Food habits of different worker categories: an integrative review.

Food is a physiological necessity for humans and is built on and permeated by many different biological, economic, social, and cultural symbols and phenomena. The basic conditions for adequate nutrition should be associated with cultural and financial values, physical accessibility, flavor, variety, color, and harmony and based on consumption of foods, not exclusively on nutrients. However, changes to the population's profile of consumption and dietary habits are founded on the process of urbanization and industrialization, which plays a fundamental role in this phenomenon, causing lifestyle changes that are linked with stimulus of consumption of industrialized products, with publicity, and with mass marketing. The objective of the study was to investigate the profile of the dietary habits of workers from different occupational categories in Brazil, with a sample of 13 articles. Moreover, research shows that many different categories of workers are subject to nutritional losses because of this new lifestyle. Searches were run on the Google Scholar, LILACS, and SciELO databases for publications during the last 5 years, identifying more than 15 thousand articles, 13 of which were selected as fitting the criteria chosen. Data were collected in April and May of 2020. The inclusion criteria were articles published in Portuguese with the full text available. Exclusion criteria were duplicates and studies with seniors and/or children. It was concluded that the dietary habits of the workers studied are unhealthy and that their consumption profile is widely incompatible with the guiding principles of the Food Guide for the Brazilian population. These people are therefore at increased risk of non-transmissible chronic diseases and morbidity and mortality. There is a need to take more effective interventional action, totally restructuring the educational process to form dietary habits, such as implementing public policies targeting this section of the population, which is so important for national development.

A alimentação é uma necessidade fisiológica humana, construída e permeada por diversas simbolizações e fenômenos biológicos, econômicos, sociais e culturais. A condição básica para uma alimentação adequada deve estar associada aos valores culturais e financeiros, à acessibilidade física, ao sabor, à variedade, à cor e à harmonia, com base no consumo de alimentos, e não exclusivamente de nutrientes. Porém, a mudança no perfil de consumo e nos hábitos alimentares da população está alicerçada no processo de urbanização/industrialização, que atua como fator preponderante para esse fenômeno, gerando mudanças no estilo de vida associadas ao estímulo ao consumo de produtos industrializados, à publicidade e ao marketing massivo. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o perfil dos hábitos alimentares de trabalhadores de diferentes categorias profissionais no Brasil, com 13 artigos selecionados. Além disso, pesquisas apontam para o fato de que trabalhadores de diferentes categorias estão sujeitos a perdas na alimentação devido ao novo estilo de vida. Foi realizada uma busca nas bases de dados Google Acadêmico, LILACS e SciELO de publicações dos últimos 5 anos, e foram encontrados mais de 15 mil artigos; destes, foram selecionados 13 que se encaixam no padrão escolhido. A coleta dos dados ocorreu em abril e maio de 2020. Os critérios de inclusão foram artigos disponíveis na íntegra e em língua portuguesa; já os de exclusão foram trabalhos duplicados ou com idosos e/ou crianças. Concluiu-se que os hábitos alimentares dos trabalhadores pesquisados são inadequados e que esse perfil de consumo está em desacordo com os princípios norteadores defendidos pelos Guias Alimentares para a população brasileira, de forma ampla e difusa. Assim, tais indivíduos apresentam maior risco de sofrer doenças crônicas não transmissíveis e de apresentar morbimortalidade. Urge a necessidade de ações intervencionistas mais efetivas para uma reestruturação total do processo de educação para a formação de hábitos alimentares, como as políticas públicas voltadas para essa classe civil, tão importantes para o desenvolvimento de uma nação.

Hypolipidemic and reduced nitrergic effects of p-hydroxycinnamic diesters extracted from Copernicia prunifera in mice challenged by a high-fat diet.

Dyslipidemia is a chronic non-transmissible condition that has increased due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Statins have been used as the standard treatment to control hyperlipidemia. However, side effects and high costs may be associated with its prolonged treatment, so plants derivatives have been an attractive therapy to overcome these problems. Among the compounds extracted from plants, the p-hydroxycinnamic diesters (HCE), present in carnauba wax (CW), have been found with good pharmacological properties. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the potential anti-hypercholesterolemic and possible toxicological effects of HCE in C57BL/6J mice under a high-fat (HF) diet. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed during 60 days under the HF diet and therefore were either treated with HCE (200 and 400 mg/kg) or simvastatin (20 mg/kg) or received saline (controls) by gavage for 30 days under the same diet. HCE treatment was able to reduce serum total cholesterol and LDL levels. Besides, this compound increased liver X receptor (LXR) and but not significantly affected IL-1ß and TNF-α liver mRNA transcription activity. In conclusion, HCE treatment was found safe and may attenuate the deleterious effects of dyslipidemia due to chronic feeding with western diets.

p-Methoxycinnamic Acid Diesters Lower Dyslipidemia, Liver Oxidative Stress and Toxicity in High-Fat Diet Fed Mice and Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes.

The pursuit of cholesterol lowering natural products with less side effects is needed for controlling dyslipidemia and reducing the increasing toll of cardiovascular diseases that are associated with morbidity and mortality worldwide. The present study aimed at the examining effects of p-methoxycinnamic acid diesters (PCO-C) from carnauba (Copernicia prunifera)-derived wax on cytotoxic, genotoxic responses in vitro and on dyslipidemia and liver oxidative stress in vivo, utilizing high-fat diet (HFD) chronically fed Swiss mice. In addition, we evaluated the effect of PCO-C on the expression of key cholesterol metabolism-related genes, as well as the structural interactions between PCO-C and lecithin-cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) in silico. Oral treatment with PCO-C was able to reduce total serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels following HFD. In addition, PCO-C reduced excessive weight gain and lipid peroxidation, and increased the gene expression of LCAT following HFD. Furthermore, the high affinity of the studied compound (ΔG: -8.78 Kcal/mol) towards the active sites of mutant LCAT owing to hydrophobic and van der Waals interactions was confirmed using bioinformatics. PCO-C showed no evidence of renal and hepatic toxicity, unlike simvastatin, that elevated aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, a marker of liver dysfunction. Finally, PCO-C showed no cytotoxicity or genotoxicity towards human peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro. Our results suggest that PCO-C exerts hypocholesterolemic effects. The safety of PCO-C in the toxicological tests performed and the reports of its beneficial biological effects render this a promising compound for the development of new cholesterol-lowering therapeutics to control dyslipidemia. More work is needed for further elucidating PCO-C role on lipid metabolism to support future clinical studies.

Antihypercholesterolemic Effects of Fruit Aqueous Extract of Copernicia prunifera (Miller) H. E. Moore in Mice Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia.

The present objective of the investigation is to evaluate the antihypercholesterolemic activity of the aqueous fruit pulp extract (APE) of Copernicia prunifera (Miller) H. E. Moore (Arecaceae family). Various chemical characterization methods like thin layer chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H and 13C NMR, and molecular weight by gel permeation chromatography have been employed to characterize the extracted pectin. The present study demonstrated that hypercholesterolemic diet (HD) created hypercholesterolemia, caused significant increases in body weight, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein, and caused decreases in high-density lipoprotein in serum compared with SD group. Two doses (APE 150 and 300 mg/Kg b.w./day) were administered to hyperlipidemic mice for 90 days. APE reversed body weight changes, changed serum lipids to normal values, and significantly inhibited the changes of lipid peroxidation and inflammation in the liver tissues. The renal parameters analyzed (urea and creatinine) altered by diet were reverted to normal values. Our results revealed that aqueous fruit pulp extracts of carnauba reduced hypercholesterolemia showing a potential preventive effect against cardiovascular diseases without side effects cause.

Corrigendum to "Antihypercholesterolemic Effects of Fruit Aqueous Extract of Copernicia prunifera (Miller) H. E. Moore in Mice Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/6376173.].

Screening of Bioactivities and Toxicity of Cnidoscolus quercifolius Pohl.

The caatinga, an exclusively Brazilian biome, is one of the most endangered vegetation systems in the planet. To be exploited rationally, its potential needs to be scientifically demonstrated. Among these is the faveleira, used in northeastern Brazil. It stands out for its extraordinary drought resistance and medicinal properties. The objective of this study was to assess the therapeutic potential of compounds extracted from Cnidoscolus quercifolius Pohl in preventing disease and its rational use as a herbal therapeutic tool. The methodology began with the collection and herborization of the plant material, to obtain the chemical compounds, preliminary phytochemical analysis, and extraction of the constituents of the active extracts. To determine the biological activities the authors conducted investigation of antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, inhibition capacity of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme, and initial assessment of toxicity of the extracts. The results demonstrated great potential as an antimicrobial agent, an important antioxidant capacity, and acetylcholinesterase inhibition response with no significant difference compared with the reference drug. The authors expect to develop a new herbal product, resulting in lower production costs and that, consequently, could be commercialized in more accessible form to the population, highlighting the risk reduction of contraindication of this category of medications.