Volume 8 Issue 3

▪ Keyword : obesity, body mass index, cardiovascular disease, risk factors, waist-to-hip ratio

▪ Content : The global prevalence of obesity, characterised by a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2, is high and is increasing. Obesity is associated with a higher risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. In Singapore the prevalence of obesity differs among the three main ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays and Indians) but is relatively low compared to Western societies.

▪ Keyword : nutrition intervention, nutritional epidemiology, food trial, nutrition trial, compliance

▪ Content : Trials of nutritional intervention in a wide range of health and disease states, preventive and therapeutic, are required. Not only has the emergence of chronic non-communicable disease (CNCD) with acknowledged nutritional pathogenesis created this imperative need, but so also have other conditions which, previously, had not been regarded as nutritionally based.

▪ Keyword : hypertension, coronary heart disease, salt, protein, dietary fat

▪ Content : Hypertension, an important risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), is often associated with certain dietary habits which can either adversely affect or decrease blood pressure. Several Western studies have documented the role of diet, especially excess energy, both quality and quantity of fat and salt, in the aetiopathogenesis of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and CHD. Indians are particularly susceptible to these chronic diseases.

▪ Keyword : glycemic index, short-grain rice, mixed meal, carbohydrate, glucose

▪ Content : We estimated glycemic and insulinemic responses to short-grain rice (Japonica) and a short-grain rice-mixed meal (i.e. short-grain rice and other ingredients) in three healthy male, and five healthy female subjects aged 22–31 years. A 50 g carbohydrate portion of dry rice was used in this study to estimate the glycemic index (GI) of short-grain rice (Experiment 1).

▪ Keyword : edible marine fish, N-3 fatty acids, blood pressure, systolic, diastolic

▪ Content : It has been suggested that fish-consuming populations have lower blood pressure levels. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the mean blood pressure levels among fish-consuming populations with those among populations who do not consume fish, as a risk marker for cardiovascular disease. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1000 healthy Indian adult men and women (aged ≥ 20 years) randomly chosen from two representative age and sex-matched samples, one of which was fish-consuming (n = 500) and the other of which was non-fish-consuming (n = 500).

▪ Keyword : food intake, eating pattern, elderly, food inadequacy, energy deficiency

▪ Content : The Nutrient and Metabolic Study of Indonesian Elderly (NUMSIE) was conducted in part to identify differences in eating patterns and in food and energy intakes between elderly people residing in urban metropolitan Jakarta (JAK) and in urban non-metropolitan Semarang (SEM) in order to investigate the prevalence of food and energy deficiencies. Data on food intake were collected from 212 JAK elderly and 238 SEM elderly aged 60 years and over using a quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).

▪ Keyword : anti-oxidant status, oxidative stress, ascorbic acid, tocopherol, vitamin C

▪ Content : Vitamin C may ‘spare’ vitamin E, but this has not to date been confirmed as occurring in vivo. The aim of this study was to test the effect of dietary supplementation with vitamin C on total and lipid standardised vitamin E concentrations in fasting plasma, the hypothesis being that increased vitamin C intake leads to improved vitamin E levels. In this single-blinded study, 12 apparently healthy adults (seven men, five women) took 1 g/day vitamin C for 28 days, with a 28-day placebo-controlled run-in cycle and a 28-day placebo-controlled washout cycle.

▪ Keyword : santalbic acid, quandong, absorption, rats, metabolism

▪ Content : Kernels of the plant Santalum acuminatum (quandong) are eaten as Australian ‘bush foods’. They are rich in oil and contain relatively large amounts of the acetylenic fatty acid, santalbic acid (trans-11-octadecen-9-ynoic acid), whose chemical structure is unlike that of normal dietary fatty acids. When rats were fed high fat diets in which oil from quandong kernels supplied 50% of dietary energy, the proportion of santalbic acid absorbed was more than 90%.

▪ Keyword : successful aging, older women, food variety, dietary recommendations, dietary supplements

▪ Content : A comprehensive definition of successful ageing would combine the elements of survival (longevity), health (lack of disability), and life satisfaction (happiness). Predictors of longevity include being female, being physically active, not smoking, having good cognitive functioning, higher socio-economic status and greater life satisfaction.

▪ Keyword : omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, ventricular fibrillation, sudden cardiac death

▪ Content : In a number of epidemiological surveys and in two recent intervention trials in cardiac patients, diets rich in marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which include both eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have been found to be beneficial in reducing the susceptibility of developing serious ventricular fibrillation (VF) or malignant cardiac dysrhythmia and mortality from sudden cardiac death (SCD).