Comparison of predictive effect of the dietary inflammatory index and empirically derived food-based dietary inflammatory index on the menopause-specific quality of life and its complications.

INTRODUCTION: Menopause, defined as the cessation of menstruation for at least 12 months, is one of the important stages of a woman's life cycle. Some hormonal variations occur during the transition to menopause, which affects women's quality of life. Recently, the role of dietary factors in alleviating symptoms has been investigated. AIM OF THIS STUDY: We tried to investigate the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII), food-based dietary inflammatory index (FDII) and quality of life, and menopausal symptoms, comparing their predictive power and suggesting the best cut-off point. METHODOLOGY: One hundred forty-nine postmenopausal women were included in the cross-sectional study. After collecting data by interview, the desired variables were calculated. Logistic regression and ROC curves were used to investigate the relationship and predictive power of DII and FDII with menopausal symptoms. FINDINGS: We observed that both DII and FDII were significantly associated with the severity of sexual symptoms. The first tertile of DII (OR = 0.252, P-value = 0.002) and FDII (OR = 0.316, P-value = 0.014) had a significantly lower odds ratio for severe to moderate symptoms compared to the third tertile. Both inflammatory indices had significant predictive power in predicting the probability of having severe to moderate poor quality of life (FDII (p-value = 0.004) > DII (p-value = 0.006)) and sexual symptoms (DII (p-value = 0.002) > FDII (p-value = 0.003)). Also, regarding the physical subtype, only FDII (p-value = 0.002) results were significant. CONCLUSION: Both dietary inflammatory indices appear to be suitable for predicting quality of life, but FDII had slightly more predictive power. It seems that the quality of life and severity of menopausal symptoms may be improved, particularly with regard to sexual symptoms, by following an anti-inflammatory diet.

Consumption of sesame seeds and sesame products has favorable effects on blood glucose levels but not on insulin resistance: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials.

Sesame, with an oily seed containing oil, lignans, and proteins, is a popular plant that has demonstrated health benefits such as antioxidative, antiobesity, and antiinflammatory effects. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to summarize the effect of sesame seeds and their consumption compared to a control group on blood glucose and insulin resistance in human adults. PubMed/MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and EMBASE were searched to identify eligible controlled clinical trials up to February 2021. Finally, eight clinical trials were included in this study. Sesame products used in these trials were sesame oil, sesamin, and tahini, and the duration of the intervention varied from 45 days to 9 weeks. Our results showed the significant positive effects of sesame and its products on fasting blood glucose FBG (weighted mean difference, WMD: -21.31 mg/dl, 95% CI: -41.23, -1.39, p = .036) and HbA1c (WMD: -0.75, 95% CI: -1.16, -0.34, p < .001) levels but results about fasting serum insulin (WMD: 5.51 µU/ml, 95% CI: -2.31, 13.33, p = .167) and HOMA-IR (WMD: -0.07, 95% CI: -0.33, 0.20, p = .617) were not meaningful. Sesame may be considered a beneficial agent for human glucose metabolism and can be a part of glucose-lowering diets.

Association between glycemic index and Helicobacter pylori infection risk among adults: A case-control study.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this case-control study was to investigate the relationships between carbohydrate consumption, glycemic load (GL), glycemic index (GI), and the risk of Helicobacter pylori infection among adults admitted to an Iranian hospital. METHODS: In this case-control study, we recruited 150 participants with H. pylori infection and 302 healthy participants ages 18 to 55. Dietary GI and GL were assessed using a validated 168-item quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Dietary GL was calculated as a function of GI, carbohydrate content, and the frequency of intake of certain foods. RESULTS: After adjustment for potential confounders, and comparing the highest tertile with the lowest tertile, a significant direct association was observed between the consumption of carbohydrates (odds ratio [OR] = 2.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18-6.96; P for trend = 0.017), GI (OR = 3.70; 95% CI, 2.01-6.81; P for trend < 0.001), GL (OR = 3.06; 95% CI, 1.43-6.54; P for trend = 0.001), the consumption of bread and refined-grain products (OR = 4.24; 95% CI, 2.22-8.11; P for trend < 0.001), and the odds of H. pylori infection (OR = 2.22; 95% CI, 1.30-3.79; P for trend = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that a high dietary GL, high GI, and high consumption of dietary carbohydrates significantly elevate the risk of H. pylori infection. Also, the amount of bread and refined-grain products consumed had a significant positive relationship with H. pylori infection.