Browsing by Subject "Comparative Nutrition"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Dietary Quality In The United States: An Evaluation Of The American Diet Using The Mediterranean Diet Index(2003-12-01) LaFontaine, Laura Jean; Sejong BaeLaFontaine, Laura Jean, Dietary Quality in the United States: An Evaluation of the American Diet Using the Mediterranean Diet Index. Master of Public Health (Epidemiology), December 2003, 69 pp., 10 tables, 3 figures, reference list, 92 titles. Mediterranean Diet Index (MDI) score is positively associated with increased longevity in diverse populations. High scores are characterized by high intake of fruit, vegetables, legumes, fish, and grains; low intake of meat and dairy; moderate alcohol intake; and high monounsaturated to saturated fat ratio. Dietary quality 7,772 individuals ages 2 and older in the NHANES 1999-2000 sample was assessed using the MDI. Mean MDI scores were low overall and across all population groups. Highest mean scores (3.03-3.13) were observed in children 2-3 and adult men; lowest scores (2.76-2.77) were observed in adolescents. High scores were associated with foreign-born status, higher education level, increasing age in adults, and decreasing age in children.Item Do Social Factors Influence the Severity of Diabetes among Hispanics in Fort Worth?: A Cross-Sectional Study(2004-05-01) Moayad, Neda Zandi; Hector Balcazar; Manuel Bayona; Sue LurieNeda Zandi Moayad, Do social factors influence the severity of Diabetes among Hispanics in Fort Worth? A cross-sectional study. Doctor of Public Health, May 2004, 91 pp., 5 tables, bibliography, 99 titles. The Latino population is the fastest growing ethnic group in Texas, representing more than 35% of the total population. There is evidence that diabetes among Latinos has increased considerably in recent years. The prevalence of type II diabetes in Latinos ages 45-74 is three times higher than in the non-Latino whites of the same age group. The goal of this research was to assess the importance of selected potential prognostic factors to severe type II diabetes in Latino patients. Among other findings, the results of this study show that family history of diabetes, place of birth and having spent childhood in Mexico, preferring Spanish as the spoken language, having been educated in Mexico, receiving food stamps, smoking, being overweight and obsess, acculturation and low family cohesiveness were associated with severe diabetes. These findings indicate that level of family cohesiveness and acculturation and other variables might be predictors of diabetes severity.Item Genetic Engineering and the Food Supply(2000-12-01) Kennedy, W. Russ; Samuel F. AtkinsonAs food sources high in the trees became inadequate, our predecessors climbed to the ground and through centuries of adaptation learned to stand upright and cultivate plants. Plant cultivation has been practiced for more than ten thousand years with continuous improvements made to crop plants to meet the growing food needs of human domesticated animal populations. Biotechnology has been practiced for thousands of years with fermentations of fruits and grains to make wine and beer and the use of yeast in baking. More recently, advances in molecular biology allow the analysis and manipulation of genetic material to achieve desired changes in the organism. Transgenics or genetic engineering is the process of identifying specific genetic defects or desirable traits and altering an organism’s DNA by addition or deletion of specific DNA sequences. Nearly 100 million acres (40 million hectares) were planted in transgenic crops in 1999. The largest acreages of more than 40 different transgenic crops grown were in cotton, corn, soybean and rapeseed. Fifty-five percent of all cotton, 50% of soybeans, and 33% of corn grown in the U.S. in 1999 were transgenic varieties. The large plantings stem from fairly straightforward manipulations of single genes, such as the transferring to corn and cotton genetic material from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) which produces an insecticidal toxin or transferring to the soybean, corn, cotton, sugar beets, and canola a gene with resistance to herbicides, such as glyphosate. The American farmer is perceived to be the beneficiary of lowered production costs primarily through better weed and pest control and a reduction in pesticide use with accompanying environmental improvement. Agro-chemical companies, who for the most part have spearheaded research and development of these crops, became involved because they foresaw a declining market for pesticides. Another area of promise widely discussed in the scientific and popular press is the improvement of food quality and composition resulting from genetic engineering. Because plants and plant products provide much of the world’s food supply, it is only fitting that early applications of this technology be in this area. Recent estimates suggest that the market for transgenic seed has already reached several hundred million dollars per year and that more than 15 million hectares (37 million acres) were grown in the U.S. in 1998. Concerns of food risk to the food supply and environment that using transgenic methods present, although not always science based, have some merit and require careful scientific scrutiny.Item Lifelong vs. Late Life Tocopherol on Learning and Memory in Mice(2004-05-01) McDonald, Shelley R.; Michael Forster; Glenn DillonMcDonald, Shelley R., Lifelong vs. late life tocopherol on learning and memory in mice. Doctor of Philosophy (Biomedical Sciences), May, 2004, 132 pp., 1 table, 14 figures, bibliography, 122 titles. The purpose of these studies was to determine if vitamin E supplementation, a well-studied antioxidant, could improve the cognitive functions of old mice either by preventing age-dependent impairments or reversing age-related dysfunction. Cellular oxidative stress is believed to be a causal factor in senescence, and the brain appears to be particularly susceptible to oxidative damage because of a relatively high rate of reactive oxygen species generation without commensurate levels of antioxidant defenses. If oxidative stress indeed plays a role in age-related brain dysfunction, then it can be predicted that experimental interventions capable of lowering oxidative stress would either prevent or restore function. This was tested using apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, which have an increased susceptibility to neuronal oxidative damage, maintained on 3 different doses (2 mg/kg, 20 mg/kg, or 200 mg/kg/day) of dl-α-tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E) via supplemented food pellets from 8 weeks of age throughout behavioral testing when 6 or 18 mo of age. A separate experiment used wild type mice 24 months of age to examine whether or not a combination of vitamin E (123 mg/kg/day) with coenzyme Q10 (200 mg/kg/day) which leads to higher tissue levels of vitamin E, could improve brain functions in old mice. Mice were tested on multiple behavioral tasks that required utilization of various components of memory and learning, as well as sensorimotor testing. The highest dose of vitamin E prevented the decline of spatial memory in old apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, but did not prevent age-related impairments in learning and memory for discriminated escape. When old wild type mice were treated with the combined vitamin E and coenzyme W10, the mice learned and remembered to avoid a preemptive shock significantly more than old mice treated with vitamin E or coenzyme Q10 alone. A followup experiment with higher doses of coenzyme Q10 alone (250 or 500 mg/kg/day) resulted in no cognitive improvements. No treatments improved sensorimotor performance.Item Obesity and Risk of Stroke in NHANES I Follow Up Study(2002-12-01) Soman, Ashwini; Umed Ajani; Antonio Rene; Karan SinghSoman, Ashwini, Obesity and risk of stroke in NHANES-I follow-up study, Masters of Public Health (Epidemiology), December 2002. 79pp., 20 tables, 3 illustrations, bibliography, 46 titles. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the US. Role of obesity as an independent risk factor has been relatively well established for coronary heart diseases but not for stroke. Purpose of this study was to assess long-term risk of stroke due to obesity measured at baseline. The research was conducted using First National Nutritional Health and Examination Survey and its follow ups. Overall, increased risk of stroke was observed in obese individuals (BMI [greater than] 30 kg/m2). Similar association was observed in different subgroups of race, gender, those with or without diabetes and cardiovascular disease.Item Racial and Ethnic Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in U.S. Older Women: Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey(2006-08-01) Kurian, Anita K.; Sejong Bae; Karan Singh; Kristine LykensKurian, Anita K., Racial and Ethnic Differences in Cardiovasular Disease Risk Factors in U.S. Older Women: Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 2003 & 2004. Doctor of Public Health (Clinical Research), August 2006, 118 pp., 55 tables, 14 illustrations, references, 69 titles. Objectives- The study sought to determine if there were any significant racial and ethnic differences in six modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors in women aged 65 years and older. It also examined the dynamic relationships of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors. Methods- Data were extracted from the merged 2003 & 2004 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Prevalence estimates and 95% of each of the six cardiovascular disease risk factors considered (Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesities, Hypercholesterolemia, Smoking, and No leisure-time physical activity) were calculated by race/ethnicity. Multinomial (for indicator outcomes) and multiple logistic regression analyses (for binary outcomes) were performed. Path analysis was performed to assess the complex pathways by which race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors. Results- Of the 77,492 survey respondents included in the sample, there were 68,251 whites, 4,912 blacks, 3,656 Hispanics and 673 AIANs. The odds of the cardiovascular risk factors were higher in race/ethnicity minority women (non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, American Indian Alaskan Native) compared to white women aged 65 years and older. Socioeconomic status was found to be a moderator rather than a mediator of the relationship between race/ethnicity and cardiovascular disease risk factors. The re-specified model with the behavioral risk factors (smoking and no leisure-time physical activity) as mediators was deemed a good fit to the data. Age, race/ethnicity, SES, smoking and leisure-time physical activity were found to have significant direct, indirect and total effects on cardiovascular disease risk factors. Conclusions- There is a need to find better ways to measure race/ethnicity, and future research should consider the impact of more fundamental determinants of CVD risk factors. Area-based measures, such as neighborhood conditions, should also be given consideration for influencing these risk factors. Identification of potential mediating and moderating factors in these pathways (for example, sense of personal control or social support) will help clinicians and public health professionals to develop culturally sensitive intervention or prevention programs specifically targeted toward risk burdens in each of these populations.Item The Effect of Late-Life Antioxidant Supplementaion on Brain Function(2007-10-01) Shetty, Ritu A.; Forster, Michael J.; Sumien, Nathalie; Singh, MeharvanShetty, Ritu A., The effect of late-life antioxidant supplementation on brain function. Doctor of Philolosophy (Biomedical Sciences), October, 2007, 229 pp., 5 tables, 18 figures, bibliography, 284 titles. Purpose: Aging is associated with mild to moderate loss in brain function over time. These functional losses are thought to involve reversible changes disrupting important cellular signaling processes. One of the theories that proposes to explain the reversible losses of function is the ‘oxidative stress’ hypothesis of aging. According to the oxidative stress hypothesis, there is an inherent cellular imbalance between production of oxidants and antioxidative defenses that increases with age and that leads to an increase in oxidative damage to macromolecules that are involved in crucial cell functions. Previous studies have established a link between these cellular changes associated with aging and the impairments in cognitive and psychomotor function. Further it has also been suggested that dietary interventions can modulate the level of oxidative stress, reducing oxidative damage and perhaps even ameliorate age-related dysfunction. Most interventions have been implemented relatively early in life and maintained until old age. However, the current studies were based on the rationale that interventions initiated in late-life could potentially lower oxidative damage and thereby alter cellular components responsible for functional impairments. Methods: In study I, separate groups of young (4 months) and old mice male C57BL/6 (18 months) were fed a control diet or a diet supplemented with low (105 mg/kg/day) or high (368 mg/kg/day) concentrations of CoQ10 for a period of 15 weeks. After 6 weeks on the diets, the mice were subjected to a battery of age-sensitive behavioral tests. In study II, separate groups of male C57BL/6 young mice aged 3-4 months and old mice 17-18 months (total of n=124) were fed ad libitum either a control diet (cyclodextrin in base diet), or the same diet supplemented with D- α-tocopheryl acetate (Toc) (200 mg/kg body wt/day), or with CoQ10 (148 mg/kg body wt/day) or a diet containing a combination of CoQ and Toc (200 mg/kg body wt/day + 148 mg/kg body wt/day) for a period of 13-14 weeks. In both studies mice were subjected to a battery of behavioral tests that required utilization of various component of memory and learning and sensorimotor reflexes. Results: In study I, low CoQ10 failed to improve cognitive and psychomotor function in old mice. However, the high CoQ10 marginally helped the old mice to navigate in the swim maze task with greater efficiency than control mice but did not affect their performance in probe trials. Conversely, the high CoQ10 diet selectively impaired the spatial performance in young mice in probe trials. The results from study I indicated that intake of CoQ10 initiated in late-life had minimal beneficial effects on behavior function. In study II, an age-associated decline of behavioral functioning was observed; however CoQ10 treatment failed to improve the performance of mice in any of the age-sensitive tests. Moreover, young mice supplemented with a high CoQ diet performed poorly in the probe trial in a swim maze task, suggesting a possible deleterious effect. The results from study II indicated that there was a significant improvement in performance of old mice in the coordinated running and the learning ability in discriminated avoidance task when supplemented with Toc or with a combination of CoQ10 and Toc. Conclusions: In conclusion, these studies suggest that benefits of single antioxidant supplementation when initiated late in life are limited; however dietary supplementation with a combination of antioxidants has a greater impact in reversing age-related decline in behavioral function.