Metabolic effects of parenteral nutrition enriched with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in critically ill patients

BACKGROUND & AIMS: n-3 fatty acids are expected to downregulate the inflammatory responses, and hence may decrease insulin resistance. On the other hand, n-3 fatty acid supplementation has been reported to increase glycemia in type 2 diabetes. We therefore assessed the effect of n-3 fatty acids delivered with parenteral nutrition on glucose metabolism in surgical intensive care patients. METHODS: Twenty-four surgical intensive care patients were randomized to receive parenteral nutrition providing 1.25 times their fasting energy expenditure, with 0.25 g of either an n-3 fatty acid enriched-or a soy bean-lipid emulsion. Energy metabolism, glucose production, gluconeogenesis and hepatic de novo lipogenesis were evaluated after 4 days. RESULTS: Total energy expenditure was significantly lower in patients receiving n-3 fatty acids (0.015+/-0.001 vs. 0.019+/-0.001 kcal/kg/min with soy bean lipids (P<0.05)). Glucose oxidation, lipid oxidation, glucose production, gluconeogenesis, hepatic de novo lipogenesis, plasma glucose, insulin and glucagon concentrations did not differ (all P>0.05) in the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: n-3 fatty acids were well tolerated in this group of severely ill patients. They decreased total energy expenditure without adverse metabolic effects.

Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Primary Schools

Food & Nutrition Guidelines for Primary Schools The Government has identified school children as one group to be given priority during the planning and delivery of programmes and initiatives for good health throughout life. In the Governmentâ?Ts National Health Promotion Strategy 2000/2005, the two major objectives for children are: Click here to download PDF 458kb

Food & Nutrition Guidelines for Primary Schools

Click here to download PDF

Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Pre-School Services

Click here to download PDF

Effects of corticosterone on innate and humoral immune functions and oxidative stress in barn owl nestlings.

The costs of coping with stressful situations are traded-off against other functions such as immune responses. This trade-off may explain why corticosterone secretion reduces immune reactions. Corticosterone differentially affects various immunity components. However, which component is suppressed varies between studies. It remains unclear whether the trade-off in energy, nutrition, autoimmunity or oxidative stress accounts for differential immunosuppression. In this study, we investigated whether corticosterone differentially affects the constitutive innate and humoral acquired immunity. We used barn owl nestlings, implanting 50% with a corticosterone-releasing pellet and the other 50% with a placebo pellet. To measure the effect on humoral immunity we vaccinated 50% of the corticosterone-nestlings and 50% of the placebo-nestlings with the antigens 'Tetravac' and the other 50% were injected with PBS. To assess the costs of elevated corticosterone, we measured body mass and resistance to oxidative stress. Administration of corticosterone increased corticosterone levels whereas vaccination induced the production of antibodies. Corticosterone reduced the production of antibodies, but it did not significantly affect the constitutive innate immunity. Corticosterone reduced body growth and resistance to oxidative stress. Under stressful conditions barn owl nestlings seem to keep the constitutive innate immunity, whereas elevated corticosterone levels negatively affected inducible immune responses. We found evidence that mounting a humoral immune reaction is not costly in terms of growth, but reduces the resistance to oxidative stress independently of corticosterone administration. We suggest that humoral immunity is suppressed because the risk of immunopathologies may be disproportionately high when mounting an antibody response under stressful situations.

2006 Healthy Ageing Conference Proceedings: Nutrition and Older People in Residential and Community Care Settings

2006 Healthy Ageing Conference Proceedings: Nutrition and Older People in Residential and Community Care Settings The conference attracted over 230 delegates from the statutory, voluntary and private sectors, and provided the opportunity for delegates to focus on issues facing particular vulnerable groups of older people. Click here to download PDF 928kb

SLÃÅN 2007 Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition in Ireland

This is the third national Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition (SLÃÂÅN) in Ireland, conducted in 2007 using face-to-face interviews with adults aged 18 years or over, interviewed at home addresses. SLÃÂÅN 2007 follows on from two previous surveys using postal questionnaires in 1998, involving 6,539 respondents with a 62% response rate, and in 2002, involving 5,992 respondents with a 53% response rate. Click here to download PDF 875kb

SLÃÅN 2007 Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition in Ireland. One Island - One Lifestyle

SLÃÅN 2007 Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition in Ireland. One Island - One Lifestyle

Food and Nutritional Care in Hospitals. Guidelines for Preventing Under-Nutrition in Acute Hospitals

Food and Nutritional Care in Hospitals. Guidelines for Preventing Under-Nutrition in Acute Hospitals Click here to download PDF 1.3mb

Cook it! An evaluation of a community nutrition education programme in Northern Ireland

Cook it! was originally introduced to Northern Ireland in 1995 by the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA) in a collaborative project with the Eastern Health and Social Services Board, the Northern Health and Social Services Board and the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust. Having run for five years, this initial phase of the programme was evaluated in 2000. Cook it! was found to be a valuable approach to community based nutrition education. However, a number of recommendations were made as to how it could be improved. In conjunction with a number of community dietitians the HPA therefore revised and updated the programme, which included a redesigned resource manual with improved session outlines and recipe sheets. The Public Health Agency was established in 2009 under a major reform ofhealth structuresin Northern Ireland. The four key functions of the PHA are: health and social wellbeing improvement; health protection; public health support to commissioning and policy development; HSC research and development.

Cook it! Fun, fast food for less: community nutrition education programme

This training manual was produced to support the Cook it! programme, which was specially developed for use in Northern Ireland. The Cook it! programme is delivered in the community by trained facilitators and can be used with a wide range of groups, including young/single parents, young people leaving residential care, offenders during rehabilitation programmes, older people in sheltered accomodation etc.The manual contains all the information needed to deliver Cook it! programmes in the community, including background information on healthy eating, information about dealing with special dietary requirements, sessions outlines, photocopiable resources and 75 recipes for snacks and meals.This updated version replaces the March 2007 edition.For information on training as a Cook it! facilitator, contact the health promotion service in your local Health and Social Care Trust.

What's in that bun? Nutrition takeout series

The beef burger is a common food on both the kitchen and restaurant table since the 1800s and is one of the most common choices on fast food menus. The main reason for this is because it is tasty, easily accessible, customisable, affordable and portable. In ROI, composite foods (i.e. foods made up of more than one ingredient) are an important source of meat, especially burgers, with the majority of burgers either being fried or grilled, and many eaten from takeaway outlets. With such easy access and with limited nutritional information available to consumers at point of sale, many people may not be aware of the nutritional content of what they are consuming or of the healthier options that may be available to them. Given the diversity of products available, this survey was designed to provide an insight into the energy (calorie), total fat, saturated fat, protein and salt content of a range of burgers from various takeaway outlets.