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Background: Self-monitoring is an important behavioral change technique to help users initiate and maintain dietary changes. Diet self-monitoring tools often involve the itemization of foods and recording of serving sizes. However, this traditional method of tracking does not conform to food guides using plate-based approach to nutrition education, such as the 2019 Canada's Food Guide (CFG)., Objective: To explore the acceptability, facilitators and barriers of using a plate-based dietary self-monitoring tool based on the 2019 CFG (Plate Tool) compared with a traditional Food Journal (Food Journal)., Methods: The 2 dietary self-monitoring tools were compared using a crossover study design over 2 wk. Adults over 50 ( n = 47) from Montreal, Canada, were randomly assigned to use one tool over 3 d during 1 wk, then used the other tool the next week. Semistructured interviews ( n = 45) were conducted after completing the second tool. A qualitative description of the interviews was conducted through an inductive determination of themes., Results: Facilitators to using the Plate Tool were its simplicity, quick completion time compared with the Food Journal and easiness to use, increased awareness of dietary habits and accountability, with participants expressing that it could help users make informed dietary changes aligning with the CFG. However, barriers to using the Plate Tool were its lack of precision, the participants' difficulty categorizing foods into the CFG categories and recording intake of foods not present on the CFG., Conclusions: The Plate Tool is an acceptable dietary self-monitoring tool for healthy adults over 50. Self-monitoring tools based on the plate method should take the barriers described in this study into account. Future studies should compare dietary self-monitoring methods to assess adherence and effectiveness at eliciting dietary behavior change., (© 2023 The Author(s).)

Traditional Chinese medicines( TCMs) are easily contaminated by fungi during planting,harvesting,processing,transportation and storage. The 2015 version of Chinese Pharmacopoeia stipulates the detection of aflatoxin in Dilong. After reviewing the literature,it has been found that there are no domestic and foreign scholars who have studied the surface fungi of Dilong. Pheretima,known as Dilong in China,is a commonly used TCMs in animal. In this experiment,8 batches of Dilong were collected from retail pharmacies in Beijing. The fungi on the surface of Dilong were cultured by traditional plate method and the single strain was obtained by the top purification method. The fungal colony morphology,microstructure characteristics and DNA barcode were used to isolate and identify the fungi. At the same time,based on Illumina Hi Seq 2500 high-throughput sequencing platform,the diversity of fungi on the surface of Dilong was analyzed. The results showed that 287 strains of 9 species of fungi were isolated and identified by plate method. Combined with 3 kinds of identification method,eight of nine fungi could be identified,respectively,Aspergillus niger,Penicillium,Alternaria nees,A. flavus,and Penicillium oxalicum,Humicola sp.,Talaromyces purpurogenus and A. insuetus,1 kind of fungi was not identified yet. Among them,Penicillium and Aspergillus were the dominant genus. The results of high-throughput sequencing belonged to 2 boundaries,6 gates,19 classes,44 orders,98 families,127 genus and 121 species in different classification levels. Wallemia,Aspergillus and Cordyceps were the dominant genus,and the relative abundances are 63. 33%,15. 28%,and 10. 28%,respectively. Through the diversity study on the surface fungi of Dilong in Beijing retail pharmacies,it can provide a reference for its safe storage and clinical use.