Search results

The purpose of this study is to collect and assess the evidence available on the effect of non nutritive sweeteners on appetite, weight and glycemic regulation. As a replacement for sugars, non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) are widely being used in different food products with the assumption that these would lower calorie intake and help to manage weight and blood sugar levels better. However, studies using animal models have reported that chronic exposure to NNSs leads to increased food consumption, weight gain and insulin resistance.

Evidence was acquired from systematic reviews or meta-analyses (2016–2021) of relevant clinical studies, especially randomized control trials using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines.

The review showed NNSs exposure did not conclusively induce increased food intake or change in subjective appetite ratings. Appetite biomarkers like ghrelin, gastric inhibitory peptide, C-peptide levels and Peptide YY remained mostly unaffected by NNSs. Meta-analyses of human randomized control studies showed a reduced energy intake and body weight. No significant change was seen in blood glucose levels, post-prandial glycemic or insulin response after consumption of NNSs. Adequate evidence is not available to conclusively say that NNSs influence gut health at doses relevant to human use.

Most studies which are prospective cohort, observational and cross-sectional studies suggest that use of NNSs may promote obesity and metabolic syndrome in adults. Such studies are plagued by confounding variables and reverse causation. Mechanistic evidence is mostly based on in-vitro and in-vivo studies. The same causal pathways may not be operative or relevant in humans.

This review of available literature concludes that to achieve specific public health and clinical goals, the safe use of NNSs for the reduction of intakes of free sugars and energy should be explored. This would be possible by educating the consumer about energy compensation and understanding the nutritional content of artificially sweetened products in terms of calories coming from fat and complex carbohydrates used in the product.

This study was, thus, designed with the objective of examining the usefulness of NNSs in human population, especially with respect to insulin regulation, glycemic control and weight management. Well-designed randomized control trials which control for confounding variables are needed to generate high quality evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the functionalities, safety regulations and product applications of herb Stevia rebaudiana extract. This plant material is embedded with multiple functionalities such as antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation and antimicrobial. The regulations released from global authorities are covered to ensure the safety premise of stevia. Besides, the product applications of the extract of aerial parts of the herb S. rebaudiana helps us to recognize its value from commercial side.

Relevant literatures are selected and obtained from main scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and trade magazines published between 2000 and 2023. The keywords and their possible combinations such as sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation, safety and product development were used to ensure the preciseness and completeness of literature searching. Major data such as sweetness, total phenolic content and dose together with latter critical conclusions from searched publications were appropriately used and discussed. In this review, approximately 150 scientific literatures were meticulously ordered and analyzed. In applications, it is the first time that sentiment analysis was used to obtain a market assessment of the stevia-containing products.

This review paper helps rearrange the scientific affairs of those stevia extract’s functions like sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics and inflammation. Sweetness indexes of steviol glycosides were summarized together for comparison while various in vitro and in vivo approaches were reviewed to quantify those functions’ capacities and to depict the related mechanism. The regulation of steviol glycoside compounds such as rebaudioside A was established by global authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration and Joint FAO/World Health Organization Expert Committee to ensure the safety endorsement before commercialization. Then, this study discussed about the market performance of stevia ingredients or products with the self-developed data analytics. This study also investigated the product development progress of stevia-containing food products in the categories of beverage, bakery, dairy and confectionery. Those stevia-containing food consumer goods can be acceptable by certain consumers.

This review paper precisely presents the evidential information about the stevia’s multiple functionalities with mechanisms and global regulation milestones. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is then the first time to probe the stevia-containing products’ market performance through data analytics.

Background: Compliance of patients with self-care practices is the mainstay of measures to manage diabetes. This study explored self-care practices of type 2 diabetes patients receiving insulin treatment in North-East Ethiopia.

Methods: The study employed an interpretive phenomenological approach using purposive sampling. The data were collected from 24 (11 males and 13 females) participants (July 2019 to January 2020) using in-depth interviews till theoretical saturation. The data were analyzed thematically and organized using QDA Miner Lite v2.0.8.

Results: The findings were categorized into: labeling diabetes, self-care maintenance experiences, recognition of symptoms, and mitigating mechanisms. The self-care maintenance practice of patients was linked with diet input preferences and the effectiveness level of insulin. What guides the self-care behavior was the patients’ preferentiality of strictly adhering to their preferred dietary inputs. Barley and wheat were the most common preferential and non-preferential inputs, respectively. The patients strictly adhered to insulin treatment because they found it effective. The most common hyperglycemia symptoms to be managed by taking an additional dose of insulin, were frequent urination, increased thirst, and their consequence (dehydration). Excessive sweating (initial), shivering (middle), and falling (final), respectively in severity, were the most common symptoms of hypoglycemia which were perceived to be treated with sweet snacks.

Originality: To our knowledge, this is the first research in Ethiopia to investigate the self-care experiences of type 2 diabetes patients receiving insulin using an interpretive phenomenological approach.

This systematic review aims to gain the studies regarding the effect of Nigella Sativa (N. sativa) on adipokines including leptin, adiponectin and resistin.

Search was carried out using databases Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar with no restriction on language or date until February 2023 and alert services were applied to identify any paper after the primary search.

Eighteen animal and human studies were eligible for the current systematic review. Leptin and resistin levels showed a downward tendency after consuming N. sativa and its ingredients [e.g. oil, thymoquinone (TQ) and thymol] as well as its extracts (e.g. water extract). Furthermore, considering 4 of 8 animal research studies and 2 of 5 human studies that evaluated adiponectin levels, a significant increase was observed after using N. sativa and its ingredients (e.g. oil, TQ and thymol).

The present paper collates evidence from animal and human studies regarding the effect of N. sativa on adipokines including leptin, adiponectin and resistin.

Meteorin like-peptide (Metrnl) modulates energy hemostasis and relieves inflammation and oxidative stress. This study aims to investigate the relationship between Metrnl levels and inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress biomarkers and body composition parameters in obese type 2 diabetic patients.

This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out between August 2020 and March 2021on 93 people (n = 32 obese type 2 diabetic patients, n = 31 healthy obese, n = 30 healthy normal weight). Serum Metrnl levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity were measured using standard methods. Body composition was assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis. p-Value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Serum Metrnl levels were lower in obese diabetic patients than in healthy normal-weight subjects (82.5 [72.4–94.5] ng/mL compared to 154 [129–189] ng/mL). The difference in Metrnl levels between the two groups was significant (p < 0.001). The difference in Metrnl levels between the two groups was significant. Moreover, a significant correlation between Metrnl level and both TNF-a and hs-CRP was detected (p = 0.006 and p < 0.001, respectively) and the correlation between Metrnl and IL-6 was borderline (p = 0.051). A negative correlation was revealed between Metrnl level and anthropometric measurements and body composition (p < 0.05) with the exception of fat-free mass and skeletal muscle mass.

To discover sufficient evidence for the therapeutic function of Metrnl and its use as a prognostic biomarker in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus, future clinical studies are needed to highlight other factors influencing Metrnl serum levels.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between dietary polyamine levels, metabolic risk parameters and anthropometric measurements in postmenopausal women.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 562 45–64-year-old postmenopausal women who presented to a Family Health Center. To collect the data, the Descriptive Information Form and Food Frequency Questionnaire were used. In the data analysis, numbers, percentages, mean, standard deviation and multiple linear regression analysis were used.

The multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that dietary putrescine intake was negatively associated with systolic blood pressure (ß = −0.179, p < 0.001), dietary spermidine intake was positively associated with waist circumference (WC) (ß = 0.142, p = 0.013), systolic blood pressure (ß = 0.188, p = 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (ß = 0.218, p < 0.001), body mass index (BMI) (ß = 0.169, p = 0.003) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) (ß = 0.156, p = 0.006), and dietary spermine intake was negatively associated with WC (ß = −0.158, p = 0.003), systolic blood pressure (ß = −0.195, p < 0.001), BMI (ß = −0.107, p = 0.042) and WHtR (ß = −0.138, p = 0.009).

Owing to the study’s cross-sectional nature, the lack of succession in the cause–effect relationship, the use of self-report Food Frequency Questionnaire to determine dietary polyamine intake and the inability to analyze seasonal differences are among the limitations of the study.

In this study, an association was determined between dietary polyamines, metabolic risk parameters and anthropometric measurements. The findings suggest that dietary polyamines in human health should be further investigated owing to the increasing metabolic risk parameters.

Malnutrition during childhood precedes growth failure and affects the child’s well-being later in life. This study aims to investigate the potency of iron-fortified klutuk banana (Musa balbisiana Colla) flour on growth parameters and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) expression in malnourished rat model.

Rats were allocated into normal control (NC), untreated malnutrition (MC), malnutrition + iron-fortified klutuk banana flour (IBF) and malnutrition + Indonesian Government-issued biscuit (GB). Malnutrition was induced by an isoenergetic low-protein diet for five weeks. The IBF and GB groups were supplemented with IBF 1.2 g/200 gBW and GB 1.2 g/200 gBW, respectively, via gavage daily for three weeks. The body weight and length, the levels of plasma and liver FGF21 and red blood cell indices were analyzed.

After three weeks of supplementation, the IBF group showed higher body weight (245 ± 13.6 g vs 201.8 ± 16.3 g; p = 0.0004) and length (20.9 ± 0.5 cm vs 19.8 ± 0.5 cm; p = 0.021) compared with the untreated group. The plasma FGF21 level decreased in the IBF group (p = 0.034). The IBF group altered mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin, suggesting the IBF might attenuate malnutrition-induced anemia. Overall, the IBF prevented growth failure in malnourished condition. This might be mediated by the suppression of FGF21 expression, along with the prevention of malnutrition and anemia.

This study provides preliminary information about the potential use of rarely consumed banana, klutuk banana, as a supplement to treat malnutrition. This study might help the developing countries to eliminate the widespread malnutrition in economically challenged communities.

This research focuses on the challenges of establishing a better medical system that can detect and diagnose diseases earlier. Using such cutting-edge health systems, healthcare practitioners may quickly and effectively manage patients’ medical issues by providing the appropriate data at the right time about the right people. The advancement of technology has increased the usefulness of devices that routinely analyse health measurements or monitoring time-sensitive health-related data. Medical professionals and patients alike are downloading health-related mobile apps to better track and manage their health. The research evidences how Internet of Things (IoT) technology may be used to support health care.

The potential problems of Kho-Kho players have been less studied. Considering eating disorders a public health problem, but also in particular for athletes, as it can cause serious health and performance decrements if left unmonitored. This study aims to determine the prevalence of disordered eating attitude and their relationship with mental health among Indian Kho-Kho players.

Fifty-two male Kho-Kho players aged 16–31 years were assessed for disordered eating attitude using Eating Attitude Test (EAT)-26 and mental health using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and t-test were computed to know the difference between positive and negative disordered eating attitude.

The disordered eating attitude was prevalent among 11.5% of players. The players with disordered eating attitudes showed a significantly (p < 0.01) higher score for EAT-26 subscales related to dieting and oral control. Players were involved in binging (21.2%), purging (5.8%), use of laxatives (1.9%), extra exercise (>1 h) (34.6%) and lost >20 pounds of body weight in the last six months (13.5%). Depression, anxiety and stress were higher in the group with a disordered eating attitude. However, a significant difference (p < 0.01) was found only for depression.

The disordered eating attitude was present among Kho-Kho Players and linked with depression. Health care service providers are encouraged to monitor and guide the players with disordered eating attitudes to take active measures to ensure optimum health and performance.

The present paper provides evidence of disordered eating attitude linked with depression among Kho-Kho players.