Food and Health
Volume:2 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2019

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common of dementia characterized by the gradual decrease of mental ability and behavioral disorders. AD threatens the health of 5%-10% of people over 65 years old. Studies have also suggested the consumption containing omega-3 fatty acids (EPA, DHA) may be a strategy to prevent the disease. The current study aimed at determining the predictors of the omega-3 supplementation to prevent AD based on constructs of Health Belief Model in the elderly. In the current cross-sectional study, 333 elderly patients referring to health centers in Tehran from 2015 to 2016 were selected by the stratified random sampling method. The inclusion criteria were age over 60 years old without AD and signing the informed consent form. Data were collected by a questionnaire developed based on Health Belief Model constructs after determining its validity and reliability. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS-18 software and statistical tests, including logistic regression analysis, Chi-square, and independent-samples t-tests. The highest calculated mean belonged to the perceived susceptibility construct (%40.4) followed by knowledge (%30.6). The mean omega-3 consumption among the samples was (%27.6.) The lowest mean belonged to the perceived barriers construct indicating that the construct cannot be an obstacle to consume omega-3 supplementation. According to the results of the current study and the mean omega-3 consumption at low and the moderate levels of knowledge in the elderly, it was suggested to design and implement educational interventions based on the Health Belief Model for the elderly in order to prevent AD.

In the present study, hydroalcoholic extracts of dried and powdered of Zataria multiflora and Salvia leriifolia were prepared. After producing the treatments, the moisture, pH, ash, protein and fat content, DPPH radical scavenging activity, color parameters, and sensory evaluation in sausage samples during 45 days of storage were studied. The lowest and highest pH value was related to treatment with the mixture extracts (0.25%) and Z. multiflora extract (1.5%), respectively. The lowest and highest protein content was related to 1% S. leriifolia and 2% Z. multiflora extract, respectively. Gradually, the fat content in the control sample and all treatments has declined, also, the protein and ash content in treatments has decreased and increased respectively. Over time and with increasing the extracts concentration, L*, a* and b* values in all treatments decreased, increased and decreased respectively. S. leriifolia extract has a more significant effect on the DPPH test in comparison with Z. multiflora extract. Two herbal extracts had a significant effect on the sensorial characteristics of all treatments. It can be said that, in terms of color parameters and free radical scavenging activity, the treatments with S. leriifolia extracts were better than control and treatments containing Z. multiflora extracts, while, the physicochemical and sensorial properties of recent treatments were better than S. leriifolia extracts and control.

An array of age-related diseases (like diabetes mellitus type 2, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, cancer, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and arthritis), which are originated from low-grade, chronic, sterile inflammation, called inflammaging have been increased in aged population. In line with this notion, an abundant body of evidence has been demonstrated that quasi-self-stimulations like over-nutrition and gut microbiota could produce metabolic induced inflammation called meta-inflammation. In fact, meta-inflammation which is a result of nutrient excess is a special situation of inflammaging that has a similar molecular mechanism to inflammaging and both inflammaging and meta-inflammation resulted in activating pro-inflammatory pathway. Today it has been revealed that the human diet has significant impacts on preventing meta-inflammation.  As a matter of fact, nutrition is one of the most pivotal modulators of low grade- chronic inflammation which can control it. Expanding data showed that phytochemicals especially curcumin and resveratrol, melatonin and vitamin D may exert several anti-inflammatory activities in the context of meta-inflammation. Since these nutrients have pleiotropic functions for inhibiting metabolic inflammation, they could be more efficient in anti-inflammatory based therapy for meta-inflammation in comparison to other nutrients. Here we reviewed the anti-inflammatory and immuno-modulatory effects of some nutrients with pleiotropic effects on inflammation by considering their impacts on the meta-inflammination.

Food insecurity is one of the issues that have a serious impact on the nutritional status of all individuals in society, especially children and given that food insecurity can be a precursor of health, developmental and nutritional problems, determining the factors associated with it, is also essential in any community it seems. According to this, this study aimed to determine the relationship between food security, socioeconomic status and anthropometric indices in children 2-5 years in Hamedan city. In this analytical descriptive cross-sectional study, 683 children 2-5 years (360 boys, 323 girls) from Hamedan city and villages were selected by systematic cluster sampling methods from the Hamedan University of Medical sciences. HFLAS 9-item questionnaire to investigate food security, and also, a general questionnaire was completed through interviews with mothers of children. Also, children of anthropometric Z scores were measured by using the world health organization (WHO) Anthro software basal on WHO 2007 standards. Eventually, data were analyzed by SPSS software.  According to this study, there was a significant correlation between the mother's and father's education and occupation, frequency of snack and food security with children's weight for age (p<0.05). Also, there was a significant correlation between the mother's and father's job, frequency of snack with children's weight for height (p<0.05). While BMI for age had a significant correlation with maternal education, (p<0.05). Also, height for age correlated with the mother’s education and occupation, father’s education, number of snacks and food security (p<0.05). Also, no significant difference was found between other components (p>0.05).  The result of this study shown that there was a significant correlation between food security, Z score height for age, Z scores BMI for age, mother's and father's education, mother's job and socioeconomic status of the household.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the utilization of emulsion and food-grade nanoemulsions and their fabrication methods, and methods have evolved in the food industry and other fields. Emulsions, according to droplet diameter and stability, are divided into three important groups of conventional emulsions, nanoemulsions, and microemulsions; therefore, nanoemulsions are a class of emulsions. The small and fine size of the droplet in nanoemulsions (i.e. droplet diameter <100nm) make them applicable in some fields, due to their enhanced bioavailability, solubility, better stability against gravitational separation, appropriateness for delivery of lipophilic active agent’s components, high surface area per unit volume and antimicrobial property. Also, they need less surfactant in comparison with other constructions. There are many kinds of preparation methods that can be classified into low-intensity and high-intensity approaches. The basis of the high-intensity procedure is mechanical energy that comes from flows like cavitation, but the low-intensity procedure is based on physicochemical processes. The most notable ways in high-energy emulsification are high-pressure valve homogenization, microfluidization, ultrasonication, rotor-stator emulsification, and membrane emulsification. Low-energy emulsification is divided into thermal and isothermal methods for nanoemulsions fabrication. Thermal methods consist of phase inversion temperature (PIT) and isothermal methods consist of spontaneous emulsification (SE) and emulsion phase inversion (EPI). Also, today, there is a lot of evidence to compare the low-intensity approach with high-intensity one and some of them express that in the low-energy method, equipment is not expensive and special and this is a very important advantage in saving energy. Also, some researchers express that in the high-energy method, we need much less concentration of surfactant for the formation of small size droplet.

Obesity is an important preventable disease and increases the chance of developing some chronic diseases like hypertension which is related to many factors including oxidative stress. Dietary antioxidants protect the body against oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential association of dietary oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) index with blood pressure in overweight or obese subjects compared to normal-weight subjects. In a cross-sectional study on 157 adult females and males from students and staff of Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University (SRBIAU) of Tehran that classified in two groups of normal weight and overweight or obese were evaluated. Demographic and validated food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) were completed and individuals' weight and height information were measured using the BIA. The systolic and diastolic pressure was recorded by the Automatic Blood Pressure monitor. Dietary antioxidant was estimated based on the ORAC index of selected foods reported by the Nutrient Data Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The results showed that there was a significant difference between the normal and overweight or obese groups in terms of body mass index, systolic and diastolic pressure (p=0.0001).  Also, the ORAC index was higher in normal individuals than the case group, but it was not significant (p=0.222). There was also an inverse correlation between dietary ORAC, systolic and diastolic pressure in both groups, and only in the normal weight group, the association between systolic pressure and the dietary ORAC index was significant (p=0.04). The findings of the present study suggested that the dietary ORAC index was inversely associated with systolic and diastolic pressure in both subjects.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of a BIA device, Xiaomi MI, against X-scan plus 970. A total of 30 university students and employees (18 women and 12 men) aged between 19 and 50 years were selected. Weight and body composition were measured using Xiaomi MI and X-scan plus 970. The mean age of subjects was 28.9±9.1 for men and 30.4±9.4 for women. There was a strong correlation between X-scan plus 970 and Xiaomi MI scale 2 results (p<0.000). Our results suggest that Xiaomi MI scale 2 is a valid device to measure body composition which makes it appropriate for clinical use.