The consumption of various herbal infusions was and is common in the traditional Mediterranean diet, and apparently are used in many other regions of the world outside of the Mediterranean region. ...The present study aimed to investigate the consumption of herbal infusions/decoctions and tea in a nationally representative sample of Greece, considering also their Planetary use.
3951 adult participants of the HYDRIA Survey (2013-2014) were included from the 13 regions of Greece. The diet of participants was assessed by two 24-h dietary recalls (24-HDR) and the Food Propensity Questionnaire (FPQ). All food items were analyzed through the HYDRIA Food Composition Tables. Information on socio-demographics, lifestyle, and health characteristics during the baseline was also provided.
26.9% of herbal infusions and decoctions consumers are ≥ 75 years old, pensioners with a low level of education, and residents of urban areas. However, 22.2% of tea consumers belong to the 18-34-year age group, being employed with an intermediate level of education and living in an urban area. Elderly men and women use more herbal infusions/decoctions (55.4%; 40.6%) compared to tea (41.8%; 25.2%). According to FPQ, 7.1% of men and 9.7% of women use herbal infusions and decoctions four times or more per week, while 7.1 and 10.9% of men and women, respectively, consume tea at the same frequency. Green tea, mountain tea (Sideritis spp.), and black tea are reported most frequently. In addition, mountain tea (61.2%), black tea (60.3%), mixed herbal infusions/decoctions (58.4%), and sage (59.4%) are consumed mostly at breakfast, while chamomile was reported mainly at dinner or during the night (42.4%).
Based on the FPQ results, the moderate and high consumption of herbal infusions/decoctions and tea is low in Greece, especially among adults (18-64 years). Thus, our results indicate the existence of a generation gap to the attachment to the traditional Med Diet and the consumption of herbal infusions. The present study could encourage future research to focus on herbal infusions and decoctions consumption by other populations for cross-cultural comparison, as well as on emphasizing the value of consuming locally available herbs in a Planeterranean perspective.
Dietary (food) supplements (DSs) have seen a sharp increase in use and popularity in recent years. Information on DS consumption is vital for national nutrition monitoring. The objective of this ...study was to investigate whether DS intake was reported in the National Nutrition Surveys (NNSs) in all European countries. NNSs reporting DS use were retrieved via literature review (i.e., PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus), scientific and organizational publications (EFSA), or open-published government and other official reports. Included were the European NNSs referring to adults, published in English, French, or German, post-2000. Out of the 53 European countries, 30 recorded DS intake. Among them, related findings on the percentage of DS intake were published in 21 cases, 5 of them written in the local language. DS use varied by nation, with Finland and Denmark having the greatest (over 50%) and Italy having the lowest percentage (5%). In terms of comprehensive reported data on DS consumption in Europe and the investigation of the contribution of DSs to total nutrient intake, there is a need for improvement. Common DS categories should be defined upon agreement among the involved scientific parties to allow for comparable data and estimations between surveys.
This study aimed to investigate the food and macronutrient intake of the population in Greece and evaluate its adherence to the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet.
Adults over 18 years old (
= ...4011) were included from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition survey-HYDRIA. Dietary intake was collected using two 24-h recall interviews and a nonquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Macronutrient intakes were calculated using an updated version of the Greek FCT.
Only 28.3% of the adult population had high adherence to the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet, with a higher percentage (39.7%) observed for participants over 65 years compared to those under 65 years (25.5%). Differences in adherence to the MD were observed among the four geographical regions in Greece. Younger adults had a higher intake of meat, cereals, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and sugar products than older individuals who consumed more vegetables, fruits, legumes, dairy, fish, and lipids (mainly from olive oil). Adults do not meet the international dietary recommendations for the intake of several foods and macronutrients.
The adult Greek population, especially younger people, has headed away from the Greek traditional Mediterranean diet. These observations indicate potential detrimental consequences in terms of morbidity and mortality.
Abdominal and general adiposity are independently associated with mortality, but there is no consensus on how best to assess abdominal adiposity. We compared the ability of alternative waist indices ...to complement body mass index (BMI) when assessing all-cause mortality. We used data from 352,985 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for other risk factors. During a mean follow-up of 16.1 years, 38,178 participants died. Combining in one model BMI and a strongly correlated waist index altered the association patterns with mortality, to a predominantly negative association for BMI and a stronger positive association for the waist index, while combining BMI with the uncorrelated A Body Shape Index (ABSI) preserved the association patterns. Sex-specific cohort-wide quartiles of waist indices correlated with BMI could not separate high-risk from low-risk individuals within underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m
) or obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m
) categories, while the highest quartile of ABSI separated 18-39% of the individuals within each BMI category, which had 22-55% higher risk of death. In conclusion, only a waist index independent of BMI by design, such as ABSI, complements BMI and enables efficient risk stratification, which could facilitate personalisation of screening, treatment and monitoring.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal changes in alcohol consumption (total alcohol and types of alcoholic beverages) of the Greek EPIC cohort participants (28,572) during a 17-year ...period (1994-2011), with alcohol information being recorded repeatedly over time. Descriptive statistics were used to show crude trends in drinking behavior. Mixed-effects models were used to study the consumption of total alcohol, wine, beer and spirits/other alcoholic beverages in relation to birth cohort, socio-demographic, lifestyle and health factors. We observed a decreasing trend of alcohol intake as age increased, consistent for total alcohol consumption and the three types of beverages. Older birth cohorts had lower initial total alcohol consumption (8 vs. 10 g/day) and steeper decline in wine, spirits/other alcoholic beverages and total alcohol consumption compared to younger cohorts. Higher education and smoking at baseline had a positive association with longitudinal total alcohol consumption, up to +30% (vs. low education) and more than +25% (vs. non-smoking) respectively, whereas female gender, obesity, history of heart attack, diabetes, peptic ulcer and high blood pressure at baseline had a negative association of -85%, -25%, -16%, -37%, -22% and -24% respectively. Alcohol consumption changed over age with different trends among the studied subgroups and types of alcohol, suggesting targeted monitoring of alcohol consumption.
Helping consumers make healthier food choices is a key issue for the prevention of cancer and other diseases. In many countries, political authorities are considering the implementation of a ...simplified labelling system to reflect the nutritional quality of food products. The Nutri-Score, a five-colour nutrition label, is derived from the Nutrient Profiling System of the British Food Standards Agency (modified version) (FSAm-NPS). How the consumption of foods with high/low FSAm-NPS relates to cancer risk has been studied in national/regional cohorts but has not been characterized in diverse European populations.
This prospective analysis included 471,495 adults from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC, 1992-2014, median follow-up: 15.3 y), among whom there were 49,794 incident cancer cases (main locations: breast, n = 12,063; prostate, n = 6,745; colon-rectum, n = 5,806). Usual food intakes were assessed with standardized country-specific diet assessment methods. The FSAm-NPS was calculated for each food/beverage using their 100-g content in energy, sugar, saturated fatty acid, sodium, fibres, proteins, and fruits/vegetables/legumes/nuts. The FSAm-NPS scores of all food items usually consumed by a participant were averaged to obtain the individual FSAm-NPS Dietary Index (DI) scores. Multi-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were computed. A higher FSAm-NPS DI score, reflecting a lower nutritional quality of the food consumed, was associated with a higher risk of total cancer (HRQ5 versus Q1 = 1.07; 95% CI 1.03-1.10, P-trend < 0.001). Absolute cancer rates in those with high and low (quintiles 5 and 1) FSAm-NPS DI scores were 81.4 and 69.5 cases/10,000 person-years, respectively. Higher FSAm-NPS DI scores were specifically associated with higher risks of cancers of the colon-rectum, upper aerodigestive tract and stomach, lung for men, and liver and postmenopausal breast for women (all P < 0.05). The main study limitation is that it was based on an observational cohort using self-reported dietary data obtained through a single baseline food frequency questionnaire; thus, exposure misclassification and residual confounding cannot be ruled out.
In this large multinational European cohort, the consumption of food products with a higher FSAm-NPS score (lower nutritional quality) was associated with a higher risk of cancer. This supports the relevance of the FSAm-NPS as underlying nutrient profiling system for front-of-pack nutrition labels, as well as for other public health nutritional measures.
A substantial proportion of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) arises in the fallopian tube and other epithelia of the upper genital tract; these epithelia may incur damage and neoplastic transformation ...after sexually transmitted infections (STI) and pelvic inflammatory disease. We investigated the hypothesis that past STI infection, particularly Chlamydia trachomatis, is associated with higher EOC risk in a nested case‐control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort including 791 cases and 1669 matched controls. Serum antibodies against C. trachomatis, Mycoplasma genitalium, herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV‐2) and human papillomavirus (HPV) 16, 18 and 45 were assessed using multiplex fluorescent bead‐based serology. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) comparing women with positive vs. negative serology. A total of 40% of the study population was seropositive to at least one STI. Positive serology to C. trachomatis Pgp3 antibodies was not associated with EOC risk overall, but with higher risk of the mucinous histotype (RR = 2.30 95% CI = 1.22‐4.32). Positive serology for chlamydia heat shock protein 60 (cHSP60‐1) was associated with higher risk of EOC overall (1.36 1.13‐1.64) and with the serous subtype (1.44 1.12‐1.85). None of the other evaluated STIs were associated with EOC risk overall; however, HSV‐2 was associated with higher risk of endometrioid EOC (2.35 1.24‐4.43). The findings of our study suggest a potential role of C. trachomatis in the carcinogenesis of serous and mucinous EOC, while HSV‐2 might promote the development of endometrioid disease.
What's new?
Sexually transmitted infections (STI) have been linked with pelvic inflammatory disease but their association with ovarian cancer remains unclear. In this large prospective study, serum antibodies against Chlamydia trachomatis were associated with higher epithelial ovarian cancer risk, though some associations were limited to select histotypes. Herpes simplex virus type 2 infection was associated with endometrioid ovarian cancer, a rarer ovarian cancer subtype. These findings underscore that STIs may be important in the etiology of ovarian cancer and may represent a target for primary prevention.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of oral factors on adherence to the Mediterranean diet in an older population
Methods
130 persons over 60 years visiting Open Care ...Community Centers for Older People participated in this study. Oral interviews recorded demographic and sociomedical information, subjective oral complaints, and dental habits. Adherence to Mediterranean diet was assessed using the MDI_BNC4H index (range: 0–14). An oral examination was performed, and evaluation of the masticatory performance was carried out using a two-color chewing gum that was digitally analysed.
Results
The mean age of the study participants was 73.9 ± 8.5 years. The score of adherence to the Mediterranean diet ranged from 3 to 9 (5.6 ± 1.4). 58 participants used removable prostheses, while 20 used a pair of complete dentures. Univariate analyses revealed that the parameters that negatively significantly, or marginally significantly, affected the level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet were lower masticatory performance (
p
= 0.050), larger number of drugs per day (
p
= 0.056), higher BMI (
p
= 0.043) and smoking (
p
= 0.053). The multivariable analysis revealed that lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet was significantly associated with higher BMI (
p
= 0.047) and lower masticatory performance (
p
= 0.050).
Conclusions
Increased masticatory performance was an independent predictor of better adherence to the Mediterranean diet in an older population.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the changes in the nutritional behavior of the Greek EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) cohort participants regarding the ...consumption of basic food groups, during a 14-year period (1997-2011). In the Greek segment of the EPIC cohort study (EPIC-Greece), the changes in dietary habits of 23,505 participants regarding several food items/groups (vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, dairy, cereal, meat, fish/seafood, olive oil) were recorded repeatedly over time and compared to the baseline assessment (1994-1997), using a short, qualitative, follow-up questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to study the trends in nutritional behavior over time and ordinal logistic regression models to study the associations between the ordered responses of the questionnaire and sociodemographic and health factors. More participants reported an increase rather than a decrease in the consumption of vegetables, fruits, fish/seafood, whilst the inverse was observed for dairy products, nuts, cereals, and meat. No prevailing trend was noted for legumes and olive oil. Factors such as being female and having high education relate to more positive (healthy) changes in nutritional behavior. There seems to be primarily a change to a more healthy nutritional behavior of the EPIC-Greece participants over the follow-up period, with different participant subgroups presenting different degrees of nutritional changes.
Acylcarnitines (ACs) play a major role in fatty acid metabolism and are potential markers of metabolic dysfunction with higher blood concentrations reported in obese and diabetic individuals. Diet, ...and in particular red and processed meat intake, has been shown to influence AC concentrations but data on the effect of meat consumption on AC concentrations is limited.
To investigate the effect of red and processed meat intake on AC concentrations in plasma and urine using a randomized controlled trial with replication in an observational cohort.
In the randomized crossover trial, 12 volunteers successively consumed 2 different diets containing either pork or tofu for 3 d each. A panel of 44 ACs including several oxidized ACs was analyzed by LC-MS in plasma and urine samples collected after the 3-d period. ACs that were associated with pork intake were then measured in urine (n = 474) and serum samples (n = 451) from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC) study and tested for associations with habitual red and processed meat intake derived from dietary questionnaires.
In urine samples from the intervention study, pork intake was positively associated with concentrations of 18 short- and medium-chain ACs. Eleven of these were also positively associated with habitual red and processed meat intake in the EPIC cross-sectional study. In blood, C18:0 was positively associated with red meat intake in both the intervention study (q = 0.004, Student’s t-test) and the cross-sectional study (q = 0.033, linear regression).
AC concentrations in urine and blood were associated with red meat intake in both a highly controlled intervention study and in subjects of a cross-sectional study. Our data on the role of meat intake on this important pathway of fatty acid and energy metabolism may help understanding the role of red meat consumption in the etiology of some chronic diseases. This trial was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03354130.
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