The Dirt on Clean Eating: A Cross Sectional Analysis of Dietary Intake, Restrained Eating and Opinions about Clean Eating among Women

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).= 762) ranging in age from 17–55 completed a self-report questionnaire on eating behaviour and beliefs about clean eating. Findings showed that 25.5% of the sample adhered to dietary advice from a clean eating site sometimes, often or very often. A significantly higher proportion of women who had adhered to dietary advice from clean eating sites met dietary guidelines for the consumption of fruit, meats and alternatives compared to women who had seldom or never adhered. Adherers also had significantly higher levels of restrained eating and were more positive about clean eating in general in comparison to those who seldom or never adhered. Results provide new information about exposure to clean eating sites and how they may influence women’s eating practices. These preliminary findings suggest additional studies are required to better understand the influence of clean eating sites, particularly with regard to whether the information on such sites are from reputable sources and to what degree their recommendations may be problematic for individuals with eating concerns. View Full-Tex

The effect of dietary sodium modification on blood pressure in adults with systolic blood pressure less than 140 mmHg: A systematic review

TYPES OF INTERVENTIONS: Interventions that quantitatively evaluated dietary sodium intake for equal to or greater than four weeks duration were considered. Only studies that included two study arms comprising different levels of sodium intake were included

Are Clean Eating Blogs a Source of Healthy Recipes? A Comparative Study of the Nutrient Composition of Foods with and without Clean Eating Claims

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Food blogs are an increasingly popular source of information about food and nutrition. There is a perception that foods published on clean eating blogs, which promote unprocessed foods, are healthier than comparable foods without these claims. However, foods with these claims and their nutrient composition have not previously been evaluated. The purpose of the study was to describe the nutritional content of clean eating recipes compared to recipes without clean eating claims and the nutritional guidelines published by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Clean eating recipes were systematically selected from 13 popular clean eating blogs and were described and compared with control recipes without clean eating claims. The nutrient profiles from the included recipes were summarised and evaluated against criteria from WHO recommendations for chronic disease prevention and criteria from the U.K. Food Standards Agency. Data for 86 clean eating recipes were extracted that represented five food categories: breakfast, snacks, treats, desserts, and smoothies. These were matched with 86 control recipes without clean eating claims. The clean eating recipes, per portion, provide the equivalent of 15% of daily energy intake. The average serving sizes were not significantly different between clean eating and control recipes. Overall, the clean eating recipes contained significantly more protein (8.1 ± 7.3 g vs. 5.7 ± 4.1 g, p = 0.01), fat (15.8 ± 10.6 g vs. 12.4 ± 9.3 g, p = 0.03), and fibre (5.0 ± 4.3 g vs. 2.8 ± 2.9 g, p < 0.01) per serving than control recipes. There were no significant differences between clean eating and control recipes with respect to the energy (1280 ± 714 kJ vs. 1137 ± 600 kJ, p = 0.16), carbohydrate (31.5 ± 27.3 g vs. 33.9 ± 19.4 g, p = 0.51), sugar (21.1 ± 20.9 g vs. 23.2 ± 14.9 g, p = 0.46), and sodium content (196.7 ± 269 vs. 155.8 ± 160.8, p = 0.23). Less than 10% of clean eating and control recipes met the WHO constraints for proportions of energy from fat and sugar intake. A simulated nutrient profile of an average clean and control recipe shows that nutrients for both are similarly classified as moderate to high in fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar. Foods with clean eating claims contained the same amount of energy, sugar, and sodium as foods without those claims. Clean eating claims are potentially misleading for consumers who may believe these foods are healthy alternatives, potentially undermining people’s efforts to eat a healthy die

Effects of dietary sodium intake on vascular function.

Background: Increased dietary salt (sodium chloride) intake may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease independently of the effects on blood pressure by altering vascular endothelial function. It has previously been shown that reducing dietary salt intake can improve endothelial function after a short period of time however the effects of chronic moderate salt reduction and acute effects of a high salt meal on vascular function are not well studied in controlled trials. The thesis presents studies exploring the effects of manipulating dietary salt intake on endothelial function in normotensive overweight and obese and healthy adults. Aims: To assess the effects of 1) longer term moderate salt reduction on vascular function in overweight and obese adults 2) a high salt meal on post-prandial vascular function in healthy adults and 3) explore potential mechanisms underlying effects of acute and chronic modification of salt intake on vascular function. Results: In the first study overweight and obese adults (n=25) with normal blood pressure followed a moderately reduced salt diet (100mmol Na/day) and a usual salt diet (150mmol Na/day) for six weeks each in a randomised cross-over design. Following the reduced salt diet flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) was improved and endothelin-1 (a biomarker of endothelial function) improved significantly compared with the usual salt diet. The change in FMD occurred after two days, was sustained at 6 weeks and was significantly related to the change in 24hr urinary sodium to creatinine ratio. There were no changes in other markers of vascular stiffness (pulse wave velocity, augmentation index), plasma nitrate/nitrite, asymmetric dimethylarginine, renin, aldosterone or blood pressure between treatments. Population salt intakes are in excess of recommendations and published data suggest it may be common to consume in excess of 6g salt in a single meal. In the second study we tested the hypothesis that a high salt meal has adverse effects of vascular function in the postprandial period. The results showed that compared with a low salt meal (5mmol Na), the high salt meal (65mmol Na) impaired postprandial FMD and that the FMD response was not related to changes in blood pressure. In the third study, the mechanisms underlying the effects on endothelial function observed following the high salt meal in Study 2 were investigated. The results showed that augmentation index (a measure of arterial stiffness), serum sodium and osmolality increase significantly in response to the high salt meal (65mmol Na) compared with the low salt meal (5mmol Na). No differences in plasma nitrate/nitrite, vasopressin, atrial natriuretic peptide or blood pressure were observed between treatments. The main findings in of this thesis are that a modest reduction in dietary salt intake (3g/day) improves FMD rapidly after 2 days, which persists after 6 weeks, which may be explained by a fall in endothelin-1. Second, a single high salt meal has acute adverse effects on post-prandial arterial stiffness that is not accounted for by changes in plasma nitrate/nitrite or other vasoactive hormones. These results suggest mealtime sodium intakes as well as total daily salt intake may have implications for cardiovascular disease risk through altering endothelial function. Further work should be done to define the underlying short and long-term mechanisms by which salt affects endothelial function and long-term cardiovascular disease risk.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Medical Sciences, 201

A reduction of 3 g/day from a usual 9 g/day salt diet improves endothelial function and decreases endothelin-1 in a randomised cross_over study in normotensive overweight and obese subjects

Conclusions: A small reduction in dietary salt intake of 3 g/day improves endothelial function in normotensive overweight and obese subjects. This response may be mediated by serum endothelin-1. This small reduction in salt had no effect on aldosterone and renin concentrations.

The effect of dietary sodium modification on blood pressure in studies of subjects with systolic blood pressure less than 140mmHg: a systematic review protocol

Review question/objective