Aging Processes Are Affected by Energy Balance: Focused on the Effects of Nutrition and Physical Activity on Telomere Length.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The number and proportion of individuals aged 60 and over are increasing globally. The increase in the elderly population has important social and economic effects. Telomere length is an important marker for healthy aging. Here, we review the relevance between telomere length and energy balance by determining the effects of physical activity, nutrients, dietary patterns, and foods on healthy aging and telomere length with related studies. RECENT FINDINGS: Evidence emphasizes the importance of telomere length and integrity for healthy aging. It also focuses on the importance of potential interventions such as physical activity and a healthy diet to improve this process. We suggest that ensuring energy balance with regular physical activity and healthy diets can contribute to the aging process by protecting telomere length. In addition, different methods in studies, short and inconsistent durations, different types of exercise, different diet patterns, and non-standard foods have led to conflicting results. More studies are needed to elucidate molecular-based mechanisms.

Morning exercise and pre-breakfast metformin interact to reduce glycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes: a randomized crossover trial.

Exercise is recommended in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and can improve insulin sensitivity. However, previous evidence suggests that exercise at different times of the day in people with type 2 diabetes may have opposing outcomes on glycaemia. Metformin is the most commonly prescribed initial pharmacological intervention in type 2 diabetes, and may alter adaptions to exercise. It is unknown if there is an interaction between metformin and diurnal exercise outcomes. We aimed to investigate glycaemic outcomes of moderate intensity morning vs. evening exercise in people with type 2 diabetes being prescribed metformin monotherapy. In this study, nine males and nine females with type 2 diabetes undergoing metformin monotherapy (age 61 ± 8.2 years, mean ± SD) completed a 16-week crossover trial including 2-week baseline recording, 6 weeks randomly assigned to a morning exercise (07.00-10.00 h) or evening exercise (16.00-19.00 h) and a 2-week wash-out period. Exercise arms consisted of 30 min of walking at 70% of estimated max heart rate every other day. Glucose levels were measured with continuous glucose monitors and activity measured by wrist-worn monitors. Food-intake was recorded by 4-day food diaries during baseline, first and last 2 weeks of each exercise arm. There was no difference in exercise intensity, total caloric intake or total physical activity between morning and evening arms. As primary outcomes, acute (24 h) glucose area under the curve (AUC), was lower (P = 0.02) after acute morning exercise (180.6 ± 68.4 mmol/l) compared to baseline (210.3 ± 76.7 mmol/l); and there were no differences identified for glucose (mmol/l) between baseline, morning and evening exercise at any specific time point when data were analysed with two-way ANOVA. As secondary outcomes, acute glucose AUC was significantly lower (P = 0.01) in participants taking metformin before breakfast (152.5 ± 29.95 mmol/l) compared with participants taking metformin after breakfast (227.2 ± 61.51 mmol/l) only during the morning exercise arm; and during weeks 5-6 of the exercise protocol, glucose AUC was significantly lower (P = 0.04) for participants taking metformin before breakfast (168.8 ± 15.8 mmol/l), rather than after breakfast (224.5 ± 52.0 mmol/l), only during morning exercise. Our data reveal morning moderate exercise acutely lowers glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes being prescribed metformin. This difference appears to be driven by individuals that consumed metformin prior to breakfast rather than after breakfast. This beneficial effect upon glucose levels of combined morning exercise and pre-breakfast metformin persisted through the final 2 weeks of the trial. Our findings suggest that morning moderate intensity exercise combined with pre-breakfast metformin intake may benefit the management of glycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes. KEY POINTS: Morning moderate exercise acutely lowers glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes being prescribed metformin. This difference appears to be driven by individuals that consumed metformin prior to breakfast rather than after breakfast. Morning exercise combined with pre-breakfast metformin persistently reduced glucose compared to morning exercise combined with post-breakfast metformin through the final week (week 6) of the intervention. Our study suggests it may be possible to make simple changes to the time that people with type 2 diabetes take metformin and perform exercise to improve their blood glucose.

Do cooking and food preparation skills affect healthy eating in college students?

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between food and cooking skills and healthy eating attitudes in college students. The demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, nutritional habits, attitudes toward healthy eating, and cooking and food preparation skills were questioned. 16.2% of the students have moderate, 63.5% high, and 20.3% ideally high attitudes toward healthy eating. While a positive and significant correlation was found between the total score and sub-factor scores of the "Cooking Skills and Food Skills" scale and the total score of the "Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition"; a negative statistically significant correlation was found between the total score and sub-factor scores of the "Cooking Skills and Food Skills" scale and the frequency of consumption of fast-food, processed meat products, packaged foods, and bread types (p < .05). Cooking and food preparation skills seem to be positively associated with healthy attitudes and habits. Considering this positive association, interventions to improve food and cooking skills may help promote healthy eating attitudes in college students. Developing these skills can shed light on increasing the frequency of cooking at home, consuming healthier foods, and as a result, providing a healthy eating attitude. Therefore, more comprehensive intervention studies are needed in this area.

Encapsulation of Vitamin E in Yogurt-Based Beverage Emulsions: Influence of Bulk Pasteurization and Chilled Storage on Physicochemical Stability and Starter Culture Viability.

Yogurt is a nutritious food that is regularly consumed in many countries around the world and is widely appreciated for its organoleptic properties. Despite its contribution to human dietary requirements, yogurt in its traditional recipe is a poor source of fat-soluble vitamins. To respond to consumer demands and further increase the nutritional value of this product, this work aimed to fortify yogurt with vitamin E by using emulsification as the method of encapsulation. The effects of thermal processing and chilled storage on the physicochemical stability of the yogurt-based beverage was investigated. Vitamin E was only minorly affected by bulk pasteurization at 63 °C for 30 min and remained stable during storage at 4 °C for 28 days. Fortified samples showed increased in vitro antioxidant activity compared with non-fortified samples. Lactic acid bacterial counts were above the minimum recommended levels (>106 cfu/g) after processing and storage. In conclusion, this work has demonstrated that emulsification can be an effective strategy for developing yogurt-based products fortified with fat soluble vitamins.