Chemopreventive effect of natural dietary compounds on xenobiotic-induced toxicity

Contaminants (or pollutants) that affect human health have become an important issue, spawning a myriad of studies on how to prevent harmful contaminant-induced effects. Recently, a variety of biological functions of natural dietary compounds derived from consumed foods and plants have been demonstrated in a number of studies. Natural dietary compounds exhibited several beneficial effects for the prevention of disease and the inhibition of chemically-induced carcinogenesis. Contaminant-induced toxicity and carcinogenesis are mostly attributed to the mutagenic activity of reactive metabolites and the disruption of normal biological functions. Therefore, the metabolic regulation of hazardous chemicals is key to reducing contaminant-induced adverse health effects. Moreover, promoting contaminant excretion from the body through Phase I and II metabolizing enzymes is also a useful strategy for reducing contaminant-induced toxicity. This review focuses on summarizing the natural dietary compounds derived from common dietary foods and plants and their possible mechanisms of action in the prevention/suppression of contaminant-induced toxicity.     

The gut microbiota and lipid metabolism: implications for human health and coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of mortality in Western societies, affecting about one third of the population before their seventieth year. Over the past decades modifiable risk factors of CHD have been identified, including smoking and diet. These factors when altered can have a significant impact on an individuals' risk of developing CHD, their overall health and quality of life. There is strong evidence suggesting that dietary intake of plant foods rich in fibre and polyphenolic compounds, effectively lowers the risk of developing CHD. However, the efficacy of these foods often appears to be greater than the sum of their recognised biologically active parts. Here we discuss the hypothesis that beneficial metabolic and vascular effects of dietary fibre and plant polyphenols are due to an up regulation of the colon-systemic metabolic axis by these compounds. Fibres and many polyphenols are converted into biologically active compounds by the colonic microbiota. This microbiota imparts great metabolic versatility and dynamism, with many of their reductive or hydrolytic activities appearing complementary to oxidative or conjugative human metabolism. Understanding these microbial activities is central to determining the role of different dietary components in preventing or beneficially impacting on the impaired lipid metabolism and vascular dysfunction that typifies CHD and type II diabetes. This approach lays the foundation for rational selection of health promoting foods, rational target driven design of functional foods, and provides an essential thus-far, overlooked, dynamic to our understanding of how foods recognised as "healthy" impact on the human metabonome.     

Dietary intake and bone status with aging

Osteoporosis and related fractures represent major public health problems that are expected to increase dramatically in importance as the population ages. Dietary risk factors are particularly important, as they are modifiable. However, most of the attention to dietary risk factors for osteoporosis has focused almost exclusively on calcium and vitamin D. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the effects of a variety of other nutrients on bone status. These include minerals--magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc, silicon, sodium; vitamins--vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B12, vitamin A; and macronutrients--protein, fatty acids, sugars. In addition, foods and food components, including milk, fruit and vegetables, soy products, carbonated beverages, mineral water, dietary fiber, alcohol and caffeine have recently been examined. Together the evidence clearly suggests that prevention of bone loss through diet is complex and involves many nutrients and other food constituents. For many, results remain inconclusive and in some cases contradictory. However, it is increasingly clear that our exposure to a complex of nutrients and food constituents interacts to affect bone status. In addition to identifying the role of individual components, there is a great need to understand the interactions of these factors within diets and, increasingly, in the presence of nutrient supplements. Furthermore, genetic factors are likely to interact with these dietary exposures, increasing the complexity of these effects. With advances in both genetics and nutrition, improved understanding of all these interactions will contribute to effective recommendations for prevention of bone loss and osteoporosis in the aging population.     

Role of FOSHU (food for specified health uses) for healthier life

Proper combination of diet, exercise and rest is important for healthier life. Concerning diet in particular, proper balance of nutrient intake and avoidance of its excess or deficiency are essential to keep good health and thus, not to induce risks leading to lifestyle-related diseases. Even nutrients and functional ingredients in foods are chemical substances but we need to draw a line of demarcation between such substances based on long history of dietary habits and novel substances and/or xenobiotics. However, even FOSHU contains highly purified or concentrated functional ingredients present in ordinary foods and thus, it is very important to take safety issues into consideration. FOSHU is the only type of food product (not ingredients) that can carry health claims and is composed of functional ingredients that affect the structure/function (physiological functions) of the body. These food products are intended to be consumed for the maintenance/promotion of health or special health uses by people who wish to control specified health conditions, such as gastrointestinal conditions and blood pressure. Therefore, FOSHU products target healthy people and people in a preliminary stage of a disease or a borderline condition. When the products are manufactured or distributed, permission or approval from the government is required after rigorous evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of proposed specified health uses. To understand the outline overall, comprehensive knowledge on maintaining health is required, i.e., structure/function of human body, pathogenesis of diseases, role of dietary life, nutrients and their metabolism etc., as well as understanding mechanisms of the effectiveness of FOSHU, which ranges over pharmacology, medicine, and food and nutrition.     

Medical foods for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition associated with cognitive loss, behavioural changes, functional ability decline and caregiver burden. Given the worldwide public health impact of AD, novel interventions to reduce suffering experienced by AD patients need to be developed. Foods may offer a mechanism for intervention complementary to drugs, devices, biologicals and vaccines. Apart from foods with health claims (including dietary supplements), medical foods are also being explored as an intervention option. The purpose of this article is to describe how medical foods may complement other interventions for AD patients by: (i) defining what a medical food is; (ii) discussing whether AD is a condition amenable to medical food intervention; (iii) reviewing current clinical trial data on medical foods used in participants with AD; and (iv) highlighting steps needed to establish a more comprehensive framework for developing medical foods for AD. While medical foods may be defined differently in other countries, the US Orphan Drug Act of 1998 defined a medical food as a food formulated for enteral intake, taken under physician supervision, and intended to meet the distinctive nutritional requirements identified for a disease or condition. For AD to be amenable to medical food intervention, it must: (i) result in limited or impaired capacity to ingest, digest, absorb or metabolize ordinary foodstuff or certain nutrients; or (ii) have unique, medically determined nutrient requirements; and (iii) require dietary management that cannot be achieved by modification of the normal diet alone. While these criteria are most likely met in advanced AD, identifying unique nutritional requirements in early AD that cannot be met by normal diet modification requires a better understanding of AD pathophysiology. A PubMed search using the terms 'medical food' and 'Alzheimer', limited to clinical trials published in English with human participants with AD aged >65 years and supplemented by other articles known to meet the inclusion criteria, revealed that only two medical foods, AC-1202 and Souvenaid? with Fortasyn Connect?, have clinical trial results available for discussion. As medical food development for AD is a relatively new endeavour, a window of opportunity exists for all stakeholders to develop a comprehensive framework for assuring that medical food interventions for AD achieve the highest possible scientific and ethical standards to warrant commercialization.     

Nutraceuticals--an emerging era in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases

Foods and nutrients play a vital role in normal functioning of the body. They are helpful in maintaining the health of the individual and in reducing the risk of various diseases. Worldwide acceptance of this fact formed a recognition link between "nutrition" and "health" and the concept of "nutraceuticals" was evolved. Nutraceuticals are medicinal foods that play a role in maintaining well being, enhancing health, modulating immunity and thereby preventing as well as treating specific diseases. Thus the field of nutraceuticals can be envisioned as one of the missing blocks in the health benefit of an individual. More than any other disease, the etiology of cardiovascular disease reveals many risk factors that are amenable to nutraceutical intervention. The scientific literature shows that several ingredients marketed for use in dietary supplements address each of these. The ability of nutraceuticals to positively influence cardiovascular risk factors should be recognized as an enormous opportunity in the treatment of a highly prevalent disease. Nutraceuticals hold promise in clinical therapy as they have the potential to significantly reduce the risk of side effects associated with chemotherapy along with reducing the global health care cost. In this review, an attempt has been made to summarize some of the recent research findings on garlic, omega-3-fatty acids, soy products, dietary fibres, vitamins, antioxidants, plant sterols, flavonoids, prebiotics and probiotics that have beneficial effects on the heart, in order to update the practising clinician on the benefit of using nutraceuticals for the management of cardiovascular diseases.     

日本保健功能食品管理制度及特定保健用食品批准情况概要

目的 通过研究日本的保健功能食品管理制度及特定保健用食品批准情况,为进一步完善我国保健食品管理法律法规提供参考,也为我国保健食品企业进入日本保健食品市场提供思路.方法 研究比较日本的保健功能食品管理制度与我国保健食品审批制度的异同.结果 日本在保健功能食品的政策引导、审批原则以及批准产品的剂型(形态)和配方的选择、安全性/有效性评价程序等方面与我国有较大差异.结论 中日两国保健食品审批管理政策各有特点,日本的保健食品管理制度中有值得借鉴的地方.     

Functional foods: salient features and clinical applications

The term "functional food" refers to foods or ingredients of foods providing an additional physiological benefit beyond their basic nutritional needs. Health benefits are best obtained through a varied diet containing fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and seeds. However, fortified foods and dietary supplements have been marketed and food industry have made functional food one of their current leading trends. Recently, the number of functional foods that have a potential benefit on health has hugely grown and scientific evidence is supporting the role of functional foods in prevention and treatment of several diseases. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension are the most important diseases that can be treated or prevented by functional foods; other diseases are osteoporosis, abnormal bowel motility, and arthritis. It has been estimated that 80% of cancer in USA have a nutrition/diet component suggesting a great impact of functional food and foods components on incidence and treatment of cancer. Numerous factors complicate the evaluation of scientific evidence such as the complexity of food substance, effect on food, metabolic changes associated to dietary changes, the lack of biological markers of disease development. This paper reviews the scientific evidence supporting this area regarding only those foods and ingredients in which a clear experimental and clinical evidence exists for their chemopreventive and therapeutic effects.     

Considerations when using longitudinal cohort studies to assess dietary exposure to inorganic arsenic and chronic health outcomes

Dietary arsenic exposure and chronic health outcomes are of interest, due in part to increased awareness and data available on inorganic arsenic levels in some foods. Recent concerns regarding levels of inorganic arsenic, the primary form of arsenic of human health concern, in foods are based on extrapolation from adverse health effects observed at high levels of inorganic arsenic exposure; the potential for the occurrence of these health effects from lower levels of dietary inorganic arsenic exposure has not been established. In this review, longitudinal cohort studies are evaluated for their utility in estimating dietary inorganic arsenic exposure and quantifying statistically reliable associations with health outcomes. The primary limiting factor in longitudinal studies is incomplete data on inorganic arsenic levels in foods combined with the aggregation of consumption of foods with varying arsenic levels into a single category, resulting in exposure misclassification. Longitudinal cohort studies could provide some evidence to evaluate associations of dietary patterns related to inorganic arsenic exposure with risk of arsenic-related diseases. However, currently available data from longitudinal cohort studies limit causal analyses regarding the association between inorganic arsenic exposure and health outcomes. Any conclusions should therefore be viewed with knowledge of the analytical and methodological limitations.     

Harnessing metabolomics for nutrition research

Comprehensive analytical technologies are rapidly becoming a cornerstone of modern nutritional sciences. Two of these technologies, mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), have proven highly informative for the global analysis of metabolites, commonly referred to as metabolomics. Metabolomics provides a powerful approach to study small molecules in order to better understand the implications and subtle perturbations in metabolism triggered by nutrients. By studying how dietary molecules can modulate the metabolome, researchers have begun to elucidate the molecular pathways by which nutrients affect health and disease, expand the current state of knowledge regarding how inter-individual variability contributes to differences in nutrient metabolism, and develop novel avenues of research for nutritional sciences. Although metabolomics has been more commonly used to study disease states, its use in the nutritional sciences is gaining momentum. The current review is written for the clinical researcher wishing to incorporate metabolomics into dietary intervention studies. This review will highlight the importance and benefit of identifying biomarkers that accurately reflect changes in nutrient intake and metabolism, and present numerous issues that can introduce variability into a dataset and confound a study's biological interpretation, including sample population demographics, the biological specimen selected, diurnal variation, collection methods, and sample storage parameters. Considering these important areas at the experimental design stage will ensure that metabolomics provides a comprehensive and accurate assessment of the molecular impact of a dietary intervention.     

The nutraceutical revolution: Emerging vision or broken dream? Understanding scientific and regulatory concerns

‘Nutraceuticals’ are a category of substances without a legal definition, often sold as dietary supplements or components of conventional foods. Nutraceuticals are considered to impart health benefits beyond ordinary nutrition; many nutraceuticals do improve health, but for others evidence is often equivocal or based on animal and/or in vitro data. Moreover, evidence that a component of a substance in a food has a beneficial effect often does not translate into benefits of a substance that has been isolated and consumed in greater quantities. Increasing regulatory requirements from multiple government agencies complicate the design, testing, and marketing of these substances. Dietary advice also is contradictory to much of the marketing of nutraceuticals as it emphasizes using whole foods and ensuring that the overall diet is adequate, rather than focusing on individual components. How the nutraceutical industry responds to these changing conditions will determine the health and growth of the industry over the coming decade(s).     

A 4-Week Nutrition and Therapeutics Course in an Undergraduate Pharmacy Program

Objective. To determine the effectiveness of an intensive 4-week nutrition course in increasing the knowledge of undergraduate pharmacy students.Design. A Nutrition and Therapeutics elective course was developed that covered the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, as well as nutrition labeling, food composition, functional foods, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, nutrition and cancer, osteoporosis, nutrient-drug interactions, nutritional supplements, weight management, and infant feeding. The course was taught using lectures, student-focused tutorials featuring evidence-based practice, problem-based learning exercises, case-based scenarios, media examples, video clips from the lay press, and articles from the professional/scientific literature.Assessment. A self-administered, validated questionnaire on dietary recommendations, sources of nutrients, choosing everyday foods, and diet-disease relationship was administered prior to and after completion of the course. Students’ scores in all 4 areas improved significantly; however, their knowledge of the national dietary recommendations, sources of nutrients, and everyday foods high in nutrients was below that of members of the community.Conclusions. Nutritional education courses can increase the nutrition knowledge of undergraduate pharmacy students. The need for pharmacists to advise patients regarding nutritional supplements continues to increase the need for incorporating nutrition courses within curriculum.     

Chapter 4: THE ROLE OF GENOTOXIC CARCINOGENS AND OF PROMOTERS IN CARCINOGENESIS AND IN HUMAN CANCER CAUSATION

Abstract: The majority of human cancers have multifactorial environmental causes stemming mainly from lifestyle factors such as use of tobacco products through cigarette smoking, snuff dipping, or chewing, and specific nutritional elements and dietary practices. The mechanisms of these lifestyle factors can be analyzed in terms of specific genotoxic carcinogens, and of epigenetic agents or promoting factors. Tobacco and tobacco smoke contain not only genotoxic carcinogens but also, with a more important ultimate effect, cocarcinogens and promoters. Alcohol acts as a cocarcinogen with tobacco, possibly by modifying the metabolism of carcinogens in select organs. Genotoxic carcinogens as nutritional factors may be found in pickled, salted, and smoked foods and may be responsible for gastric cancer. Vitamins C and E and other antioxidants are effective inhibitors. Other types of genotoxic carcinogens are mutagenic chemicals found in broiled and fried foods, and these may be involved in cancer of the colon, breast, and prostate. Promoting effects derive from a high level of dietary fat, which has been linked epidemiologically and through laboratory studies to a higher risk for these cancers. Possible mechanisms by which fat exerts its effects are an increased concentration of bile acids in the stool, as related to colon cancer, and which may be countered by a high cereal fiber diet, to increase stool bulk. In relation to breast or prostate cancer, fat may exert its effect on complex hormonal balances, and also on membrane composition. These promoting effects, whether associated with tobacco smoke or nutrition, are highly dose-dependent, and provided the insult is not too far advanced, reversible. Thus, lowering the dosage, or eliminating the effect as in smoking cessation should have an appreciable effect in reducing overt disease development, and do so fairly promptly. This may apply also to a reduction of second disease in cases where a first occurrence has been successfully treated by conventional means.     

Nutrition knowledge and food choice among black students in South Africa

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviour, and to assess the perceived influences on food selection among Black students in South Africa. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: University of the North and two semi-urban Secondary Schools. SUBJECTS: 213 second year social science university students, 104 (48.2%) male and 112 (51.9%) female, and 199 Grade 11 secondary school students, 67 male (32.7%) and 132 female (66.3%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire and a Food Choice Questionnaire. RESULTS: Generally, students seemed to have below average nutrition knowledge levels. University students had significantly more nutrition knowledge than secondary school students. Dietary recommendations were associated with source of nutrients and diet-disease relationships, and sources of nutrients were associated with diet-disease relationships. Choosing everyday foods was not associated with dietary recommendations, source of nutrients, and diet-disease relationships. Among both university and secondary school students the three highest food choice factors included health, sensory appeal and mood. CONCLUSION: Below average nutrition knowledge levels were found. Choosing everyday food seemed to be not associated with nutrition knowledge, and food choice was not only influenced by health but also sensory appeal and mood.     

Postmarket Surveillance to Determine Nutritional Impact of Macronutrient Substitutes

The nutritional impact of a macronutrient substitute can only be determined after the substitute has been approved for use in foods and there is widespread use by the population over time. Modeling and experimental studies have predictive value, but they cannot replace real life in which the choice of foods is influenced by labeling and advertising aimed at promoting consumption on the basis of reduced sugar, fat, and/or energy. Impacts could include alterations in the energy distribution of the diet and changes in the intakes of essential nutrients. For this reason, postmarket surveillance (PMS) of consumption patterns of macronutrient substitutes has been proposed as a condition of approval of macronutrient substitutes and/or extending permitted uses. PMS should be conducted on a representative sample of the population, should allow comparisons over time, and should collect data on food consumption patterns, nutrient intakes, and frequency of consumption of macronutrient substitutes. This is a more detailed and costly form of PMS than measuring actual product consumption.     

Dietary isoflavones in the prevention of cardiovascular disease--a molecular perspective.

The Food and Drugs Administration has approved a health claim for soy based on clinical trials and epidemiological data indicating that high soy consumption is associated with a lower risk of coronary artery disease. Soy products contain a group of compounds called isoflavones, with genistein and daidzein being the most abundant. A number of cardioprotective benefits have been attributed to dietary isoflavones including a reduction in LDL cholesterol, an inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokines, cell adhesion proteins and inducible nitric oxide production, potential reduction in the susceptibility of the LDL particle to oxidation, inhibition of platelet aggregation and an improvement in vascular reactivity. There is increasing interest in the use of nutrigenomic methods to understand the mechanisms by which isoflavones induce these changes, and in the use of nutrigenetics to understand why the effects vary between individuals. Nutrigenomics is a rapidly growing field making use of molecular biology methodologies, such as microarray technology and proteomics, to study how specific nutrients or diets affect gene expression and cellular protein levels. The analysis of differential gene expression and protein levels in endothelial cells, macrophages and smooth muscle cells is critical to elucidating the sequence of events leading to the formation of atherosclerotic lesions, and to understanding the potential anti-atherogenic properties of soy isoflavones. An increasing number of studies demonstrate a significant impact of genetic variation on changes in cardiovascular risk factors in response to dietary intervention. Nutrigenetic effects of this type have recently been reported for dietary isoflavones, and may help to explain some of the disparities in the current literature concerning isoflavones and cardiovascular health.     

婴儿饮食及生活习惯的干预效果分析

目的研究儿保门诊对婴儿饮食及生活习惯的干预效果。方法在重庆市城区随机抽取0³个月龄婴儿为研究对象,干预组接受本研究的所有干预措施,对照组按常规保健服务,定期监测两组婴儿的母乳喂养率、辅食添加时间及添加频次、睡眠状况等指标。结果干预组婴儿4个月内母乳喂养率、43个月龄婴儿为研究对象,干预组接受本研究的所有干预措施,对照组按常规保健服务,定期监测两组婴儿的母乳喂养率、辅食添加时间及添加频次、睡眠状况等指标。结果干预组婴儿4个月内母乳喂养率、4⁶个月龄辅食添加率较高(P<0.05),而对照组没有每天进食肉类、蔬菜、水果的频率较高(P<0.01);12个月龄时干预组婴儿白天睡眠时间较长(P<0.01),夜间睡眠时间较短(P<0.01),但两组全天睡眠时间无差异。结论儿保门诊可部分改善婴儿饮食生活习惯,而如何培养良好睡眠习惯还有待进一步研究。     

腰椎间盘突出症饮食指导模式的软件设计与应用

目的设计腰椎间盘突出症的饮食指导软件,使饮食指导能系统化和个性化相结合。方法将2007年1－12月在我科住院的200例腰椎间盘突出病人分两组,两组患者均采用保守治疗,对照组未对患者进行饮食指导;观察组对患者进行饮食指导。结果观察组的显效率（73％）和总有效率（91％）高于对照组（分别为61％、77％）;观察组起效时间（7．5天）短于对照组（10．6天）。结论本软件对腰椎间盘患者有帮助,也是疾病宣教的新突破。