To compare the prevalence of overweight or obesity (ow/ob) with WHO BMI cut-off points, International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) cut-off points and Chinese BMI criteria and examine its potential factors among preschool children in Hunan Province.

A cross-sectional survey including anthropometric measurements and questionnaires about children’s information, caregivers’ socio-demographic characteristics and maternal characteristics. χ2 tests and univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression were performed to evaluate the possible factors of ow/ob.

Hunan, China, from September to October 2019.

In total, 7664 children 2 to 6 years of age.

According to Chinese BMI criteria, about 1 in 7–8 children aged 2–6 years had ow/ob in Hunan, China. The overall estimated prevalence of ow/ob among 2- to 6-year-old children was significantly higher when based on the Chinese BMI criteria compared with the WHO BMI cut-off points and IOTF cut-off points. According to Chinese BMI criteria, ow/ob was associated with residing in urban areas, older age, male sex, eating snacking food more frequently, macrosomia delivery, caesarean birth, heavier maternal prepregnancy weight and pre-delivery weight.

The prevalence of ow/ob in preschool children in Hunan Province remains high. More ow/ob children could be screened out according to Chinese BMI cut-offs compared with WHO and IOTF BMI criteria. In the future, targeted intervention studies with matched controls will be needed to assess the long-term effects of intervention measures to provide more information for childhood obesity prevention and treatment.

High burden of anaemia exists amongst rural adolescent girls in India. The objective of this study was to characterise anaemia in school going adolescent girls in rural Haryana, India.

Linear and multiple logistic regression analysis of data collected prior to an intervention trial was conducted. Participants were classified into anaemic (haemoglobin <12 g/dl) and non-anaemic group and were further classified into deficiencies of Fe, folate or vitamin B12, mixed, anaemia of other causes and inflammation.

Three schools in Ballabgarh block of Faridabad District, Haryana, India.

One hundered and ninety-eight non-anaemic and 202 anaemic adolescent girls (12–19 years).

Anaemic girls had 29·6 % Fe deficiency, 28·1 % folate or vitamin B12 deficiency, 15·8 % mixed deficiency and 9·7 % acute inflammation. Anaemia of other causes was found in 16·8 % of the anaemic participants. Girls with Fe and isolated folate deficiency had 2·5 times and four times higher odds of developing anaemia, respectively, as compared with non-anaemic girls. Fe deficiency with no anaemia was found amongst 11 % non-anaemic girls. Non-anaemic girls had a high prevalence of combined deficiency of folate or vitamin B12 (29·5 %) and acute inflammation (14·4 %).

The current strategy of Fe and folic acid supplementation alone will not suffice for achieving the desired reduction in the prevalence of anaemia as unknown causes and anaemia of inflammation contribute to a substantial proportion of anaemia. Integrating other nutrition-specific components like improving water, sanitation and hygiene practices with the ongoing micronutrient supplementation program will comprehensively tackle anaemia. Unknown causes of anaemia warrant further research.

Given that there is an inconsistency in the findings related to the relationship between coffee and caffeine consumption and symptoms of psychological disorders, we performed a cross-sectional analysis to examine the association between coffee and caffeine intake and symptoms of psychological disorders among adults.

In this cross-sectional study, 3362 participants were included. We assessed the coffee and caffeine intakes using a self-completed FFQ. Symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress were assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and General Health Questionnaire screening tools.

Fifty different healthcare centres located in the province of Isfahan, Iran.

This study was performed on 3362 Iranian general adults working in healthcare centres.

The mean age of participants in this study was 36·2 ± 7·8 years. After controlling for potential confounders, individuals who consumed coffee weekly or more had a significantly lower odds of symptoms of depression (OR 0·67; 95 % CI (0·46, 0·96)) and symptoms of anxiety (OR 0·57; 95 % CI (0·34, 0·95)) compared with those who did not consume coffee. However, no significant association was found between coffee intake and symptoms of psychological distress (OR 0·98; 95 % CI (0·68, 1·42)). No significant relationship was found between caffeine intake and odds of symptoms of depression (OR 0·94; 95 % CI (0·75, 1·16)), symptoms of anxiety (OR 0·90; 95 % CI (0·67, 1·20)) and symptoms of psychological distress (OR 1·13; 95 % CI (0·89, 1·42)).

Compared with lack of coffee intake, weekly or more coffee consumption might be correlated with symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Prior studies have found evidence of a relationship between food insecurity and functional limitations among older populations in the USA.

This is a longitudinal investigation of food security in relation to functional limitations, assessed as Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scores.

The Greater Boston, MA area.

1461 Boston Puerto Rican Health study participants, predominantly (70·5 %) female and aged 57·1 years (sd ± 7·6) at baseline followed for 6·2 (sd ± 0·98) years.

In cross-sectional analysis at baseline, participants reporting severe food insecurity had greater functional limitations (higher ADL; β = 2·34; 95 % CI (1·48, 3·19)) and higher IADL (β = 1·17, 95 % CI (0·68, 1·65)) compared with food secure participants. In longitudinal linear mixed models, severely food insecure participants at baseline had greater functional limitations over 5 years, as assessed by ADL (β = 1·74; 95 % CI (0·95, 2·53); P < 0·001) and IADL (β = 0·93, 95 % CI (0·48, 1·38)) compared with food secure participants. However, baseline food security did not significantly alter the 5-year trajectory in ADL (P-interaction between baseline food security and time for ADL and IADL = 0·41 and 0·47, respectively).

In this cohort of Boston area Puerto Rican adults, those who are food insecure had consistently higher ADL and IADL scores over time, compared with those who are food secure. Baseline food security did not appear to alter the trajectory in ADL or IADL score.

To estimate the prevalence and socio-economic inequalities in adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables in Peru between 2014 and 2019.

Analytical cross-sectional study. The outcome variable was adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, defined as the consumption of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per d (yes/no). We used concentration curves and Erreygers concentration index to describe socio-economic inequalities and a microeconometric approach to determine the contribution of each variable to inequality.

Peru.

Data from Peruvians aged 18 years or older collected by the Demographic and Family Health Survey.

The prevalence of adequate fruit and vegetable consumption did not change between 2014 (10·7 %; 95 % CI (10·0, 11·4)) and 2019 (11 %; 95 % CI (10·4, 11·7)). We found socio-economic inequalities in the adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, with wealthier individuals having a higher prevalence of adequate consumption compared to poorer individuals in 2014 (19·2 % v. 3·5 %) and 2019 (18·6 % v. 4·7 %). The decomposition analysis found that education, urban areas and being wealthy were the main factors associated with socio-economic inequality in adequate fruit and vegetable consumption, being structural problems of society.

Despite the current regulations on healthy eating in Peru, adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables remains low, and there are socio-economic inequalities between the poorest and wealthiest individuals. Our findings suggest that more efforts are needed to increase the intake and assess the disparities in adequate fruit and vegetable consumption.

To examine associations among neighbourhood food environments (NFE), household food insecurity (HFI) and child’s weight-related outcomes in a racially/ethnically diverse sample of US-born and immigrant/refugee families.

This cross-sectional, observational study involving individual and geographic-level data used multilevel models to estimate associations between neighbourhood food environment and child outcomes. Interactions between HFI and NFE were employed to determine whether HFI moderated the association between NFE and child outcomes and whether the associations differed for US-born v. immigrant/refugee groups.

The sample resided in 367 census tracts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN metropolitan area, and the data were collected in 2016–2019.

The sample was from the Family Matters study of families (n 1296) with children from six racial/ethnic and immigrant/refugee groups (African American, Latino, Hmong, Native American, Somali/Ethiopian and White).

Living in a neighbourhood with low perceived access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables was found to be associated with lower food security (P < 0·01), poorer child diet quality (P < 0·01) and reduced availability of a variety of fruits (P < 0·01), vegetables (P < 0·05) and whole grains in the home (P < 0·01). Moreover, residing in a food desert was found to be associated with a higher child BMI percentile if the child’s household was food insecure (P < 0·05). No differences in associations were found for immigrant/refugee groups.

Poor NFE were associated with worse weight-related outcomes for children; the association with weight was more pronounced among children with HFI. Interventions aiming to improve child weight-related outcomes should consider both NFE and HFI.

Schools can be an effective arena for food education. The Tasty School is a tailored teacher-driven food education model that provides tools for implementing food education in primary schools. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the Tasty School model on pupils’ eating patterns and experiences. We also aimed to assess the implementation strength of the Tasty School.

A quasi-experimental study was conducted during one school year 2019–2020 in fifteen intervention and ten control schools. The intervention schools implemented the Tasty School food education model. The pupils completed web-based baseline and follow-up questionnaires in class during a school day. The principals were interviewed after the intervention. The data were analysed using a mixed-effects model for repeated measures, accounting for the implementation strength and selected standardisation effects.

A total of twenty-five general Finnish primary schools.

1480 pupils from grades 3−6 (age 8–12 years) from five municipalities in Finland.

Percentages of pupils eating a balanced school meal increased in schools where food education was actively implemented (P = 0·027). In addition, pupils’ experience of social participation in school dining strengthened in schools where the Tasty School model was implemented (5-point scale mean from 2·41 to 2·61; P = 0·017).

Healthy eating patterns can be promoted by the active implementation of food education in primary schools. The Tasty School model offers a promising tool for developing healthy eating patterns and increasing social participation among pupils not only in Finland, but also potentially in other countries as well.

To evaluate the culinary content of key messages contained in food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) available at the global online repository of the FAO of the UN.

Document analysis was conducted in August 2021 with data extraction of key messages explicitly related to cooking present in FBDG. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis.

The FAO’s global repository of FBDG.

Not applicable.

Just over half (n 39; 53·4 %) of the seventy-three FBDG analysed included at least one key message about cooking. The Latin American and Caribbean FBDG presented the greatest amount and variety of content about cooking in the key messages, whereas the Near East and North America placed less emphasis on cooking. We identified three themes: (i) healthy food preparation (n 35; 61·4 % of the fifty-seven culinary key messages identified); (ii) food hygiene (n 14; 24·6 %) and (iii) the promotion of culinary practices (n 7; 12·3 %). Albania’s key message covered two themes (food hygiene and healthy food preparation) (n 1; 1·8 %).

FBDG are official documents that express recommendations for a healthy diet. As most of these recommendations throughout the world include foods that must be cooked prior to consumption, culinary content should gain more visibility and be presented more broadly in these official documents.

The involvement of unhealthy commodity corporations in health policy and research has been identified as an important commercial determinant contributing to the rise of non-communicable diseases. In the USA, health professional associations have been subject to corporate influence. This study explores the interactions between corporations and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), and their implications for the profession in the USA and globally.

We conducted an inductive analysis of documents (2014–2020) obtained through freedom of information requests, to assess key AND actors’ dealings with food, pharmaceutical and agribusiness corporations. We also triangulated this information with publicly available data.

The USA.

Not applicable.

The AND, AND Foundation (ANDF) and its key leaders have ongoing interactions with corporations. These include AND’s leaders holding key positions in multinational food, pharmaceutical or agribusiness corporations, and AND accepting corporate financial contributions. We found the AND has invested funds in corporations such as Nestlé, PepsiCo and pharmaceutical companies, has discussed internal policies to fit industry needs and has had public positions favouring corporations.

The documents reveal a symbiotic relationship between the AND, its Foundation and corporations. Corporations assist the AND and ANDF with financial contributions. AND acts as a pro-industry voice in some policy venues, and with public positions that clash with AND’s mission to improve health globally.

Eating a variety of nutritious foods is fundamental to good nutrition. However, this principle is challenged when recommendations seeking to improve the environmental sustainability of diets call for avoidance of foods considered to have a higher environmental footprint, such as animal-sourced foods. Our objective was to assess the implications for nutritional adequacy of protein choice across Australian adult diets preselected as having higher quality and lower environmental impact scores.

Each individual diet was assessed for variety of food choice within the ‘Fresh meat and alternatives’ food group defined in the Australian Dietary Guidelines, which includes protein-rich foods such as eggs, nuts, tofu and legumes in addition to animal meats. Diets were grouped according to variety score and whether they included only animal meats, only alternatives or a variety of meat and alternatives. Nutrient content was assessed relative to estimated average requirements (EAR).

Australia.

1700 adults participating in the Australian Health Survey

For diets with higher diet quality and lower environmental impact, the likelihood of achieving nutrient EAR significantly increased as variety of food choice in the ‘Fresh meat and alternatives’ food group increased (P < 0·001). Variety score and number of serves were also correlated (r = 0·52, P < 0·001) which is relevant since most diets did not meet the recommended minimum number of serves for this food group.

Greater variety within the ‘Fresh meat and alternatives’ food group is beneficial to meeting EAR and lower environmental impact diets can include three or more selections including foods of animal origin.