Wine Intake in the Framework of a Mediterranean Diet and Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases: A Short Literature Review of the Last 5 Years

Dietary habits are a determining factor of the higher incidence and prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In the aim to find a possible preventive and intervention strategy, the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) has been proposed as an effective approach. Within the MedDiet, moderate wine consumption with meals is a positive item in the MedDiet score; however, recent studies have reported a dose-response association between alcohol consumption and higher risk of a large number of NCDs. This review aimed to evaluate the association between NCDs and wine consumption in the framework of the MedDiet, with a simple review of 22 studies of the highest-level literature published over the last five years. We found that the information regarding the effects of wine in different health outcomes has not varied widely over the past five years, finding inconclusive results among the studies evaluated. Most of the literature agrees that light to moderate wine intake seems to have beneficial effects to some extent in NCDs, such as hypertension, cancer, dyslipidemia and dementia, but no definitive recommendations can be made on a specific dose intake that can benefit most diseases

Impact of Sugary Food Consumption on Pregnancy: A Review

Obesity in pregnancy has been directly associated with an increased risk of almost all pregnancy complications such as gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and premature delivery. Thereby, according to current evidence available, life-style interventions to prevent pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity in women of fertile age are necessary to reduce the negative impact of obesity on mother and child health. Unhealthy dietary patterns, together with the increased consumption of processed foods rich in simple sugar and sweeteners are some of the responsible, among others, for the increase in obesity rates during the last years. Nevertheless, how its consumption can affect pregnancy outcomes and long-term children's health is still uncertain. This review aims to collate the available evidence about the consequences of unhealthy dietary patterns and sugary products consumption, including sweeteners, during pregnancy for obesity in childhood and mid-childhood. High simple sugar intake during gestation may contribute to an excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) as well as to develop other pregnancy complications such as GDM, preeclampsia and preterm birth. The heterogeneity of study populations, sample size, different approaches to measure GWG, GMD, preeclampsia, and birth weight, among other conditions, might explain the divergences observed among studies. Therefore, large, well-designed intervention-controlled trials with biological biomarkers to ensure dietary adherence are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in order to provide effective nutritional advice

Influence of Bioactive Nutrients on the Atherosclerotic Process: A Review

The protective effects of a dietary intervention as a useful tool in the prevention of atherosclerosis disease has gained greater attention in recent years. Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated the importance of diet in reducing expensive treatments or possible undesirable side effects. The main aim of this review is to examine the effects of specific nutrients on the development and progression of atherosclerosis in patients with cardiovascular disease. Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the cardioprotective effect of different nutrients. In this sense, results have shown stabilization of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques or downregulation of biomarkers related to inflammation through nutrients such as Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, hydroxytyrosol of extra virgin olive oil, lycopen, phytosterols of plants, or flavonols of fruits and vegetables, among others. The accumulated evidence on the anti-inflammatory effects related to these nutrients is summarized in the present review

Adequacy of DEA as a regulatory tool in the water sector. The impact of data uncertainty

[EN] The regulation of water services shares many similarities with that of other utilities such as electricity or telecommunications. As a result, similar methods are often used by regulators to assess the efficiency of companies in those sectors. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is one of those widely applied methods. This paper aims to determine the adequacy of DEA as a regulatory tool for urban water services, with a special focus on the quality of the available data. In order to obtain useful conclusions, two DEA simulations were performed with audited data from 194 water utilities, officially made available by the Portuguese water regulatory authority (ERSAR). Both simulations will demonstrate that the inherent inaccuracies found in some of the key data provided by water utilities represent a significant obstacle to obtain meaningful results with the DEA technique. This could represent a paradigm shift for some of the regulatory authorities currently using DEA or similar techniques, as the complexity of the method does not seem to be justified by a better analysis of the comparative performance of the different services.Cabrera Rochera, E.; Estruch-Juan, ME.; Molinos-Senante, M. (2018). Adequacy of DEA as a regulatory tool in the water sector. The impact of data uncertainty. Environmental Science & Policy. 85:155-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.03.028S1551628

Relation of Fruits and Vegetables with Major Cardiometabolic Risk Factors, Markers of Oxidation, and Inflammation

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are considered to be the leading cause of death worldwide. Inadequate fruit and vegetable intake have been recognized as a risk factor for almost all NCDs (type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases). The main aim of this review is to examine the possible protective effect that fruit and vegetable consumption or their bioactive compounds may have on the development of NCDs such as atherosclerosis. The accumulated evidence on the protective effects of adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables in some cases, or the lack of evidence in others, are summarized in the present review. The main conclusion of this review is that well-designed, large-scale, long-term studies are needed to truly understand the role fruit and vegetable consumption or their bioactive compounds have in atherosclerosis

Effects of Dietary Fiber Intake on Cardiovascular Risk Factors

A healthy dietary pattern is characterized by a high consumption of non-refined grains, legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables; relatively high intake of total fat, mainly derived from olive oil; moderate to high intake of fish and poultry; dairy products (usually as yogurt or cheese) in small amounts; low consumption of red meat and meat products; and moderate alcohol intake, usually in the form of red wine with meals (Willett et al., 1995). Therefore, a high consumption of fiber-rich foods is one of the characteristic features of a healthy diet. Dietary fiber (DF) has received much attention in nutritional epidemiology. Observational studies have consistently shown that DF intake is associated with reduced cardiovascular risk, including ischemic heart disease (Rimm et al., 1996a; Todd et al., 1999; Liu et al., 2002; Mozaffarian et al., 2003a) and stroke (Ascherio et al., 1998; Oh et al., 2005; Salmeron et al., 1997)), and a lower risk of diabetes (Meyer et al., 2000; Liu, 2003b). Clinical trials have also suggested that DF supplementation has beneficial effects on risk factors, such as blood pressure, serum lipids, insulin sensitivity and diabetic metabolic control (Streppel et al., 2005b; Brown et al., 1999; Anderson et al., 2000; Chandalia et al., 2000a; Ludwig et al., 1999)

Assessing variability in carbon footprint throughout the food supply chain: a case study of Valencian oranges

[EN] Purpose This study aims to analyse the variability in the carbon footprint (CF) of organically and conventionally produced Valencian oranges (Spain), including both farming and post-harvest (PH) stages. At the same time, two issues regarding sample representativeness are addressed: how to determine confidence intervals from small samples and how to calculate the aggregated mean CF (and its variability) when the inventory is derived from different sources. Methods The functional unit was 1 kg of oranges at a European distribution centre. Farming data come from a survey of two samples of organic and conventional farms; PH data come from one PH centre; and data on exportation to the main European markets were obtained from official secondary sources. To assess the variability of the farming subsystem, a bootstrap of the mean CF was performed. The variability of the PH subsystem was assessed through a Monte Carlo simulation and a subsequent subsampling bootstrap. A weighted discrete distribution of the CF of distribution and end-of-life (EoL) was built, which was also bootstrapped. The empirical distribution of the overall CF was obtained by summing all iterations of the three bootstrap procedures of the subsystems. Results and discussion The CF of the baseline scenarios for conventional and organic production were 0.82 and 0.67 kg CO2 equivalent·kg orange¿1, respectively; the difference between their values was due mainly to differences in the farming subsystem. Distribution and EoL was the subsystem contributing the most to the CF (59.3 and 75.7% of the total CF for conventional and organic oranges, respectively), followed by the farming subsystem (34.1 and 19.8% for conventional and organic oranges, respectively). The confidence intervals for the CF of oranges were 0.72¿0.92 and 0.61¿0.82 kg CO2 equivalent·kg orange¿1 for conventional and organic oranges, respectively, and a significant difference was found between them. If organic production were to reach 50% of the total exported production, the CF would be reduced by 5.4¿8.4%. Conclusions The case study and the methods used show that bootstrap techniques can help to test for the existence of significant differences and estimate confidence intervals of the mean CF. Furthermore, these techniques allow several CF sources to be combined so as to estimate the uncertainty in the mean CF estimate. Assessing the variability in the mean CF (or in other environmental impacts) gives a more reliable measure of the mean impact.The Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad for provided financial support in the project Design of a life-cycle indicator for sustainability in agricultural systems (CTM2013-47340-R).Ribal, J.; Estruch, V.; Clemente, G.; Loreto Fenollosa, M.; Sanjuan, N. (2019). Assessing variability in carbon footprint throughout the food supply chain: a case study of Valencian oranges. 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Consumption of Aged White Wine under a Veil of Flor Reduces Blood Pressure-Increasing Plasma Nitric Oxide in Men at High Cardiovascular Risk

Background: Hypertension remains the largest attributable risk factor of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and a reduction of cardiovascular events is linked to diminished elevated blood pressure (BP) values. High alcohol intake is a common cause of hypertension, but some studies have suggested that moderate wine consumption may reduce BP and increase plasma nitric oxide (NO) due to its polyphenol content. Objective: The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of Andalusian aged white wine (AWW) under a veil of flor, an alcoholic beverage with a moderate polyphenol content, with those of gin, an alcoholic beverage without polyphenols, on BP and plasma NO in men at high cardiovascular risk. Methods: This study was designed as an open, randomized crossover-controlled trial in which 38 high-risk male volunteers, aged 55 to 80, received 30 g of ethanol daily in the form of AWW or gin. This was carried out over the course of three weeks, after a two-week washout period. At baseline and after each intervention period, BP, anthropometric parameters, and plasma NO were measured; food intake was also recorded, and physical activity was monitored. Results: Compared to gin, AWW significantly reduced systolic and diastolic BP (p ≤ 0.033; both) and increased plasma NO levels (p = 0.013). Additionally, changes in BP values observed after AWW significantly correlated with increases in plasma NO. No changes in food intake, physical activity, body weight, or waist were observed between the two intervention periods. Conclusions: Moderate daily consumption of AWW may be useful to reduce elevated BP due to an increase of NO synthesis. This effect could be attributed to grape-derived compounds in AWW, such as polyphenols, which are not present in gin

Clinical Advances in Immunonutrition and Atherosclerosis: A Review.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease that affects large and medium-sized arteries and is considered to be a major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The high risk of mortality by atherosclerosis has led to the development of new strategies for disease prevention and management, including immunonutrition. Plant-based dietary patterns, functional foods, dietary supplements, and bioactive compounds such as the Mediterranean Diet, berries, polyunsaturated fatty acids, ω-3 and ω-6, vitamins E, A, C, and D, coenzyme Q10, as well as phytochemicals including isoflavones, stilbenes, and sterols have been associated with improvement in atheroma plaque at an inflammatory level. However, many of these correlations have been obtained in vitro and in experimental animals' models. On one hand, the present review focuses on the evidence obtained from epidemiological, dietary intervention and supplementation studies in humans supporting the role of immunonutrient supplementation and its effect on anti-inflammatory response in atherosclerotic disease. On the other hand, this review also analyzes the possible molecular mechanisms underlying the protective action of these supplements, which may lead a novel therapeutic approach to prevent or attenuate diet-related disease, such as atherosclerosis