Health at every size nutrition

BACKGROUND: The eating patterns of school-aged children rarely meet recommendations: meal frequency is irregular and the consumption of vegetables is lower and sugar-sweetened products higher than recommended. Although school is an excellent arena for nutrition education to support pupils eating patterns, teachers usually lack efficient tools. The present study aimed to develop a curriculum for nutrition education to be used by teachers and to examine its efficacy in the school environment with respect to the eating patterns of pupils...

BACKGROUND: One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) with new infection occurring every second. In humans, TB is primarily caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis(MTB). Genitourinary TB (GUTB) is still a major health problem in many developing countries including India and had been declared by the World Health Organisation as 'public health emergency' in 1993. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective study conducted at a tertiary care hospital involving 46 patients who presented with clinical feature suggestive of GUTB - urine specimens of these 46 patients were analysed for acid-fast bacilli (AFB), AFB culture, GeneXpert, and other relevant investigations were done to reach the diagnosis...

Background: Poor nutrition and hygiene make children vulnerable to delays in growth and development. We aimed to assess the effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions individually or in combination on the cognitive, motor, and language development of children in rural Bangladesh. Methods: In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, we enrolled pregnant women in their first or second trimester from rural villages of Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, and Tangail districts of central Bangladesh, with an average of eight women per cluster...

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate an instrument to assess attitudes toward Health at Every Size (HAES) principles. METHODS: Survey items were generated based on 5 HAES principles. A panel of reviewers was recruited to establish content validity. A convenience sample of college students in health education was recruited for pilot survey administration. Internal reliability was assessed using Cronbach α and test-retest reliability was assessed with Pearson correlation...

BACKGROUND: This manuscript describes the design and rationale of a clinical trial that aims to investigate the multiple physiological, attitudinal, nutritional, and behavioral effects of a new interdisciplinary intervention based on the Health at Every Size® (HAES®) approach in obese women. METHODS: This will be a prospective, 7-month, randomized (2:1), mixed-method clinical trial. Obese women will be recruited and randomly allocated into two groups. The intervention group (I-HAES®; proposed n = 40) will undertake a novel HAES®-based intervention...

BACKGROUND: Obesity and weight gain is a critical public health concern. Serious digital games are gaining popularity in the context of health interventions. They use persuasive and fun design features to engage users in health-related behaviors in a non-game context. As a young field, research about effectiveness and acceptability of such games for weight loss is sparse. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to evaluate real-world play patterns of SpaPlay and its impact on body mass index (BMI) and nutritional knowledge...

BACKGROUND: In the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) increasingly represent the majority of people living with and acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Local and federal surveillance programs estimate the number of persons living with an HIV diagnosis, persons living with HIV infection, and new diagnoses. Given the absence of population-based estimates of the number of MSM for US states, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), or counties, it is not possible to accurately estimate rates using these indicators at these levels, inhibiting the ability to understand HIV burden and to direct prevention efforts...

BACKGROUND: It is well documented that black males are more likely to suffer from heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases than any other racial group in the United States. It is also undeniable fact that physical activity, healthy eating behavior, and accessing routine medical checkups can help prevent or control some of those chronic diseases. However, little is known about black African males' physical activity, nutritional and health screening behaviors in the US...

The present study analyzed obese women's experiences following a nonprescriptive nutritional intervention, implemented through a 1-year program based on the Health at Every Size(®) philosophy. We employed an action research method and conducted three focus groups during the intervention. We identified five interpretative axes across the focus groups, as follows: conflicts and perceptions; gaining motivation, perspective, and positioning; becoming autonomous eaters; acquiring tools; and the meetings between the nutritional therapist and participant...

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends treating all school children at regular intervals with deworming drugs in areas where helminth infection is common. As the intervention is often claimed to have important health, nutrition, and societal effects beyond the removal of worms, we critically evaluated the evidence on benefits. OBJECTIVES: To summarize the effects of giving deworming drugs to children to treat soil-transmitted helminths on weight, haemoglobin, and cognition; and the evidence of impact on physical well-being, school attendance, school performance, and mortality...

The present study aimed to investigate the long-term effect of feeding barley grain steeped in lactic acid (La) with or without thermal treatment on reticuloruminal pH dynamics and metabolic activity of the liver in 12 primiparous and 18 multiparous early-lactating dairy cows. All cows were included on d 21 postpartum and sampled until d 90 postpartum. Cows were fed a diet based on differently processed ground barley grain: untreated grain (control diet, CON), or grain treated with 1% La alone for 24 h before feeding (La), or with an additional oven-heating at 55°C for 12 h (LaH)...

BACKGROUND: Obesity is now a worldwide problem and Ireland is no exception with approximately two thirds of the adult population now overweight or obese. A recent report has found that 53% of Irish adults aged 50 years and over are classified as centrally obese and at substantially increased risk of metabolic complications. While most studies investigating weight maintenance have been conducted on those who have managed to lose weight and/or achieved weight loss maintenance (secondary weight maintainers), few studies have been undertaken to understand the attitudes, behaviours, motivations and strategies of those who maintain their weight within normal weight ranges over their lifetime, so called primary weight maintainers...

Fe deficiency anaemia during early pregnancy has been linked with low birth weight and preterm birth. However, this evidence comes mostly from studies measuring Hb levels rather than specific measures of Fe deficiency. The present study aimed to examine the association between maternal Fe status during the first trimester of pregnancy, as assessed by serum ferritin, transferrin receptor and their ratio, with size at birth and preterm birth. In the Baby VIP (Baby's Vascular health and Iron in Pregnancy) study, we recruited 362 infants and their mothers after delivery in Leeds, UK...

OBJECTIVE: To compare an improved corn-soya blend (CSB+) with a ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) to test the hypothesis that satisfactory recovery rate will be achieved with CSB+ or RUSF when these foods provide 50 % of the child's energy requirement, the 50 % remaining coming from usual diet. DESIGN: A comparative efficacy trial study was conducted with moderately wasted children, using a controlled randomized design, with parallel assignment for RUSF or CSB+...

BACKGROUND: For most rural households in sub-Saharan Africa, healthy livestock play a key role in averting the burden associated with zoonotic diseases, and in meeting household nutritional and socio-economic needs. However, there is limited understanding of the complex nutritional, socio-economic, and zoonotic pathways that link livestock health to human health and welfare. Here we describe a platform for integrated human health, animal health and economic welfare analysis designed to address this challenge...

BACKGROUND: In 2006, WHO produced international growth standards for infants and children up to age 5 years on the basis of recommendations from a WHO expert committee. Using the same methods and conceptual approach, the Fetal Growth Longitudinal Study (FGLS), part of the INTERGROWTH-21(st) Project, aimed to develop international growth and size standards for fetuses. METHODS: The multicentre, population-based FGLS assessed fetal growth in geographically defined urban populations in eight countries, in which most of the health and nutritional needs of mothers were met and adequate antenatal care was provided...

Nearly a decade ago, The Lancet published the Neonatal Survival Series, with an ambitious call for integration of newborn care across the continuum of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (RMNCH). In this first of five papers in the Every Newborn Series, we consider what has changed during this decade, assessing progress on the basis of a systematic policy heuristic including agenda-setting, policy formulation and adoption, leadership and partnership, implementation, and evaluation of effect...

An underlying factor contributing to a lack of consensus in the scientific literature regarding the health effects of snacking may be the diversity of study populations. In fact, the influence of snacking likely varies with different target populations. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that snacking may make important contributions to a healthy diet, especially among older adults (≥65 years). However, these dietary behaviors may have a different consequence among adults (18-60 years) experiencing psychosocial stress as measured by food insecurity...

BACKGROUND: The global Low Birth Weight (LBW) rate is reported to be 15.5% with more than 95% of these LBW infants being from developing countries. LBW is a major factor associated with neonatal deaths in developing countries. The determinants of low birth weight in Nepal have rarely been studied. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with small size at birth among under-five children. METHODS: Data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) were used...

Obesity is associated with chronic diseases that may negatively affect individuals' health and the sustainability of the health care system. Despite increasing emphasis on obesity as a major health care issue, little progress has been made in its treatment or prevention. Individual approaches to obesity treatment, largely composed of weight-loss dieting, have not proven effective. Little direct evidence supports the notion of reforms to the "obesogenic environment." Both these individualistic and environmental approaches to obesity have important limitations and ethical implications...