The Combined Effect of Vitamin D Deficiency and Hyperparathyroidism on Postural Stability among Healthy Adult Males.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D has been shown to improve muscle strength and bone health; consequently, be important for maintaining good balance. Possible risk factors related to postural stability in young adults still underdetermined. However, this study was designed to determine the effect of vitamin D status on postural stability. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 704 healthy young adult males were enrolled in this study. Dynamic balance was measured as overall stability index (OSI) using biodex balance system (BBS). Vitamin D deficiency was defined when its serum level <20 ng mL-1. The effect size was measured for vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH) and the interaction between vitamin D and PTH (VTD*PTH) with respect to the OSI values. Correlations between variables were examined according to the beta standardised coefficient (ß) and the effect size was measured using the partial eta-squared (η2) test. RESULTS: About 95, 3.8 and 1.2% of individuals had deficient, insufficient and normal vitamin D levels, respectively. Vitamin D had no significant effect to OSI, but PTH exhibited a significant correlation with OSI (adjusted ß = 0.095, p = 0.038). A significant effect size was observed between OSI and PTH (adjusted partial η2 = 0.012, p = 0.038) and between OSI and VTD*PTH (adjusted partial η2 = 0.034, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: A significant interaction of vitamin D deficiency and high PTH on postural stability is detected among healthy adult males.

Food-based dietary guidelines for the arab gulf countries.

The concept of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) has been promoted by several international organizations. However, there are no FBDG for the countries in the Arab region. As the Arab Gulf countries share similar a socioeconomic and nutrition situation, an attempt was made to develop FBDG for these countries. This paper summarizes the steps taken to develope such guidelines by the Arab Center for Nutrition. The FBDG were developed through 6 steps: (1) determination of the purpose and goals for establishing FBDG, (2) characteristics of FBDG, (3) determination of the food consumption patterns, (4) review the current nutrition situation, (5) determination of the lifestyle patterns that are associated with diet-related diseases and (6) formulating the FBDG. The FBDG consist of 14 simple and practical pieces of advice taking into consideration the sociocultural status and nutritional problems in the Arab Gulf countries. The FBDG can be a useful tool in educating the public in healthy eating and prevention of diet-related chronic diseases.

Effect of Dehulling and Cooking of Lentils (Lens Culinaris, L.)on Serum Glucose and Lipoprotein Levels in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of lentils on serum glucose and serum lipid levels in diabetic rats. Forty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats, 12 weeks of age weighing 220-290g, were used. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin at a level of 35 mg/kg intra-peritoneally. The animals were randomly divided into five groups, eight animals each: a casein diet (control), raw whole lentil (RWL), cooked whole lentil (CWL), raw dehulled lentil (RDL) and cooked dehulled lentil (CDL). Animals were fed with experimental diets for six weeks, sacrificed and blood samples were taken. Serum glucose level of the CDL group (387.9 ± 53.3 mg/dl) was significantly lower (P<0.05) than that of the control, RDL and RWL groups (529.0 ± 11.7, 538.6 ± 45.0, 542.1 ± 32.2 mg/dl respectively). In addition, HDL concentration of CWL group (66.3 ± 1.9 mg/dl) was significantly higher (P<0.01) than that of the control, RWL and RDL groups (54.9 ± 3.5, 50.8 ± 4.2, 54.0 ± 3.4 mg/dl respectively). However, there was no significant difference in serum glucose and serum HDL between the CDL and CWL groups. No significant differences (p>0.05) were detected in triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol among the experimental groups. It is concluded that cooked lentils rather than raw lentils was more effective in lowering blood glucose and improving HDL cholesterol in diabetic rats. There was no difference between whole and dehulled lentils with regard to effects on blood glucose and HDL cholesterol levels.

Chemopreventive effect of raw and cooked lentils (Lens culinaris L) and soybeans (Glycine max) against azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci.

Although lentils (Lens culinaris L) contain several bioactive compounds that have been linked to the prevention of cancer, the in vivo chemopreventive ability of lentils against chemically induced colorectal cancer has not been examined. Our present study examined the hypothesis that lentils could suppress the early carcinogenesis in vivo by virtue of their bioactive micro- and macroconstituents and that culinary thermal treatment could affect their chemopreventive potential. To accomplish this goal, we used raw whole lentils (RWL), raw split lentils (RSL), cooked whole lentils (CWL), and cooked split lentils (CSL). Raw soybeans (RSB; Glycine max) were used for the purpose of comparison with a well-studied chemopreventive agent. Sixty weanling Fischer 344 male rats, 4 to 5 weeks of age, were randomly assigned to 6 groups (10 rats/group): the control group (C) received AIN-93G diet, and treatment leguminous groups of RWL, CWL, RSL, CSL, and RSB received the treatment diets containing AIN-93G+5% of the above-mentioned legumes. After acclimatization for 1 week (at 5th to 6th week of age), all animals were put on the control and treatment diets separately for 5 weeks (from 6th to 11th week of age). At the end of the 5th week of feeding (end of 11th week of age), all rats received 2 subcutaneous injections of azoxymethane carcinogen at 15 mg/kg rat body weight per dose once a week for 2 consecutive weeks. After 17 weeks of the last azoxymethane injection (from 12th to 29th week of age), all rats were euthanized. Chemopreventive ability was assessed using colonic aberrant crypt foci and activity of hepatic glutathione-S-transferases. Significant reductions (P < .05) were found in total aberrant crypt foci number (mean +/- SEM) for RSB (27.33 +/- 4.32), CWL (33.44 +/- 4.56), and RSL (37.00 +/- 6.02) in comparison with the C group (58.33 +/- 8.46). Hepatic glutathione-S-transferases activities increased significantly (P < .05) in rats fed all treatment diets (from 51.38 +/- 3.66 to 67.94 +/- 2.01 micromol mg(-1) min(-1)) when compared with control (C) diet (26.13 +/- 1.01 micromol mg(-1) min(-1)). Our findings indicate that consumption of lentils might be protective against colon carcinogenesis and that hydrothermal treatment resulted in an improvement in the chemopreventive potential for the whole lentils.

Protein quality of four types of edible mushrooms found in Jordan.

This study was conducted to determine the protein quality of four types of edible mushrooms, Terfezia claveryi, Pleurotus ostreatus, Tricholoma terreum and Agaricus macrosporus that are common in Jordan. Protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein utilization methods (NPU) were used. The four mushroom types failed to support growth as reflected by negative values for PER; -1.76 for T. claveryi; -0.23 for P. ostreatus; -0.98 for T. terreum and -0.41 for A. macrosporus. The NPU(op), NPU(st) and NdpE% for T. claveryi were 32.6, 33.9 and 3.89%, respectively. The respective values for P. ostreatus were 38.5, 40.7 and 4.35%; T. terreum 29.1, 29.8 and 3.63%; and A. macrosporus 31.5, 32.9 and 3.91%. The results showed that the four mushrooms were significantly (p < or = 0.05) lower in protein quality compared with casein results (NPU(op), NPU(st) and NDpE% of 78.5, 86.4 and 7.16%, respectively.

Protein digestibility using corrected amino acid score method (PDCAAS) of four types of mushrooms grown in Jordan.

This study was conducted to evaluate the protein quality of four types of edible mushrooms common in Jordan in terms of protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS), which is a combination of the chemical score of the limiting amino acid multiplied by true digestibility of the protein. True protein digestibility values were low (61.4, 73.4, 52.6 and 80.5 for Terfezia claveryi, Pleurotus ostreatus, Tricholoma terrum and Agaricus macrosporus, respectively). Based on the essential amino acids pattern requirements for children, the limiting amino acids in P. ostreatus and A. macrosporus protein were sulphur-containing amino acids with chemical scores of 0.61 and 0.50, respectively. However, lysine was the limiting amino acid in the protein of T. claveryi and T. terreum with chemical scores of 0.71 and 0.67, respectively, and the PDCAAS was 0.43, 0.45, 0.35 and 0.40 for the mushrooms types, respectively. Considering the pattern of essential amino acid requirements of laboratory rats, the sulphur containing amino acids were the limiting amino acids in the protein of T. claveryi, P. ostreatus, T. terreum and A. macrosporus with chemical scores of 0.56, 0.30, 0.34 and 0.25, respectively. The PDCAAS were 0.34, 0.22. 0.17 and 0.20, respectively. It is concluded that the four mushroom types studied are of low protein quality.