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Recent research has suggested that the present diets prescribed for diabetics, while satisfactory up to a point, are nevertheless, not the most suitable, given today's sedentary lifestyle.

Self-efficacy has often been found to play a significant role in healthy dietary behaviours. However, self-efficacy interventions most often consist of intensive interventions. The authors aim to provide more insight into the effect of brief self-efficacy interventions on healthy dietary behaviours.

In the present article, two randomized controlled trials are described. In study 1, a brief self-efficacy intervention with multiple self-efficacy techniques integrated on a flyer is tested, and in study 2, an online brief self-efficacy intervention with a single self-efficacy technique is tested.

The results show that a brief self-efficacy intervention can directly increase vegetable intake and indirectly improve compliance to a diet plan to eat healthier.

These findings suggest that self-efficacy interventions do not always have to be intensive to change dietary behaviours and that brief self-efficacy interventions can also lead to more healthy dietary behaviours.

Deficiency of nutrition is generally referred to as malnutrition; however, malnutrition can refer to both overnutrition and undernutrition. Nutrient availability and intake are current challenges for society, and these challenges will only intensify as population continues to grow and resources become more stressed. This chapter examines the need for dietary guidelines to increase nutrition security, describes the history of dietary guidelines in the United States, examines compliance and challenges with compliance of dietary guidelines, and finishes with future implications of dietary guidelines. This study concluded that although the purpose of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Dietary Guidelines is to assist Americans in choosing healthy eating patterns and to alleviate the negative health and economic outcomes associated with malnutrition, consumers typically do not follow the USDA Dietary Guidelines due to their inherent complexities and other factors, such as income and access to food which may affect compliance.

Based on New Nordic Cuisine and Nordic dietary recommendations, the research centre OPUS has developed a healthy, sustainable and tasty New Nordic Diet (NND) with the goal of improving public health in Denmark. In order to determine the health potential of the NND, a six-month, controlled dietary intervention trial was conducted, in which participants procured NND foods at a specially designed intervention supermarket and prepared and consumed NND meals in their homes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A qualitative sociological study was conducted among intervention participants in order to explore whether and how they appropriated this diet into their everyday food practices.

Participants appropriated the NND by becoming co-producers of this diet, tailoring it to accord with individual preferences and the demands of everyday life. Findings indicate that while the taste of the NND is likely to appeal to wider groups of consumers, the tasks of food procurement and preparation are likely to constitute barriers to its adoption. The strictly controlled intervention setting enabled participants to learn how to comply with dietary composition despite their deviations from given menu-plans and recipes. The extent to which such compliance would be achieved outside this context by other consumers is questioned. Further studies are needed to determine whether more widespread consumption of the NND would in practice comply with Nordic dietary recommendations.

The study provides insights relevant to health agencies, public health researchers and food companies regarding consumer appropriation of a dietary system, the health benefits of which are dependent upon dietary compliance.

Celiac disease is an auto-immune disorder that requires strict lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet. I explore how a celiac diagnosis affects gendered feeding work within families.

This chapter is based on a grounded theory analysis of field research with five celiac support groups and 80 in-depth interviews. I interviewed 15 adult men and 56 adult women with celiac, plus nine additional family members.

Gendered care work norms place the onus of responsibility for gluten-free feeding work on women, multiplying time spent planning, shopping, and preparing meals. Women employ distinct gendered strategies to accommodate the gluten-free diet. Following a strategy of integration, women tailor family meals to meet other diagnosed family members’ dietary needs and the entire family’s taste preferences. However, when women themselves have celiac, they follow a pattern of deferential subordination, not allowing their own dietary needs to alter family meals. Thus, women continue to prepare family meals as a form of care for others, even when their medical needs justify putting themselves first.

Social support is a key determinant of compliance with necessary lifestyle and dietary changes in chronic illness. However, little research explores the gendered dynamics within families accounting for the link between social support and dietary compliance. I show how gendered care work norms benefit husbands and children with celiac, while simultaneously disadvantaging women with celiac.

Globally, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency and the most common cause of anaemia during pregnancy. To date, there is lack of established studies investigating factors associated with iron status during pregnancy in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the associations of obstetrical characteristics and dietary intakes with iron status among pregnant women attending selected health clinics in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 436 third-trimester pregnant women aged 18–40 years, from six selected health clinics in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Data on obstetrical characteristics were extracted from the antenatal medical records. Dietary intakes were assessed using an adapted semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire via face-to-face interview. Venous blood samples were collected for the measurement of serum ferritin (SF) using ADVIA Centaur analyser to determine iron status.

Approximately one in four of the pregnant women (25.9%) had iron deficiency, with mean SF of 33.35 ± 25.77µg/l. Factors associated with SF were parity (B = −3.048, p < 0.05), frequency of antenatal care visits (B = 1.456, p < 0.05), haemoglobin (Hb) (B = 3.890, p < 0.05), iron intake (B = 0.010, p < 0.05) and frequency of dietary iron supplementation consumption (B = 3.333, p < 0.05). Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that dietary factors were significantly associated with SF, after accounting for the obstetrical characteristics.

Besides obstetrical factors, the findings emphasised the importance of dietary factors on iron status during pregnancy. Nutrition consultation service particularly on the sources of iron intake and compliance towards dietary iron supplementation shall be provided to all pregnant women.

Treatment of coeliac disease (CD) is essentially dietary and requires permanent changes in dietary habits. Gluten‐free diet compliance affects every aspect of an individual's quality of life. This paper aims to analyse the difficulties associated with the food practices tried and reported by CD patients and their health and quality of life.

A questionnaire with open, closed and multiple choice questions adapted from an already validated instrument was administered to a sample of 105 CD patients. The inclusion criteria were patients diagnosed with CD living in Distrito Federal (DF) who agreed to participate in the study.

The greatest concerns of CD patients were eating out (44.23 per cent), having to read food labels (50.00 per cent), believing that foods are not safe (52.88 per cent) and not having dietary alternatives (56.44 per cent). Some (39.42 per cent) patients have no difficulty following the diet, 42.3 per cent have some difficulty and 18.27 per cent find it very difficult to follow the diet.

This study discloses some of the social difficulties faced by CD patients, such as eating with relatives and friends, and discusses the impact of these challenges on their quality of life. The data show that information can help CD patients to maintain their quality of life.

This pilot study seeks to evaluate whether dietary intervention combined with an oral formulation of sodium salicylate, mineral and vitamin supplements (CV247) altered the rate of progression in patients with malignant disease.

A total of 37 patients were recruited from March 2001 to November 2001 and ran to September 2004. All patients had progressive malignancy at trial entry (def: at least two consecutive increases in tumour markers >10 per cent or radiological progression). Patients, were recommended a diet rich in fresh fruit, vegetables, low in saturated fats, salt and man‐made chemical supplements such as colours and preservatives together with oral CV247 (sodium salicylate, copper gluconate, manganese gluconate and ascorbic acid). Dietary compliance was monitored, from a subgroup, by monthly interviews with the trial dietitian recorded on a linear analogue scale. Quality of life was measured by monthly completion of a Rotterdam symptom check‐list questionnaire and tumour progression measured by radiological assessment and/or tumour markers.

The treatment was well tolerated and compliance with the diet was enthusiastic. Of the two patients with progressive metastatic ovarian carcinoma, one had stabilisation in the disease for five months, the other for 20 months. The 28 heavily pre‐treated patients (including those with metastatic prostate cancer) had no significant clinical response (52 per cent stabilisation for 3.5 months). Of the seven patients with early prostate cancer (no metastasis or hormonal therapy, with pre‐trial increasing PSA), six (86 per cent) had stabilisation of PSA with a mean duration of 17.2 months.

This study succeeded in evaluating whether dietary intervention combined with an oral formulation of sodium salicylate, mineral and vitamin supplements (CV247) altered the rate of progression in patients with malignant disease.

Established data revealed a relationship between obesity and increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity of chronic diseases. There are conflicting data regarding the association between adherence of dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) and obesity. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this relationship among a large sample of Iranian adults.

This cross-sectional study was performed by 10,693 individuals; 6750 individuals related to Yazd Health Study living in the urban area and 3943 individuals related to Shahedieh cohort study living in the suburb area. Dietary intake was evaluated by using a validated food frequency questionnaire. In all participants, anthropometric indices including body mass index were measured. The DASH score was considered using gender-specific quintiles of DASH items. To evaluate the relationship of DASH diet and obesity, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used.

By adjusting confounders, participants in highest quintiles of DASH diet were compared to the lowest have lower odds of obesity in suburb area (odds ratio [OR]: 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.63, 0.96), in urban (OR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.99) and in whole population of both studies (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.90). Besides, more compliance of women to this diet in urban (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.48, 0.85) and population of both studies (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.96) were associated with reduced odds of central obesity.

Considering this study limitations, the following can be mentioned: in this cross-sectional study, the causal relationship between DASH diet and obesity could not be assessed. Consequently, further prospective studies are required in this area. Second, although a valid food frequency questionnaire was used, but there was a measurement error and an error in the classification of people participating in the study. Moreover, we cannot reject the possibility of residual confounding bias because unknown or unmeasured confounders may exist that affected our results. Finally, our participants with odds of obesity might have been advised to reduce their fat intake, which led them to alter their dietary habits. However, such possibility cannot be resolved in a cross-sectional study.

DASH dietary pattern could decrease odds of obesity in both urban and suburb area and central obesity in urban area only. Further prospective studies are needed for causal conclusion.

Argues that although intense sweeteners (IS) such as saccharin and aspartame are perceived by consumers as important aids to dietary and weight control, there is little evidence to support this optimism. The result of dietary surveys comparing food intake or weight change in users and non‐users of IS are difficult to interpret because they are likely to be confounded by other differences between these groups. Results from laboratory studies show that reduced‐calorie foods and drinks have a reduced capacity to inhibit appetite (reduced satiating power). Therefore the incorporation of IS into the diet cannot be expected to lead “automatically” to a reduction in energy intake. Indeed, if users were to assume that such an effect exists, this might well prove counterproductive. If used wisely, however, IS might facilitate dietary compliance by increasing the range of foods that can be included in weight loss or weight maintenance diets.