BACKGROUND Schools can play a major role in prevention and intervention for childhood obesity. We describe changes in elementary school cafeteria lunch sales patterns resulting from nutritional improvements in menu offerings that were part of a community-wide focus on health. METHODS Elementary school lunch sales data were collected for 1 week in each of 7 years in a district serving a predom...

It is generally recognized that nitrogen balance is influenced by the energy content of the diet. Many workers have noted the sparing action of energy-rich foods on protein utilization. Bosshardt & Barnes (1946) showed that protein utilization by growing rats and mice increased with calorie intake when the animals were given isocaloric diets ad lib. Among other reports giving evidence of the pr...

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, an ancient perennial shrub of South America, produces diterpene glycosides that are low calorie sweeteners, about 300 times sweeter than saccharose. Stevia extracts, besides having therapeutic properties, contain a high level of sweetening compounds, known as steviol glycosides, which are thought to possess antioxidant, antimicrobial and antifungal activity. Steviosid...

Although calorie restriction and alternate-day fasting have potential for slowing the aging process while decreasing risk for vascular disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia, a “carbohydrate-concentrated” diet strategy, entailing long daily periods of carbohydrate abstinence, may prove to be a much more practical strategy for achieving these aims. The life extension and healthy aging benefits o...

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated the diet quality of consumers of low-calorie-sweetened (LCS) and calorie-sweetened (CS) beverages. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine the dietary quality and adherence to dietary purchasing and consumption patterns of beverage consumers from 2000 to 2010. DESIGN We analyzed purchases for 140,352 households from the Homescan longitudinal data set ...

It is generally recognized that nitrogen balance is influenced by the energy content of the diet. Many workers have noted the sparing action of energy-rich foods on protein utilization. Bosshardt & Barnes (1946) showed that protein utilization by growing rats and mice increased with calorie intake when the animals were given isocaloric diets ad lib. Among other reports giving evidence of the pr...

OBJECTIVE Increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has contributed to rising obesity levels. Under Canadian law, calories for pre-packaged foods and beverages are presented by serving size; however, serving sizes differ across products and even for the same product in different containers. This study examined consumer understanding of calorie amounts for government nutrition labels an...

OBJECTIVE Dietary macronutrient proportions affect substrate utilization, but in practice people consume foods. We hypothesized that in overweight adults, a calorie controlled diet based on core foods and including walnuts may be advantageous in promoting greater use of fat stores. METHODS This crossover study tested the effects of diet-related energy expenditure and fat oxidation in 16 overw...

The objective of this study was to identify factors affecting on errors in carbohydrate (CHO) content estimation during CHO counting. Thirty-seven type 1 diabetes patients and 22 of their parents and 28 physicians/dieticians were enrolled in this study. CHO counting was counted in "Carb", with 1 Carb defined as 10 g of CHO. To evaluate the accuracy of CHO counting, 80 real-size photographs of c...

Many of the world's food-insecure and undernourished people are smallholder farmers in developing countries. This is especially true in Africa. There is an urgent need to make smallholder agriculture and food systems more nutrition-sensitive. African farm households are known to consume a sizeable part of what they produce at home. Less is known about how much subsistence agriculture actually c...