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1.
Public interest in dietary supplements for prostate cancer prevention.
Patel, DN, Kuhlmann, P, Lin, PH, Freedland, SJ
Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases. 2021;(1):58-60
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2.
Benchmarking as a Public Health Strategy for Creating Healthy Food Environments: An Evaluation of the INFORMAS Initiative (2012-2020).
Sacks, G, Kwon, J, Vandevijvere, S, Swinburn, B
Annual review of public health. 2021;:345-362
Abstract
Diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity are the leading contributors to poor health worldwide. Efforts to improve population diets need to focus on creating healthy food environments. INFORMAS, established in 2012, is an international network that monitors and benchmarks food environments and related policies. By 2020, INFORMAS was active in 58 countries; national government policies were the most frequent aspect benchmarked. INFORMAS has resulted in the development and widespread application of standardized methods for assessing the characteristics of food environments. The activities of INFORMAS have contributed substantially to capacity building, advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and policy evaluation in relation to creating healthy food environments. Future efforts to benchmark food environments need to incorporate measurements related to environmental sustainability. For sustained impact, INFORMAS activities will need to be embedded within other existing monitoring initiatives. The most value will come from repeated assessments that help drive increased accountability for improving food environments.
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3.
Sedentary Behavior and Public Health: Integrating the Evidence and Identifying Potential Solutions.
Owen, N, Healy, GN, Dempsey, PC, Salmon, J, Timperio, A, Clark, BK, Goode, AD, Koorts, H, Ridgers, ND, Hadgraft, NT, et al
Annual review of public health. 2020;:265-287
Abstract
In developed and developing countries, social, economic, and environmental transitions have led to physical inactivity and large amounts of time spent sitting. Research is now unraveling the adverse public health consequences of too much sitting. We describe improvements in device-based measurement that are providing new insights into sedentary behavior and health. We consider the implications of research linking evidence from epidemiology and behavioral science with mechanistic insights into the underlying biology of sitting time. Such evidence has led to new sedentary behavior guidelines and initiatives. We highlight ways that this emerging knowledge base can inform public health strategy: First, we consider epidemiologic and experimental evidence on the health consequences of sedentary behavior; second, we describe solutions-focused research from initiatives in workplaces and schools. To inform a broad public health strategy, researchers need to pursue evidence-informed collaborations with occupational health, education, and other sectors.
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4.
Obesity: A preventable, treatable, but relapsing disease.
De Lorenzo, A, Romano, L, Di Renzo, L, Di Lorenzo, N, Cenname, G, Gualtieri, P
Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.). 2020;:110615
Abstract
In 2013, the American Medical Association recognized obesity as a disease, of growing scientific, social, and political interest. In 2016 in the United States, prevalence rates of preobesity and obesity exceeded 60%. In Italy, these rates exceeded 40%. Total costs related to excess weight reached 9.3% of the U.S. gross domestic product, whereas in Italy the total annual cost of diabetes alone was estimated at 20.3 billion euros/y. The expansion of adipose tissue and visceral fat causes compression, joint stress, metabolic disorders, organ dysfunction, and increased mortality. The increase in peripheral and central fat mass is a chronic and potentially reversible process with appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Conversely, fattening can turn into a chronic relapsing form, complicated by comorbidities and cardiovascular events. The increased risk for mortality and morbidity also can affect metabolically healthy obese individuals, if the condition is underestimated, with disease progression. Due to its inaccuracy, body mass index must be replaced with body composition for the diagnosis of obesity. The chances of obesity reversibility are closely linked to improving the diagnosis and to timely nutritional interventions. Generalization and stigma hinder the treatment of obese individuals. The recognition of obesity as a disease and institutional interest can shift the focus onto obesity and not on the obese, with improvements in adherence to prevention plans. Anthropogenic factors and gut microbiota can influence human behavior and food choice, such as food addiction. Obesity has all the criteria to be recognized as a disease. Proper clinical management will lead to cost and complications savings, such as in diabetes. The aim of this review was to discuss in detail the criteria for defining primary obesity as a disease in a step-by-step manner.
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5.
The Importance of Food Supplements for Public Health and Well-Being.
Coppens, P
World review of nutrition and dietetics. 2020;:66-72
Abstract
Food supplements are foods presented in small unit dose form and containing concentrated sources of nutrients and other food components. The composition, manufacturing, and safety is strictly regulated by an extensive body of legislation, both at EU and at national level. Evidence from dietary surveys indicates that intake of most vitamins and minerals is below recommended amounts and that certain groups of the population do not achieve an adequate intake of critical nutrients, such as vitamin D and iron. In addition, recommended amounts have been established to prevent deficiency rather than to achieve optimal health. Health benefits have been identified at levels that are above these recommended amounts and effects that contribute to the reduction of the risk of chronic diseases mostly require higher intakes than what is feasible through the normal diet. The burden of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, especially in the ageing population, is a further challenge for which targeted supplementation of the diet can have a significant impact. Despite current knowledge about the role that food supplements can have for public health, there remains much reluctance to integrate food supplement use in nutritional policies. Research carried out by Food Supplements Europe has demonstrated the potential for food supplement use to reduce the incidence of disease-related events and healthcare cost spending.
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6.
Ten Secrets to a Long Life.
Frishman, WH
The American journal of medicine. 2019;(5):564-566
Abstract
For centuries there has been an ongoing search to identify the secrets of long life and healthy aging. Recently, multiple factors have been identified, including genetics, the introduction of antibiotics, vaccines, and public health, effective management of cardiovascular risk factors, advances in surgery, eliminating or modifying high-risk behaviors, family and social supports, eliminating wars and poverty, luck, exercise and nutrition, and psychological factors such as optimism and conscientiousness. To increase a maximum life span now estimated to be 115-120 years will involve manipulation of genes and the body's stem cells and the potential use of senolytic drugs (that kill old cells), which will need to be investigated. This is a worthy pursuit if these interventions will also maintain or enhance quality of life.
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7.
Health Challenges of the Pacific Region: Insights From History, Geography, Social Determinants, Genetics, and the Microbiome.
Horwood, PF, Tarantola, A, Goarant, C, Matsui, M, Klement, E, Umezaki, M, Navarro, S, Greenhill, AR
Frontiers in immunology. 2019;:2184
Abstract
The Pacific region, also referred to as Oceania, is a geographically widespread region populated by people of diverse cultures and ethnicities. Indigenous people in the region (Melanesians, Polynesians, Micronesians, Papuans, and Indigenous Australians) are over-represented on national, regional, and global scales for the burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases. Although social and environmental factors such as poverty, education, and access to health-care are assumed to be major drivers of this disease burden, there is also developing evidence that genetic and microbiotic factors should also be considered. To date, studies investigating genetic and/or microbiotic links with vulnerabilities to infectious and non-communicable diseases have mostly focused on populations in Europe, Asia, and USA, with uncertain associations for other populations such as indigenous communities in Oceania. Recent developments in personalized medicine have shown that identifying ethnicity-linked genetic vulnerabilities can be important for medical management. Although our understanding of the impacts of the gut microbiome on health is still in the early stages, it is likely that equivalent vulnerabilities will also be identified through the interaction between gut microbiome composition and function with pathogens and the host immune system. As rapid economic, dietary, and cultural changes occur throughout Oceania it becomes increasingly important that further research is conducted within indigenous populations to address the double burden of high rates of infectious diseases and rapidly rising non-communicable diseases so that comprehensive development goals can be planned. In this article, we review the current knowledge on the impact of nutrition, genetics, and the gut microbiome on infectious diseases in indigenous people of the Pacific region.
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8.
Perspective: The Public Health Case for Modernizing the Definition of Protein Quality.
Katz, DL, Doughty, KN, Geagan, K, Jenkins, DA, Gardner, CD
Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.). 2019;(5):755-764
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Abstract
Prevailing definitions of protein quality are predicated on considerations of biochemistry and metabolism rather than the net effects on human health or the environment of specific food sources of protein. In the vernacular, higher "quality" equates to desirability. This implication is compounded by sequential, societal trends in which first dietary fat and then dietary carbohydrate were vilified during recent decades, leaving dietary protein under an implied halo. The popular concept that protein is "good" and that the more the better, coupled with a protein quality definition that favors meat, fosters the impression that eating more meat, as well as eggs and dairy, is desirable and preferable. This message, however, is directly opposed to current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which encourage consumption of more plant foods and less meat, and at odds with the literature on the environmental impacts of foods, from carbon emissions to water utilization, which decisively favor plant protein sources. Thus, the message conveyed by the current definitions of protein quality is at odds with imperatives of public and planetary health alike. We review the relevant literature in this context and make the case that the definition of protein quality is both misleading and antiquated. We propose a modernized definition that incorporates the quality of health and environmental outcomes associated with specific food sources of protein. We demonstrate how such an approach can be adapted into a metric and applied to the food supply.
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9.
A short history of time use research; implications for public health.
Bauman, A, Bittman, M, Gershuny, J
BMC public health. 2019;(Suppl 2):607
Abstract
BACKGROUND This section defined time use (TU) research, illustrating its relevance for public health. TUR in the health context is the study of health-enhancing and health-compromising behaviours that are assessed across a 24 h day. The central measurement is the use of Time Use Diaries, which capture 24-48 h, typically asking about behaviour in each 15-min period. TUR is used for understanding correlates of health behaviours, and as a form of population surveillance, assessing behavioural trends over time. MAIN BODY This paper is a narrative review examining the history of time use research, and the potential uses of TU data for public health research. The history of TUR started in studies of the labour force and patterns of work in the late 19th and early twentieth century, but has more recently been applied to examining health issues. Initial studies had a more economic purpose but over recent decades, TU data have been used to describe the distribution and correlates of health-enhancing patterns of human time use. These studies require large multi-country population data sets, such as the harmonised Multinational Time Use Study hosted at the University of Oxford. TU data are used in physical activity research, as they provide information across the 24-h day, that can be examined as time spent sleeping, sitting/standing/light activity, and time spent in moderate-vigorous activities. TU data are also used for sleep research, examining eating and dietary patterns, exploring geographic distributions in time use behaviours, examining mental health and subjective wellbeing, and examining these data over time. The key methodological challenge has been the development of harmonised methods, so population TU data sets can be compared within and between-countries and over time. CONCLUSIONS TUR provides new methods for examining public health research questions where a temporal dimension is important. These time use surveys have provided unique data over decades and in many countries that can be compared. They can be used for examining the effects of some large public health interventions or policies within and between countries.
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10.
State-of-the-art for food taxes to promote public health.
Jensen, JD, Smed, S
The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2018;(2):100-105
Abstract
The use of taxes to promote healthy nutritional behaviour has gained ground in the past decade. The present paper reviews existing applications of fiscal instruments in nutrition policy and derives some perspectives and recommendations from the experiences gained with these instruments. Many countries in different parts of the world have experiences with the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages, in some cases in combination with taxes on unhealthy food commodities such as confectionery or high-fat foods. These tax schemes have many similarities, but also differ in their definitions of tax objects and in the applied tax rates. Denmark has been the only country in the world to operate a tax on saturated fat content in foods, from 2011 to 2012. Most of the existing food tax schemes have been introduced from fiscal motivations, with health promotion as a secondary objective, but a few have been introduced with health promotion as the primary objective. The diversity in experiences from existing tax schemes can provide valuable insights for future use of fiscal instruments to promote healthy nutrition, in terms of designing effective and efficient tax or subsidy instruments, and in terms of smooth and politically viable implementation of the instruments.