Eating Experiences, Sweet Preference, and Weight Gain in Women During Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Mixed Methods Study.

Weight gain during breast cancer treatment has not been explained yet. This study aimed to explore eating experience and its relationship with weight gain and sweet preference and intake in women in chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Thirty-one patients indicated for adjuvant (n = 16) or neoadjuvant (n = 15) chemotherapy containing anthracyclines were evaluated. Weight, sweet preference in cashew juice (weight/volume, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36%), and sweet food intake frequency ["healthy sweets" (HS) for fruits and natural juices and "nonhealthy sweets" (NHS) for other sweets] were assessed prior to initiating (T0) and after the fourth chemotherapy cycle (T1). A semistructured interview was applied at T1. At baseline, patients were 46.7 ± 11.6 years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 29.3 ± 7.1 kg/m2. The patients' weight and BMI increased, as did the HS intake, with positive correlation between HS intake and weight change (r = 0.38; P = 0.039). Baseline sweet preference is correlated to NHS intake at T0 (r = 0.51; P = 0.004) and influences NHS intake change. The interview analysis showed opposite food behaviors: at times driven by self-care and, at other times, driven by the emotional vulnerability, which may contribute to the weight gain observed.

Freeze-dried jaboticaba peel powder rich in anthocyanins did not reduce weight gain and lipid content in mice and rats

Jaboticaba, a native fruit from Brazilian Atlantic Forest, is an important source of anthocyanins. Anthocyanins have been recently identified as modulators of lipid metabolism and energy expenditure ‘in vivo’. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the freeze-dried jaboticaba peel powder on obesity treatment in different experimental models. Obese Swiss mice and obese Sprague- Dawley rats were fed a high-fat diet supplemented with 1, 2 and 4% freeze-dried jaboticaba peel powder for 6 weeks. Energy intake, weight gain and body composition were determined, and the results were analyzed using variance and Tukey's tests (p <0.05). The energy intake was higher in mice groups supplemented with 2% and 4% of jaboticaba peel. In relation to weight gain, the mice supplemented with 2% of jaboticaba peel had higher total weight gain than the other experimental groups, while no significant difference in the fat mass accumulation was observed among the groups. The rats did not show significant differences in the evaluated parameters. These results suggest that the supplementation with freeze-dried jaboticaba peel powder, at concentrations of 1, 2 and 4%, was not effective in the reduction of energy intake, weight gain and body fat both in mice and in rats.

La cáscara de jaboticaba liofilizada, una rica fuente de antocianinas, no influyó en la ganancia de peso ni en el contenido de lípidos en roedores La jaboticaba, una fruta nativa de la Selva Atlántica de Brasil, es una fuente importante de antocianinas. Las antocianinas han sido recientemente identificadas como moduladoras del metabolismo de lípidos y del gasto energético en vivo. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar el uso de la cáscara de jaboticaba liofilizada en polvo en el tratamiento de la obesidad, en distintos modelos experimentales. Ratones Swiss y ratas Sprague-Dawley obesos, recibieron dietas con alto contenido de grasas, a las que se añadió 1, 2 y 4% de cáscara de jaboticaba en polvo, durante 6 semanas. Se determinó el consumo de energía, el aumento de peso y la composición corporal de los animales, y los resultados fueron sometidos a análisis de varianza y prueba de Tukey, con p <0,05. El consumo de energía fue superior en los grupos de ratones Swiss de los grupos con 2% y 4% de cáscara de jaboticaba. En el aumento del peso, los ratones Swiss del grupo con 2% de piel de jaboticaba aumentaron más en peso total comparados a los otros grupos experimentales; mientras que no se observaron diferencias significativas entre los grupos respecto a la composición de la masa grasa. Entre los grupos de ratas Sprague-Dawley no se dieron diferencias significativas en ninguno de los parámetros evaluados. Por lo tanto, se concluye que la adición de 1, 2 y 4% de cáscara de jaboticaba liofilizada, a la dieta, no fue eficaz para el tratamiento de la obesidad, tanto en ratones Swiss como en ratas Sprague-Dawley.