Diet-disease relationships : recent advances in nutritional epidemiology

Nutritional epidemiology currently studies the diet-disease relationships. In order to evaluate these associations, an accurate estimation of nutritional exposure is essential. Traditional dietary questionnaires are being complemented with the measurement of nutritional biomarkers. New methodologies, including the use of new dietary assessments, metabolomics for increasing the quantity and quality of biomarkers, and statistical approaches to combine both techniques, are required to move forward in this field. In this review, we have selected five of the more relevant accomplishments in this field as examples of the importance of dietary factors in the prevention of non-communicable diseases. This theoretical knowledge needs to be finally translated by public health experts into dietary recommendations to the general population

Blood polyphenol concentrations and differentiated thyroid carcinoma in women from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study

Background: Polyphenols are natural compounds with anticarcinogenic properties in cellular and animal models, but epidemiological evidence determining the associations of these compounds with thyroid cancer (TC) is lacking. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relations between blood concentrations of 36 polyphenols and TC risk in EPIC (the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition). Methods: A nested case-control study was conducted on 273 female cases (210 papillary, 45 follicular, and 18 not otherwise specified TC tumors) and 512 strictly matched controls. Blood polyphenol concentrations were analyzed by HPLC coupled to tandem MS after enzymatic hydrolysis. Results: Using multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression models, caffeic acid (ORlog2: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.93) and its dehydrogenated metabolite, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylpropionic acid (ORlog2: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.71, 0.99), were inversely associated with differentiated TC risk. Similar results were observed for papillary TC, but not for follicular TC. Ferulic acid was also inversely associated only with papillary TC (ORlog2: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.51, 0.91). However, none of these relations was significant after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. No association was observed for any of the remaining polyphenols with total differentiated, papillary, or follicular TC. Conclusions: Blood polyphenol concentrations were mostly not associated with differentiated TC risk in women, although our study raises the possibility that high blood concentrations of caffeic, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylpropionic, and ferulic acids may be related to a lower papillary TC risk.UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Medical Research Council UK (MRC) MC_UU_12015/1 MC_UU_00006/

Wanted: specific nutritional biomarkers for food consumption for the study of its protective role in health.

Nutritional epidemiology focuses on an understanding of the relationship between diet and disease risk. The assessment of dietary and nutritional exposure is a complex methodological challenge. Traditionally, diet evaluations have been made by means of dietary data, such as 24-h recalls and food frequency or diet history questionnaires. However, all of these methods have some inherent weaknesses or limitations due to the limited accuracy in measuring the intake of food, nutrients or phytochemicals. Nowadays, nutritional biomarkers have become an attractive alternative approach. According to conventional definition..

Dietary intake of total polyphenol and polyphenol classes and the risk of colorectal cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Cohort

Polyphenols may play a chemopreventive role in colorectal cancer (CRC); however, epidemiological evidence supporting a role for intake of individual polyphenol classes, other than flavonoids is insufficient. We evaluated the association between dietary intakes of total and individual classes and subclasses of polyphenols and CRC risk and its main subsites, colon and rectum, within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. The cohort included 476,160 men and women from 10 European countries. During a mean follow-up of 14 years, there were 5991 incident CRC cases, of which 3897 were in the colon and 2094 were in the rectum. Polyphenol intake was estimated using validated centre/country specific dietary questionnaires and the Phenol-Explorer database. In multivariable-adjusted Cox regression models, a doubling in total dietary polyphenol intake was not associated with CRC risk in women (HRlog2 = 1.06, 95% CI 0.99–1.14) or in men (HRlog2 = 0.97, 95% CI 0.90–1.05), respectively. Phenolic acid intake, highly correlated with coffee consumption, was inversely associated with colon cancer in men (HRlog2 = 0.91, 95% CI 0.85–0.97) and positively associated with rectal cancer in women (HRlog2 = 1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.19); although associations did not exceed the Bonferroni threshold for significance. Intake of other polyphenol classes was not related to colorectal, colon or rectal cancer risks. Our study suggests a possible inverse association between phenolic acid intake and colon cancer risk in men and positive with rectal cancer risk in women

Briófitos como bioindicadores de calidad botánica en zonas áridas del SE español: Sierras de Filabres, Cabrera, Alhamilla y Cabo de Gata (Almería, España)

Briófitos como bioindicadores de calidad botánica en zonas áridas del Sudeste español: Sierras de Filabres, Cabrera, Alhamilla y Cabo de Gata (Almería, España). Basado en el estudio de la flora y vegetación briofíticas de las sierras de Filabres, Cabrera, Alhamilla y Cabo de Gata, se ha realizado la evaluación fitobiológica de las mismas aplicando un coeficiente de calidad botánica a una serie de localidades elegidas en el seno de estos sistemas montañosos. De este modo se han cartografiado las zonas con diferentes grados de conservación de la flora y vegetación briofítica en el área de estudio

Resveratrol metabolite profiling in clinical nutrition research-from diet to uncovering disease risk biomarkers: epidemiological evidence

Resveratrol is a bioactive plant compound that has drawn scientific and media attention owing to its protective effects against a wide variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In the last two decades, a plethora of preclinical studies have shown these beneficial effects, and some of them have been supported by clinical trials. However, there are few epidemiological studies assessing these relationships, showing mostly inconsistent results among them. This could be partially due to the difficulty of accurately estimating dietary resveratrol exposure. The development of Phenol-Explorer, a database containing resveratrol food-composition data, will facilitate the estimation of resveratrol intake. Moreover, the discovery and validation of a nutritional biomarker of this exposure, urinary resveratrol metabolite profile, will allow a more accurate assessment of dietary resveratrol exposure. Few epidemiological studies have assessed the potential health effects of resveratrol. Resveratrol was not associated with total mortality, cancer, or cardiovascular events, but it was associated with an improvement of serum glucose and triglyceride levels and a decrease in heart rate. Together, these findings suggest a potential cardioprotective effect of resveratrol in epidemiological studies, although the evidence is still scarce

Material audiovisual sobre nutrición para pacientes durante el tratamiento oncológico

III Congreso de Alimentación, Nutrición y Dietética. Combinar la nutrición comunitaria y personalizada: nuevos retos

An Overview of Global Flavonoid Intake and its Food Sources

Dietary patterns and food availability differ greatly between regions and countries around the world. As a result, there is a large variability in the intake of total flavonoids and flavonoid subclasses, and subsequently in their major food sources. However, we need to be aware of certain methodological issues when we compare studies on flavonoid intake

Resveratrol, a new biomarker of moderate wine intake?

In a recent study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, Spencer et al. (1) reviewed the strengths and the limitations of the biomarkers of dietary polyphenol intake, since nutritional biomarkers may be a better measure of dietary exposure than self-reported dietary data. These authors identified the criteria that must be considered in the development of such biomarkers as the following..