Search results

Beta‐carotene producers and food manufacturers have collated information about the usage of beta‐carotene as a colourant and in fortified foods and food supplements. These data have been combined with food consumption data from some European countries consuming higher amounts of processed foods, to generate estimates of high‐level intake to compare with official advice. Intake estimates of beta‐carotene from food colour uses for German, French and British adults ranged from 0.4 to 1.9 mg/day. Pack dosage directions and beta‐carotene content were used to estimate intakes from supplements, which could range from less than 1 mg/day to 100 mg/day. However, for the majority of products recommended daily doses were less than 10 mg/day. Theoretical intakes from fortified drinks could exceed 5 mg/day, but this level of intake is unlikely to be maintained in the longer term. The most important sources of intake appeared to be from food supplements and fortified foods. Intakes of isolated beta‐carotene were comparable to intakes of natural beta‐carotene from the diet.

High salt intake is one of the most important causes of some serious health problems. This study aims to evaluate the effects of a salt intake reduction intervention based on social marketing model in Ahwaz city, Iran.

This was a before-after study with a control group using social marketing approach. Two similar residential complexes were chosen and randomly assigned into intervention or control groups. One hundred and thirty women were selected in each complex. Formative research was conducted, including focus group discussions (FGDs), a survey to identify cognitive factors of salt intake and a 24-h urine test to estimate salt intake value. Based on the results of the formative research, an intervention was planned and implemented for one month in the intervention group. The postintervention assessment was conducted repeating the cognitive survey and urine test. Statistical tests, including independent T-Test and paired T-Test, were used to compare the experimental and control groups.

Before the intervention mean salt intake levels were 8,574.41 and 8,282.23 mg/day in the intervention and control groups, respectively. The total mean scores of cognitive and behavioral factors were 25.32 and 26.41 out of 59 in the intervention and control groups, respectively. After the intervention in the intervention group, daily salt intake decreased significantly by 1,558.83 mg/day and mean total scores of cognitive and behavioral factors increased significantly by 10.73.

Due to sodium excretion fluctuations in different days and/or different people, estimating sodium excretion based on one-day sample may have bias. Still, 24-h urine test is the most effective method to estimate population mean salt intake which is used in this study.

The authors could not investigate urine sodium levels in other family members due to resource limitations. Knowing this could help us to see if similar results are achieved.

Despite the lack of public policies to decrease population salt intake, interventions based on social marketing can significantly reduce salt intake. However, the long-term effect of such interventions will require further investigation.

This paper's aim is to assess vegetable soup intake and its contribution to total vegetable intake among mothers of Portuguese schoolchildren as well as to examine the association between relative vegetable soup intake and sociodemographic characteristics.

A cross‐sectional survey was carried out in Portugal as part of the Pro Children study. In total 1,673 women, mothers of 11‐13 year old children, took part in the study. The vegetable intake and sociodemographic characteristics were collected with a self‐administered questionnaire in which a precoded 24‐hour recall was applied. The analysed sociodemographic characteristics were the number of people and composition of household, educational level, social class and region of residence. The associations between preferential or exclusive consumer mothers of vegetable soup (i.e. ≥50 per cent of total vegetable intake) and sociodemographic characteristics were analysed by a logistic regression model.

The mean intake of vegetable soup was 76.1 g/d and its contribution to total vegetable intake was approximately 45 per cent. The percentage of mothers that were preferential or exclusive consumers of vegetable soup was 41 per cent. Preferential or exclusive vegetable soup intake was less likely among mothers when the number of people in the household was less than four (vs 4; OR: 0.734, 95 per cent CI: 0.577‐0.934) and that did not live with their spouse/partner (OR: 0.617, 95 per cent CI: 0.424‐0.878).

The paper focuses on the consumption of vegetable soup, a traditional culinary preparation among Portuguese people. Also, it identifies factors associated with its consumption.

There has been a dramatic increase in hypertension in developing countries along with changes in food consumption patterns contributing to higher levels of sodium. Evidence shows that a high level of sodium intake is a major cause of high blood pressure and other heart diseases along with other associated diseases. Therefore, it is important to determine current consumption levels of sodium in a population to facilitate the development and implementation of any specific salt reduction program.

The study was conducted among 60 subjects (25-45 years) residing in Jaipur City. Subjects’ sodium consumption levels were assessed via assessment of 24-h urinary sodium excretion levels, the “gold standard” method advocated by WHO/PAHO (2010) and 24-h dietary recall for three days including one holiday.

The findings of the study indicated that the subjects were found to be consuming higher levels of sodium (males, 5,792 mg/d; females, 5,911 mg/d) than recommended by WHO, i.e. less than 2,300 mg/d. Completeness of urine was confirmed by fat-free mass determined by electrical bio-impedance (47.6 ± 7.6 kg) and determined by using 24-h urinary excretion of creatinine (33.7 ± 10.1 kg). Two variables were found to be significantly correlated (r = 0.52, p = 0.00). Assuming that the sodium eliminated in the urine comes from the salt only, this excretion would correspond with a dietary salt intake of 14.71 and 15.01 g/d in males and females, respectively. Dietary sodium intake was reported to be 4,133 ± 1,111 mg/day and 3,953 ± 945 mg/d in males and females, respectively. A non-significant difference was found between the two variables. Urinary sodium excretion correlated non-significantly with systolic and diastolic blood pressure figures (r = 0.09 and r = −0.02, respectively).

The limitations of this study included the small sample size. Purposive sampling was adopted due to difficulty in obtaining urine sample and required willingness of the respondent. This may give fair robust estimate.

The present results will help provide new data about the baseline salt intake in young and middle-aged population of Jaipur City and will further help the concerned agencies to plan meaningful strategies to reduce salt intake, and it must involve public education and awareness to change the consumption pattern.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the nutritional status of two socio‐economic classes, i.e. upper and middle class females, using different approaches apart from body mass index (BMI).

In total, 50 houses were randomly selected from a military officer colony, 25 in each social class on the basis of rank of the retired military officers. From each house a female in between the age range of 30‐50 years was selected and interviewed.

On overall basis, i.e. socio‐economic class, age and activity level, the respondents were having increase over reference protein and carbohydrate, while decrease over reference fat intake. The respondents were also having lower calcium and iron intakes by 31‐34 per cent and 39‐44 per cent, respectively. The vitamin A intake was also lower by 22‐43 per cent. These data suggest that there are faulty food habits and unnecessary restrictions among the females on energy and nutrients intakes in both classes.

This research will have significant effect on the readers and will not only warn about the food habit but will also provide information on the misconceptions about dietary intakes and therefore, the energy and nutrients consumptions. Generally, the privileged classes of the society hold the misconceptions about healthy food habits. Furthermore, this study was conducted on free‐living individuals and the data reported are based on confronted questionnaire. Therefore, in such data there are chances of bias because of over‐ or under‐estimation. The sample size was small, which might have affected the results.

Improved life style and healthy eating is of great concern in the learned societies, since the healthy outcome solely depends on these two factors. This paper provides baseline data on two privileged classes, which may be useful in planning of studies and recommendation for social classes.

This could be useful information and could be used in healthy lifestyle and energy and nutrients intakes when studies are to be planned on socioeconomic status.

This research takes into consideration the effect of social class on energy and nutrients intake in the two privileged socioeconomic classes in a military officer colony.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between micronutrient intake and coronary heart disease (CHD) in middle-aged Jordanian participants.

A case-control study was conducted among patients referring for elective coronary angiography. A total of 400 patients were enrolled in this study. Face-to-face interview was used to complete food frequency questionnaire from which the authors derived usual daily intake of micronutrients. The mean age of participates was 52 years and their average BMI was 30.7 kg/m². Multinomial logistic regression model and linear logistic regression model were used to calculate odd ratios (OR) and its 95 per cent confidence interval (CI) and p-value for trend, respectively. The association between the risk of CHD and micronutrients intake was adjusted for the age, gender, BMI, smoking, physical activity, total energy intake, occupation, education level, marital status and family history.

The study results showed no significant differences between cases and controls for dietary intakes of micronutrients, except for the intake of calcium (p < 0.005), magnesium (p < 0.025), phosphorus (p < 0.023) and potassium (p < 0.006) which were lower in cases than controls. Although no significant trend was observed between most of the dietary intake of micronutrients and the risk of developing CHD, a significant protective effect of magnesium [OR 0.52; 95 per cent CI (0.29-0.95)], phosphorus [OR 0.44; 95 per cent CI (0.24-0.80)] and potassium [OR 0.41; 95 per cent CI (0.22-0.74)] against the risk of CHD was detected.

The findings from this study provide strong evidence that the intake of micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium has no significant associations with the risk of CHD.

Although it is possible to achieve a balanced diet by eating a variety of foods, it is clear that there is a gap between the ideal and the reality of what people actually eat. For individuals at all stages of life and with changing lifestyles where food selections may compromise optimal nutrition, nutrient‐dense foods including fortified foods and food supplements can serve as an effective means of ensuring that micronutrient needs are fulfilled. Populations at risk include the elderly, women at various life stages, children and adolescents, and people trying to lose weight. Efficacy and safety are key health issues: efficacy refers to the ability of vitamins and minerals either to prevent a deficiency, to enhance a physiological effect or to reduce the risk of disease; safety refers to the safe intake of a micronutrient to avoid adverse effects. Safety is the fundamental tenet of the scientific risk assessments and the cornerstone of food safety policy and legislation. Harmonisation of laws on food fortification and food supplements at EU level will help to ensure a high level of public health and consumer protection and facilitate the free circulation of food products within the community.

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.

WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is a widely studied public food assistance program that aims to provide foods, nutrition education, and other services to at-risk, low-income children and pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women. From a policy perspective, it is of interest to assess the efficacy of the WIC program – how much, if at all, does the program improve the nutritional outcomes of WIC families? In this paper, we address two important issues related to the WIC program that have not been extensively addressed in the past. First, although the WIC program is primarily devised with the intent of improving the nutrition of “targeted” children and mothers, it is possible that WIC may also change the consumption of foods by nontargeted individuals within the household. Second, although WIC eligibility status is predetermined, participation in the program is voluntary and therefore potentially endogenous. We make use of a treatment–response model in which the dependent variable is the requirement-adjusted calcium intake from milk consumption and the endogenous variable is WIC participation, and estimate it using Bayesian methods. Using data from the CSFII 1994–1996, we find that the correlation between the errors of our two equations is strong and positive, suggesting that families participating in WIC have an unobserved propensity for high calcium intake. The direct “structural” WIC parameters, however, do not support the idea that WIC participation leads to increased levels of calcium intake from milk.

Dietary adherence may potentially affect dietary intake. Besides, type 2 diabetes and obesity are closely inter-related. This paper aims to investigate the associations between barriers to dietary adherence and dietary intake among overweight/obese female patients with type 2 diabetes.

In this cross-sectional study, 122 female patients with type 2 diabetes from Tabriz, Iran were recruited. All of them had received dietary recommendations from either a nutritionist or a physician. Weight, height and waist circumference were measured using standard methods. A 24-h dietary recall and food records assessed energy and macronutrient intake.

The mean BMI of the participants was 32.2 ± 4.3 kg/m², and the mean daily total energy intake was 1909.5 (218.7) kcal. To assess the associations between barriers to dietary adherence and dietary intake, analysis of variance was used. Analysis revealed significant positive associations between energy intake and the barrier factors situational barriers/difficulty resisting temptation [B (SE) = 42.11 (20.50), p = 0.042], difficulty with meals and snacks plan [B (SE) = 36.13 (12.78), p = 0.005] and small portion sizes [B (SE) = 25.35 (13.58), p = 0.029].

Diet has a key role in type 2 diabetes management. The results highlight the need for the barriers to be addressed in nutritional programs targeted for patients with type 2 diabetes. Thereby, level of adherence to the recommended program, eating habits and diabetes management could improve.