Food and Health
Volume:3 Issue: 4, Autumn 2020

Recently, the role of selenium (Se) as an antioxidant has generated wide interest in humans and animal-based on its presence in antioxidant defense systems. Unfortunately, people in many countries fail to get enough selenium. Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) is one of the medicinal plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. Any kind of herbal drug is influenced by many factors. Genetic, pre-harvest (season of harvest, soil, type of water), and post-harvest factors (storage, temperature, moisture) can affect total phenolic, flavonoid, and antioxidant capacity as well as other elements and compounds. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of selenium trace in combination with and acids on the enrichment of dill. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three levels of acid (0, 50, and 150 mmol /l) and selenium application at 5 levels (0, 6, 8, 12 and 16 mg/l). The results of this experiment showed that the effect of selenium at different level of acids was significant. So that shoot fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll, essential oils, selenium content, and antioxidant enzymes were affected by increasing treatment level. The results indicated that (50 mg/l acid+12 mg/l sodium selenate) increased and improved some morphophysiological traits and essential oils including ɑ-Pinene, β-Myrecene, ɑ-Phellandene, and Carvone.

The physical properties of almond kernel are necessary for the proper design of equipment for transporting, drying, processing, sorting, grading, and storage this crop. In this study, different models of ANNs with different activation functions were used to forecast surface area, volume, mass, and kernel density of almond. The results showed that multilayer perceptron network with tanh-tanh activation function as a goodness activation function can be estimated surface area, volume, mass, and kernel density with R2 value 0.983, 0.986, 0.981, and 0.982, respectively. Furthermore, the physical properties were fitted by regression relationships, the result showed linear regression method can be predicted surface area, volume, mass and kernel density with R2 value 0.979, 0.961, 0.945, and 0.791, respectively. Generally, the result showed neural network model had high ability to forecast the physical properties of almond than the linear regression method.

Chronic renal failure (CKD) is a progressive and irreversible disease that in the final stages (ESRD), the person forever needs kidney replacement therapy such as hemodialysis. Protein-energy malnutrition is very common among hemodialysis patients and depression is also very common in these patients. This study was designed to determine the relationship between depression and malnutrition in patients undergoing hemodialysis. In this study, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale- 21 Items (DASS-21) questionnaire was used to determine depression and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Malnutrition Inflammation Score (MIS), and Dialysis Malnutrition Score (DMS) questionnaires were used to determine malnutrition. Demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical indicators were also examined. The study involved 100 patients (59 men and 41 women). The mean age of participants was 62.12 ± 13.22. According to the DASS-21 questionnaire, 59% of patients had depression. Also, 23%, 25%, and 23% of patients were malnourished based on the results of SGA, MIS, and DMS questionnaires. There was no statistically significant relationship between depression and malnutrition. Also, the relation between depression and most demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical variables was not significant. But there was a significant relationship between depression and the duration of hemodialysis in men (r =-0.29, p=0.02) and serum level of TIBC in all participants (r =-0.21, p=0.03). In this study, depression was not associated with malnutrition. Further studies are needed to determine this relationship.

Self-medication practice, unfortunately, is a current issue in different countries. Patterns of self-medication vary among different populations and are influenced by different characteristics. So, this study was aimed at the prevalence of self-medication practice in Tehran. This descriptive-analytic study was performed from Oct 2019 to March 2020 by a researcher-designed questionnaire among people. The main determinants of the questionnaire included personal information, diet pattern, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and self-medication habits. Chi-square and Tukey's post hoc tests were used for statistical analysis of data. Eight hundred people participated in this study. The rate of self-medication was 78% among men and 88% among women. 35.75% of the participants had a chronic illness, and 90% of them had a history of self-medication. A significant correlation between gender and self-medication (p=0.45, r=0.55), also significant correlation between exercise and self-medication (p=0.206, r=0.75), alcohol consumption and self-medication (p=0.37, r=0.19) were not seen. Education and income levels, chronic diseases, history of drug allergies, smoking, and fast-food consumption seem to create self-medication behavior. Having an old doctor's prescription, saving time, as well as advising family members, were the most important reasons for self-medication. The most commonly used medications were analgesics, common cold medicines, and gastrointestinal drugs. Self-medication was mostly used to treat headaches, migraines, and common cold symptoms such as cough and muscle pain.

Since the promotion of healthy nutrition behaviors can have a significant effect on disease prevention, this study examines some nutritional habits of the elderly in Tehran, the capital of Iran. This was a cross-sectional study with a sample of 400 elderly people over 60 years of age who were randomly selected by cluster sampling from 5 areas of Tehran (north, south, center, east, and west) in 2016. The data collection tool was a questionnaire including demographic information and nutritional section of the  "Healthy lifestyle questionnaire in Iranian elderly" which questions people's eating habits, completed by the elderly. The nutrition part has 14 questions, in which the possible score range is 14- 64 and a higher score indicates a more favorable nutrition status. The mean score of healthy nutrition behaviors in males and females was 32.9±4.7 and 31.6±5.8 respectively, in which the difference was statistically significant (p <0.05) and there was not a significant difference by education, marital status, and type of coexistence (p>0.05). Less than half of the elderly, in both male (%42) and female (%46) groups, used boiled food and most of them did not use oil (%95), and %59 used both white and red meat. Sixty percent reported medium (6 to 8 glasses) consumption of water per day and 40% reported medium (two pieces of bread) daily intake of bread. About half of both groups reported low consumption of milk and beans and only 11% of Women and %25 of men reported a high level of fruit and vegetable consumption. There were some unhealthy eating habits such as low water consumption and low daily intake of fruits & vegetables and milk that were observed in the majority of elderlies and elderly women suffer poorer nutritional status than men. Suitable interventional programs regarding the findings are recommended.

Healthy eating habits in childhood and adolescence prevent many chronic diseases and some types of cancer in adulthood. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate factors affecting fruit and vegetable consumption among female students in Rafsanjan (Southern Iran), based on the social cognitive theory (SCT). This study was performed on 516 female students (7th-9th grade) in 2018. The data collection tools included a demographic information questionnaire and fruits and vegetable consumption behavior assessment and its determinants based on SCT. Data were analyzed by SPSS-16 software and independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation test, and multivariate regression analysis at a significant level of 0.05. The average fruit intake was 3.55±1.88, and vegetable consumption was 3.99±2.60 units per day. The results show a significant positive correlation between SCT and fruit and vegetable consumption (p <0.01). Based on the multivariate regression analysis, Behavioral skills (B=0.163, p <0.001) and understanding of the environment (B=0.201, p <0.001), were the most important predictor of consumption of vegetables and fruit, respectively. More than half of the students consumed less than 4 units of fruit and vegetable per day. Therefore, designing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based interventions with a focus on social determinants is recommended.