Nutrition & Food Technology Research
Volume:9 Issue: 3, Jul-Sep 2022

Measures adopted to decrease spread of COVID-19 have likely included worsening effects on the existing food crisis, especially in low and middle-income countries. This increases concerns on the potential long-term effects on children nutrition and wellbeing. Without appropriate intervention programs, it could result in increases in children malnutrition, hidden hunger and mortality. The aims of this editorial manuscript were to provide available information on this topic and discuss necessities to target early interventions appropriately for better addressing the situation as consequences can be unpredictable if not appropriately addressed.

Hot beverage consumption (e.g., tea) may increase risks of several cancer types, especially esophageal cancer. Although people may be aware of the dangers of consuming hot beverages, they continue to drink these beverages. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of Iranian medical university students regarding consumption of tea at high temperatures.

A qualitative study was carried out at Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, 2017. Totally, 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with college students. Participants were asked on their experiences on hot tea consumption. Data were analysed using conventional content analysis method. After the first interview, continuous analysis of data began and continued up to data saturation.

Three major categories, including decisional balance (with two sub-categories of pros and cons for hot tea consumption), environmental effects (with three sub-categories of culture, interpersonal influences and situational effects) and perceived barriers to drinking tea at normal temperatures (with two sub-categories of habitual and immediate competing demands and preferences) emerged as the experiences of the participants on  consumption.

The current findings suggest to decrease drinking of hot tea and hence prevention of oesophageal cancer in Iran.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with Mentha pulegium and Rosmarinus officinalis on the carcass characteristics, physicochemical properties, color, texture and oxidative stability of Japanese quail breast meat.

120 Japanese quails were divided into 4 treatments and 3 replications including T1: basic diet (control), T2: basic diet + M. pulegium (1.5%), T3: basic diet + R. officinalis (1.5%) and T4: basic diet + M. pulegium (1.5%) + R. officinalis (1.5%).

The results showed there was no significant difference in breast and thigh weight, pH, dry matter, ash, cooking loss and vitamin E content among the treatments. Live weight, protein and fat contents, redness (a*), yellowness (b*), phenol and carotenoid contents of all treatments increased significantly (P<0.05) in comparison to control. Supplementation of diet with M. pulegium and R. officinalis individually or in combination significantly reduced TBARS, lightness (L*) and hardness compared to control (P<0.05).

The results revealed that supplementation of diet with M. pulegium and R. officinalis improved the protein and fat contents, color and oxidative stability of Japanese quail breast meat.

Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in patients with cystic fibrosis. However, possible effects of vitamin D deficiency on growth of children with cystic fibrosis is still unclear. The aim of this study was to assess vitamin D status and its associations with growth indices in cystic fibrosis children.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on registered cystic fibrosis patients residing in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Demographic, anthropometric and dietary assessments were carried out as well. The growth indicators, including weight‐for‐age, length‐for‐age, weight‐for‐length and body mass index‐for‐age Z-scores and percentiles, were assessed based on recommendations by World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vitamin D status was assessed using serum 25-hydroxycalciferol [25(OH)D3] assay and concentrations of less than 20 and 20–30 ng/ml were considered deficiency and insufficiency, respectively.

A total of 38 cystic fibrosis patients aged 91.7 m ±62.6 were enrolled in the study. Numbers of participants with no supplementation, insufficient (< 400 IU [< 1 y] and < 800 IU [> 1 y]) and sufficient supplementation were 12 (31.6%), 12 (31.6%) and 14 (36.8%), respectively.   However, frequency of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency was 30 (78.9%). Positive correlations between serum concentration of (25(OH)D3) and weight‐for‐age and body mass index for age Z-scores were reported. Based on body mass index for age percentile, healthy weight participants had higher serum concentrations of (25(OH)D3), compared to underweight patients (28.8 ±11 against 20.9 ±3.4; p < 0.05).

This study revealed that supplementation could improve serum concentrations of (25(OH)D3); however, rate of vitamin D insufficiency was high (64%)even in sufficiently supplemented participants. Appropriate supplementation and maintaining desired levels of 25(OH)D3 may have beneficial effects on cystic fibrosis patients’ growth.

Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disorder worldwide. Cardiometabolic risk factors like truncal obesity and unhealthy life style including unhealthy diet contribute to development of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its complications and attributable deaths. Therefore, modification of the patient's diet and lifestyle is a core of T2D treatment. γ-Oryzanol (ORZ) is a phytochemical found in rice bran oil. An increasing body of evidence has demonstrated health benefits of ORZ including decreasing oxidative stress and insulin resistance.  This study will be conducted to examine possible effects of ORZ-fortified canola oil, as compared with plain canola and sunflower oils, on certain cardiometabolic indicators.

A total of 90 adult subjects aged 20-65 y with confirmed diagnosis of T2D will randomly be allocated in one to the three groups to receive: (i) ORZ-fortified canola oil (14 mg ORZ/14g); (ii) plain canola oil (without ORZ); and (iii) sunflower oil. All oils will have equal amounts of vitamins D (4.5 μg =180 IU) and A (240 μg =800 IU) per serving, i.e. 14 g. The subjects will be instructed to use only the given oils for cooking during 12 weeks intervention period. Dietary, anthropometric and laboratory evaluations will be done for all participants before and after the intervention.

The findings of this study will shed a light to our current knowledge of health aspects of cooking oils and also will input information to our future dietary recommendations to T2D patients and, probably, the general population.