of junk foods provided in the schools buffets reduced in the intervention group. After the intervention on the intervention group significant decreases were found in the intake of energy, fat and saturated fatty acids compared to the control group (p = 0.00). Conclusion In order to design effective school food environment promotion programs, school healthcare providers should consider multifaceted approaches.

A Comparison of Dietary Habits between Recreational Runners and a Randomly Selected Adult Population in Slovenia.

IntroductionThe aim of the study was to compare the dietary habits of recreational runners with those of a random sample of the general population. We also wanted to determine the influence of gender, age and sports performance of recreational runners on their basic diet and compliance with recommendations in sports nutrition.MethodsThe study population consisted of 1,212 adult Slovenian recreational runners and 774 randomly selected residents of Slovenia between the ages of 18 and 65 years. The data on the dietary habits of our subjects was gathered by means of two questionnaires. The following parameters were evaluated: the type of diet, a food pattern, and the frequency of consumption of individual food groups, the use of dietary supplements, fluid intake, and alcohol consumption.ResultsRecreational runners had better compliance with recommendations for healthy nutrition than the general population. This pattern increased with the runner’s age and performance level. Compared to male runners, female runners ate more regularly and had a more frequent consumption of food groups associated with a healthy diet (fruit, vegetables, whole grain foods, and low-fat dairy products). The consumption of simple sugars and use of nutritional supplements by well-trained runners was inadequate with values recommended for physically active individuals.ConclusionRecreational runners are an exemplary population group that actively seeks to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Recommendations for Healthy Nutrition in Female Endurance Runners: An Update.

The purpose of this review is to present the basic principles of a healthy nutrition in female endurance runner enriched by the latest scientific recommendations. Female endurance runners are a specific population of athletes who need to take specifically care of daily nutrition due to the high load of training and the necessity to keep a rather low body mass. This paradoxical situation can create some nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. Female endurance athletes should pay attention to their total energy intake, which is often lower than their energy requirement. The minimal energy requirement has been set to 45 kcal/kg fat free mass/day plus the amount of energy needed for physical activity. The usual recommended amount of 1.2–1.4 g protein/kg/day has recently been questioned by new findings suggesting that 1.6 g/kg/day would be more appropriate for female athletes. Although a bit less sensitive to carbohydrate loading than their male counterparts, female athletes can benefit from this nutritional strategy before a race if the amount of carbohydrates reaches 8 g/kg/day and if their daily total energy intake is sufficient. A poor iron status is a common issue in female endurance runners but iron-enriched food as well as iron supplementation may help to counterbalance this poor status. Finally, they should also be aware that they may be at risk for low calcium and vitamin D levels.

The Effect of an Energy Restricted Low Glycemic Index Diet on Blood Lipids, Apolipoproteins and Lipoprotein (a) Among Adolescent Girls with Excess Weight: a Randomized Clinical Trial

Some studies focused on the effect of the dietary glycemic index on lipoproteins and apolipoproteins in adults; however, little evidence exists among adolescents regarding the effect of a low glycemic index (LGI) diet on apolipoproteins and lipoprotein (a) (Lpa). This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of an LGI diet on the lipid profile, apolipoproteins and Lpa among overweight and obese adolescent girls. For this parallel designed randomized clinical trial, 50 healthy overweight/obese girls at pubertal ages were randomly allocated to an LGI or a healthy nutritional recommendations (HNR) based diet. Equal macronutrient distributed diets were prescribed to both groups. Biochemical measurements included lipid profile, apolipoprotein A, apolipoprotein B and Lpa were conducted before and after 10 weeks of intervention. Forty one adolescent girls completed the study. The dietary glycemic index in the LGI group was 42.67 ± 0.067. There were no differences in the mean of blood lipid indices baseline and after intervention between two groups. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding lipid profiles, apolipoproteins and Lpa. There were no significant differences in lipid profiles, apolipoproteins and Lpa between the LGI diet and the HNR-based diet and the impact of these two diets on lipid profile was equal in this trial.

Predictors of obesity: the "power" of the omics.

During the entire 20th Century, nutrition research experienced and amazing interest and development fueled by the initial success on the fields of malnutrition and the discovery of vitamins and other essential nutrients. During the second part of the Century, it was realized that most common diseases (i.e., cardiovascular diseases, cancer and obesity) had a strong nutritional component. However, from the public health perspective as well as from the point of view of the individual recommendations, current recommendations for healthy nutrition resemble those provided over one hundred years ago. Therefore, modern nutritional research has a great potential of still contributing to improved health for future generations, assuming that the new developments in research and technologies are applied to nutritional problems. Nutrition research must embrace state of the art epidemiology, objective food assessment tools, genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, advanced biostatistics, imaging, challenge tests, and integration of all data by bioinformatics, under the umbrella of molecular nutrition research. The ultimate goals of future nutritional research are to understand the detailed mechanisms of action for how nutrients/foods interact with the body and with the individual genomes to further the advance of nutrigenomics, thereby providing new tools for disease prevention and treatment.