Nutrition
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Childhood undernutrition continues to be a major public health problem and one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The risk factors of child undernutrition are diverse and change with time, place, and season. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors influencing stunting and wasting among children 1 to 5 years of age in the Nkwanta South Municipality, Ghana. ⋯ Furthermore, factors influencing wasting were parents' educational level, parents' working status, child's age, birth interval, exclusive breastfeeding, poor appetite, child's vaccination status, and recurrent diarrhea. The results showed a high prevalence of stunting and wasting among children 1 to 5 years in the Nkwanta South Municipality. This finding indicates the degree to which nutritional screening for children is very crucial, and thus recommends government and health authorities to adapt or promote nutrition-related interventions such as educational awareness on the utilization of family planning services for birth spacing, exclusive breastfeeding practices, and vaccination to prevent undernutrition among young children.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Macronutrient composition and its effect on body composition changes during weight loss therapy in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.
Dietary composition may affect body composition during weight loss therapy. We tested the hypothesis of whether dietary macronutrient composition influences the reduction of total abdominal adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), or visceral adipose tissue (VAT) during weight loss. ⋯ The 5:2 and LCHF diets had similar effects on changes in intraabdominal fat mass and anthropometrics during weight loss. This might indicate that overall weight loss is more important than diet composition to achieve changes in total abdominal adipose tissue, VAT, or SAT. The results of the present study suggest that there is a need for further studies on the effect of diet composition on body composition changes during weight loss therapy.
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Nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics, combined with the omics technologies, are a demanding and an increasingly important field in personalizing nutrition-based care to understand an individual's response to nutrition-guided therapy. Omics is defined as the analysis of the large data sets of the biological system featuring transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics and providing new insights into cell regulation. The effect of combining nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics with omics will give insight into molecular analysis, as human nutrition requirements vary per individual. ⋯ Although dietary-based therapies are provided for various clinical conditions such as inborn errors of metabolism, limited advancement has been done to expand the omics data for a more mechanistic understanding of cellular networks dependent on nutrition-based expression and overall regulation of genes. The greatest challenge remains in the clinical sector to integrate the current data available, overcome the well-established limits of self-reported methods in research, and provide omics data, combined with nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics research, for each individual. Hence, the future seems promising if a design for personalized, nutrition-based diagnosis and care can be implemented practically in the health care sector.
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Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at substantially high risk for colorectal cancer (CRC). IBD-associated CRC accounts for roughly 10% to 15% of the annual mortality in patients with IBD. IBD-related CRC also affects younger patients compared with sporadic CRC, with a 5-y survival rate of 50%. ⋯ Additionally, in recent years, results from broad epidemiologic and experimental studies have associated certain foods or nutritional patterns with the risk for colorectal neoplasia. The present study aimed to review the possible role of nutrition in preventing IBD-related CRC, focusing specifically on human studies. It emerges that nutritional interventions based on healthy, nutrient-dense dietary patterns characterized by a high intake of fiber, vegetables, fruit, ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and a low amount of animal proteins, processed foods, and alcohol, combined with probiotic supplementation have the potential of reducing IBD-activity and preventing the risk of IBD-related CRC through different mechanisms, suggesting that targeted nutritional interventions may represent a novel promising approach for the prevention and management of IBD-associated CRC.
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This study aimed to evaluate the association of vitamin D with sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of daily sunlight on this association. ⋯ Vitamin D deficiency was associated with poor sleep quality in individuals with insufficient exposure to sunlight.