Nutrition Practice

The study assessed nutrition knowledge and practice among pregnant women in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu state. The study adopted a cross-sectional health facility based survey design and multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents. A structured questionnaire was developed to obtain information on the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, dietary knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) including their likes and dislikes, beliefs and cultural values related to nutrition in pregnancy. Descriptive statistics was used to present the result. Chi-Square was used to test the association between the categorical variables. Pearson correlation was used to correlate numerical variables. Significance level was accepted at p < 0.05. A total of 159 respondents completed the study. A total of 12.0% were adolescents (10-19 years old). Nutrition knowledge assessment showed that 45.2% were knowledgeable on pregnancy nutrition. Dietary practices showed that 40.9% of the subjects ate three meals daily, 81.1% ate pastries, 61% took soft drinks, 15.1% took hot drinks (alcohol), 81% do not take stout and 70.4% do not eat bitter cola. About 62.3% of the subject had food aversion while about 37% had food related cultural taboos. Some (45.3%) of the respondents had a high dietary diversity while 43.4% and 3.1% had a medium and low dietary diversity respectively. Significant associations were found between dietary diversity and gestational age of the respondents. Nutrition knowledge of the pregnant women is low and has an effect on their dietary attitudes and practices.

Women's nutrition has received little attention in nutrition programming, even though clinical trials and intervention trials have suggested that dietary improvement or supplementation with several nutrients may improve their health, especially in low-income settings, the main focus of this paper. Most attention so far has focused on how improvements in maternal nutrition can improve health outcomes for infants and young children. Adequate vitamin D and calcium nutrition throughout life may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, and calcium supplementation during pregnancy may reduce preeclampsia and low birth weight. To reduce neural tube defects, additional folic acid and possibly vitamin B12 need to be provided to non-deficient women before they know they are pregnant. This is best achieved by fortifying a staple food. It is unclear whether maternal vitamin A supplementation will lead to improved health outcomes for mother or child. Iron, iodine and zinc supplementation are widely needed for deficient women. Multimicronutrient supplementation (MMS) in place of the more common iron-folate supplements given in pregnancy in low-income countries may slightly increase birth weight, but its impact on neonatal mortality and other outcomes is unclear. More sustainable alternative approaches deserve greater research attention.

Sargassum horneri is an edible brown alga that grows in the subtidal zone as an annual species along the coasts of South Korea, China, and Japan. Recently, an extreme amount of S. horneri moved into the coasts of Jeju Island from the east coast of China, which made huge economic and environmental loss to the Jeju Island. Thus, utilization of this biomass becomes a big issue with the local authorities. Therefore, the present study was performed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of crude polysaccharides (CPs) extracted from S. horneri China strain in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. CPs were precipitated from S. horneri digests prepared by enzyme assistant extraction using four food-grade enzymes (AMG, Celluclast, Viscozyme, and Alcalase). The production levels of nitric oxide (NO) and pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1β were measured by Griess assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectivel...

The objective of this study was to assess beliefs (e.g. advantages, disadvantages, benefits, barriers) and knowledge about eating peanuts and tree nuts. Personal interviews based on the Theory of Planned Behavior were conducted to elicit beliefs about eating nuts. Then, a cross-sectional survey was administered to WIC participants from one county in North Carolina. One-hundred-twenty-four WIC participants (mean (SD) age=28.39 (8.09) completed the study. Most were Caucasian (51.6%) females (96%). About one third believed that eating nuts may help to lower cholesterol level. However, only about one forth believed that nuts can lower a risk of a heart attack or diabetes. More than one third believed that eating nuts will cause weight gain. The knowledge of respondents&#39; about nutrient content of nuts was low with correct answers to most questions about 20% or below. The mean (SD) positive attitude, negative attitude, benefits and barriers scores, based on a range from 1 to 5, were 2...

This study was conducted to assess the potential of St. John&#39;s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) to prevent obesity and abnormalities in lipid metabolism induced by ovariectomy in a rat model without stimulatory activity on uterus. Ovariectomized (OVX) rats were treated for 6 weeks with 70% ethanol extracts of Hypericum perforatum [HPEs: whole plant (WHPE) and flower and leaves (FLHPE)], β-estradiol-3-benzoate at a dose of 50 µg/kg/day (E2) or vehicle (distilled water). As expected, OVX increased body weight gain and adiposity and showed higher food efficacy ratio. OVX also increased the serum cholesterol as well as insulin resistance, while reducing uterus weight and uterine epithelial proliferation rate. HPEs (WHPE and FLHPE) showed estrogen-like effect on body weight gain, adipose tissue weight and food efficacy ratio in OVX rats. HPEs prevented hypercholesterolemia induced by OVX more effectively than E2. E2 increased uterus weight and epithelial proliferation rate in OVX rats, wh...

Korean raspberry, Rubus coreanus Miquel (RCM), contains high concentrations of phenolic compounds, which prevent oxidative stress. To determine the effect of RCM on antioxidant capacity in humans, we assessed in vivo lipid oxidation and antioxidant enzyme activities from plasma in 15 healthy men. The subjects ingested 30 g of freeze-dried RCM daily for 4 weeks. Blood was taken at baseline and at the end of the study to determine blood lipid profiles, fasting plasma glucose, liver function, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant enzyme activities. RCM supplementation had no effect on blood lipid or fasting plasma glucose concentrations but decreased alkaline phosphatase activity. RCM supplementation increased glutathione peroxidase activities (P &lt; 0.05) but had no effect on lipid peroxidation. These results suggest that short-term RCM supplementation may offer health benefits by enhancing antioxidant capacity in a healthy population.

In this study, the apoptogenic activity and mechanisms of cell death induced by hexane extract of aged black garlic (HEABG) were investigated in human leukemic U937 cells. Cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazoliumbromide) assay. Apoptosis was detected using 4,6-diamidino-2-phenyllindile (DAPI) staining, agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry. The protein levels were determined by Western blot analysis. Caspase activity was measured using a colorimetric assay. Exposure to HEABG was found to result in a concentration- and time-dependent growth inhibition by induction of apoptosis, which was associated with an up-regulation of death receptor 4 and Fas legend, and an increase in the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 protein expression. Apoptosis-inducing concentrations of HEABG induced the activation of caspase-9, an initiator caspase of the mitochodrial mediated intrinsic pathway, and caspase-3, accompanied by proteolytic degradation of poly(A...

Although preclinical studies suggest that garlic has potential preventive effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, clinical trials and reports from systematic reviews or meta-analyses present inconsistent results. The contradiction might be attributed to variations in the manufacturing process that can markedly influence the composition of garlic products. To investigate this issue further, we performed a meta-analysis of the effects of garlic powder on CVD risk factors. We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Science Direct and EMBASE through May 2014. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed on 22 trials reporting total cholesterol (TC), 17 trials reporting LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), 18 trials reporting HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), 4 trials reporting fasting blood glucose (FBG), 9 trials reporting systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 10 trials reporting diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The overall garlic powder intake significantly reduced blood TC and LDL-C by -0.41 mmol/L (95% conf...

The present study evaluated the effect of various dosages of soybean isoflavone extract on body weight changes, glucose tolerance and liver function in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. One group of normal rats (normal control) was fed an AIN-76-based experimental diet and four groups of diabetic rats were fed the same diet supplemented with four different levels of soybean isoflavone extract for seven weeks. The daily dosages of pure isoflavone for four diabetic groups were set to be 0 mg (diabetic control), 0.5 mg (ISO-I), 3.0 mg (ISO-II) and 30.0 mg (ISO-III) per kilogram of body weight, respectively. The daily consumption of isoflavone at the level of 3.0mg per kilogram of body weight resulted in the suppression of body weight loss and increased the survival rate of diabetic animals one and half times compared to that of the diabetic control group. Blood glucose levels in a fasting state and after the oral administration of glucose were significantly lower in the ISO-II group during the oral glucose tolerance test. The ISO-II group showed a tendency to elongate the gastrointestinal transit time. The activity of serum aminotransferases, indicator of liver function, was not negatively affected by any intake level of isoflavone. The present study demonstrated that the soybean isoflavone extract may be beneficial to diabetic animals by improving their glucose tolerance and suppressing weight loss without incurring hepatotoxicity at the daily dosage of 3.0 mg per kg of body weight.

Korean raspberry, Rubus coreanus Miquel (RCM), contains high concentrations of phenolic compounds, which prevent oxidative stress. To determine the effect of RCM on antioxidant capacity in humans, we assessed in vivo lipid oxidation and antioxidant enzyme activities from plasma in 15 healthy men. The subjects ingested 30 g of freeze-dried RCM daily for 4 weeks. Blood was taken at baseline and at the end of the study to determine blood lipid profiles, fasting plasma glucose, liver function, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant enzyme activities. RCM supplementation had no effect on blood lipid or fasting plasma glucose concentrations but decreased alkaline phosphatase activity. RCM supplementation increased glutathione peroxidase activities (P &lt; 0.05) but had no effect on lipid peroxidation. These results suggest that short-term RCM supplementation may offer health benefits by enhancing antioxidant capacity in a healthy population. Key Words: Rubus coreanus Miquel, antioxidant, lip...