ABSTRACT
Aims: To determine the snack consumption pattern of adults and the effect of consumption of certain snacks on the health status of adults in the University of Calabar. Study design: Cross-sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: University of Calabar, Calabar - Nigeria. June to July, 2017. Methodology: After a multi-staged random sampling technique, a cross-sectional survey was carried out on 400 adult respondents using a well-structured questionnaire. Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and 24hour dietary recall were also administered to the respondents. The data obtained from the survey instruments were analysed with the aid of Microsoft excel. For the dietary intake assessment, Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO) ‘Guidelines for Measuring Household and Individual Dietary Diversity’ was used to calculate individual’s dietary diversity score (DDS) before recording. Results: It was observed that 84% of the respondents skipped meals and breakfast was the most skipped meal followed by lunch. Most people (46%) skipped breakfast because they left early for work while majority who skipped lunch did so because they had no time for food at work (53%). Only 8.6% of the respondents did not eat snacks, and most of those who consumed snacks did so because they preferred snacks to food (32%). The most commonly consumed snacks among the respondents was pastries (36.5%), followed by biscuits (25.7%) while the least consumed snacks were vegetables (1%) followed by sweets and gums (1.1%). Consequently, pastries contributed the most snack calories to the study population. Conclusion: Most people skip meals; and snacks serve as a substitute for such skipped meals. Only few people frequently consume healthy snacks such as fruits and vegetables. Most people were discovered to eat pastries as snacks and these pastries (such as cakes and pies) are highly processed foods which could increase the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in their consumers.
ABSTRACT
Aims: To comparatively evaluate some bioactive compounds (egg white proteins) of chicken (exotic and local), turkey, quail and guinea fowl eggs in their raw and boiled forms. It also aimed at ascertaining claims on egg being a functional food.Study Design:Experimental.Place and Duration of Study:Department of Biochemistry, University of Calabar, Calabar and Department of Pharmacology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, February to July 2017.Methodology:Freshly-laid poultry-bred eggs were purchased, cleaned and divided into 2: one batch was broken and the egg white separated while the other was boiled by submerging the eggs in boiling water at 100°C for 10min, before taking out the egg whites. The raw and boiled albumen were homogenized before analyses. A combination of methods involving separation of egg white proteins using ion-exchange chromatography, purification using tangential flowfiltration and quantification using the colorimetric Bradford assay.Results of the quantitative estimation of avidin, lysozyme, ovalbumin, ovotransferrin and flavoprotein concentrations were statistically compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results:It was observed that concentrations of the bioactive compounds(except ovalbumin) were significantly (P< 0.05) higher among the raw eggs than the boiled ones. Raw turkey egg had the highest avidin content (15.83 ± 0.15 ?g/g) and this was significantly different (P<0.05) from the others, while quail had the lowest avidin concentration (8.47 ± 0.20 ?g/g) even among the boiled samples. Ovalbumin, a storage protein, was the most abundant of the egg white proteins (50-55%).Conclusion:Quail eggs are healthier due to their relatively safer content of avidin, higher contents of flavoprotein and ovotransferrin; turkey egg with exceptionally higher avidin concentrations, should be consumed in moderation in order to reduce the risk of biotin deficiency. The presence of thesebioactive compounds in significant quantities also show that eggs may serve as functional foods