Nutritional intervention program in elite athletes: single case design research with one professional basketball player

The American College of Sports Medicine argues that sports performance is improved with optimal nutrition (ACSM position stand, MSSE 2009, Mar; 41(3):709-31). However, scientific evidence shows that professional athletes do not achieve nutritional recommendations (Farajian et al, IJSNEM 2004 Oct; 14(5):574-85; Shroeder et al EJSS 2004 Jun 4 (2):1; Nogueira & Da Costa, IJSNEM 2004; 14:684-697) Objectives: a) describe the nutritional practices of one professional basketball player b) carry out a long term nutritional intervention to adapt his diet to current recommendations.

Nutritional regulation of the fatty acid synthase promoter in vivo: Sterol regulatory element binding protein functions through an upstream region containing a sterol regulatory element

The transcription of fatty acid synthase (FAS), a central enzyme in de novo lipogenesis, is dramatically induced by fasting/refeeding and insulin. We reported that upstream stimulatory factor binding to the −65 E-box is required for induction of the FAS transcription by insulin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. On the other hand, we recently found that two upstream 5′ regions are required for induction in vivo by fasting/refeeding and insulin; one at −278 to −131 albeit at a low level, and the other at −444 to −278 with an E-box at −332 where upstream stimulatory factor functions for maximal induction. Here, we generated double transgenic mice carrying the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter driven by the various 5′ deletions of the FAS promoter region and a truncated active form of the sterol regulatory element (SRE) binding protein (SREBP)-1a. We found that SREBP participates in the nutritional regulation of the FAS promoter and that the region between −278 and −131 bp is required for SREBP function. We demonstrate that SREBP binds the −150 canonical SRE present between −278 and −131, and SREBP can function through the −150 SRE in cultured cells. These in vivo and in vitro results indicate that SREBP is involved in the nutritional induction of the FAS promoter via the −278/−131 region and that the −150 SRE is the target sequence.

Providing Bereavement Counseling to Chinese Americans: A Cultural Adaptation of a Western Grief Counseling Model.

The aim of this paper is to extend the existing literature and propose an alternative perspective on bereavement counseling with Chinese Americans. This aim is achieved by integrating William Worden's (2009) grief counseling model with several cultural components that are relevant to counseling with Chinese Americans, including: (a) the barriers to seeking counseling, (b) the clinical presentations of Asian Americans, (c) the common coping styles among Asian Americans, (d) the major Chinese religions and philosophies, and (e) the bereavement-related cultural practices. The corresponding treatment recommendations will be explored following the discussion of each cultural element. Finally, a culturally responsive grief counseling model for Chinese Americans will be proposed in the last section, along with a discussion of important caveats.

Evaluation of quality of life related to nutritional status

The way in which the quality of life related to health (HRQoL) is affected by the nutritional status of the patient is a subject of constant interest and permanent debate. The purpose of the present paper is to review those studies that relate HRQoL to nutritional status and examine the tools (questionnaires) that they use to investigate this relationship. A critical review of published studies was carried out via an investigation of the following databases: MEDLINE (via PubMed); EMBASE; The Cochrane Library; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL); Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science; Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS); Spanish Health Sciences Bibliographic Index (IBECS). The search was carried out from the earliest date possible until July 2007.The medical subject heading terms used were ‘quality of life’, ‘nutritional status’ and ‘questionnaires’. The articles had to contain at least one questionnaire that evaluated quality of life. Twenty-eight documents fulfilling the inclusion criteria were accepted, although none of them used a specific questionnaire to evaluate HRQoL related to nutritional status. However, some of them used a combination of generic questionnaires with the intention of evaluating the same. Only three studies selectively addressed the relationship between nutritional status and quality of life, this evaluation being performed not by means of specific questionnaires but by statistical analysis of data obtained via validated questionnaires.

Artificial nutritional support registries: systematic review

Introduction: The nutritional registries are data bases through which we obtain the information to understand the nutrition of populations. Several main nutrition societies of the world have these types of registries, outstanding the NADYA (Home artificial and Ambulatory nutrition) group in Spain. The object of this study is to determine by means of a systematic review, the existent scientific production in the international data bases referred to nutritional support registries. Methods: Descriptive transversal study of the results of a critical bibliographic research done in the bioscience data bases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, ISI (Web of Sciences), LILACS, CINHAL. Results: A total of 20 original articles related to nutritional registries were found and recovered. Eleven registries of eight countries were identified: Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, United Status and United Kingdom. The Price Index was of 65% and all the articles were published in the last 20 years. Conclusions: The Price Index highlights the innovativeness of this practice. The articles related to nutritional support are heterogeneous with respect to data and population, which exposes this as a limitation for a combined analysis.

Differences in larval nutritional requirements and female oviposition preference reflect the order of fruit colonization of Zaprionus indianus and Drosophila simulans

Species coexist using the same nutritional resource by partitioning it either in space or time, but few studies explore how species-specific nutritional requirements allow partitioning. Zaprionus indianus and Drosophila simulans co-exist in figs by invading the fruit at different stages; Z. indianus colonizes ripe figs, whereas D. simulans oviposits in decaying fruit. Larvae feed on yeast growing on the fruit, which serves as their primary protein source. Because yeast populations increase as fruit decays, we find that ripe fruit has lower protein content than rotting fruit. Therefore, we hypothesized that Z. indianus and D. simulans larvae differ in their dietary requirements for protein. We used nutritional geometry to assess the effects of protein and carbohydrate concentration in the larval diet on life history characters in both species. Survival, development time, and ovariole number respond differently to the composition of the larval diet, with Z. indianus generally performing better across a wider range of protein concentrations. Correspondingly, we found that Z. indianus females preferred to lay eggs on low protein foods, while D. simulans females chose higher protein foods for oviposition when competing with Z. indianus. We propose the different nutritional requirements and oviposition preference of these two species allows them to temporally partition their habitat.

Drosophila melanogaster larvae make nutritional choices that minimize developmental time

Organisms from slime moulds to humans carefully regulate their macronutrient intake to optimize a wide range of life history characters including survival, stress resistance, and reproductive success. However, life history characters often differ in their response to nutrition, forcing organisms to make foraging decisions while balancing the trade-offs between these effects. To date, we have a limited understanding of how the nutritional environment shapes the relationship between life history characters and foraging decisions. To gain insight into the problem, we used a geometric framework for nutrition to assess how the protein and carbohydrate content of the larval diet affected key life history traits in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. In no-choice assays, survival from egg to pupae, female and male body size, and ovariole number - a proxy for female fecundity - were maximized at the highest protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratio (1.5:1). In contrast, development time was minimized at intermediate P:C ratios, around 1:2. Next, we subjected larvae to two-choice tests to determine how they regulated their protein and carbohydrate intake in relation to these life history traits. Our results show that larvae targeted their consumption to P:C ratios that minimized development time. Finally, we examined whether adult females also chose to lay their eggs in the P:C ratios that minimized developmental time. Using a three-choice assay, we found that adult females preferentially laid their eggs in food P:C ratios that were suboptimal for all larval life history traits. Our results demonstrate that D. melanogaster larvae make foraging decisions that trade-off developmental time with body size, ovariole number, and survival. In addition, adult females make oviposition decisions that do not appear to benefit the larvae. We propose that these decisions may reflect the living nature of the larval nutritional environment in rotting fruit. These studies illustrate the interaction between the nutritional environment, life history traits, and foraging choices in D. melanogaster, and lend insight into the ecology of their foraging decisions.

Role of dietary fibers in the nutritional management of hyperuricemia

Foods rich in adenine and hypoxanthine may contribute to the increase of uricemia. Hyperuricemia is associated with other pathological conditions pertaining to metabolic syndrome. Objective: the assessement of the impact of fiber rich diet on uricemia in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: the study involved 46 male patients with metabolic syndrome who claimed to have reduced mobility in fingers, hypertension, obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperuricemia. A validated questionnaire about dietary habits was applied at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks of fiber-rich diet by eliminating from patients diet preparations of animal food and increased intake of vegetable foods. Blood presure, body mass index, blood glucose and uric acids were measured at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks of fiber rich diet by daily consumption of 2 servings of added grains - 60g totally and vegetables 200g, fruits 300g respectively. Results: The study shows that at baseline all patients had an inadequate dietary intake of dietary fiber, 28.5 ± 2.2 g/day instead of 38 g per day.The increase in fiber intake of 10 ± 5 g/day was associated with a decrease of serum uric acid by 69.87% from 8.3  0.6 mg/dL to 5.8  0.5 mg/dL, p = 0.008, non-significant decrease of BMI (from 26.8  4.5 to 26.4  4.6 kg/m2, p<0.01), significant decrease of glycemia (from 130  0.8 to 105  4.2mg/dL, p <0.001) and significant decrease in blood pressure (from 150  10.6 to 130  8.4 mmHg, p <0.001). Conclusion: The fiber rich diet decreased blood uric acid, blood glucose levels an arterial pressure in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Suplementos alimentares para gestão de peso corporal:

Os suplementos alimentares para emagrecer são um apelo irresistível para quem procura uma forma de perder peso “sem sacrifícios” e “sem esforço”. Com efeito, estamos perante um mercado sazonal em expansão em que a menção “natural” parece tranquilizar os consumidores esquecendo que a eficácia e segurança destes produtos necessita ser avaliada. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo teve como objetivo efetuar a caraterização dos consumidores de suplementos alimentares para emagrecer, da zona centro de Portugal, avaliar o seu grau de satisfação com os produtos e ainda o possível risco que envolve o consumo destes produtos sobretudo quando ingeridos concomitantemente com medicamentos. Recorreu-se a um questionário anónimo, confidencial e de preenchimento voluntário, distribuído em farmácias, parafarmácias e dietéticas e/ou ervanárias maioritariamente do concelho de Viseu e Figueira da Foz. A recolha dos dados decorreu entre os meses de abril e julho de 2014. E tinha como critérios de inclusão ser maior de 18 anos, ambos os sexos e saber ler e escrever. Acorreram 304 indivíduos. A análise dos dados foi feita recorrendo a testes estatísticos adequados a cada caso. O presente estudo ao caracterizar o perfil de consumidores de suplementos alimentares encontrou uma população, maioritariamente feminina (88,5%) com grau de instrução elevado, secundário e superior, nas faixas etária dos 25-44 anos (59,4%), casados ou em união de facto. Apresentavam excesso de peso e obesidade (54%), sem hábitos de prática de exercício físico e com alimentação desequilibrada. Estes preferem adquirir os suplementos alimentares para emagrecer nas farmácias embora a decisão de consumir estes produtos seja pessoal (32,7%). Para aconselhamento preferem o farmacêutico (17,6%) e apenas 4,2% recorrem ao médico. Revelaram ainda consumir estes produtos por um período de tempo limitado, entre 1-3 meses e estarem satisfeitos com os resultados obtidos após o consumo de suplementos alimentares (63,1%). Constituindo os efeitos secundários dos suplementos alimentares uma preocupação legítima verificamos que a maioria dos inquiridos (93,3%) não refere qualquer efeito indesejável, os restantes indivíduos que revelaram aparecimento de ações indesejáveis disseram ter-se dirigido ao farmacêutico para reportar a situação. As patologias com maior prevalência entre os consumidores foram doenças endócrinas, nutricionais e metabólicas, seguida das perturbações mentais e comportamentais e por fim as doenças cardiovasculares a que correspondem os principais grupos terapêuticos encontrados: psicofármacos, medicamentos usados em patologias do sistema endócrino e antihipertensores. Cerca de 25,8% dos inquiridos que consumiam suplementos alimentares para emagrecer utilizavam concomitantemente estes fármacos. A análise dos cinco suplementos alimentares para emagrecer maioritariamente consumidos pela amostra (57,8%) evidenciou a existência de possíveis interações com os grupos de fármacos mais utilizados. Os resultados obtidos mostram por um lado, a necessidade de esclarecer o conceito de que nem tudo o que é natural é inócuo e por outro lado, ressaltam a importância no ato de venda do aconselhamento individual, adaptado a cada consumidor (com ou sem medicação), por um profissional de saúde com conhecimentos no âmbito da gestão e fisiologia de peso corporal e conhecimento sólido sobre a eficácia e segurança destes suplementos.

Counseling Hispanic college-bound high school students /

Distributed to depository libraries in microfiche.