A role for olestra in body weight management.

Olestra is a fat substitute made from fatty acids esterified to sucrose and can be used in the preparation of virtually any food made with fat. Foods made with olestra retain the mouthfeel, palatability and satiating effects of their full-fat counterparts without providing any digestible energy. Because olestra provides no energy, it has the potential to be a useful tool in weight loss and weight maintenance. Short-term studies of olestra replacement in foods demonstrate that fat replacement leads to a net reduction in fat intake. When excess total energy is available, fat replacement also reduces total energy intake in lean and obese men and women. In longer-term studies in which olestra is incorporated into the daily diet, there is an incomplete compensation for the fat energy replaced by olestra. When overweight men consumed olestra as part of a varied diet over nine months, weight loss continued for the duration of the study, whereas individuals receiving a typical low-fat diet regained most of the initial weight lost. Other studies are underway to examine the usefulness of olestra in long-term weight maintenance following weight loss. Post-marketing surveillance of olestra foods in the United States indicates that substitution of olestra for only 1-2 g of fat d-1 may be sufficient to prevent the average weight gain reported in adults of 0.5-1.0 kg year-1.

Dietary carotenoids and certain cancers, heart disease, and age-related macular degeneration: a review of recent research.

Key epidemiologic studies show associations between high dietary intakes of certain carotenoid-containing fruits and vegetables and reduced risk of prostate cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancers, cardiovascular disease, and age-related macular degeneration, although overall the evidence is inconsistent. Little is known about the potential biochemical mechanisms whereby carotenoids might protect against disease, and human intervention trials are limited to high dose beta-carotene, which is not protective against lung cancer or cardiovascular disease. Authoritative scientific organizations continue to emphasize increased consumption of fruits and vegetables but do not make specific recommendations for carotenoids because of a lack of data that directly link them to disease reduction.

Dietary carotenoids and lung cancer: a review of recent research.

Several hundred carotenoid research studies have been published since 1996, when two major intervention trials showed a lack of protective effect of beta-carotene supplements against lung cancer. Recent epidemiologic studies continue to show an association between high dietary intake of beta-carotene and lower risk of lung cancer. New research is attempting to clarify the apparently contradictory results of intervention and epidemiologic studies. Promising areas of investigation include characterizing biologic activities of carotenoids and gaining further insight into whether they may serve primarily as markers for a healthy lifestyle or diet.

Comparison of 3 methods for counting fruits and vegetables for fourth-grade students in the Minnesota 5 A Day Power Plus Program.

OBJECTIVE: To compare fruit and vegetable servings calculated from 24-hour dietary recall data using 3 methods: a counting scheme developed for the 5 A Day for Better Health study, a method developed by the University of Minnesota Cancer Prevention Research Unit to quantify total consumption of fruits and vegetables, and a counting scheme based on the US Food and Drug Administration's Reference Amounts. The counting methods differ by food items counted and by serving sizes for those items. SUBJECTS/SETTING: Record-assisted 24-hour dietary recalls were collected from 617 randomly selected fourth-grade students (317 girls, 300 boys) from 23 schools in St Paul, Minn, participating in the Minnesota 5 A Day Power Plus Program. DESIGN: The dietary recalls were analyzed using the Minnesota Nutrition Data System (version 2.6/8a/23). Total servings of fruits and vegetables, servings of vegetables, servings of fruits plus juices, servings of fruit juice, and servings of fruit excluding juice were tallied using each counting method. STATISTICAL ANALYSES: A mixed-model Poisson regression analysis was conducted to compare numbers of servings calculated using the 3 methods. RESULTS: Counts of daily total fruits and vegetables averaged 3.9 servings with the 5 A Day method, 4.1 servings using US Food and Drug Administration Reference Amounts, and 5.1 servings with the Minnesota Cancer Prevention Research Unit method (P < .0001). APPLICATIONS: Because the different counting methods yield different tallies of fruit and vegetable intake, it is important for researchers and practitioners interested in fruit and vegetable consumption to be clear about their uses of the data before choosing a counting scheme.

A brief dietary assessment instrument for assessing target foods, nutrients and eating patterns.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a new dietary assessment tool, the focused recall, and to use this to measure co-consumption of carotenoid-containing fruits and vegetables with savory snacks. DESIGN: Participants completed a telephone-administered focused recall and a 24-hour recall on the same day. We compared mean estimates of fruit, vegetable, savory snack and carotenoid consumption from both instruments. We also assessed the ability of each method to measure co-consumption of carotenoids with full-fat, reduced/non-fat and olestra-containing savory snacks. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Data are from 245 male and 244 female adult participants in the Olestra Post-Marketing Surveillance Study (OPMSS). RESULTS: The mean (=/- SD) intake of fruit was 1.8(1.1) servings day(-1) from the focused recall and 1.6 (1.4) servings day(-1) from the 24-hour recall (r=0.56). The mean vegetable intake was 2.1 (1.3) and 2.2 (1.7) servings day(-1) (r=0.42), respectively, from each instrument. Estimates of total carotenoid and beta-carotene intake were within 5% of each other (r= 0.63 for total carotenoids and r= 0.70 for beta-carotene). Both instruments estimated that approximately 14% of total daily carotenoids were co-consumed with savory snacks (r= 0.63). CONCLUSIONS: The focused recall provides valid information about fruit, vegetable and savory snack consumption and allows researchers to examine associated eating patterns more easily.

Serum concentrations of retinol, alpha-tocopherol and the carotenoids are influenced by diet, race and obesity in a sample of healthy adolescents.

An important part of understanding the functions of vitamin A, vitamin E and the carotenoids in nutritional status assessment, health promotion and disease prevention is knowledge of factors that influence their distribution in human tissues. Our objective was to examine serum concentrations of these nutrients and compounds in a sample of 285 healthy participants, 12-17 y old, from three U. S. cities. Pearson correlations between diet measured with a food frequency questionnaire and serum nutrient concentrations among these adolescents (adjusted for total serum cholesterol, age, sex, race and body mass index) were as follows: retinol, 0.23; alpha-tocopherol, 0.16; alpha-carotene, 0.31; beta-carotene, 0.15; beta-cryptoxanthin, 0.38; lycopene, 0.08; and lutein + zeaxanthin, 0.25. Multivariate linear regression modeled associations of demographic, dietary and physiologic variables with serum concentrations of these nutrients. African-American participants had significantly lower concentrations of serum retinol (P < 0.001), alpha-tocopherol (P < 0.01) and alpha-carotene (P < 0.02), but higher concentrations of lutein + zeaxanthin (P = 0.001) compared with Caucasians. Obese participants had serum nutrient concentrations that were 2-10% (P < 0.05) lower than normal weight participants. Dietary intake was a significant predictor of all serum analytes (P < 0.01) except lycopene. These models explained 20% of the variability in serum retinol, 28% of the variability in serum alpha-tocopherol, and 14-24% of the variability in serum carotenoids.

Consumption of a controlled low-fat diet containing olestra for 9 months improves health risk factors in conjunction with weight loss in obese men: the Ole' Study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of a standard American diet, a traditional low-fat diet, and a low-fat diet containing the fat substitute olestra on risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. DESIGN: A 9-month, double-blind, randomized, parallel-arm, feeding study comparing three diets: (1). control (33% fat), (2). fat-reduced (FR; 25% fat), and (3). fat-substituted (FS) where olestra replaced 1/3 of dietary fat (33% lipid and 25% digestible fat). Subjects were allowed to adjust their total energy intake as desired, allowing weight to fluctuate. SUBJECTS: A total of 37 healthy, obese men (age 36.7+/-1.3 y; body mass index 30.8+/-0.4 kg/m(2)). MEASUREMENTS: Body weight and composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, blood pressure, serum lipids, lipoproteins, hemostatic factors, glucose, insulin, and leptin at baseline and every 3 months. RESULTS: The FS group lost 6.27 kg of body weight by 9 months vs 4.0 kg in the control and 1.79 kg in the FR groups. There was a significant diet main effect on cholesterol (P=0.002), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.003), and triglycerides (P=0.01), all of which decreased in the FS group but not the other groups by 9 months. Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) increased in the FR and control groups but was unchanged in the FS group (diet main effect P=0.04). High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased in all groups over 9 months (time main effect P=0.0001). Time main effects were also observed for cholesterol, ApoA1, ApoB, Factor VII, diastolic blood pressure, and glucose. After adjustment for % fat loss at 9 months, the effects of diet on change in risk factors remained significant only for triglycerides. DISCUSSION: Consumption of a low-fat diet containing olestra for 9 months produced significant improvement in cardiovascular risk factors, an effect largely explained by weight loss. Long-term low-fat diet consumption with or without olestra does not decrease HDL cholesterol.