Amylase increases energy and nutrient density of Super Cereal Plus porridge as prepared and accepted by Rwandan caregivers.

Adding amylase to Super Cereal Plus (SC+A) improves energy and nutrient intake as porridge energy density reaches 1.0 kcal/g, meeting the recommended ≥0.8 kcal/g for prepared foods for young children. Caregiver response to SC+A in terms of adjusting porridge preparation using printed pictogram instructions was not yet investigated. The study assessed (a) porridge preparation by caregivers; (b) porridge energy density; (c) sensory porridge acceptability; and (d) understanding of preparation instructions. An 8-day follow-up intervention study was conducted amongst caregivers of children aged 6-23 months (n = 238) in Rwanda. Caregivers prepared porridge using SC+A whilst referring to printed pictogram instructions at the study site on Days 1 and 8 and received flour for preparation at home on Days 2-7. At the site, data were collected on porridge preparation procedures, energy density, consistency, acceptability, and interviews (n = 12), and focus group discussions (n = 6) were conducted. Mean porridge dry matter (DM) increased from 21.3 ± 4.4% (Day 1) to 25.1 ± 4.8% (Day 8; p < 0.0005). Flour and water were mixed before cooking by 95% of the participants, as per printed instructions. Sensory porridge acceptability was high, and the printed instructions enabled caregivers to prepare an accepted and energy dense porridge. The preferred water/flour volume ratio was 2.5 instead of 3. In conclusion, Rwandan caregivers prepared well-accepted SC+A porridges with a preferred consistency and mean DM content of 25.1% (1.0 kcal/g), after 1 week practicing at home. This supports introducing SC+A with the tested instructions at scale.

Adipose tissue-derived cytokines and their correlations with clinical characteristics in Vietnamese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Adipokines are involved in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders including obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study investigates the levels of leptin, resistin, visfatin, secreted frizzled-related protein 5 (SFRP5), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) and their correlations with clinical parameters of overweight and T2DM. METHODS: We recruited overweight 50 patients with T2DM, 88 non-overweight patients with T2DM, 29 overweight and 100 non-overweight individuals devoid of T2DM for this study. The levels of studied adipokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and correlated with clinical parameters. RESULTS: The levels of MCP-1 and SFRP5 were decreased while visfatin and RBP4 levels were increased in patients with T2DM compared to those in the control individuals (P < 0.01). Among patients with T2DM, leptin and resistin levels were higher while RBP4 levels were lower in patients with overweight T2DM compared to those in patients with non-overweight T2DM (P < 0.0001, 0.019 and 0.05, respectively). Leptin and MCP-1 levels were correlated with HOMA-IR, QUICKI and HOMA-ß. Leptin/MCP-1 ratio was correlated with insulin levels, HOMA-IR and HOMA-ß indexes. Resistin/RBP4, visfatin/MCP-1 and MCP-1/RBP4 ratios were strongly correlated with the levels of fasting glucose, HbA1c and HOMA-ß. In addition, ROC curve analyses indicated a diagnostic potential of resistin/RBP4 and MCP-1/RBP4 indexes for T2DM (AUC = 0.81 and 0.83, respectively) and ß-cell function (AUC = 0.76 and 0.74, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Adipokines (leptin, resistin, visfatin, SFRP5, MCP-1, and RBP4) are associated with overweight and T2DM and may serve as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic intervention for overweight-related T2DM.

Energy and nutrient intake increased by 47-67% when amylase was added to fortified blended foods-a study among 12- to 35-month-old Burkinabe children.

Adding amylase to fortified blended foods can improve energy density, and increase child's energy and nutrient intake. The efficacy of this strategy is unknown for the World Food Programme's Super Cereal Plus (SC+) and Super Cereal (SC) blends. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the increased energy intake from amylase-containing SC+ and SC compared to control porridges in Burkinabe children. Secondly, energy intake from amylase-containing porridges compared to CERELAC® , Vitazom, and eeZeeBAR™ was studied. Thirdly, caregivers' (n = 100) porridge acceptability was investigated. The design was a randomized double-blind controlled cross-over trial studying the effect of amylase addition to SC+ and SC flours on porridge energy and nutrient intake in healthy Burkinabe children aged 12-23 (n = 80) and 24-35 months (n = 40). Amylase added to porridges increased energy density from 0.68 to 1.16 kcal/g for SC+ and from 0.66 to 1.03 kcal/g for SC porridges. Among children aged 12-23 months, mean energy intake from all porridges with amylase (135-164 kcal/meal) was significantly higher compared to control SC+ porridges (84-98 kcal/meal; model-based average). Among children aged 24-35 months, mean energy intakes were also significantly higher from all porridges with amylase added (245-288 kcal/meal) compared to control SC porridges (175-183 kcal/meal). Acceptability of the porridges among caregivers was rated neutral to good, both for amylase-added and non-amylase-containing porridges. These findings suggest that, among 12-35-month-old, adding amylase to fortified blended foods significantly increased energy and consequently nutrient intake per meal by 67% for SC+ and 47% for SC. Moreover, amylase-containing porridges were well accepted by the caregivers.

Effect of extrusion cooking and amylase addition to gruels to increase energy density and nutrient intakes by Vietnamese infants.

Extrusion cooking and amylase addition are two processing methods used for the preparation of high energy dense (ED) gruels of suitable consistency. A quantitative study of energy and nutrient intakes of 67 infants aged 6 to 10 months in rural areas in Vietnam was carried out to compare the effects of these processes used alone or in combination. Twice a day, for a period of four days each, infants successively ate four gruels prepared from different flours based on a blend of rice, sesame and soybean: an instant flour obtained by extrusion cooking (gruel A), a ready-to-cook flour obtained by extrusion cooking plus alpha-amylase addition (gruel B), a flour produced by milling crude rice, sesame and roasted soybean plus alpha-amylase addition (gruel C) and without amylase (control gruel D). Gruels A, B and C had a high ED of respectively 94, 122 and 124 kcal/100 g while the control gruel D had a low ED (59 kcal/100 g). The intakes of the four gruels were inversely linked to their ED. However, despite the fact that gruels B and C had similar ED, larger intakes were obtained with gruel B, which was attributed to better acceptability. The average energy intakes of high ED gruels A, B and C, respectively 112, 134 and 117 kcal/meal, were significantly higher than that of gruel D (81 kcal/meal). Of the three processing methods, the one combining extrusion cooking and amylase addition gave the best results in terms of gruel acceptability and energy intake.

Effect of the consumption of high energy dense and fortified gruels on energy and nutrient intakes of 6-10-month-old Vietnamese infants.

The aim of this study was to test the ability of two new products, an instant infant flour and a food supplement containing amylases, to increase energy and micronutrient intakes of infants older than 6 months. Three groups of 48 infants were randomly constituted. Infants in groups 1 and 2 consumed at least twice a day gruel made either from the instant flour or from the food supplement. Infants from the control group received complementary foods prepared in the usual way. Each infant was surveyed during a whole day in order to measure feeding frequencies and characteristics as well as amounts of the different types of complementary foods consumed. Foods consumed by infants in the two experimental groups differed considerably in energy, micronutrient density and in consistency from the home-made complementary foods. Due to the incorporation of amylases, gruels made from the food supplement had a higher energy density, a more appropriate consistency and resulted in higher intakes per meal than gruels made from instant flour. In comparison with home-made complementary foods, both experimental products resulted in significantly higher energy and nutrient intakes. The two experimental products appeared to increase sufficiently both energy and nutrient intakes of infants to complement their breastmilk intake.