In This Issue: Ultra-processed food and health

Background: Obesity is an emerging pandemic considered to be an outcome of change in lifestyle owing to more processed food and the use of mechanical locomotives. Obesity has not only appeared as a problem in the esthetic appearance of an individual rather is a serious health issue due to its associations with various chronic diseases such as coronary and cardiovascular problems, hypertension, osteoarthritis, type-II diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and certain cancers. It is estimated that 30 percent of the world’s population, i.e. approximately 2.1 billion people, are victims of obesity. In addition to environmental causes, various genes and a group of genes are reported to be increasing the suceptibility of obesity. Objective: Pakistan is a heterogeneous population, an amalgam of various races, therefore, narrowing down the list of obesity-associated genes and their functional variance could help molecular biologists to select potential SNPs in the Pakistani population for molecular diagnosis and treatment. Method: The extraction of a set of obesity-associated genes has been performed by using Polysearch2. SNPs for each gene are retrieved from dbSNP. RegulomeDB and SNPinfo tools have been used for the functional analysis of SNPs retrieved against the Pakistani population. For the prediction of potential deleterious SNPs, SIFT, Polyphen-2, MUTTASTER, MUTASSESSOR, and LRT (likelihood ratio test) are utilized. Functional analysis of potential deleterious SNPs has been performed by studying protein stability and mapping of identified SNPs to protein structure. For the protein stability analysis, I-Mutant and SNPs3D have been used. Results: Four genes FTO, POMC, LEPR, and MC4R and further analysis revealed 3 deleterious SNPs in FTO, 4 in POMC, 1 in LEPR, and 1 in MC4R. Conclusion: This research was designed to identify obesity-associated genes and the most impactful deleterious SNPs in these genes. These findings will be helpful for the molecular biologists and pharmacists to design better and focused diagnosis and treatment strategies.

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Early onset of overweight among children from low‐income families: The role of exclusive breastfeeding and maternal intake of ultra‐processed food

Pediatric Obesity ◽

10.1111/ijpo.12825 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jayanne Mayara Magalhães Melo ◽

Bruna Larine Lemos Fontes Silva Dourado ◽

Risia Cristina Egito Menezes ◽

Giovana Longo‐Silva ◽

Jonas Augusto Cardoso Silveira

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Exclusive Breastfeeding ◽

Early Onset ◽

Processed Food ◽

Low Income Families

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Association between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Excess of Weight in Women with Endometrial Cancer

Nutrition and Cancer ◽

10.1080/01635581.2021.1944230 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Caroline Laranjeira da Silva ◽

Amine Farias Costa ◽

Alex Oliveira da Camara ◽

Lidiane Araújo Cezário ◽

Ana Luisa Kremer Faller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Endometrial Cancer ◽

Food Consumption ◽

Processed Food

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Gut Microbiota Prevents Sugar Alcohol-Induced Diarrhea

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13062029 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 2029

Author(s):

Kouya Hattori ◽

Masahiro Akiyama ◽

Natsumi Seki ◽

Kyosuke Yakabe ◽

Koji Hase ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Gut Bacteria ◽

Food Science ◽

Sugar Alcohol ◽

Processed Food ◽

Phosphotransferase System ◽

Sugar Alcohols ◽

E Coli ◽

The Family ◽

Rdna Analysis

While poorly-absorbed sugar alcohols such as sorbitol are widely used as sweeteners, they may induce diarrhea in some individuals. However, the factors which determine an individual’s susceptibility to sugar alcohol-induced diarrhea remain unknown. Here, we show that specific gut bacteria are involved in the suppression of sorbitol-induced diarrhea. Based on 16S rDNA analysis, the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria increased in response to sorbitol consumption. We found that Escherichia coli of the family Enterobacteriaceae degraded sorbitol and suppressed sorbitol-induced diarrhea. Finally, we showed that the metabolism of sorbitol by the E. coli sugar phosphotransferase system helped suppress sorbitol-induced diarrhea. Therefore, gut microbiota prevented sugar alcohol-induced diarrhea by degrading sorbitol in the gut. The identification of the gut bacteria which respond to and degrade sugar alcohols in the intestine has implications for microbiome science, processed food science, and public health.

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Magnesium and Hypertension in Old Age

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13010139 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 139 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ligia J. Dominguez ◽

Nicola Veronese ◽

Mario Barbagallo

Keyword(s):

Older Persons ◽

Magnesium Deficiency ◽

Favorable Effect ◽

Processed Food ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Magnesium Supplementation ◽

Cerebrovascular Complications ◽

Close Relationship ◽

Causes Of Mortality

Hypertension is a complex condition in which various actors and mechanisms combine, resulting in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications that today represent the most frequent causes of mortality, morbidity, disability, and health expenses worldwide. In the last decades, there has been an exceptional amount of experimental, epidemiological, and clinical studies confirming a close relationship between magnesium deficit and high blood pressure. Multiple mechanisms may help to explain the bulk of evidence supporting a protective effect of magnesium against hypertension and its complications. Hypertension increases sharply with advancing age, hence older persons are those most affected by its negative consequences. They are also more frequently at risk of magnesium deficiency by multiple mechanisms, which may, at least in part, explain the higher frequency of hypertension and its long-term complications. The evidence for a favorable effect of magnesium on hypertension risk emphasizes the importance of broadly encouraging the intake of foods such as vegetables, nuts, whole cereals and legumes, optimal dietary sources of magnesium, avoiding processed food, which are very poor in magnesium and other fundamental nutrients, in order to prevent hypertension. In some cases, when diet is not enough to maintain an adequate magnesium status, magnesium supplementation may be of benefit and has been shown to be well tolerated.

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Heavy metal contamination and health risk assessment in grains and grain-based processed food in Arequipa region of Peru

Chemosphere ◽

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129792 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 274 ◽

pp. 129792

Author(s):

Yony Román-Ochoa ◽

Grethel Teresa Choque Delgado ◽

Teresa R. Tejada ◽

Harry R. Yucra ◽

Antonio E. Durand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Heavy Metal ◽

Health Risk ◽

Health Risk Assessment ◽

Metal Contamination ◽

Heavy Metal Contamination ◽

Processed Food

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The Effects of Time-Restricted Eating versus Standard Dietary Advice on Weight, Metabolic Health and the Consumption of Processed Food: A Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial in Community-Based Adults

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13031042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1042

Author(s):

Nicholas Phillips ◽

Julie Mareschal ◽

Nathalie Schwab ◽

Emily Manoogian ◽

Sylvie Borloz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Weight Loss ◽

Randomised Controlled Trial ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Smartphone Application ◽

Metabolic Health ◽

Dietary Advice ◽

Processed Food ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Randomised Controlled ◽

Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

Weight loss is key to controlling the increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and its components, i.e., central obesity, hypertension, prediabetes and dyslipidaemia. The goals of our study were two-fold. First, we characterised the relationships between eating duration, unprocessed and processed food consumption and metabolic health. During 4 weeks of observation, 213 adults used a smartphone application to record food and drink consumption, which was annotated for food processing levels following the NOVA classification. Low consumption of unprocessed food and low physical activity showed significant associations with multiple MS components. Second, in a pragmatic randomised controlled trial, we compared the metabolic benefits of 12 h time-restricted eating (TRE) to standard dietary advice (SDA) in 54 adults with an eating duration > 14 h and at least one MS component. After 6 months, those randomised to TRE lost 1.6% of initial body weight (SD 2.9, p = 0.01), compared to the absence of weight loss with SDA (−1.1%, SD 3.5, p = 0.19). There was no significant difference in weight loss between TRE and SDA (between-group difference −0.88%, 95% confidence interval −3.1 to 1.3, p = 0.43). Our results show the potential of smartphone records to predict metabolic health and highlight that further research is needed to improve individual responses to TRE such as a shorter eating window or its actual clock time.

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Availability of ultra-processed food associated with health outcomes: a systematic review

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckaa166.1113 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽

Author(s):

T Pereira de Araújo ◽

M Moraes ◽

V Magalhães ◽

C Afonso ◽

S Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Food Consumption ◽

Food Availability ◽

Overweight And Obesity ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Research Association ◽

Processed Food ◽

Household Budget ◽

Household Budget Surveys

Abstract Background Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption increases worldwide, which can be harm to population's health. To establish associations between UPF and health outcomes, food consumption can be assessed individually or by using availability data, such as purchase lists or household budget surveys. The aim of this review was to search for studies on the availability of UPF related with mortality and morbidity from noncommunicable diseases or their risk factors. Methods PRISMA guideline was used. Searches were performed on PubMED, EBSCO, Scopus and Web of Science on December 2019. Search strategy included terms related with exposure (UPF) and outcomes (mortality or morbidity from noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors). Studies were selected based on the title and abstracts. Full texts were screened for eligibility and the snowballing method was used to find other relevant studies. To be based on UPF availability data and its relation with health outcomes were the inclusion criteria. Studies that assessed only food consumption at an individual level and did not present health outcome were excluded. Selection was conducted by two reviewers and a third helped when disagreement occurred. Results After duplicates removal, 560 records were analyzed. From the 11 eligible studies, 55% were conducted in more than one country. Others were performed in Brazil (27%), Guatemala (9%) and Sweden (9%). Studies were ecological (64%), cross-sectional (27%) and longitudinal (9%). All had representative samples, 45.5% were national samples, and the others were from particular population subgroups. In all studies, the only health outcomes that showed positive association with UPF availability were overweight and obesity prevalence. Conclusions Studies relating ultra-processed food availability and health outcomes are mainly focused on overweight and obesity. It is thus necessary to further explore the relationship between UPF availability and other health outcomes. Key messages It is necessary to further research association between ultra-processed food availability and other health outcomes, such as morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or cancer. Purchase lists or household budget surveys are an important source of food availability data and can be used to relate the consumption of ultra-processed foods to health outcomes.

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