Current Nutrition & Food Science - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2009

Metabolic syndrome places patients at high risk to many other health problems, as their bodies are in a perpetual state pro-inflammation and pro-thrombosis. In many cases, a regulated diet and increased exercise is sufficient in rectifying their condition, however for many patients, drug intervention is necessary. In recent years, calorie restriction has been shown to improve the health of patients afflicted with aging-relate Read More

The physiopathological decline in appetite and food intake known as “anorexia of aging” can lead to involuntary weight loss and protein-energy malnutrition, with devastating consequences in older men and women. Food intake can be influenced by numerous endogenous and exogenous factors, both physiological and pathological: mechanisms underlying age-related anorexia are multifactorial, and not completely underst Read More

Anorexia nervosa is a challenging disorder to treat, both from a medical and a psychiatric standpoint. Part of the clinical difficulty is based on the patient's ardent desire to resist meaningful weight restoration, and the debilitating fear of food which defines this disorder. However, there are also a litany of medical complications which can interfere with the refeeding process and which affect many different body systems. One par Read More

The isoelectric behavior of food proteins has been well characterized in the food science literature. The isoelectric point (pI) of a protein is a pH at which the protein maintains a zero net electrostatic charge. In this state, protein-protein hydrophobic interactions overcome protein-water electrostatic interactions and the minimum solubility of proteins results. Consequently, several food science laboratories have begun act Read More

It is not clear whether animals require exogenous carnitine, and over the past 20 years, the scientific discussion regarding this subject continued with arguments pro and contra. Some studies observed that feeding fish with dietary carnitine supplements may improve growth and protect against several disease outbreak. However, such growth improvement was not always observed. The results can be interpreted in two w Read More

A great part of the population is under pharmacological treatment or takes herbal or other kinds of supplements. The influences between drugs and food/diet are of increasing interest for different reasons: - The increasing importance and detection of food-drug interactions; - The importance of an integrated dietetic-pharmacological treatment in diseases as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, etc; - The use of dr Read More

Vitamin C (L-ascorbate) is a good antioxidant. Because of its water soluble nature it can work both inside and outside the cells to combat free radical damage. It has several applications starting from application in cancer therapeutics to treatment of common cold. Human, primates and guinea pigs can not synthesize this nutrient and must have to take this nutrient with diet. The current review brings together information Read More

The study of the mechanisms involved in cell damage mediated by oxidative compounds as well as the evaluation of biomarkers of the cellular antioxidant defence system in such conditions could help to prevent appearance and development of oxidative stress related diseases. The present overview describes a model of oxidative stress in cultured cells based on the evaluation of cellular antioxidant defences and suitable to Read More

In this study, efforts were focused on the dose-responses of the operating parameters (i.e. different processing methods (extruded/non-extruded), additives (tomato powder, buckwheat powder and rice powder), and extracts concentrations (0, 3, 6, 12, 30, 60 (mg/mL))) on the hydrogen peroxide scavenging, superoxide anion scavenging and reducing power of methanol extracts of the extrudates. The experiment is a 2 x Read More

Background: Transthyretin has been widely used as a biomarker for identifying protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and for monitoring the improvement of nutritional status after implementing a nutritional intervention by enteral feeding or by parenteral infusion. This has occurred because transthyretin (TTR) has a rapid removal from the circulation in 48 hours and it is readily measured by immunometric assay. Nev Read More