Dietary fiber; nuts and cardiovascular diseases.

Dietary fiber has a range of metabolic health benefits. Through a variety of mechanisms; dietary fiber; and the viscous variety in particular; slows down gastric emptying and intestinal transit; decreases the rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption; and increases fecal bile acid excretion. Therefore; consumption of some types of soluble fiber can enhance satiety; which is […]

Nuts and Berries for Heart Health

Nuts are nutrient-dense foods with complex matrices rich in unsaturated fatty acids and other bioactive compounds; such as L-arginine; fiber; minerals; tocopherols; phytosterols; and polyphenols. By virtue of their unique composition; nuts are likely to beneficially impact heart health. Epidemiologic studies have associated nut consumption with a reduced incidence of coronary heart disease in both […]

Detoxification of Aflatoxin B1 and Patulin by Enterococcus faecium strains

Aim of the present study was to investigate the detoxification of aflatoxin B1 and patulin from aqueous solution by probiotic culture of Enterococcus faecium M74 and commercial culture of E. faecium EF031. The effect of the bacterial viability; incubation time and pH of the medium on the binding ability was tested. Also; binding stability was […]

Anti-inflammatory effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids in THP-1 cells.

The effects of linoleic acid (LA); alpha-linolenic acid (ALA); and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were compared to that of palmitic acid (PA); on inflammatory responses in human monocytic THP-1 cells. When cells were pre-incubated with fatty acids for 2-h and then stimulated with lipopolysaccharide for 24-h in the presence of fatty acids; secretion of interleukin (IL)-6; […]

Nuts: a new protective food against coronary heart disease

Recent epidemiological findings indicate that frequent nut consumption offers protection from fatal and non-fatal coronary heart disease events. Although human nutrition studies seem to indicate that nut consumption lowers total and LDL cholesterol; the unique nutrient composition of nuts invites speculation on other mechanisms of protection.

Scalping of flavors in packaged foods.

Food packaging, although an integral part of the food chain, has a major drawback in that, often, the packaging material interacts with the flavor constituents of the food, causing either a selective or an extensive loss of desirable food flavors or absorption of undesirable off-flavors from the packaging material, thereby resulting in an eventual loss […]

There are many Mediterranean diets.

Interest in Mediterranean diet began 30 years ago; when Ancel Keys published the results of the famous Seven Countries Study; Since 1945; almost 1.3 million people have come to Australia from Mediterranean countries as new settlers. There are 18 countries with coasts on the Mediterranean sea: Spain; southern France; Italy; Malta; Croatia; Bosnia; Albania; Greece; […]

Optimizing the plant-based diet.

Any attempt to optimize a plant‐based diet necessitates an identification of the features of the diet which confer benefit as well as any which may be associated with detrimental effects. The former task is more difficult than might be assumed as there is no doubt that some of the apparent health benefits observed amongst vegetarians […]

Fat in dietary guidelines around the world

Most countries throughout the world have developed nutrition guidelines in order to promote proper nutrition inside their borders. Although normally these guidelines include recommendations on dietary fat intake, these vary from country to country. Fat intake guidelines are usually affected by the level of affluence or poverty existing in the country and consequently sometimes these […]