• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.sup1
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• pp.53-69
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To determine the weight change trend among the adult Turkish population after 1 yr of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and factors associated with weight change. MATERIALS/METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted between 26 February and 6 March 2021 using an online questionnaire that included questions for sociodemographic variables, eating habits, stress level, and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18. Those who weighed themselves 1-2 weeks before the pandemic was declared in Turkey and remembered their weight were invited to participate in the study. Trends in weight and body mass index (BMI) change were calculated. The variables associated with a 1% change in BMI were assessed using hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: The study was conducted with 1,630 adults (70.25% female) with a mean age of 32.09 (11.62) yrs. The trend of weight change was found to increase by an average of 1.15 ± 6.10 kg (female +0.72 ± 5.51, male +2.16 ± 7.22 kg) for the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rate of participants with a normal BMI (18.50-24.99 kg/m²) decreased to 51.91% from 55.75%. Consuming an "Increased amount of food compared to before the pandemic" was found to be the independent variable that had the strongest association with a 1% increase in BMI (β = 0.23 P < 0.001). The average change in the BMI was higher in older individuals than in those who were younger. A high stress level was associated with a decrease in BMI (β = -0.04 P = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the factors associated with weight change after 1 yr of the pandemic in the Turkish population was reported for the first time. A high stress level and increased weight gain trend still occur in Turkey after 1 yr of the pandemic.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.46-59
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Aster yomena (Kitam.) Honda (AY) has remarkable bioactivities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammation, and anti-cancer activities. On the other hand, the effects of AY against obesity-induced insulin resistance have not been reported. Therefore, this study examined the potential of AY against obesity-associated insulin resistance in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. MATERIALS/METHODS: An obesity model was established by feeding C57BL/6J mice a 60% HFD for 16 weeks. The C57BL6/When ethyl acetate fraction from AY (EFAY) at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg/day was administered orally to mice fed a HFD for the last 4 weeks. Normal and control groups were administered water orally. The body weight and fasting blood glucose were measured every week. Dietary intake was measured every other day. After dissection, blood and tissues were collected from the mice. RESULTS: The administration of EFAY reduced body and organ weights significantly compared to HFD-fed control mice. The EFAY-administered groups also improved the serum lipid profile by decreasing the triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein compared to the control group. In addition, EFAY ameliorated the insulin resistance-related metabolic dysfunctions, including the fasting blood glucose and serum insulin level, compared to the HFD-fed control mice. The EFAY inhibited lipid synthesis and insulin resistance by down-regulation of hepatic fatty acid synthase and up-regulation of the AMP-activated protein kinase pathway. EFAY also reduced lipid peroxidation in the liver, indicating that EFAY protected hepatic injury induced by obesity. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that EFAY improved obesity-associated insulin resistance by regulating the lipid and glucose metabolism, suggesting that AY could be used as a functional food to prevent obesity and insulin resistance.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.153-157
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: The residue dissipation pattern of pesticides for agricultural products during the pre-harvest period after the final application is important to prevent the maximum residue limit (MRL) violations in domestic and export markets. The MRL violations of carbendazim are observed more often in chamnamul by pesticide residue management surveys by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The residue level at the pre-harvest interval (PHI) and the residue dissipation constant from the critical good agricultural practice (cGAP) trials could be estimated to meet the MRL and pose a health risk to consumers. METHODS AND RESULTS: Chamnamuls were harvested at 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 days after application of carbendazim in accordance with critical GAP. The residue analysis in chamnanul was performed by HPLC-DAD with the C₁₈ column. The limit of quantitation of carbendazim was 0.04 mg/kg, and the recoveries were 74.4 - 95.8% at the two spiked levels (LOQ and 10LOQ) of carbendazim. The dissipation rates in chamnamul were calculated from the residues at the sampling days by statistical method at a 95% confidence level. The biological half-lives of residual carbendazim in the field trials 1 and 2 were 4.9 and 4.4 days, respectively. CONCLUSION(S): In this dissipation study, the residue concentrations at the recommended PHI were higher than the established MRL in Korea. Therefore, the MRL is proposed based on the residue data sets from the trials conducted at the same cGAP and the dietary exposure assessment.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.431-443
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Nobiletin (NOB), a citrus flavonoid, is reported to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health. However, there is limited research investigating the effect of long-term supplementation with low-dose NOB on high-cholesterol diet (HCD)-induced hypercholesterolemia and non-obese nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Therefore, we investigated the influence of NOB on hypercholesterolemia and NAFLD in HCD-fed mice. SUBJECTS/METHODS: C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal diet (ND) or HCD (35 kcal% fat, 1.25% cholesterol, 0.5% cholic acid) with or without NOB (0.02%) for 20 weeks. RESULTS: HCD feeding markedly reduced the final body weight compared to ND feeding, with no apparent energy intake differences. NOB supplementation suppressed HCD-induced weight loss without altering energy intake. Moreover, NOB significantly decreased the total cholesterol (TC) levels and the low-density lipoprotein (LDL)/very-LDL-cholesterol to TC ratio, and increased the high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol/TC ratio in plasma, compared to those for HCD feeding alone. The plasma levels of inflammatory and atherosclerosis markers (C-reactive protein, oxidized LDL, interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) were significantly lower, whereas those of anti-atherogenic adiponectin and paraoxonase were higher in the NOB-supplemented group than in the HCD control group. Furthermore, NOB significantly decreased liver weight, hepatic cholesterol and triglyceride contents, and lipid droplet accumulation by inhibiting messenger RNA expression of hepatic genes and activity levels of cholesterol synthesis-, esterification-, and fatty acid synthesis-associated enzymes, concomitantly enhancing fatty acid oxidation-related gene expression and enzyme activities. Dietary NOB supplementation may protect against hypercholesterolemia and NAFLD via regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism in HCD-fed mice; these effects are associated with the amelioration of inflammation and reductions in the levels of atherosclerosis-associated cardiovascular markers. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that NOB may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of HCD-induced hypercholesterolemia and NAFLD.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 2021

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Curcuma zedoaria R. (Zingiberaceae) has been used to treat headache, fever, and hypertension-related symptoms in Asian countries, including Korea, China, and Japan. We investigated whether dietary intake of a C. zedoaria extract (CzE) affected atherosclerosis in vivo. MATERIALS/METHODS: Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE^-/-) mice (n = 32) were fed a normal diet (ND), a high-cholesterol diet (HCD), an HCD containing CzE (100 mg/kg/day), or an HCD containing simvastatin (10 mg/kg/day) for 12 weeks. The anti-atherosclerotic effects were evaluated by observing changes in fatty streak lesions, immunohistochemical analysis, ex vivo fluorescence imaging, lipid profiles, and western blot analysis. RESULTS: The CzE-fed group showed a 41.6% reduction of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, CzE significantly reduced the levels of serum triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, the chemokine (C-X3-C-motif ) ligand 1, the adhesion molecules vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, and E-selectin; down-regulation of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, high mobility group box-1, and cathepsin levels in the aortic sinuses and aortas of ApoE^-/- mice were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the inclusion of a water extract of C. zedoaria in a HCD is closely correlated with reducing the risk of vascular inflammatory diseases in an ApoE mouse model.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.789-800
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed in Korea for breast cancer survivors. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Ninety-nine breast cancer survivors who completed an FFQ twice and three 3-day dietary records (DRs) between 2016-2017 were included. Energy and 14 nutrient intakes were calculated from FFQs and DRs. To determine the validity of the FFQ, energy-adjusted de-attenuated Pearson correlations between two FFQ assessments and the average of the three 3-day DRs were calculated, and to determine reproducibility, energy-adjusted Pearson correlations and degrees of agreement were calculated between the first and second FFQ assessments. RESULTS: Correlation coefficients of validity ranged from 0.29 (protein) to 0.47 (fat) (median value = 0.36) for the FFQ assessment and from 0.20 (riboflavin) to 0.53 (calcium) (median value = 0.37) for the second. Correlation coefficients of reproducibility ranged from 0.22 (sodium) to 0.62 (carbohydrate) (median value = 0.36). Regarding FFQ reproducibilities, percentage classifications of exact agreements for energy-adjusted nutrients ranged from 27.3% (sodium) and 45.5% (fat). A median 76.8% of participants were classified into the same or adjacent quartiles, while a median of 5.6% of participants were classified in extreme quartiles. Bland-Atman plots for the majority of data points of three macronutrients, calcium and vitamins A and C fell within limits of agreement. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that the newly developed FFQ for Korean breast cancer survivors has acceptable validity and reproducibility as compared with three 3-day DRs collected over a one-year period.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.801-812
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Diet planning in childcare centers is difficult because of the required knowledge of nutrition and development as well as the high design complexity associated with large numbers of food items. Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to provide diet-planning solutions via automatic and effective application of professional knowledge, addressing the complexity of optimal diet design. This study presents the results of the evaluation of the utility of AI-generated diets for children and provides related implications. MATERIALS/METHODS: We developed 2 AI solutions for children aged 3-5 yrs using a generative adversarial network (GAN) model and a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. After training these solutions to produce daily diet plans, experts evaluated the human- and AI-generated diets in 2 steps. RESULTS: In the evaluation of adequacy of nutrition, where experts were provided only with nutrient information and no food names, the proportion of strong positive responses to RL-generated diets was higher than that of the human- and GAN-generated diets (P < 0.001). In contrast, in terms of diet composition, the experts' responses to human-designed diets were more positive when experts were provided with food name information (i.e., composition information). CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the development and evaluation of AI to support dietary planning for children. This study demonstrates the possibility of developing AI-assisted diet planning methods for children and highlights the importance of composition compliance in diet planning. Further integrative cooperation in the fields of nutrition, engineering, and medicine is needed to improve the suitability of our proposed AI solutions and benefit children's well-being by providing high-quality diet planning in terms of both compositional and nutritional criteria.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.775-788
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Koreans is quite high; however, until recently, Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES) had not analyzed the vitamin D intake among Koreans. Additionally, the Korean Dietary Reference Intake for vitamin D was established based on insufficient evidence. Therefore, we investigated vitamin D intake and its relationship with bone mineral density (BMD) in Korean adults using the combined data from the 2009-2011 KNHANES. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in 11,949 healthy adults. Vitamin D intake was assessed using a 24-h recall method, and the BMD was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (< 20 ng/mL) was 64% in men and 77% in women. In women aged ≥ 50 yrs and men aged < 50 yrs, there was a significant positive correlation between vitamin D intake and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level after sun exposure adjustment. The BMD of postmenopausal women aged ≥ 50 yrs with a vitamin D intake of 5 ㎍/day or more was significantly higher than that of women with intake less than 5 ㎍/day. After adjusting for age, energy, and calcium intake, the vitamin D intake of the osteoporotic group was significantly lower than that of the osteopenia group in women. CONCLUSIONS: Since the relationship between vitamin D intake and BMD was observed in women aged ≥ 50 yrs, further research is needed to clarify these findings using cohort or randomized controlled trials.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.765-774
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTİVES: It is important to determine Dysfunctional eating behaviors such as dietary restraint and overeating tendencies in order to provide weight management and acquire the right habits in children. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire Children (DEBQ-C) with Turkish preadolescent children. MATERIALS/METHODS: This research included 440 preadolescents (9.3 ± 6.9 years and 235 girls, 205 boys). The instrument is divided into three subscales, each with 20 items. Emotional eating, restrained eating, and external eating are the three subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the construct validity of the Turkish version of the DEBQ-C, and Cronbach α values were computed to evaluate the subscale reliabilities. There were 20 observable variables and three latent variables in the hypothesized model. RESULTS: Fit indices for the hypothesized model were good (×2/degree of freedom = 1.96; root mean square error of approximation = 0.05; comparative fit index = 0.95; goodness of fit index = 0.93). These findings revealed that the Turkish version of the DEBQ-C has a factor structure that was identical to the three-factor structure of the original scale. The Turkish version of the DEBQ-C subscales has internal consistency coefficients ranging from 0.72 (external eating) to 0.86. (emotional eating). CONCLUSIONS: The DEBQ-C Turkish version is a viable and reliable tool for measuring overeating tendencies in Turkish preadolescents, according to the findings.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.700-715
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Chronic colitis is a risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC) development in both animals and humans. Previously, we reported that a diet rich in protein (with casein as the protein source) significantly increased the risk of mouse CRC development in a dose-dependent manner. In this study, we investigated the effects of different protein sources on the risk of colitis development. MATERIALS/METHODS: Balb/c mice were divided into 7 experimental groups: 20% casein (20C), 20C-dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), 40% casein-DSS (40CD), 40% whey protein-DSS (40WD), 40% soy protein-DSS (40SD), 40% white meat-DSS (40WMD), and 40% red meat-DSS (40RMD). Mice were fed an experimental diet for 4 wk and received 3% DSS in their drinking water for 6 days during the 4th wk of the experimental period. RESULTS: Compared to other groups, the 40CD group showed the most aggravated colitis with increased disease activity and inflammatory markers. In the 40RMD group, interleukin (IL)-6 levels were the highest among all the groups. The 40SD group showed conflicting effects, for example, elevated mortality and disease activity but decreased nitric oxide (NO) levels. The 40WD group showed attenuated colitis with increased IL-10 levels and decreased NO levels. The 40WMD group showed conflicting effects, including decreased NO levels and elevated fecal lipocalin-2 and IL-6 levels. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that, at levels of 40% in the diet, casein and red meat exacerbate colitis, whereas whey protein mitigates it the most effectively.