SUBJECT: AJCN Aug 2013-Ready for school nutrition

Sugar-sweetened beverages – Prospective cohort studies provide some of the strongest evidence that SSBs are associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and stroke. Exploring the effect of the New York City ban on portion sizes of SSBs >16 oz on calorie reduction in an analysis of the NHANES, the analysis showed that adolescents (12–19 y of age) consume 75.3% of SSBs sold in America and are the largest consumers of portion sizes of SSBs >16 oz (11.8%). The average SSB intake in consumers (89%) was 335 g/d or 1.3 servings/d. Girls who moved into the top tertile of SSB consumption (>1.3 servings/d) between 14 and 17 y of age had increases in BMI, increased overweight and obesity risk, and greater overall cardiometabolic risk. Increased SSB intake may be an important predictor of cardiometabolic risk in young people, independent of weight status. New York’s restriction on large sodas may help overweight young adults. 65% of regulated SSBs are from fast food restaurants.

Green tea reduces risk of diabetes – This meta-analysis suggested that green tea had favorable effects, ie, decreased fasting glucose and Hb A1c concentrations. Diabetes mellitus is currently one of the most significant public health challenges worldwide. The number of people with diabetes mellitus has more than doubled globally over the past 3 decades. Moreover, this number is projected to rise to 439 million by 2030, representing 7.7% of the total adult population of the world aged 20–79 y. Nearly 90% of the cases of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus can be attributed to 5 major lifestyle factors: diet, physical activity, smoking, obesity, and alcohol consumption.

Fructose itself was not obesifying and did not produce hepatic steatosis. Thus, they concluded that the negative health consequences of fructose ingestion may occur only in the setting of excessive caloric intake. BUT Even in the absence of weight gain, fructose rapidly causes liver damage.

Eat breakfast!  Eating breakfast is believed to promote a healthy body weight. Compared with the Mmore frequent breakfast group, the Less Frequent group spent 30% less time (12.6 min/d) in moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity and had a higher percentage body fat. Skipping breakfast is directly associated with weight gain.  Irregular breakfast consumption was associated with a higher T2D risk in women.

Eat a healthy diet! The positively rated food groups were beans and legumes, beer, coffee, fish, fruit, green vegetables, low-fat dairy, liquor, oil, other vegetables, poultry, seeds, and nuts, soy products, tea, tomato, whole grains, and wine. The negatively rated food groups were butter, fried foods, fried potatoes, red meat, liver, processed meat, salty snacks, soft drinks, sweets, and whole-fat dairy. The remaining neutrally rated food groups were chocolate, diet soft drinks, eggs, fruit juice, margarine, potatoes, and refined grains. Fruit and vegetable consumption <5 servings/d is associated with progressively shorter survival and higher mortality rates.

Drink more water! Studies of individuals dieting for weight loss or maintenance suggest a weight-reducing effect of increased water consumption.

Move often! Regular activity breaks were more effective than continuous physical activity at decreasing postprandial glycemia and insulinemia in healthy, normal-weight adults.

Get enough sleep! Epidemiologic studies have shown an inverse or U-shaped relation between sleep duration and body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2).  A disadvantageous shift in energy balance is primarily expressed in high-quality sleepers after a decline in QS because of disturbance, implying that good sleepers are most liable to a positive energy balance because of sleep disturbance.

Get enough [2,000 IU daily] vitamin D! Vitamin D intakes are lower than dietary recommendations in most populations, and thus, a low vitamin D status is widespread, especially during winter. Particularly, pregnant women need vitamin D. A maternal 25(OH)D concentration ≥80 compared with <50 nmol/L was associated with 49% lower risk of pathology in boys.

Nursing mothers need enough cobalamin (vitamin B12) – At 4 mo, low concentrations of milk cobalamin mirrored biochemical changes in infants, which suggests an impaired cobalamin status and indicates that nutrition from only mother’s milk may not be sufficient for the supply of cobalamin from this age.

Poor nutrition during pregnancy is a major public health problem in the United States and other countries. Insufficient intake, low protein, or deficiencies in micronutrients, is associated with poor developmental outcomes in children including lower cognitive functioning, deficits in attention, and disruptive behavior problems. Nutritional interventions during pregnancy have been successfully used to target neurodevelopmental problems, such as increasing folic acid intake during pregnancy to decrease the incidence of neural tube defects. Results from the current study can be used to support the testing of nutritional preventive interventions for the most-common childhood behavior problems.

Fish oil for infants promotes brain development – The data from this relatively small trial suggest that, although the effects of LCPUFAs may not always be evident on standardized developmental tasks at 18 mo, significant effects may emerge later on more specific or fine-grained tasks. And a healthy immune system preventing inflammatory disorders throughout life. Pregnant women supplemented daily with 400 mg docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) or a placebo from 18 to 22 wk of gestation to parturition. Our results indicate that maternal supplementation with ω-3 PUFA during pregnancy may modulate global methylation levels and the Th1/Th2 balance in infants. Therefore, the epigenetic mechanisms could provide attractive targets for prenatal modulation and prevention of inflammatory disorders and potentially other related diseases in childhood and adulthood.

Enjoy carrots! Increased β-carotene consumption is linked to antitumor effects. But not carotene supplements! Two chemoprevention trials found that supplementation with β-carotene increased the risk of lung cancer and overall mortality. Male smokers supplemented with β-carotene developed metabolomic profiles consistent with the induction of cytochrome P450 enzymes, the primary metabolizers of xenobiotics in humans.

Taxonomy for cognitive processes – Here is the key figure.

Breast feed your child! Symposium – “Bringing Science to Early Life Nutrition” – Human milk is not a standard product in that it changes composition during lactation. Colostrum is very different from mature milk and hind milk differs from foremilk. And maternal diet, for example, has a distinct influence on the PUFA status of human milk. Nutrition in early life has distinct effects on the immune and metabolic system. Specific added oligosaccharides to infant formula can have such an indirect role by modulating the intestinal microbiome. Dietary intervention with these dietary oligosaccharides in early life could lead to the prevention of atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and/or allergic asthma. Long-chain PUFAs are associated with effects on later neurocognitive development. Other fatty acids, such as trans isomeric fatty acids, may interfere with the potential beneficial effects of PUFAs.  Slow growth is associated with impaired neurocognitive outcome. Too-rapid growth results in insulin insensitivity and a higher risk of metabolic syndrome. Again, own mother’s milk is the preferable choice for each infant, including prematurely born infants. Children who received LC-PUFAs were faster at processing information compared with children who received unsupplemented formula. Human milk is generally accepted as the best nutrition for newborns and has been shown to support the optimal growth and development of infants, including a specific mixture of nondigestible oligosaccharides to improve the intestinal microbiota in early life. Early-life programming is becoming an established concept that states that the environment during early development affects health and disease in adulthood, probably via epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, RNA silencing, or a combination. Accumulating evidence suggests that nutrition during pregnancy and early postnatal life is one of the most important environmental cues that programs microbiological, metabolic, and immunologic development. The neonatal period is crucial for the early microbial colonization of the almost sterile gastrointestinal tract of the newborn infant. Exposure to environmental microbial components is also suggested to have a key role in the maturation process of the immune system, and in turn the immune system shapes the composition of the microbiota.

Consume whole grains! The ASN position, based on the current state of the science, is that consumption of foods rich in cereal fiber or mixtures of whole grains and bran is modestly associated with a reduced risk of obesity, T2D, and CVD.

Proper nutrition is most effective and least costly path decrease diseases and obesity!

– Roc, Nutrition Investigator
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Those youths who had been involved in more educational activities and classes had, at age 33, a higher rate of notable accomplishments – pg54, Scientific Am. Mind Nov/Dec 2012