Macronutrient composition of a morning meal and the maintenance of attention throughout the morning.

BACKGROUND: At present, the impact of macronutrient composition and nutrient intake on sustained attention in adults is unclear, although some prior work suggests that nutritive interventions that engender slow, steady glucose availability support sustained attention after consumption. A separate line of evidence suggests that nutrient consumption may alter electroencephalographic markers of neurophysiological activity, including neural oscillations in the alpha-band (8-14 Hz), which are known to be richly interconnected with the allocation of attention. It is here investigated whether morning ingestion of foodstuffs with differing macronutrient compositions might differentially impact the allocation of sustained attention throughout the day as indexed by both behavior and the deployment of attention-related alpha-band activity. METHODS: Twenty-four adult participants were recruited into a three-day study with a cross-over design that employed a previously validated sustained attention task (the Spatial CTET). On each experimental day, subjects consumed one of three breakfasts with differing carbohydrate availabilities (oatmeal, cornflakes, and water) and completed blocks of the Spatial CTET throughout the morning while behavioral performance, subjective metrics of hunger/fullness, and electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements of alpha oscillatory activity were recorded. RESULTS: Although behavior and electrophysiological metrics changed over the course of the day, no differences in their trajectories were observed as a function of breakfast condition. However, subjective metrics of hunger/fullness revealed that caloric interventions (oatmeal and cornflakes) reduced hunger across the experimental day with respect to the non-caloric, volume-matched control (water). Yet, no differences in hunger/fullness were observed between the oatmeal and cornflakes interventions. CONCLUSION: Observation of a relationship between macronutrient intervention and sustained attention (if one exists) will require further standardization of empirical investigations to aid in the synthesis and replicability of results. In addition, continued implementation of neurophysiological markers in this domain is encouraged, as they often produce nuanced insight into cognition even in the absence of overt behavioral changes. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03169283.

Whole grains and health: from theory to practice--highlights of The Grains for Health Foundation's Whole Grains Summit 2012.

The Grains for Health Foundation's Whole Grains Summit, held May 19-22, 2012 in Minneapolis, was the first meeting of its kind to convene >300 scientists, educators, food technologists, grain breeders, food manufacturers, marketers, health professionals, and regulators from around the world. Its goals were to identify potential avenues for collaborative efforts and formulate new approaches to whole-grains research and health communications that support global public health and business. This paper summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities that researchers and nutrition educators face in expanding the knowledge base on whole grains and health and in translating and disseminating that knowledge to consumers. The consensus of the summit was that effective, long-term, public-private partnerships are needed to reach across the globe and galvanize the whole-grains community to collaborate effectively in translating whole-grains science into strategies that increase the availability and affordability of more healthful, grain-based food products. A prerequisite of that is the need to build trust among diverse multidisciplinary professionals involved in the growing, producing, marketing, and regulating of whole-grain products and between the grain and public health communities.

Nutrition and neurodevelopment in children: focus on NUTRIMENTHE project.

There is growing evidence that early nutrition affects later cognitive performance. The idea that the diet of mothers, infants, and children could affect later mental performance has major implications for public health practice and policy development and for our understanding of human biology as well as for food product development, economic progress, and future wealth creation. To date, however, much of the evidence is from animal, retrospective studies and short-term nutritional intervention studies in humans. The positive effect of micronutrients on health, especially of pregnant women eating well to maximise their child's cognitive and behavioural outcomes, is commonly acknowledged. The current evidence of an association between gestational nutrition and brain development in healthy children is more credible for folate, n-3 fatty acids, and iron. Recent findings highlight the fact that single-nutrient supplementation is less adequate than supplementation with more complex formulae. However, the optimal content of micronutrient supplementation and whether there is a long-term impact on child's neurodevelopment needs to be investigated further. Moreover, it is also evident that future studies should take into account genetic heterogeneity when evaluating nutritional effects and also nutritional recommendations. The objective of the present review is to provide a background and update on the current knowledge linking nutrition to cognition and behaviour in children, and to show how the large collaborative European Project NUTRIMENTHE is working towards this aim.

Potato phenolics impact starch digestion and glucose transport in model systems but translation to phenolic rich potato chips results in only modest modification of glycemic response in humans.

Beneficial effects of some phenolic compounds in modulation of carbohydrate digestion and glycemic response have been reported, however effects of phenolics from processed potato products on these endpoints are not well known. The aims of this study were to characterize phenolic profiles of fresh potatoes (purple, red, or white fleshed; 2 varieties each) and chips, and to examine the potential for potato phenolic extracts (PPE) to modulate starch digestion and intestinal glucose transport in model systems. Following in vitro assessment, a pilot clinical study (n=11) assessed differences in glycemic response and gastric emptying between chips from pigmented and white potatoes. We hypothesized that phenolics from pigmented potato chips would be recovered through processing and result in a reduced acute glycemic response in humans relative to chips made from white potatoes. PPEs were rich in anthocyanins (~98, 11 and ND mg/100 g dw) and chlorogenic acids (~519, 425 and 157 mg/100 g dw) for purple, red and white varieties respectively. While no significant effects were observed on starch digestion by α-amylase and the α-glucosidases, PPEs significantly (p<0.05) decreased the rate of glucose transport, measured following transport of 1,2,3,4,5,6,6-d7 -glucose (d7-glu) across Caco-2 human intestinal cell monolayers, by 4.5-83.9%. Consistent with in vitro results, consumption of purple potato chips modestly but significantly (p<0.05) decreased blood glucose at 30 and 60 minutes post consumption compared to white chips without impacting gastric emptying. These results suggest that potato phenolics may play a modest role in modulation of glycemic response and these effects may result in subtle differences between consumer products.

Consumption of a mid-morning snack improves memory but not attention in school children.

Muthayya, S., T. Thomas, K. Srinivasan, K. Rao, A. V. Kurpad, J.-W. Van Klinken, G. Owen and E.A. de Bruin: Consumption of a mid-morning snack improves memory but not attention in school children. Physiol Behav 00(0) 000-000, 2006.--This study aimed to determine whether consumption of a mid-morning snack with appropriate energy compensation through a smaller breakfast or lunch, resulted in improved cognitive performance of 7-9 year old children with a low and high socioeconomic status (LSES and HSES, n=35 and 34 respectively). The children were each randomly assigned to three iso-caloric dietary interventions: control (standard breakfast, no snack and standard lunch), intervention A (small breakfast, snack, and standard lunch) and intervention B (standard breakfast, snack, and small lunch), using a cross-over design. The children were tested on three different days, each one week apart. Computerised tests of cognitive performance, consisting of memory, sustained attention and psychomotor speed, were performed during four sessions, i.e., prior to breakfast, after breakfast, after a mid-morning snack and after lunch. Having a mid-morning snack resulted in a smaller decline in immediate and delayed memory in LSES but not in HSES children. Having a snack did not influence sustained attention and psychomotor speed in either LSES or HSES children. This study shows that a more evenly distributed energy intake throughout the morning by consuming a mid-morning snack improves memory performance in school-age LSES children even when the total amount of energy consumed during the morning is not altered.

Nutrients for cognitive development in school-aged children.

This review considers the research to date on the role of nutrition in cognitive development in children, with a particular emphasis on the relatively neglected post-infancy period. Undernutrition and deficiencies of iodine, iron, and folate are all important for the development of the brain and the emergent cognitive functions, and there is some evidence to suggest that zinc, vitamin B12, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may also be important. Considerations for future research include a focus on the interactions between micronutrients and macronutrients that might be influential in the optimization of cognitive development; investigation of the impact of nutritional factors in children after infancy, with particular emphasis on effects on the developing executive functions; and selection of populations that might benefit from nutritional interventions, for example, children with nutrient deficiencies or those suffering from attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia.