Turkish cultural heritage: a cup of coffee

Setting out a fabulous journey from a tiny bean, coffee is the stimulant of the heart and mind and a mysterious plant that strengthens friendship and also takes your tiredness away during the day. Although information on how and where the coffee came from is not clear, Sheikh Şazeli is regarded as the “father” by coffee makers. The word coffee originates from “Kaffa”, a primary coffee production center in Abyssinia, Africa, which can be considered the homeland of coffee. According to this consideration, in Abyssinia, coffee was consumed with bread; it was then pulped and brought to Yemen, and Yemeni people started to cultivate coffee. The word “kahve” in Turkish does not mean the coffee plant like its synonym in Arabic but means the beverage made by boiling. Turkish coffee is a blend of high-quality Arabic-type coffee beans, originating from Brazil and Central America and moderately roasted and ground finely. The way it is prepared differentiates Turkish coffee from others. This coffee was called Turkish coffee because of a new method of preparation invented by Turkish people where it is boiled in copper coffee pots. Turkish coffee that has spread around the world with this name has been an indispensable part of the cultural and social history of Turks

The association between maternal features and nutritional problems in children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective In the literature, there is almost no data on the relationship between autistic children's nutritional problems and their mothers' demographic and nutritional characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate whether there was a relationship between maternal features and nutritional problems in autistic children. Methods This study was conducted with the participation of 58 autistic children (6-19 years) and their mothers. Descriptive data were obtained with a general questionnaire. For the evaluation of children's nutritional status, anthropometric measurements and 24-hour dietary recall were used. Also, the Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory and ORTO-15 questionnaires were used to evaluate the meal behavior of children and orthorexia tendency of mothers, respectively. Results No significant correlation was found between the Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory scores in children of mothers with high and low orthorexia tendency. There were also no statistically significant differences between the children of mothers with high and low educational level in terms of Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory scores. Only the dietary vitamin B6 intake was significantly higher in the children of mothers with high educational level. Maternal age was associated with the dietary energy and protein intake, unlike, maternal orthorexia tendency was not associated with the nutritional status and meal behavior of children. The abdominal pain experience in the last one month was found to be significantly higher in the children of employed mothers than children of unemployed mothers. Conclusion It is thought that the maternal characteristics are not effective on meal behavior in children and also maternal age and educational status have a very limited effect on the nutritional status of children

Comparison of energy balance-related behaviours and measures of body composition between Turkish adolescents in Turkey and Turkish immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands

Objective To explore the influences of migration to a Western country on obesity and related risk factors by comparing measures of body composition and energy balance-related behaviours between Turkish adolescents in Turkey (TR-TR) and adolescents from Turkish immigrant ethnicity in the Netherlands (TR-NL). Design Cross-sectional survey or baseline intervention data from six Dutch school-based studies and one Turkish study. Setting Primary and secondary schools. Subjects A total of 915 (49 % girls; mean age 13·1 (sd 0·8) years) TR-TR adolescents and 433 (51 % girls; mean age 11·7 (sd 1·3) years) TR-NL adolescents were included. Outcome measures were self-reported sugar-containing beverage consumption, fruit and vegetable intake, screen time, physical activity, measured body height and weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences, and skinfold thicknesses. Results Our data showed that more TR-NL adolescents were overweight (31 % v. 26 %) and obese (9 % v. 6 %) and had significantly higher mean BMI (21·1 v. 20·0 kg/