Impact on Diet Quality and Resilience in Urban Community Dwelling Obese Women with a Nutrition and Physical Activity Intervention

Objective: To examine the effect of a Tai Chi, resistance training, and behaviorally-based diet education intervention on dietary quality as well as resilience and physical resilience in obese older women. Design: Community health outreach with a quasi-experimental design. Setting: An urban senior center in Rhode Island. Participants: Thirty-three women, 85% were minorities, with mean age of 65±8.2 years and BMI of 37.3±4.6 kg/m2, were enrolled in the study at baseline however only 17 women in the intervention (EXD) group and 9 women in the wait-list control (CON) group completed the study. Measurement: Dietary quality and nutrition risk were measured using the Dietary Screening Tool (DST), resilience was measured by the Resilience Scale, and physical resilience was examined using the Physical Resilience Scale. Intervention: Participants in the EXD group engaged in 12 weeks of Tai Chi, resistance training, and behaviorally-based diet education. The diet education was based off of the modified Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and led by a Registered Dietitian. Results: There was no change in dietary quality by group or time. However the EXD group had significantly higher dietary quality compared to the control group (p=0.025) at post intervention, although there was no difference in nutrition risk category. There was no change seen in overall resilience, however the EXD group improved physical resilience (p=0.048). Conclusion: A community health outreach that involved Tai Chi, resistance training, and behaviorally-based diet education may promote higher dietary quality as well as improve physical resilience in obese older women

Measured energy content of frequently purchased restaurant meals : multi-country cross sectional study

Funding: This work was supported in part by the US Department of Agriculture under agreement no. 58-1950-4-003 with Tufts University and a Tufts University Provost award to SBR. The study had additional funding in Brazil from FAPESP grants 2013/18520-0 and 2013/14489-1 to VS; in China from the National Science Foundation of China grant No 91431102 to JRS and International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences grant No GJHZ1660 to JRS; in Finland from internal funding by the University of Eastern Finland to JP; in Ghana from the University of Georgia Global Research Collaborative Grant Program to AKA. The views expressed are those of the authors. The sponsors had no role in the design, undertaking, or reporting of the study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Are Gluten-Free Diets More Nutritious? An Evaluation of Self-Selected and Recommended Gluten-Free and Gluten-Containing Dietary Patterns

Gluten-free (GF) eating patterns are frequently perceived to be healthier than gluten-containing (GC) ones, but there has been very little research to evaluate this viewpoint. The effect of GF eating patterns on dietary composition was assessed using two independent approaches. One approach compared macronutrients and typical shortfall nutrients between MyPlate example menus developed with either GC or equivalent GF foods. In this analysis, the GF menus were significantly lower in protein, magnesium, potassium, vitamin E, folate, and sodium (p = 0.002⁻0.03), with suggestive trends towards lower calcium and higher fat (p = 0.06⁻0.08). The second approach was a meta-analysis of seven studies comparing information on the nutrient intakes of adults with celiac disease following a GF diet with control subjects eating a GC diet, and differences were evaluated using paired t-tests or Wilcoxon Signed rank tests. In this analysis, consuming a GF diet was associated with higher energy and fat intakes, and lower fiber and folate intakes compared to controls (p < 0.001 to p = 0.03). After adjusting for heterogeneity and accounting for the large mean effect size (−0.88 ± 0.09), the lower fiber remained significant (p < 0.001). These combined analyses indicate that GF diets are not nutritionally superior except for sodium, and in several respects are actually worse

Cognitive status and cardio-metabolic risk of patients with acquired brain injury and Parkinson\u27s disease

Background Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) and acquired brain injury (ABI) share common symptoms. People with PD and ABI risk nutritional decline at diagnosis, but little is known about their long-term health a year or more after diagnosis. Objective This cross-sectional study describes cognitive and dietary characteristics of people living with PD or ABI 12 months or more post diagnosis to identify cardio-metabolic risk factors. Methods Twelve community-dwelling participants (8 PD, 4 ABI) received interdisciplinary evaluations. Cognitive-linguistic status was assessed using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Nutritional and cardio-metabolic statuses were measured using the dietary screening tool (DST), anthropometrics, biochemical, and clinical measures. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and correlations were used to analyze the data. Results Mean BMI (n = 12) was 26.8 ± 3.0 kg/m2 and the majority of participants were overweight. Participants with PD had significantly higher total RBANS scores than participants with ABI (87.1 ± 14.6 vs. 66.0 ± 12.6, p = 0.034, d = 2.455). DST scores indicated 58% (N = 7) at possible nutrition risk and 25% (N = 3) were at nutrition risk. A positive correlation was found between general activity level and DST scores (r = 0.697, p = 0.012). Multiple risk factors for development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) were present in all participants. Conclusion These findings confirmed the presence of cognitive and dietary deficits in our participant group and support the need for an interdisciplinary team approach to improve health and prevent the development of symptoms for these populations a year or more after diagnosis