The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, 2007

The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, three fundamental parts of the U.S. food guidance system, have been revised by USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, with assistance from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, Economic Research Service, and Agricultural Research Service. The plans provide representative healthful market baskets at three different cost levels. This revision maintains the same inflation-adjusted costs as those of the previous three food plans, last revised in 2003. In line with previous food plans, an assumption used to develop these plans was that all purchased food is consumed at home. The newly revised (2007) Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans differ from, and improve upon, the previous versions in a number of ways: • The Plans are based on the most current dietary standards: the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well as the 2005 MyPyramid Food Guidance System. • The Plans use the latest data on food consumption, nutrient content, and food prices: the 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the 2001- 2002 Food Price Database. • The Plans offer a more realistic reflection of the time available for home food preparation; hence, each plan incorporates more prepared foods within the recipes and requires fewer preparations from scratch.USDA Food Plans, Low-Cost Food Plan, Moderate-Cost Food Plan, Liberal Food Plan, Diet Quality, Cost of Food, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Building Public Issues Education Capacity to Address Health and Wellness: Recommendations from a Survey of Extension Professionals

A national Web-based survey administered through the University of Maryland assessed Cooperative Extension\u27s involvement in public policy education specific to health and wellness. Respondents included Family Consumer Sciences administrators, faculty, and staff. The majority of respondents agreed that public policy education was within the scope of their responsibilities, critical to their programs, and helpful in raising citizens\u27 interest and commitment to healthier communities. However, public policy education efforts would benefit from a more integrated approach across the national Extension system in terms of policy focus and Extension professionals\u27 roles and level of involvement

Aerobic capacity mediates susceptibility for the transition from steatosis to steatohepatitis

Low aerobic capacity increases risk for nonâ alcoholic fatty liver disease and liverâ related disease mortality, but mechanisms mediating these effects remain unknown. We recently reported that rats bred for low aerobic capacity (low capacity runner; LCR) displayed susceptibility to high fat dietâ induced steatosis in association with reduced hepatic mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and respiratory capacity compared to high aerobic capacity (high capacity runner; HCR) rats. Here we tested the impact of aerobic capacity on susceptibility for progressive liver disease following a 16â week â western dietâ (WD) high in fat (45% kcal), cholesterol (1% w/w) and sucrose (15% kcal). Unlike previously with a diet high in fat and sucrose alone, the inclusion of cholesterol in the WD induced hepatomegaly and steatosis in both HCR and LCR rats, while producing greater cholesterol ester accumulation in LCR compared to HCR rats. Importantly, WDâ fed lowâ fitness LCR rats displayed greater inflammatory cell infiltration, serum alanine transaminase, expression of hepatic inflammatory markers (F4/80, MCPâ 1, TLR4, TLR2 and ILâ 1β) and effector caspase (caspase 3 and 7) activation compared to HCR rats. Further, LCR rats had greater WDâ induced decreases in complete FAO and mitochondrial respiratory capacity. Intrinsic aerobic capacity had no impact on WDâ induced hepatic steatosis; however, rats bred for low aerobic capacity developed greater hepatic inflammation, which was associated with reduced hepatic mitochondrial FAO and respiratory capacity and increased accumulation of cholesterol esters. These results confirm epidemiological reports that aerobic capacity impacts progression of liver disease and suggest that these effects are mediated through alterations in hepatic mitochondrial function.Key pointsLow intrinsic aerobic capacity is associated with increased allâ cause and liverâ related mortality in humans.Low intrinsic aerobic capacity in the low capacity runner (LCR) rat increases susceptibility to acute and chronic highâ fat/highâ sucrose dietâ induced steatosis, without observed increases in liver inflammation.Addition of excess cholesterol to a highâ fat/highâ sucrose diet produced greater steatosis in LCR and high capacity runner (HCR) rats. However, the LCR rat demonstrated greater susceptibility to increased liver inflammatory and apoptotic markers compared to the HCR rat.The progressive nonâ alcoholic fatty liver disease observed in the LCR rats following western diet feeding was associated with further declines in liver fatty acid oxidation and mitochondrial respiratory capacity compared to HCR rats.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137742/1/tjp12421.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137742/2/tjp12421_am.pd

Fish oil replacement in current aquaculture feed : is cholesterol a hidden treasure for fish nutrition?

Teleost fish, as with all vertebrates, are capable of synthesizing cholesterol and as such have no dietary requirement for it. Thus, limited research has addressed the potential effects of dietary cholesterol in fish, even if fish meal and fish oil are increasingly replaced by vegetable alternatives in modern aquafeeds, resulting in progressively reduced dietary cholesterol content. The objective of this study was to determine if dietary cholesterol fortification in a vegetable oil-based diet can manifest any effects on growth and feed utilization performance in the salmonid fish, the rainbow trout. In addition, given a series of studies in mammals have shown that dietary cholesterol can directly affect the fatty acid metabolism, the apparent in vivo fatty acid metabolism of fish fed the experimental diets was assessed. Triplicate groups of juvenile fish were fed one of two identical vegetable oil-based diets, with additional cholesterol fortification (high cholesterol, H-Chol) or without (low cholesterol, L-Chol), for 12 weeks. No effects were observed on growth and feed efficiency, however, in fish fed H-Col no biosynthesis of cholesterol, and a remarkably decreased apparent in vivo fatty acid b-oxidation were recorded, whilst in LChol fed fish, cholesterol was abundantly biosynthesised and an increased apparent in vivo fatty acid b-oxidation was observed. Only minor effects were observed on the activity of stearyl-CoA desaturase, but a significant increase was observed for both the transcription rate in liver and the apparent in vivo activity of the fatty acid D-6 desaturase and elongase, with increasing dietary cholesterol. This study showed that the possible effects of reduced dietary cholesterol in current aquafeeds can be significant and warrant future investigations