Patterns of dairy food intake, body composition and markers of metabolic health in Ireland:results from the National Adult Nutrition Survey

Background: Studies examining the association between dairy consumption and metabolic health have shown mixed results. This may be due, in part, to the use of different definitions of dairy, and to single types of dairy foods examined in isolation. Objective: The objective of the study was to examine associations between dairy food intake and metabolic health, identify patterns of dairy food consumption and determine whether dairy dietary patterns are associated with outcomes of metabolic health, in a cross-sectional survey. Design: A 4-day food diary was used to assess food and beverage consumption, including dairy (defined as milk, cheese, yogurt, cream and butter) in free-living, healthy Irish adults aged 18–90 years (n=1500). Fasting blood samples (n=897) were collected, and anthropometric measurements taken. Differences in metabolic health markers across patterns and tertiles of dairy consumption were tested via analysis of covariance. Patterns of dairy food consumption, of different fat contents, were identified using cluster analysis. Results: Higher (total) dairy was associated with lower body mass index, %body fat, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio (P<0.001), and lower systolic (P=0.02) and diastolic (P<0.001) blood pressure. Similar trends were observed when milk and yogurt intakes were considered separately. Higher cheese consumption was associated with higher C-peptide (P<0.001). Dietary pattern analysis identified three patterns (clusters) of dairy consumption; 'Whole milk', 'Reduced fat milks and yogurt' and 'Butter and cream'. The 'Reduced fat milks and yogurt' cluster had the highest scores on a Healthy Eating Index, and lower-fat and saturated fat intakes, but greater triglyceride levels (P=0.028) and total cholesterol (P=0.015). conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that while milk and yogurt consumption is associated with a favourable body phenotype, the blood lipid profiles are less favourable when eaten as part of a low-fat high-carbohydrate dietary pattern. More research is needed to better understand this association. Conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that although milk and yogurt consumption is associated with a favourable body phenotype, the blood lipid profiles are less favourable when eaten as part of a low-fat high-carbohydrate dietary pattern. More research is needed to better understand this association

Monoclonal antibodies against chicken type V collagen: production, specificity, and use for immunocytochemical localization in embryonic cornea and other organs

Two monoclonal antibodies have been produced against chick type V collagen and shown to be highly specific for separate, conformational dependent determinants within this molecule. When used for immunocytochemical tissue localization, these antibodies show that a major site for the in situ deposition of type V is within the extracellular matrices of many dense connective tissues. In these, however, it is largely in a form unavailable to the antibodies, thus requiring a specific “unmasking” treatment to obtain successful immunocytochemical staining. The specificity of these two IgG antibodies was determined by inhibition ELISA, in which only type V and no other known collagen shows inhibition. In ELISA, mixtures of the two antibodies give an additive binding reaction to the collagen, suggesting that each is against a different antigenic determinant. That both antigenic determinants are conformational dependent, being either in, or closely associated with, the collagen helix is demonstrated by the loss of antibody binding to molecules that have been thermally denatured. The temperature at which this occurs, as assayed by inhibition ELISA, is very similar to that at which the collagen helix melts, as determined by optical rotation. This gives strong additional evidence that the antibodies are directed against the collagen. The antibodies were used for indirect immunofluorescence analyses of cryostat sections of corneas and other organs from 17 to 18-day-old chick embryos. Of all tissues examined only Bowman’s membrane gave a strong staining reaction with cryostat sections of unfixed material. Staining in other areas of the cornea and in other tissues was very light or nonexistent. When, however, sections were pretreated with pepsin dissolved in dilute HAc or, surprisingly, with the dilute HAc itself dramatic new staining by the antibodies was observed in most tissues examined. The staining, which was specific for the anti-type V collagen antibodies, was largely confined to extracellular matrices of dense connective tissues. Experiments using protease inhibitors suggested that the “unmasking” did not involve proteolysis. We do not yet know the mechanism of this unmasking; however, one possibility is that the dilute acid causes swelling or conformational changes in a type-V collagen-containing supramolecular structure. Further studies should allow us to determine whether this is the case

The National Food Consumption Survey (NFCS): South Africa, 1999

Objective: The aim of the National Food Consumption Survey (NFCS) in South Africa was to determine the nutrient intakes and anthropometric status of children (1-9 years old), as well as factors that influence their dietary intake. Design: This was a cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of all children aged 1-9 years in South Africa. A nationally representative sample with provincial representation was selected using 1996 Census information. Subjects: Of the 3120 children who were originally sampled data were obtained from 2894, a response rate of 93%. Methods: The sociodemographic status of each household was assessed by a questionnaire. Dietary intake was assessed by means of a 24-hour recall and a food-frequency questionnaire from the caregivers of the children. Food purchasing practices were determined by means of a food procurement questionnaire. Hunger was assessed by a modified hunger scale questionnaire. Nutritional status was determined by means of anthropometric measurements: height, weight, head circumference and arm circumference. Results: At the national level, stunting (height-for-age below minus two standard deviations (&lt; -2SD) from the reference median) was by far the most common nutritional disorder, affecting nearly one in five children. The children least affected (17%) were those living in urban areas. Even with regard to the latter, however, children living in informal urban areas were more severely affected (20%) compared with those living in formal urban areas (16%). A similar pattern emerged for the prevalence of underweight (weight-for-age &lt; -2SD), with one in 10 children being affected at the national level. Furthermore, one in 10 (13%) and one in four (26%) children aged 1-3 years had an energy intake less than half and less than two-thirds of their daily energy needs, respectively. For South African children as a whole, the intakes of energy, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamins A, D, C and E, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6 and folic acid were below two-thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowances. At the national level, data from the 24-hour recalls indicated that the most commonly consumed food items were maize, sugar, tea, whole milk and brown bread. For South African children overall, one in two households (52%) experienced hunger, one in four (23%) were at risk of hunger and only one in four households (25%) appeared food-secure. Conclusion: The NFCS indicated that a large majority of households were food-insecure and that energy deficit and micronutrient deficiencies were common, resulting in a high prevalence of stunting. These results were used as motivation for the introduction of mandatory fortification in South Africa. © The Authors 2005.Conference Pape

Dietary vitamin D2 - a potentially underestimated contributor to vitamin D nutritional status of adults?

It has been suggested that vitamin D2 is not very prevalent in the human food chain. However, data from a number of recent intervention studies suggest that the majority of subjects had measurable serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 (25(OH)D2) concentrations. Serum 25(OH)D2, unlike 25(OH)D3, is not directly influenced by exposure of skin to sun and thus has dietary origins; however, quantifying dietary vitamin D2 is difficult due to the limitations of food composition data. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterise serum 25(OH)D2 concentrations in the participants of the National Adult Nutrition Survey (NANS) in Ireland, and to use these serum concentrations to estimate the intake of vitamin D2 using a mathematical modelling approach. Serum 25(OH)D2 concentration was measured by a liquid chromatography–tandem MS method, and information on diet as well as subject characteristics was obtained from the NANS. Of these participants, 78·7 % (n 884) had serum 25(OH)D2 concentrations above the limit of quantification, and the mean, maximum, 10th, 50th (median) and 90th percentile values of serum 25(OH)D2 concentrations were 3·69, 27·6, 1·71, 2·96 and 6·36 nmol/l, respectively. To approximate the intake of vitamin D2 from these serum 25(OH)D2 concentrations, we used recently published data on the relationship between vitamin D intake and the responses of serum 25(OH)D concentrations. The projected 5th to 95th percentile intakes of vitamin D2 for adults were in the range of 0·9–1·2 and 5–6 μg/d, respectively, and the median intake ranged from 1·7 to 2·3 μg/d. In conclusion, the present data demonstrate that 25(OH)D2 concentrations are present in the sera of adults from this nationally representative sample. Vitamin D2 may have an impact on nutritional adequacy at a population level and thus warrants further investigation

Capturing health and eating status through a nutritional perception screening questionnaire (NPSQ9) in a randomised internet-based personalised nutrition intervention : the Food4Me study

BACKGROUND: National guidelines emphasize healthy eating to promote wellbeing and prevention of non-communicable diseases. The perceived healthiness of food is determined by many factors affecting food intake. A positive perception of healthy eating has been shown to be associated with greater diet quality. Internet-based methodologies allow contact with large populations. Our present study aims to design and evaluate a short nutritional perception questionnaire, to be used as a screening tool for assessing nutritional status, and to predict an optimal level of personalisation in nutritional advice delivered via the Internet. METHODS: Data from all participants who were screened and then enrolled into the Food4Me proof-of-principle study (n = 2369) were used to determine the optimal items for inclusion in a novel screening tool, the Nutritional Perception Screening Questionnaire-9 (NPSQ9). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on anthropometric and biochemical data and on dietary indices acquired from participants who had completed the Food4Me dietary intervention (n = 1153). Baseline and intervention data were analysed using linear regression and linear mixed regression, respectively. RESULTS: A final model with 9 NPSQ items was validated against the dietary intervention data. NPSQ9 scores were inversely associated with BMI (β = -0.181, p < 0.001) and waist circumference (Β = -0.155, p < 0.001), and positively associated with total carotenoids (β = 0.198, p < 0.001), omega-3 fatty acid index (β = 0.155, p < 0.001), Healthy Eating Index (HEI) (β = 0.299, p < 0.001) and Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) (β = 0. 279, p < 0.001). Findings from the longitudinal intervention study showed a greater reduction in BMI and improved dietary indices among participants with lower NPSQ9 scores. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy eating perceptions and dietary habits captured by the NPSQ9 score, based on nine questionnaire items, were associated with reduced body weight and improved diet quality. Likewise, participants with a lower score achieved greater health improvements than those with higher scores, in response to personalised advice, suggesting that NPSQ9 may be used for early evaluation of nutritional status and to tailor nutritional advice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01530139 .Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Vitamin D status of Irish adults: findings from the National Adult Nutrition Survey

Previous national nutrition surveys in Irish adults did not include blood samples; thus, representative serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) data are lacking. In the present study, we characterised serum 25(OH)D concentrations in Irish adults from the recent National Adult Nutrition Survey, and determined the impact of vitamin D supplement use and season on serum 25(OH)D concentrations. Of the total representative sample (n 1500, aged 18+ years), blood samples were available for 1132 adults. Serum 25(OH)D was measured via immunoassay. Vitamin D-containing supplement use was assessed by questionnaire and food diary. Concentrations of serum 25(OH)D were compared by season and in supplement users and non-users. Year-round prevalence rates for serum 25(OH)D concentration 125 nmol/l. These first nationally representative serum 25(OH)D data for Irish adults show that while only 6·7 % had serum 25(OH)D < 30 nmol/l (vitamin D deficiency) throughout the year, 40·1 % had levels considered by the Institute of Medicine as being inadequate for bone health. These prevalence estimates were much higher during winter time. While vitamin D supplement use has benefits in terms of vitamin D status, at present rates of usage (17·5 % of Irish adults), it will have only very limited impact at a population level. Food-based strategies, including fortified foods, need to be explored

Industrial work placement in higher education: a study of civil engineering student engagement

For civil engineering undergraduates, the opportunity to spend a period of time in formal industrial work placement provides an invaluable learning experience. This paper reviews student engagement with short-term industrial placement and provides analysis of questionnaires (n=174) returned by undergraduates studying civil engineering at four Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s) in the West of Scotland. The data captures industrial placement statistics, employability skill-sets and presents brief testimonies from students. Whilst the journey to becoming a professional civil engineer is undoubtedly enhanced by short-term placement clear opportunities exist for HEI’s to affect and change existing pedagogical discourse. Commentary is likely to resonate beyond civil engineering and serve as a timely reminder of the need to re-invigorate academia / industry curriculum partnerships

Making sense of variety in place leadership: the case of England’s smart cities

Making sense of variety in place leadership: the case of England’s smart cities. Regional Studies. There is rising interest in cities becoming ‘smart’ knowledge-oriented economies by prioritizing more digitally enabled modes of production and service delivery. Whilst the prevalence of these new organizational forms is well understood, the way that leadership agency is exercised (i.e., the actors involved and their modalities of action) is not. Drawing on new empirical data and sense-making methodology, the paper reveals discursive patterns in how public agencies, private firms and communities ‘see’ and ‘do’ leadership within these place-based contexts, and concludes that success in exploiting the social and spatial dynamics of ‘smart’ development lies in understanding actors’ assumptions about commercial and social gain

Online dietary intake estimation : The food4me food frequency questionnaire

Copyright ©Hannah Forster, Rosalind Fallaize, Caroline Gallagher, Clare B O’Donovan, Clara Woolhead, Marianne C Walsh, Anna L Macready, Julie A Lovegrove, John C Mathers, Michael J Gibney, Lorraine Brennan, Eileen R Gibney. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 09.06.2014. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Dietary assessment methods are important tools for nutrition research. Online dietary assessment tools have the potential to become invaluable methods of assessing dietary intake because, compared with traditional methods, they have many advantages including the automatic storage of input data and the immediate generation of nutritional outputs. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for dietary data collection in the Food4Me study and to compare this with the validated European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) Norfolk printed FFQ. Methods: The Food4Me FFQ used in this analysis was developed to consist of 157 food items. Standardized color photographs were incorporated in the development of the Food4Me FFQ to facilitate accurate quantification of the portion size of each food item. Participants were recruited in two centers (Dublin, Ireland and Reading, United Kingdom) and each received the online Food4Me FFQ and the printed EPIC-Norfolk FFQ in random order. Participants completed the Food4Me FFQ online and, for most food items, participants were requested to choose their usual serving size among seven possibilities from a range of portion size pictures. The level of agreement between the two methods was evaluated for both nutrient and food group intakes using the Bland and Altman method and classification into quartiles of daily intake. Correlations were calculated for nutrient and food group intakes. Results: A total of 113 participants were recruited with a mean age of 30 (SD 10) years (40.7% male, 46/113; 59.3%, 67/113 female). Cross-classification into exact plus adjacent quartiles ranged from 77% to 97% at the nutrient level and 77% to 99% at the food group level. Agreement at the nutrient level was highest for alcohol (97%) and lowest for percent energy from polyunsaturated fatty acids (77%). Crude unadjusted correlations for nutrients ranged between .43 and .86. Agreement at the food group level was highest for other fruits (eg, apples, pears, oranges) and lowest for cakes, pastries, and buns. For food groups, correlations ranged between .41 and .90. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that the online Food4Me FFQ has good agreement with the validated printed EPIC-Norfolk FFQ for assessing both nutrient and food group intakes, rendering it a useful tool for ranking individuals based on nutrient and food group intakes.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio