Food Habit

The aim of this investigation was to assess the relationship between smoking status and nutrient intakes using a meta-analysis. Publications in English were sought through a Medline search using the following key words: food habits, eating, feeding behavior, diet, food, nutrition, nutritional status or assessment, tobacco use disorder, tobacco, nicotine and smoking. Scanning relevant reference lists of articles and hand searching completed the data collection. No attempt was made to search for unpublished results. Paper selection was based on nutritional surveys including comparisons of smokers with nonsmokers. Fifty-one published nutritional surveys from 15 different countries with 47,250 nonsmokers and 35,870 smokers were used in the analysis. The estimates of size effects were calculated with the mean and variance values of each nutrient intake and the size of the sample. Smokers declared significantly (all P < 10(-5)) higher intakes of energy (+4.9%), total fat (+3.5%), satur...

We examined the relative roles of dominance in agonistic interactions and energetic constraints related to body size in determining local abundances of coyotes (Canis latrans, 8–20 kg), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus, 3–5 kg) and bobcats (Felis rufus, 5–15 kg) at three study sites (hereafter referred to as NP, CP, and SP) in the Santa Monica Mountains of California. We hypothesized that the largest and behaviorally dominant species, the coyote, would exploit a wider range of resources (i.e., a higher number of habitat and/or food types) and, consequently, would occur in higher density than the other two carnivores. We evaluated our hypotheses by quantifying their diets, food overlap, habitat-specific abundances, as well as their overall relative abundance at the three study sites. We identified behavioral dominance of coyotes over foxes and bobcats in Santa Monica because 7 of 12 recorded gray fox deaths and 2 of 5 recorded bobcat deaths were due to coyote predation, and no coyotes died as a result of their interactions with bobcats or foxes. Coyotes and bobcats were present in a variety of habitats types (8 out of 9), including both open and brushy habitats, whereas gray foxes were chiefly restricted to brushy habitats. There was a negative relationship between the abundances of coyotes and gray foxes (P=0.020) across habitats, suggesting that foxes avoided habitats of high coyote predation risk. Coyote abundance was low in NP, high in CP, and intermediate in SP. Bobcat abundance changed little across study sites, and gray foxes were very abundant in NP, absent in CP, and scarce in SP; this suggests a negative relationship between coyote and fox abundances across study sites, as well. Bobcats were solely carnivorous, relying on small mammals (lagomorphs and rodents) throughout the year and at all three sites. Coyotes and gray foxes also relied on small mammals year-round at all sites, though they also ate significant amounts of fruit. Though there were strong overall interspecific differences in food habits of carnivores (P<0.0001), average seasonal food overlaps were high due to the importance of small mammals in all carnivore diets [bobcat-gray fox: 0.79±0.09 (SD), n=4; bobcat-coyote: 0.69±0.16, n=6; coyote-gray fox: 0.52±0.05, n=4]. As hypothesized, coyotes used more food types and more habitat types than did bobcats and gray foxes and, overall, coyotes were the most abundant of the three species and ranged more widely than did gray foxes. We propose that coyotes limit the number and distribution of gray foxes in Santa Monica Mountains, and that those two carnivores exemplified a case in which the relationship between their body size and local abundance is governed by competitive dominance of the largest species rather than by energetic equivalences. However, in the case of the intermediate-sized bobcat no such a pattern emerged, likely due to rarity or inconsistency of agonistic interactions and/or behavioral avoidance of encounters by subordinate species.

Background: Vitamin D is produced endogenously after sun expo- sure but can also be obtained from natural food sources, food forti- fication, and dietary supplements. Objective: We aimed to determine the vitamin D status of women (61-86 y old) living in central Sweden (latitude 60°) during winter and its relation with vitamin D intake and exposure to ultraviolet B radiation.

This study evaluated a tailored, multiple-component self-help intervention designed to promote lower fat and higher fruit and vegetable consumption. Participants were 1,459 adults selected at random, stratified by sex and age (18-34, 35-54, 55-69), from enrollees of a large health maintenance organization. After completing a baseline telephone survey, participants were randomized to receive the intervention (consisting of a computer-generated personalized letter, a motivational phone call, a self-help manual, a package of supplementary materials, computer-generated behavioral feedback based on a self-administered food frequency questionnaire, and newsletters) or to receive no materials. Evaluation was based on 1,205 (86.5%) participants who completed both a 3- and a 12-month follow up survey. The intervention effect +/- SE for fat, based on a diet habits questionnaire, was -0.10 +/- 0.02 (P &amp;lt; 0.001), corresponding to a reduction of approximately 0.8 percentage points of percentage energy from fat. For fruits and vegetables, the intervention effect was 0.47 +/- 0.10 servings/day (P &amp;lt; 0.001). Intervention effects were similar across age and sex groups. Tailored, self-help interventions can effectively promote dietary change among both men and women and among younger as well as older adults.

An ecosystem approach to fisheries management requires an understanding of the impact of predatory fishes on the underlying prey resources. Defining trophic connections and measuring rates of food consumption by apex predators lays the groundwork for gaining insight into the role of predators and commercial fisheries in influencing food web structure and ecosystem dynamics.We analyzed the stomach contents of 545 common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) sampled from 74 sets of tuna purse-seine vessels fishing in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) over a 22-month period. Stomach fullness of these dolphinfish and digestion state of the prey indicated that diel feeding periodicity varied by area and may be related to the digestibility and energy content of the prey. Common dolphinfish in the EPO appear to feed at night, as well as during the daytime. We analyzed prey importance by weight, numbers, and frequency of occurrence for five regions of the EPO. Prey importance varied by area. Flyi...

We explored predator specialization by examining dietary variation in the widespread North American long-nosed snake, Rhinocheilus lecontei. We examined the stomach contents of more than 800 museum specimens, and supplemented our findings with published dietary records. Sixty-six percent of 135 prey eaten by R. lecontei were lizards, 26% were mammals, and 7% were squamate eggs; teiid lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus comprised 72% (64 of 89) of all lizard prey. Ninety-four percent of specimens with food contained a single item, and all 79 prey for which we determined direction of ingestion were swallowed head-first. Among those specimens containing food, long-nosed snakes from Mexico were significantly larger, and ate a higher percentage of mammals, than specimens from the United States. Larger R. lecontei sometimes fed on larger prey, and perhaps excluded smaller prey from their diet. To assess relative trophic niche breadth for R. lecontei, we compared the percentage of lizards and of Cnemidophorus in the diet of long-nosed snakes with the percentage with which other terrestrial snakes consumed lizards as their modal prey, and with which these same snakes ate members of their preferred lizard prey genus. Although we uncovered no statistical basis for labelling R. lecontei a specialist, its diet may often be restricted to lizards and even to Cnemidophorus, and therefore recognizing long-nosed snakes as specialist predators remains a subjective decision. Our study also demonstrates that quantitative natural history can place related species in a resource use continuum, and thereby can help to elucidate the evolutionary basis for specialization.