The development of a dietary nutrient density educational tool and the investigation of its acceptance by Chinese residents from Henan province.

OBJECTIVES: Helping residents select nutrient-dense foods is a strategy to improve their diet quality. However, communication based on the nutrient-dense foods as a positive attribute has not been widely used in nutritional education. This study aimed to develop an educational tool based on the picture and guidance of "Chinese food guide pagoda (2022) ", extend it with the concept of nutrient density, and investigate its acceptance by Chinese residents from Henan province. METHODS: Three examples (one-day diet with high, medium, and low nutrient-rich food (NRF) 9.2 score, an indicator for evaluating dietary nutrient density) were designed for developing a dietary nutrient density educational tool. A self-designed questionnaire was conducted to investigate the acceptance of the "dietary nutrient density educational tool" among college students from Henan province on the basis of the theory of planned behavior. RESULTS: Among the three one-day diets used in the tool, with the decrease in the NRF9.2 score, the energy intake increased from 1686 kcal to 2363 kcal, the dietary fat-to-energy ratio increased from 28 to 42%, and the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) decreased from 0.97 to 0.87. A total of 851 college students completed the acceptance questionnaire. The average score of the acceptance was 4.07, with a total score of 5. This study showed that resident's intention to use the tool was correlated with family residence, perceptual behavior control, and subjective norms. These three factors accounted for 83.5% of the variation in behavior intention. CONCLUSION: To encourage residents choosing healthier foods, a dietary nutrient density educational tool was developed to expanding the current instructional tool-the Chinese food guide pagoda (2022). The acceptance questionnaire survey revealed that residents had good acceptance of the tool, and family residence, perceptual behavior control, subjective norms may strongly contribute to their acceptance and the intention to use of the tool.

Validation of the nutrient-rich foods index estimated by 24-h dietary recall method among adults in Henan province of China.

OBJECTIVE: A family of nutrient-rich food (NRF) indices was validated against the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) and their associations with obesity were tested. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. NRF indices include nutrients to encourage ranging from 6-11 (protein; fibre; vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin B12; Ca; Fe; K; Mg; Zn) and two nutrients to limit (saturated fat and Na), described as NRFn.2 (where n 6-11), based on reference amount of 100 g or 100 kcal using the NRF index family of algorithms. The percentage of variation in MAR (R2) was the criteria of index performance. Logistic regression models were applied to predict the association between NRF index and obesity. SETTING: Three communities in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 656 adults were recruited from Henan as the subjects. RESULTS: The NRF9·2 index, based on nine beneficial nutrients and two nutrients to limit, using the algorithm based on sums and 100 kcal, had the higher R2 values (R2 = 0·232). The OR for overweight (defined by BMI) in the 4th quartile (Q4) v. the 1st quartile (Q1) of the NRF9·2 index was 0·61 (95 % CI = 0·37, 0·98) after multiple adjustments. CONCLUSION: NRF9·2 index using the algorithm based on sums and 100 kcal gave the best predicted model for diet quality. NRF9·2 index score was associated with overweight defined by BMI, but it was not associated with central obesity. The NRF9·2 index is a valid tool to assess the overall diet quality among adults in Henan province of China.

Alcohol consumption patterns and the risk of sarcopenia: a population-based cross-sectional study among chinese women and men from Henan province.

OBJECTIVES: Sarcopenia is a clinically relevant syndrome with health, social, and economic implications. Alcohol consumption is one of the risk factors for sarcopenia, but it has not been fully investigated in Chinese populations. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between alcohol consumption patterns (including the volume and frequency of alcohol consumption) and sarcopenia or its elements among Chinese women and men from Henan Province. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was designed to collect information about nutrition and health in Henan Province, China, and a total of 680 individuals were studied. Sarcopenia was defined according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria updated in 2019. Alcohol consumption was calculated in grams per day and divided into three groups. Drinking frequency was divided into four groups. We assessed the likelihood that sarcopenia was associated with drinking patterns using multiple logistic regression analysis by odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CIs) after multiple adjustments. RESULTS: We found that men who consumed > 25 g of ethanol per day were approximately three times more likely to have low muscle mass (OR, 3.99; 95% CI, 1.10-17.05) or low grip strength (OR, 3.39; 95% CI, 1.33-9.92) than nondrinkers after multiple adjustments. In addition, males who consumed alcohol more than 4 times per week were approximately threefold to fivefold more likely to have low muscle mass (OR, 4.99; 95% CI, 1.24-25.55) or low grip strength (OR, 3.37; 95% CI, 1.40-8.74) than nondrinkers. Unfortunately, we did not find a relationship between alcohol consumption patterns and sarcopenia or gait speed among males, and there was no association between alcohol consumption patterns and sarcopenia or any elements. CONCLUSION: Heavy alcohol consumption and frequent drinking are important risk factors for low muscle mass and muscle strength in Chinese men from Henan province.

Bioactive Compounds in Citrus reticulata Peel Are Potential Candidates for Alleviating Physical Fatigue through a Triad Approach of Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Molecular Dynamics Modeling.

Physical fatigue (peripheral fatigue), which affects a considerable portion of the world population, is a decline in the ability of muscle fibers to contract effectively due to alterations in the regulatory processes of muscle action potentials. However, it lacks an efficacious therapeutic intervention. The present study explored bioactive compounds and the mechanism of action of Citrus reticulata peel (CR-P) in treating physical fatigue by utilizing network pharmacology (NP), molecular docking, and simulation-based molecular dynamics (MD). The bioactive ingredients of CR-P and prospective targets of CR-P and physical fatigue were obtained from various databases. A PPI network was generated by the STRING database, while the key overlapping targets were analyzed for enrichment by adopting KEGG and GO. The binding affinities of bioactive ingredients to the hub targets were determined by molecular docking. The results were further validated by MD simulation. Five bioactive compounds were screened, and 56 key overlapping targets were identified for CR-P and physical fatigue, whereas the hub targets with a greater degree in the PPI network were AKT1, TP53, STAT3, MTOR, KRAS, HRAS, JAK2, IL6, EGFR, and ESR1. The findings of the enrichment analysis indicated significant enrichment of the targets in three key signaling pathways, namely PI3K-AKT, MAPK, and JAK-STAT. The molecular docking and MD simulation results revealed that the bioactive compounds of CR-P exhibit a stronger affinity for interacting with the hub targets. The present work suggests that bioactive compounds of CR-P, specifically Hesperetin and Sitosterol, may ameliorate physical fatigue via the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway by targeting AKT1, KRAS, and MTOR proteins.

Intakes of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 and cardiovascular disease risk: a national population-based cross-sectional study.

Background: Only a few studies that investigated dietary intakes of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 in relation to cariovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to assess the association of dietary folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 with CVD in the United States population. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of 65,322 adults aged ≥ 20 years who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES 1999-2018. Before 2003, dietary intake data were assessed using a 24-hour dietary call, and two 24-hour dietary calls were used during 2003 and 2018. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CVD associated with dietary folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 were estimated using multivariate logistic regression models. Results: Dietary vitamin B6 intake were inversely associated with the odds of CVD. In males, the multivariable OR for the highest vs. lowest quartiles of vitamin B6 was 0.77 (95%CI: 0.61-0.97, Ptrend = 0.013) for the odds of CVD. In females, the adjusted OR for the highest quartile of vitamin B6 compared with the lowest quartile was 0.73 (95%CI: 0.56-0.95, Ptrend = 0.038) for the odds of CVD. No significant association was observed between dietary folate and vitamin B12 intakes and the odds of CVD. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that higher intake of dietary vitamin B6 may be associated with lower prevalence of CVD, suggesting that dietary vitamin B6 has major public health implications in the prevention of CVD in the United States population.