Search

Objective: School-based nutrition education can promote the development of skills, such as food label reading, that can contribute to making healthier food choices. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of a Russian language version of the previously validated Food Label Literacy for Applied Nutrition Knowledge (FLLANK) questionnaire and also to evaluate the impact of school-based nutrition education programmes on nutrition knowledge and food label-reading skills in Russian adolescents and young adults. Methods: Two nutrition education study programmes were administered to two separate groups of students--at a middle school (n?=?23) and a university (n?=?17). The study programmes consisted of a single 2-hour classroom session and emphasised basic nutrition and food components. The FLLANK questionnaire was administered to both groups of students before and after the intervention to assess change in food label-reading skills. Cronbach's a was calculated for the post-test scores to assess the instrument's internal consistency. Results: Middle school students increased their mean FLLANK scores from 54% to 95% (p?<0.01). University students increased their scores from 46% to 91% (p?<0.01). In the school group only, there was an interaction between time and gender, with boys improving significantly more than girls (p?

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a nutrition education program designed to teach elementary school students and their parents, and to distinguish between more healthful and less healthful choices in diverse food categories. Methods: Three schools were assigned to receive the Nutrition Detectives[TM] program and 2 comparable schools served as controls. A total of 1180 second, third, and fourth grade elementary school students were included, with 628 students in the intervention and 552 in the control group. The program, delivered by physical education instructors over several sessions totaling less than 2 hours, taught the children how to read food labels and detect marketing deceptions, while learning to identify and choose healthful foods. Parents were introduced to the program through written materials sent home and at school functions. Assessments included a food label quiz, dietary pattern, and body mass index (BMI). Results: Students in intervention schools showed a significant increase in nutrition label literacy (p less than 0.01). Third grade students showed the most improvement, 23% (p less than 0.01). The parents of intervention group students also showed a significant increase in nutrition label literacy by 8% (p less than 0.01). Total caloric, sodium, and total sugar intake decreased nonsignificantly among students in the intervention group (p greater than 0.05). BMI did not change over the short duration of the study. Conclusions: Nutrition Detectives effectively enhances the ability of students and their parents to identify more nutritious food choices. Further evaluation of the program and its potential to influence dietary pattern, BMI, and health outcomes in students and their families is warranted. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Background: Diet quality photo navigation (DQPN) is a novel dietary intake assessment tool that was developed to help address limitations of traditional tools and to easily integrate into health care delivery systems. Prevailing practice is to validate new tools against approaches that are in wide use. Objective: This study aimed to assess 1) the validity of Diet ID in measuring diet quality, food group and nutrient intake against 2 traditional dietary assessment methods (i.e., food record [FR], food frequency questionnaire) and 2) the test reproducibility/reliability of Diet ID to obtain similar results with repeat assessments. Methods: Using a participant-sourcing platform for online research, we recruited 90 participants, 58 of whom completed DQPN, a 3-d FR (via the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Dietary Assessment Tool), and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ, via the Dietary History Questionnaire III). We estimated mean nutrient and food group intake with all 3 instruments and generated Pearson correlations between them. Results: Mean age (SD) of participants was 38 (11) y, and more than half were male (64%). The strongest correlations for DQPN when compared with the other 2 instruments were for diet quality, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index 2015; between DQPN and the FFQ, the correlation was 0.58 (P < 0.001), and between DQPN and the FR, the correlation was 0.56 (P < 0.001). Selected nutrients and food groups also showed moderate strength correlations. Test-retest reproducibility for measuring diet quality was evaluated for DQPN and showed a correlation of 0.70 (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: The current study offers evidence that DQPN is comparable to traditional dietary assessment tools for estimating overall diet quality. This performance, plus DQPN's ease-of-use and scalability, may recommend it in efforts to make dietary assessment a universal part of clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diet quality is now established as the single leading predictor of perennial premature death in modern countries. However, practice at scale in modern medicine is driven as much by financial as clinical imperatives and yet, the ability to quantify the potential ROI of Food as medicine (FaM) interventions is limited by a lack of data. Utilizing a novel advance in dietary assessment and data from the peer-reviewed literature, we constructed and tested a web-based calculator simulating the return-on-investment associated with FaM interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the interview with David L. Katz, founding director at Yale University/Griffin Hospital, Robert F. Kushner, medical education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Beth Frates, wellness coach at Wellness Synergy. Topics include the importance of positioning to improve oxygenation was discerned, the increased risk is particularly noted among those with moderate to severe obesity, and the association of COVID-19 is to examine the mechanistic changes.

The power of lifestyle as medicine was perceived thousands of years ago. There is now consistent and compelling science to support the important influence of lifestyle on health. Approximately 80% of chronic disease and premature death could be prevented by not smoking, being physically active, and adhering to a healthful dietary pattern. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, and cancer are all influenced by lifestyle choices. Despite the ample evidence about what behaviors promote health, confusion still prevails among the general population. This is particularly true with regard to diet. Confusing nutrition messages from scientists, the media, the food industry, and other sources have made it all but impossible for any single authority to convey persuasively the fundamentals of healthful eating. The case is made here that a global coalition of diverse experts has the power to do what no individual can: clarify and popularize an understanding of the fundamentals of a health-promoting, sustainable pattern of diet and lifestyle, and rally the general public to their consistent support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fascination with the idea that some diet is "best" is, literally, perennial.[1] Popular interest in a parade of food and ingredients as contenders for silver bullet or scapegoat is seemingly as persistent.[2],[3] These 2 fixations of popular culture pose a singular challenge to nutritional epidemiology. The sine qua non of interpretable epidemiologic research is to compare 2 groups alike in "all ways but one."[10] If we want to understand what a given food does to biomarkers, other aspects of diet must be matched. The literal translation, however, of this slightly grammatically handicapped French expression is: " I I don't know what." i When the effects of food or ingredient A on health outcomes are being tested, but the addition of that food causes reductions in the intake of food B-there is more than one variable in motion. [Extracted from the article]

Type 2 diabetes is epidemic in the United States with greater incidence rates in African-American communities. Lifestyle interventions during the phase of insulin resistance mitigate cardiovascular risk and prevent diabetes. The primary aim of this study is to test the impact of a Community Health Advisor (CHA)-based diabetes prevention controlled intervention in urban African-American communities. In this controlled trial, church congregants in New Haven, CT, receiving a 1-year CHA-led diabetes prevention intervention were compared with church congregants in Bridgeport, CT, who did not receive an intervention. Outcome measures included physical activity, dietary pattern, anthropometric measure, social support, diabetes knowledge, nutrition and exercise self-efficacy. The results indicate that at the end of the 1-year intervention period, there were no significant differences observed between intervention and control groups. Possible explanations for the lack of change include difficulty in engaging the CHAs, variability in the CHA-led interventions, baseline discrepancies between the two sites which could not be fully controlled and loss to follow-up. The results indicate important obstacles which impeded the successful implementation of this intervention and lessons learned for future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the health controversies concerning the association of dietary fat intake with the risk of having cardiovascular disease. It states that the historical origin of the idea can be traced from the work of Ancel Benjamin Keys. It also mentions the increasing evidence of lauric acid as innocuous.

Purpose: To examine the associations between dietary intake as assessed by a rapid, image-based digital tool and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health. Design: Retrospective analysis of adults with blood biomarkers performed by Boston Heart Diagnostics (BHD) between December 2020 and March 2022. Setting: Outpatient centers serviced by BHD. Subjects: 546 adults, excluding those taking relevant medications and/or supplements known to affect blood test results. Measures: Laboratory assays of blood specimens were performed by Boston Heart Diagnostics. Nutrient intake and diet quality data were obtained using Diet Quality Photo Navigation (DQPN®; US Patent #11,328,810 B2) technique via Diet ID™ tool. Analysis: Pearson correlation coefficients (for continuous variables) and Spearman coefficients (for ordinal variables) were used to evaluate associations between nutrient intake data and laboratory data for the full study sample. Two-sided P -values <.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Both continuous and ordinal measures of diet quality correlated significantly with HDL-C and triglycerides (n = 485; P <.0 01); with hs-CRP (n = 441; P <.001); with HgbA1c (n = 345; P <.01); with fasting insulin (n = 372; P <.001); and with HOMA-IR (n = 319; P <.001). Conclusion: Findings affirm that rapid, digital diet quality and composition assessment by pattern recognition rather than recall tracks significantly with key biomarkers of cardiometabolic health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We previously demonstrated that including walnuts in the diets of adults at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) led to improved overall diet quality. This report examines the specific changes in their nutrient intake.Design: This was a randomized, controlled, modified Latin square parallel design trial with 2 treatment arms. Participants were randomized to walnut intake with, or without, dietary advice to regulate caloric intake. Within each treatment arm, they were further randomized to one of 2 sequence permutations (walnut-included/walnut-excluded or walnut-excluded/walnut-included diet), with a 3-month washout between treatment phases.Setting: Community hospital in Lower Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut.Participants: Cohort of 112 participants (31 men and 81 women) at risk for T2DM.Intervention: Participants included 56 g (366 kcal) of walnuts in their daily diets for 6 months.Measures: Nutrient intake was assessed using web-based Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment.Analysis: Data were analyzed using generalized linear models.Results: Walnut inclusion led to increased intake of total fat, calcium, magnesium, thiamin, total saturated fatty acids, and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids (379.0 ± 90.3 g vs -136.5 ± 92.7 g, P < .01; 230.7 ± 114.2 mg vs -95.2 ± 117.4 mg, P = .05; 111.0 ± 33.9 mg vs -32.3 ± 34.9 mg, P < .01; 0.28 ± 0.2 mg vs -0.47 ± 0.2 mg, P = .02; 8.6 ± 3.4 g vs -1.1 ± 3.5 g, P =.05; 6.3 ± 3.9 g vs -6.3 ± 4.0 g, P = .03; and 25.4 ± 4.0 vs -6.6 ± 4.2 g, P < .01, respectively). Vitamin C intake decreased (-65.3 ± 55.3 mg vs 98.9 ± 56.8 mg, P = .04). Protein intake increased from baseline with the inclusion of walnuts (20.0 ± 8.8 g, P < .05). Walnut inclusion led to an increase in total calories consumed when caloric intake is not regulated.Conclusion: Including walnuts in the diets of these adults led to increased dietary intake of some nutrients associated with lower risk of developing T2DM and other cardiometabolic risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This report presents the results of a systematic review of the effectiveness of worksite nutrition and physical activity programs to promote healthy weight among employees. These results form the basis for the recommendation by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services on the use of these interventions. Weight-related outcomes, including weight in pounds or kilograms, BMI, and percentage body fat were used to assess effectiveness of these programs. This review found that worksite nutrition and physical activity programs achieve modest improvements in employee weight status at the 6–12-month follow-up. A pooled effect estimate of −2.8 pounds (95% CI=−4.6, −1.0) was found based on nine RCTs, and a decrease in BMI of −0.5 (95% CI=−0.8, −0.2) was found based on six RCTs. The findings appear to be applicable to both male and female employees, across a range of worksite settings. Most of the studies combined informational and behavioral strategies to influence diet and physical activity; fewer studies modified the work environment (e.g., cafeteria, exercise facilities) to promote healthy choices. Information about other effects, barriers to implementation, cost and cost effectiveness of interventions, and research gaps are also presented in this article. The findings of this systematic review can help inform decisions of employers, planners, researchers, and other public health decision makers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]