SUBJECT: J NutritionAugust, 2014

1. Fish oil lowers blood pressure – Our findings revealed that a higher content of cis n–3 PUFAs (mainly very long-chain cis n–3 PUFAs) may benefit BP progress, probably mediated by decreasing serum TGs and BMI.

2. High protein diet helps weight loss – This study indicated that a high protein, high-fat, hypercaloric diet affects lipid metabolism. It tends to lower the IHL and circulating TG concentrations and significantly lowers fat mass and increases fat-free mass.

3. Sugar-sweetened beverages produce fat bellies – Abdominal adiposity, particularly visceral adipose tissue (VAT), is independently linked to the pathogenesis of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Emerging evidence suggests that greater intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) may be associated with abnormal fat accumulation in VAT.

4. Curcumin protects liver and mitochondria – [Roc comment – I have it daily on soup, with cayenne also] Curcumin, a naturally occurring antioxidant, has various beneficial effects in the treatment of human diseases. These results suggested that curcumin protects against D-GalN/LPS–induced liver damage by the enhancing antioxidant defense system, attenuating mitochondrial dysfunction and inhibiting apoptosis. This was especially true for curcumin pretreatment, which highlighted its promise as a preventive treatment for acute liver injury in clinical settings.

5. Depressed women do eat more energy-dense snacks – Generally, intense emotions trigger inhibited food intake through fight-or-flight responses, which result in glucose release into the blood stream, thus suppressing the feelings of hunger. Conversely, impaired cognitive eating control, emotion-congruent modulation of eating, and eating to regulate emotions have been suggested mechanisms underlying abnormal eating behavior observed in groups of individuals. In such instances, stress enhances intake of palatable and “nutrient poor” foods, high in sugars and saturated fat content . this behavior is a direct consequence of negative mood states, such as sadness, loneliness, and concern. In the long run, such eating behavior contributes substantially to weight gain at the individual level, thereby increasing the burden of obesity at the population level. The key finding was that among depressed women, emotional eating was associated with greater consumption of energy-dense snacks. This synergism between emotional eating and depressive status was not found among men.

6. High fat diet causes chronic inflammation – These results provide evidence that chronic, but not acute, consumption of an HF lard-based diet may be linked with pathways of microbial metabolism that potentially contribute to chronic intestinal and systemic inflammation. Such linkage provides further support for reducing consumption of saturated fats. Omega-3s reduce chronic inflammation. Many chronic diseases are linked to inflammation, including arthritis, multiple sclerosis (1), obesity, diabetes (2), and cancer (3).

7. Short periods of muscle disuse cause significant permanent muscle loss in people over 65, even with high protein intake – Short successive periods of muscle disuse, due to injury or illness, can contribute significantly to the loss of muscle mass with aging (sarcopenia). In conclusion, dietary protein supplementation (∼20 g twice daily) does not attenuate muscle loss during short-term muscle disuse in healthy older men.

8. Best breast milk depends on good maternal dietary habits – the impact of maternal dietary habits can be seen for a variety of dietary components, such as cholinze (2), selenium (3), and FAs (4–6). With such knowledge, it is appealing to institute dietary changes to correct deficiencies and to improve the nutritional quality of breast milk. This strategy has shown early promise for some nutrients. For example, supplementing high-dose vitamin D3 to lactating mothers improved serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 status in both mothers and exclusively breast-fed infants. Lactating women are highly responsive to lutein supplementation, which affects plasma lutein concentrations in the infant.

9. Six nutrients are most important to public health – 6 nutrients (iodine, vitamin A, iron, zinc, folate, and vitamin B-12) were selected for their high public health importance because they typify the challenges faced by users in the selection, use, and interpretation of biomarkers.

10. Information about familial hypercholesterolemia – Hereditary hypercholesterolemias are a heterogeneous group of lipid disorders that are usually associated with high cardiovascular risk (1–3). Among them, familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCHL)8 and different familial forms of severe isolated hypercholesterolemia, generically referred to as familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), confer the highest vascular risk (2, 4, 5). FCHL is a complex genetic disease with an important interaction with environmental factors, particularly overweight, obesity, and insulin resistance, with variable penetrance and phenotype among affected individuals (6, 7). FHs are monogenic diseases caused by mutations in the gene coding for the LDL receptor; its apo ligand within the LDL particle, apoB; or proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, a serine protease involved in the recycling control of the LDL receptor. In contrast with FCHL, the penetrance in genetically confirmed FH is almost 100% (8). However, because as many as 25% of heterozygous FH patients present a combined hyperlipidemia phenotype (9), there is a large clinical presentation overlapping between hereditary hypercholesterolemias (10). A healthy diet, including low saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, is the first line of treatment in dyslipidemias (16). Moreover, in the presence of obesity or overweight, the diet should be energy-restricted so that the individual can lose weight and thus further improve the lipid profile and other cardiovascular risk factors. However, with the exception of the beneficial effects of plant sterol supplementation (17), the data on the lipid effects of dietary treatment in FH are scarce and inconsistent.

11. Diet analyses should use just two patterns – Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis are used frequently to derive dietary patterns. All quantitative criteria identified the 2-cluster solution as optimal.Therefore, studies on associations between dietary patterns and disease risk should report reasons to choose the number of retained patterns.

– Roc, Nutrition Investigator
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