Food choice motives including sustainability during purchasing are associated with a healthy dietary pattern in French adults.

BACKGROUND: Sustainability has become a greater concern among consumers that may influence their dietary intake. Only a few studies investigated the relationship between sustainable food choice motives and diet and they focused on specific food groups. OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the associations between food choice motives during purchasing, with a focus on sustainability, and dietary patterns in a large sample of French adults. DESIGN: Food choice motives were collected in 31,842 adults from the NutriNet-Santé study, using a validated 63 items questionnaire gathered into 9 dimension scores: ethics and environment, traditional and local production, taste, price, environmental limitation (i.e. not buying a food for environmental concerns), health, convenience, innovation and absence of contaminants. Dietary intake was assessed using at least three web-based 24-h food records. Three dietary patterns were obtained through factor analysis using principal component analysis. The associations between food choice motive dimension scores and dietary patterns were assessed using linear regression models, stratifying by sex. RESULTS: Individuals were more likely to have a "healthy diet" when they were more concerned by not buying a food for environmental concerns (only for 3rd tertile versus 1st tertile ßwomen=0.18, 95% CI=0.15-0.20, ßmen=0.20 95% CI=(0.15-0.25)), ethics and environment (women only, ß=0.05, 95% CI=0.02-0.08), absence of contaminants (women only, ß=0.05, 95% CI=0.01-0.07), local production (women only, ß=0.08, 95% CI=0.04-0.11), health (women only) and innovation (men only), and when they were less concerned by price. Individuals were also less likely to have traditional or western diets when they gave importance to food choice motive dimensions related to sustainability. CONCLUSION: Individuals, especially women, having higher concerns about food sustainability dimensions such as ethics and environment and local production, appear to have a healthier diet. Further longitudinal studies are required to better understand how sustainable concerns may influence long-term nutritional quality of the diet.

Nutrient patterns and risk of fracture in older subjects: results from the Three-City Study.

UNLABELLED: We investigated the association between nutrient patterns and risk of fractures in 1,482 older subjects. Patterns associated with higher intakes of Ca, P, vitamin B12, proteins and unsaturated fats, and moderate alcohol intake, provided by diets rich in dairies and charcuteries, were related to a lower risk of wrist and hip fractures. INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between patterns of nutrient intake and the risk of fractures in older subjects. METHODS: Among 1,482 participants from the Bordeaux sample of the Three-City (3C) Study who completed a 24-h dietary recall and a food frequency questionnaire, we examined the association between patterns of nutrient intake derived from principal component analysis and 8-year incidence of self-reported fractures of the hip, the wrist, and the vertebrae. RESULTS: A "nutrient-dense" pattern rich in Ca and P, iron, vitamins B including B12, vitamins C and E, alcohol, proteins, and unsaturated fats, and characterized by a higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, cheese and milk, charcuteries, cereals, rice, pasta, and potatoes, was associated with a 19% (95% CI 2-34%, P=0.03) lower risk of wrist fractures. The same pattern was associated with a 14% (95% CI 2-25%) lower risk of fractures at any site. A "south-western French" pattern rich in Ca, P, vitamins D and B12, retinol, alcohol, proteins, and fats-including unsaturated fats; poor in vitamins C, E, and K, carotenes, folates, and fibers; and related to a higher consumption of cheese, milk, and charcuterie and a lower consumption of fruits and vegetables was related to a 33% lower risk of hip fractures (95% CI 3-39%, P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Higher intakes of Ca, P, vitamin B12, proteins, and unsaturated fats and moderate alcohol, provided by dietary patterns rich in cheese, milk, and charcuteries, were related to a lower risk of wrist and hip fractures in our cohort.

Dietary patterns: a novel approach to examine the link between nutrition and cognitive function in older individuals.

Cognitive decline may lead to dementia whose most frequent cause is Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among the many potential risk factors of cognitive decline and AD, diet raises increasing interest. Most studies considered diet in the frame of a single nutrient approach with inconsistent results. A novel approach to examine the link between nutrition and cognitive function is the use of dietary patterns. The aim of the present review was to update and complete the body of knowledge about dietary patterns in relationship with various cognitive outcomes in the elderly. Two approaches can be used: a priori and a posteriori patterns. A priori patterns are defined by the adhesion to a pre-defined healthy diet using a score such as the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) score, the Healthy Eating Index, the Canadian Healthy Eating Index, the French National Nutrition and Health Programme (Programme National Nutrition Santé) Guideline Score (PNNS-GS), the Recommended Food Score (RFS) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH). MeDi score, RFS, PNNS-GS and DASH have been associated with lower risks of cognitive impairment, cognitive decline, and dementia or AD. Principal components analysis, reduced rank regression and clustering methods allow the identification of 'healthy' patterns associated with lower risk of cognitive decline. However, some studies did not report any associations with cognitive outcomes and results are discordant especially regarding MeDi and the risk of dementia. Several methodological challenges should be overcome to provide a higher level of evidence supporting the development of nutritional policies to prevent cognitive decline and AD.

Nature of the spin-glass phase in dense packings of Ising dipoles with random anisotropy axes.

Using tempered Monte Carlo simulations, we study the the spin-glass phase of dense packings of Ising dipoles pointing along random axes. We consider systems of dipoles (i) placed on the sites of a simple cubic lattice with lattice constant d, and (ii) placed at the center of random close packed spheres of diameter d that occupy 64% of the volume. For both cases, we find a spin-glass phase below a certain temperature T sg. By analysing the data obtained for the overlap parameter, the associated correlation length, as well as the statistics of the overlap distributions of individual samples, we find a behavior consistent with quasi-long-range order in the spin-glass phase, similar to the one previously found in strongly diluted dipolar systems.

Exposure to contaminants and nutritional intakes in a French vegetarian population.

The NutriNet Santé study collected, on a voluntary basis, the dietary consumption of French vegetarian populations (N = 1766, including 188 vegan individuals) from 18 to 81 years (18-77 years for the vegan). Taking advantage of the availability of contamination data generated in the context of the second French total diet study, dietary exposures of French vegetarian populations to several contaminants were estimated. Results showed that exposures to persistent organic pollutants (PCBs, PCDD/Fs for instance) was dramatically lower than those of the general French population due to the non consumption of food of animal origins. On the other hand, exposures to phytoestrogens, some mycotoxins (T2 and HT2 toxins) and some trace elements (Cd, Al, Sn, Ni) were higher in the vegetarian population compared to those of the general population. Despite some limitations of this approach (both the consumption study and the total diet study were not aimed to estimate dietary exposure of the vegetarian populations), this study showed that dietary habits can dramatically influence the exposure of some contaminants.

Magnetic ordering of systems of nanodisks with quenched positional disorder.

The effect of positional disorder in systems of single domain ferromagnetic nanodisks placed on a two-dimensional square lattice is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Nanodisks are treated as magnetic dipoles pointing along one of the two principal axes of the lattice. Disorder is introduced displacing each nanodisk by (δx, δy) from its regular lattice position, where δx is randomly chosen within the interval 0 ≤ δx ≤ Δ and analogously for δy. Two different regimes are found: for Δ < Δ(0) = 0.18(2) (in units of lattice spacing) a thermally driven transition between a paramagnetic and a dipolar antiferromagnetic phase with a critical exponent α/ν changing continuously with Δ; for Δ ≥ Δ(0) a paramagnetic phase covering the whole T > 0 range. Plots of the spin-glass overlap parameter versus temperature T or lattice size L seem to exclude an equilibrium spin-glass phase in the latter regime.