The study objective was to (1) compare, through a randomised pilot intervention study, the effects of a standard health app and an enhanced health app, with evidence-based information regarding ...healthy lifestyle, on gestational weight gain, diet quality and physical activity in pregnant women. The sub-objectives were to (2) characterise app use and users among pregnant women and to (3) compare, in the overall sample regardless of the intervention, whether the frequency of the health app use has an effect on the change in gestational weight, diet quality and physical activity. Women recruited through social media announcements (n 1038) were asked to record their lifestyle habits in the app from early pregnancy to delivery. Self-reported weight, diet quality and physical activity were assessed in early and late pregnancy with validated online questionnaires. No benefits of the enhanced app use were shown on the lifestyle habits. Nevertheless, frequent app users (use ≥ 4·7 weeks) in the enhanced app group had a higher physical activity level in late pregnancy compared with those in the standard app group. Overall, extensive variation was found in the number of recordings (median 59, interquartile range 19–294) and duration of app use (median 4·7, interquartile range 1·1–15·6 weeks). Frequent app users had higher education level, underweight/normal weight, better diet quality and were non-smokers, married and primipara more likely than occasional app users/non-users. Physical activity among app users decreased less compared with non-users over the pregnancy course, indicating that app use could motivate to maintain physical activity during pregnancy.
Ensuring the adequate intake of micronutrients by populations is an important aspect of public health. This study aims to elucidate the process of setting nutrition recommendations and the ...development of subsequent policies associated with micronutrients in Poland by using the case study of folate.
The study was based on 13 interviews conducted between October 2010 - February 2011, and desk research comprising a review of the associated scientific literature and relevant documents, such as scientific opinions and reports of the meetings of scientific committees. The interviews were conducted within the EURRECA (EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned) Network of Excellence in the frame of the European Union's 6th Framework Programme.
Since 1997, the Experts Group of the Ministry of Health recommended that all women of childbearing age should consume folic acid as a supplement to prevent neural tube defects in their offspring. The fortification of foodstuffs with folic acid is not obligatory. This study describes the revision of the folate nutrient recommendation and the process by which strategies to increase the intake of this vitamin by the Polish population were identified. The institution responsible for the choice and implementation of folate policy is the Ministry of Health and the National Food and Nutrition Institute is responsible for setting/updating the nutrient recommendations.
The current Polish nutrition recommendations for folate are consistent with the levels set by most other countries. The constant improvement of nutritional knowledge on folate among consumers, especially young women, is necessary.
Precautionary 'may contain' warnings are used to indicate possible allergen contamination. Neither food safety nor foods labelling legislation address this issue. The aim of this study is to ...understand how peanut and nut allergic adults interpret 'may contain' labelling and how they use this information when purchasing food.
Qualitative methods were used to explore both behaviour and attitudes. The behaviour and 'thinking aloud' of 32 participants were recorded during their normal food shop. A semi-structured interview also explored participants' views about 13 potentially problematic packaged foods. Transcribed data from these tasks were analysed to explore the interpretation of 'may contain' labelling and how this influenced food choice decisions.
Peanut and nut allergic individuals adopt a complex range of responses and strategies to interpret 'may contain' labelling. Many claimed such labelling was not credible or desirable; many ignored it whilst some found it helpful and avoided products with all such labelling. Interpretation and consequent decisions were not only based on the detail of the labelling but also on external factors such as the nature of the product, the perceived trustworthiness of the producer and on the previous experience of the nut allergic individual.
'May contain' labelling was interpreted in the light of judgements about the product, producer and previous personal experience. It is vital that these interpretation strategies are taken into account by those responsible for labelling itself and for the provision of advice to nut allergic individuals. Suggestions to improve labelling and advice to the allergic individual are considered.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
To investigate acceptability and tolerability of diets of different protein and glycemic index (GI) content aimed at weight maintenance following a phase of rapid weight loss, as part of a large ...pan-European dietary intervention trial.
The Diogenes study (www.diogenes-eu.org) consisted of an initial 8-week rapid weight-loss phase (800-1000 kcal/day), followed by a 6-month weight maintenance intervention with five different diets varying in protein and GI content. Measurement of a range of outcomes relating to experience of the Diogenes diets in terms of acceptability, experience and mood were recorded via end of day questionnaires throughout the study.
Weight change during the initial weight loss phase weakly, but positively correlated with acceptability of the programme (r range=-0.08 to 0.2, P 0.05, n=685 on four of five dimensions). Success at weight maintenance positively correlated with acceptance of the programme (r range=-0.21 to -0.34, P<0.001, n=540 for all five dimensions). The diets with higher protein content were more acceptable than the low protein (LP) diets, however, no differences between the high vs low GI diets were found concerning acceptability and tolerability.
Results suggest that moderately high protein diets, compared with LP diets, are more acceptable diets for weight control in overweight individuals.
A better understanding of food-related behaviour and its determinants can be achieved through harmonisation and linking of the various data-sources and knowledge platforms.
We describe the key ...decision-making in the development of a prototype of the Determinants and Intake Platform (DI Platform), a data platform that aims to harmonise and link data on consumer food behaviour. It will be part of the Food Nutrition Health Research Infrastructure (FNH-RI) that will facilitate health, social and food sciences.
The decision-making was based on the evidence of user needs and data characteristics that guided the specification of the key building blocks of the DI Platform. Eight studies were carried out, including consumer online survey; interview studies of key DI Platform stakeholders; desk research and workshops.
Consumers were most willing to share data with universities, then industry and government. Trust, risk perception and altruism predicted willingness to share. For most other stakeholders non-proprietary data was most likely to be shared. Lack of data standards, and incentives for sharing were the main barriers for sharing data among the key stakeholders. The value of various data types would hugely increase if linked with other sources. Finding the right balance between optimizing data sharing and minimizing ethical and legal risks was considered a key challenge.
The development of DI Platform is based on careful balancing of the user, technical, business, legal and ethical requirements, following the FAIR principles and the need for financial sustainability, technical flexibility, transparency and multi-layered organisational governance.
•There is a need to better support science on food intake and its determinants (DI).•DI Platform links consumer, business, science-generated data on food consumption.•Decision-making is based on evaluations of user needs and data characteristics.•The final design balances user, technology, business and governance requirements.•DI Platform supports the Food Nutrition Health Research Infrastructure initiative.
The British Nutrition Foundation held a 1‐day roundtable event to gather views from a wide range of stakeholders on the relevance and importance of the concept of nutrient density in supporting and ...motivating people to make healthier dietary choices. The opportunities and barriers associated with the use of this concept were also explored. The roundtable involved experts from research, public health nutrition, dietetics, retail and nutrition science communication, and this report describes the main themes emerging from the discussions. High obesity prevalence rates indicate that, on average, we are consuming too many calories relative to energy requirements; yet, the quality of our diets, with respect to certain vitamins and minerals and fibre, seems to be falling somewhat short of recommendations. Addressing this issue may require a more holistic approach than the current focus on restricting single nutrients prevalent in public health messaging internationally. Most members of the roundtable felt that communicating the concept of nutrient density may help in encouraging healthier food choices and dietary patterns that are higher in nutritional quality. However, while nutrient profiling has been used to guide front‐of‐pack labelling and in restricting the advertising of less healthy foods to children, there is a lack of consensus on the precise definition of a ‘nutrient dense’ food or which nutrients should be used as markers of the ‘healthiness’ of foods/drinks, and the term seems to be poorly understood by consumers and health professionals alike. Therefore, further work is required if tools around this concept are to be developed to try and successfully promote behaviour change.
Research on dietary intake and its determinants is crucial for an adequate response to the current epidemic of diet‐related non‐communicable chronic diseases. In order to respond to this challenge, ...the RICHFIELDS project was tasked with designing a research infrastructure (RI) that connects data on dietary intake of consumers in Europe, and its determinants, collected using apps and wearable sensors, from behavioural laboratories and experimental facilities and from other RIs. The main output of the project, an RI design, describes interfaces (portals) to collect data, a meta‐database and a data‐model to enable data linkage and sharing. The RICHFIELDS project comprises three phases, each consisting of three work packages, and an overarching methodological support work package. Phase 1 focused on data generated by consumers (e.g. collected by apps and sensors) relating to the purchase, preparation and consumption of food. Phase 2 focused on data generated by organisations such as businesses (e.g. retail data), government (e.g. procurement data) and experimental research facilities (e.g. virtual supermarkets). Phases 1 and 2 provided Phase 3 with insights on data types and design requirements, including the business models, data integration and management systems and governance and ethics. The final design will be used in the coming years to build an RI for the scientific research community, policy makers and businesses in Europe. The RI will boost interdisciplinary multi‐stakeholder research through harmonisation and integration of data on food behaviour.
BACKGROUND: Colour coded front-of-pack nutrition labelling (‘traffic light labelling’) has been recommended for use in the UK since 2006. The voluntary scheme is used by all the major retailers and ...some manufacturers. It is not clear how consumers use these labels to make a single decision about the relative healthiness of foods. Our research questions were: Which of the four nutrients on UK traffic light labels (total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt) has the most influence on decisions? Do green lights or red lights have a greater influence? Are there age and gender differences in how people use the colour and nutrient information? METHODS: We recruited participants from a UK supermarket chain membership list to conduct an online choice experiment in May 2014. We analysed data using multilevel logisitic models with food choices (n = 3321) nested in individuals (n = 187) as the unit of analysis. RESULTS: A food with more reds was 11.4 (95 % confidence intervals: 10.3, 12.5) times less likely to be chosen as healthy, whereas a food with more greens was 6.1 (5.6, 6.6) times more likely to be chosen as healthy. Foods with better colours on saturated fat and salt were 7.3 (6.7, 8.0) and 7.1 (6.5, 7.8) times more likely to be chosen as healthy – significantly greater than for total fat (odds ratio 4.8 (4.4, 5.3)) and sugar (5.2 (4.7, 5.6)). Results were broadly similar for different genders and age groups. CONCLUSIONS: We found that participants were more concerned with avoiding reds than choosing greens, and that saturated fat and salt had a greater influence on decisions regarding healthiness than total fat and sugar. This could influence decisions about food reformulation and guidance on using nutrition labelling.
Nutrition is recognized as one of the leading factors influencing the growing incidence of noncommunicable diseases. Despite society experiencing a global rise in obesity, specific populations remain ...at risk of nutrient deficiencies. The food industry can use health claims to inform consumers about the health benefits of foods through labeling and the broader promotion of specific food products. As health claims are carefully regulated in many countries, their use is limited due to considerable investments required to fulfill the regulatory requirement. Although health claims represent a driving force for innovation in the food industry, the risk of misleading of consumers need to be avoided. The health claim scientific substantiation process must be efficient and transparent in order to meet the needs of companies in the global market, but should be based on strong scientific evidence and plausible mechanisms of actions, to ensure highest level of consumer protection. The objective of this review is to compare the possibilities for using health claims on foods in the European Union, the USA, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. In particular, we focused on differences in the classification of claims, on the scientific substantiation processes and requirements for health claims use on foods in the selected regions. Reduction of disease risk (RDR) claims are associated with relatively similar procedures and conditions for use, whereas several notable differences were identified for other types of claims. In all cases, RDR claims must be approved prior their introduction to the market, and only a few such claims have been authorized. Much greater differences were observed concerning other types of claims.
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