Current Nutrition & Food Science - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2014

Vitamin D, a calciotropic hormone, is gaining attention for many aspects of health, particularly metabolic regulation. As societal trends towards increasing caloric intake become more prominent, the concern for diseases stemming from chronic inflammation grows. Excess caloric intake results in increased lipid and fatty acid storage in adipose tissue leading to adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Adipocytes produce Read More

A number of studies have looked at Vitamin D supplementation as a possible means of therapy for atopic dermatitis (AD). The aim of this review was to summarize the current evidence on the role of vitamin D supplementation in the management of AD using the data from published clinical studies. We searched PubMed and Cochrane Central Registry of Trials to look for studies evaluating the effects of vitamin D in AD. Four s Read More

There is a growing interest in the possible associations between vitamin D and depression. In this mini-review we present diagnostic criteria of different depression scales, with special focus on somatic complaints, possible links between depression and vitamin D and an overview of studies on vitamin D levels / vitamin D supplementation in depressed patients. We observed that complaints of a somatic character, potentially li Read More

Background: Obesity often coexists with poor vitamin D status. There is emerging evidence that improving vitamin D status could lower prevalence of many chronic diseases. We questioned whether vitamin D influenced body fat mass. Methods: A literature search from 1995 to date was conducted using prominent databases. Selection criteria included human, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were designed to test Read More

Quercetin, a widely occurring plant flavonoid, is well-known for its antioxidant activity. A great deal of research in the form of animal and cell culture studies has been performed over the last 30 years, as well as a few clinical studies in human populations; however, its specific effects on various contributing factors to cardiovascular disease are not fully understood. This review seeks to summarize many of the latest studi Read More

Selenium (Se)-enriched yeast is a common form of Se for supplementation purpose. In this paper Se retention and metabolism in body, content in natural food and supplements have been introduced. Then recent investigations on the beneficial health effects of Se-enriched yeast addition to foods and impact of process variables in its production as well as, product characteristic, Se species, intended dietary use for Se-enriche Read More

Prickly pear is the fruit of the nopal cactus; native from Mexico, where approximately 80 species and 150 cultivars are harvested. Production of prickly pear has been expanded to more than 30 countries. In Latin America, almost 511,035 Ton per year of prickly pear are harvested, which represents more than 50% of the worldwide production of this fruit. There are studies that have demonstrated its importance as a sourc Read More

The essential oil of caraway (CEO) was analyzed by GC-MS. Its predominant components were (Z)-anethole (26.34%), carvone (17.85%), limonene (15.45%), hydrocinnamyl acetate (8.29%) and carvacrol (6.68%). Antioxidant activity (AOA) of CEO was evaluated in cake during 60 days storage at 25°C. CEO at 0.10 and 0.15% could inhibit the rate of oxidation products formation in cake and their effect was almost equal to BHA at 0 Read More

In this research, spray drying was used to produce malt extract powder. The effect of two parameters including inlet air temperature (at levels 160, 170, 180°C) and maltodextrin concentration (at levels 0, 10, 20, 30%) was investigated on malt extract powder properties including particle size, theoretical specific surface area, particle size distribution and span value, scorched particles and solubility index, vitamin B2 content, gla Read More