Biodiversity and Long-Term Nutrition Through A Food-Based Approach

At the beginning of the new millennium, we are still facing severe challenges. There are still 1 billion poor people suffering from hunger and malnutrition, while approximately 2 billion people suffer from malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. At the same time, approximately 2 billion people are overweight and/or obese, and this number is increasing in every country in the world. Food and diet are one of the important social determinants of health and well-being, but the current food system is deeply unfair and creates social injustice. Based on the experiences of the last half century and current trends, we are convinced that it has become very urgent to fundamentally change our nutrition strategy and to promote a fair, culturally appropriate and sustainable diet based on biodiversity. This is indeed a significant challenge for nutritionists

An Overview of Physical Exercise and Antioxidant Supplementation Influences on Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Stress

One of the essential injuries caused by moderate to high-intensity and short-duration physical activities is the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), damaging various body tissues such as skeletal muscle (SM). However, ROS is easily controlled by antioxidant defense systems during low to moderate intensity and long-term exercises. In stressful situations, antioxidant supplements are recommended to prevent ROS damage. We examined the response of SM to ROS generation during exercise using an antioxidant supplement treatment strategy in this study. The findings of this review research are paradoxical due to variances in antioxidant supplements dose and duration, intensity, length, frequency, types of exercise activities, and, in general, the lack of a regular exercise and nutrition strategy. As such, further research in this area is still being felt.

Exploring opportunities to enhance effectiveness of mobile health and nutrition strategy for providing health and nutrition services amongst pastoralists in Somali region, Ethiopia

Background: The health system in Ethiopia’s Somali Region is weak with limited number of health facilities with more than 60% of the population living more than 5 km to the nearest health facilities. The deployment of mobile health and nutrition teams has played critical role in providing essential health and nutrition services.Aim: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the mobile health and nutrition strategy in providing health and nutrition services in the targeted woredas (districts).Setting: Somali Region of Ethiopia.Methods: The study was a retrospective chart review of the monthly mobile health and nutrition team and the static health facilities in the 29 woredas between April 2019 and March 2020 and the AccessMod analyses for geographical accessibility to health facilities in the region.Results: 40 (40.4%) out of the 99 woredas in Somali regions have at least 80% of the population living more than 5 km from the nearest health facility out of which 18 (45%) woredas are currently being supported by the mobile health team. The mobile team contributed to increasing access to health services in the targeted woredas with 30.8% of the total children vaccinated for measles and 39% of the total children treated for severe acute malnutrition in the targeted 29 woredas.Conclusion: With mobile health and nutrition strategy being recognised as a useful strategy to deliver health and nutrition services in the region, there is a need to explore opportunities and innovation to enhance the effectiveness of the implementation.

Nutrition strategy for patients under conditions of the coronavirus infection pandemic (SARS-COV-2)

In this review, we discuss about nutritional status and the role of diet and lifestyle in patients with SARS-COV-2 infection. This review speculates the importance of nutrition as a mitigation strategy to support immune function amid the coronavirus pandemic, identifying food groups and key nutrients of importance that may affect the outcomes of respiratory infections.

Perspective: Metabotyping—A Potential Personalized Nutrition Strategy for Precision Prevention of Cardiometabolic Disease

ABSTRACT Diet is an important, modifiable lifestyle factor of cardiometabolic disease risk, and an improved diet can delay or even prevent the onset of disease. Recent evidence suggests that individuals could benefit from diets adapted to their genotype and phenotype: that is, personalized nutrition. A novel strategy is to tailor diets for groups of individuals according to their metabolic phenotypes (metabotypes). Randomized controlled trials evaluating metabotype-specific responses and nonresponses are urgently needed to bridge the current gap of knowledge with regard to the efficacy of personalized strategies in nutrition. In this Perspective, we discuss the concept of metabotyping, review the current literature on metabotyping in the context of cardiometabolic disease prevention, and suggest potential strategies for metabotype-based nutritional advice for future work. We also discuss potential determinants of metabotypes, including gut microbiota, and highlight the use of metabolomics to define effective markers for cardiometabolic disease–related metabotypes. Moreover, we hypothesize that people at high risk for cardiometabolic diseases have distinct metabotypes and that individuals grouped into specific metabotypes may respond differently to the same diet, which is being tested in a project of the Joint Programming Initiative: A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life.