Search results

This study was designed with the aim of assessing the energy and nutrient intakes of male university students before and during Ramadan and comparing it with the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) of Malaysia.

A total of 30 male students aged between 19‐24 years from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Kuantan Campus were recruited before Ramadan. The height, weight, waist and hip circumferences were recorded on day one of Ramadan and also recorded on day 21 of Ramadan to assess the changes. From the weight and height, the body mass index was calculated and from the waist and hip circumference, the waist‐to‐hip ratios were calculated. The respondents were requested to keep three days food record in household measurements; once prior to fasting and once during the third week of Ramadan. The records were then analyzed using Malaysian Food Composition Table and Food Atlas to get the averages of energy and macronutrients intakes of the subjects.

After 21 days of Ramadan, the results revealed that there was reduction in the body weight and there was significant (P<0.05) improvement in the waist‐to‐hip ratio of the subjects. The effect was more prominent in the normal‐weight compared to overweight respondents. The mean energy and protein intakes were significantly (P<0.001) lower than the RNI for Malaysians of similar age group. However, mean energy and protein intakes increased during Ramadan compared to the first day of Ramadan. This study indicates that Ramadan fasting does not affect energy and macronutrients intake but only the routine of intake is affected.

This research was limited to a specific group of normal and overweight students who were residing on campus of the IIUM. Their intakes might not be consistent with those at home or living outside the university campus. Another thing is that the students might have over‐reported their energy and macro‐nutrients intakes compared to what they have consumed in reality. So, the self‐reported intakes could not be ascertained. The stated factors might have confounding effects on the finding of this research.

Most research argues that the body weight loss during Ramadan fasting is due to reduced energy consumption; however, this is not true in all cases. This study infers that there is no reduction in the total energy consumption, rather there is a change in the pattern of energy intake. This brief study would help researchers planning to conduct research on Ramadan fasting and will caution fasting readers about the intakes.

This study indicates that during Ramadan fasting does not affect energy and macro‐nutrients intake but only the schedule of intake is affected.

Over six years, first‐year students completed weighed dietary surveys, and their dietary intakes of a variety of nutrients were determined. Reports on sources of energy in the diet. The data collected were compared with recommended dietary amounts and with literature data on dietary intakes of young adults (not students). The data collected show energy intakes of students to be very similar to those of other young adults of a similar age. They tended to be more likely to consume fat at recommended levels, with females in later years consuming less than 35 per cent energy as fat. Data for females over the six years also suggest that total energy intakes are declining, which, if the trend continues, could lead to problems in satisfying other nutritional requirements. Alcohol consumption among students was similar to other people of a similar age group, although a small number of individuals were consuming a large proportion of their energy as alcohol.

This study assesses the nutritional status of 15 elite athletes. Their body weight, height and skinfold thickness were measured and BMI calculated. Dietary intakes were assessed using three days’ dietary diaries for each athletic season. Data were collected over three athletic seasons, the transitional (vacation), the training and the competitive. The results showed that the athletes’ mean energy intake decreased from the transitional to the training season. and that during the competitive season most athletes were not in energy balance. Their mean protein intake varied from 11 percent of energy intake during the transitional season, to 16 percent during the competitive season. Carbohydrates provided 41‐53 percent of energy intake, whereas fat intake ranged from 32‐48 percent, indicating a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate. Dietary intakes varied among the athletes but in general they had an unbalanced nutrition. Provision of appropriate nutritional information in Greek athletic teams is needed to improve athletes’ diet and performance.

The study aimed to analyse the nutritional quality of self-proposed or prescribed weight-loss diets shared by female Korean adolescents through a social media platform and identified potential dietary problems.

A total of 317 weight-loss diets, shared by 107 female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 in April 2019, were collected from three Kakao Open Chat rooms of which the main topic was “weight-loss diet”. The weight-loss diets were converted to daily energy and nutrient intake.

Approximately two-thirds of the subjects were normal or underweight, and more than half of them were limiting energy intake to less than half of the recommended daily amounts. The average daily intake of energy and most nutrients did not meet the standard intake levels. Approximately 20% of the subjects were breakfast skippers, while 8 and 5% were dinner and lunch skippers, respectively. Notably, meal skippers tended to fast longer and have an uneven distribution of daily energy intake per meal. The percentages of energy contribution from macronutrients, particularly carbohydrates, also deviated more from the acceptable range in the meal skippers. The weight-loss diets of the subjects with particularly low daily energy intake were categorised into simplified, unbalanced and nutrient-poor, energy-dense meals. Overall, the nutritional quality of the self-proposed or prescribed weight-loss diets was poor. More effective and proactive educational interventions in school environments should be developed to promote positive eating behaviours in adolescents and free them from their obsession with body image.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to analyse the nutritional quality of female adolescents' self-proposed or prescribed weight-loss diets.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of urbanicity on rural–urban migrants' dietary diversity and nutrition intake and whether its effect differs across various urban environments of migrants.

Using the individual- and time-invariant fixed effects (two-way FE) model and five-year panel data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this paper estimates a linear and nonlinear relationship between urbanicity and nutrition. The paper also explores the spatial heterogeneity between rural–urban migrants and rural–suburban migrants. Dietary diversity, total energy intake and the shares of energy obtained from protein and fat, respectively, are used to measure rural–urban migrants' nutrition on both quality and quantity aspects.

The study shows that rural–urban migrants have experienced access to more diverse, convenient and prepared foods, and the food variety consumed is positively associated with community urbanicity. Energy intake is positively and significantly affected by community urbanicity, and it also varies with per capita household income. The obvious inverse U-shaped relationship reveals that improving community urbanicity promotes an increase in the shares of energy obtained from protein and fat at a decreasing rate, until reaching the urbanicity index threshold of 66.69 and 54.26, respectively.

This paper focuses on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants, an important pillar for China's development, which is often neglected in the research. It examines the urbanicity and the nutrition of migrants in China, which provides a new perspective to understand the dietary and nutritional intake among migrants in the economic and social development. Moreover, the urbanicity index performs better at measuring urban feathers rather than the traditional rural/urban dichotomous classification.

Assesses the effect of fat substitutes on satiety and subsequent food intake in men; 50 per cent of fat in pork sausages was replaced by natural fat substitutes ‐ Avicel, Tapiocaline and Simplesse. Results showed that high‐energy fat breakfasts comprising full‐fat sausages led to delayed satiety compared with high‐energy CHO breakfasts. There were no differences between hunger and satiety ratings nor energy and fat intakes following different fatsubstituted breakfasts on the test day and the following day. The deficit in energy between high‐energy and reduced‐energy breakfasts was maintained throughout the test day. Consumption of one reduced‐fat meal resulted in a significant reduction of energy intake, which was not compensated for on the test day or on the following day.

The provision of meals has long been regarded as an essential part of treatment of hospitalized patients complementing medical procedures and nursing management. Today, despite changes in the health-care landscape, which focused on improving the quality and efficiency of hospital care, malnutrition among inpatient was still a common worldwide concern.

This was a multi-centre, randomized study conducted in 21 study sites comprising 21 state and specialist government hospitals under the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. The sample size for this study was calculated with purposive sampling method, followed by proportionate sampling to determine the random sample size of each of the study sites. The total sample size required for this study was 2,759 subjects. A validated data collection form was used in the study.

Only 32.2 % and 37.6 % of subjects achieved adequate energy and protein intake, respectively, during their admission to medical ward. The study result showed that the overall mean energy and protein intake was 794.6 ± 487.8 kcal and 35.2 ± 24.3 g, respectively. The estimated energy (p = 0.001) and protein (p = 0.001) intake of all study sites was significantly lower compared to the adequacy value.

The adequacy intake in this study was only carried out in medical wards, thus reproducible result among other wards in different study sites could not be confirmed. Besides, this study assumed that the portion eaten by subjects during lunch and dinner was the same, and therefore, either one was recorded together with breakfast and either lunch or dinner to represent a subject’s daily intake.

This was the first nationwide study to report the adequacy of energy and protein intake of patients receiving therapeutic diets in the government hospital setting in Malaysia.

Excessive high caloric and nutritional intake has been associated with weight gain which is linked to an increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and several types of cancers. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the nutritional intake pattern of the population in terms of energy, macro and micronutrients.

There were assessed 513 workers of the University of Porto (UP) randomly selected. The Food Processor Plus was used to convert foods into nutrients and, to assess nutritional intake adequacy. Data were compared to Dietary Reference Intakes and with recommended ranges by the World Health Organization.

The intake of most individuals was above recommendations for protein, carbohydrates and sodium. The average of energy intake observed in UP employees was lower than data available for Portuguese general population. The protein, carbohydrates, total fat and water intake, cholesterol, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fatty acids and sodium intake were found to be significantly higher for men. Significant differences were found for vitamin D and calcium between age ranges; Carbohydrates, sugar, monounsaturated fatty acids, cholesterol, water and vitamin K was significantly different between teachers and non-teachers.

According to nutritional intake analysis, food consumption of this population was unbalanced, attending to high protein, carbohydrates and sodium intake.

This study aims to report on the nutritional profile of preschool children of 4 to 5 years.

The data on raw food intake of the randomly selected subjects were collected by 24hr recall method for three consecutive days and the mean was taken. Daily intake of various nutrients by each subject was calculated using MSU Nutriguide and this was further compared with RDA recommended by ICMR to assess the adequacy of their diets.

The analysis revealed that the intake of protein, fat, calcium, thiamine, folic acid and vitamin B₁₂ was more than or equal to Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) as recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research, while the intake of energy, iron, vitamin C, niacin and riboflavin was less than their respective RDAs. The intake of β‐carotene was marginally adequate. Boys consumed significantly more amount of energy and folic acid than girls.

A large number of samples could not be taken owing to practical difficulties.

The study is original and innovative. The findings are useful for the policy makers and nutritionists who have to implement supplementary feeding programmes.