The fecal microbiotas of women of Pacific and New Zealand European ethnicities are characterized by distinctive enterotypes that reflect dietary intakes and fecal water content.

Obesity is a complex, multifactorial condition that is an important risk factor for noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. While prevention and management require a healthy and energy balanced diet and adequate physical activity, the taxonomic composition and functional attributes of the colonic microbiota may have a supplementary role in the development of obesity. The taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity of the fecal microbiota of 286 women, resident in Auckland New Zealand, was determined by metagenomic analysis.

Replacing Sedentary Time with Physically Active Behaviour Predicts Improved Body Composition and Metabolic Health Outcomes.

Background: Discretionary leisure time for health-promoting physical activity (PA) is limited. This study aimed to predict body composition and metabolic health marker changes from PA reallocation using isotemporal substitution analysis.

Methods: Healthy New Zealand women ( = 175; 16-45 y) with high BMI (≥25 kg/m) and high body fat percentage (≥30%) were divided into three groups by ethnicity (Māori = 37, Pacific = 54, and New Zealand European = 84).

Outcomes of a culturally informed weight-loss competition for New Zealand Indigenous and Pacific peoples: a quasi-experimental trial.

Background: Reducing obesity prevalence among marginalised subgroups with disproportionately high obesity rates is challenging. Given the promise of incentives and group-based programmes we trialled a culturally tailored, team-based weight-loss competition with New Zealand Māori (Indigenous) and Pacific Island people.

Methods: A quasi-experimental 12-months trial was designed.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity Is Associated With Body Composition and Metabolic Profiles of Pacific and New Zealand European Women With Different Metabolic Disease Risks.

To assess associations between physical activity (PA), body composition, and biomarkers of metabolic health in Pacific and New Zealand European (NZE) women who are known to have different metabolic disease risks. Pacific ( = 142) or NZE ( = 162) women aged 18-45 years with a self-reported body mass index (BMI) of either 18.5-25.

Predictors Linking Obesity and the Gut Microbiome (the PROMISE Study): Protocol and Recruitment Strategy for a Cross-Sectional Study on Pathways That Affect the Gut Microbiome and Its Impact on Obesity.

Background: The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over recent decades and is associated with considerable health inequalities. Although the causes of obesity are complex, key drivers include overconsumption of highly palatable, energy-dense, and nutrient-poor foods, which have a profound impact on the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Alterations to the microbiome may play a critical role in obesity by affecting energy extraction from food and subsequent energy metabolism and fat storage.

Dietary Patterns in New Zealand Women: Evaluating Differences in Body Composition and Metabolic Biomarkers.

The combinations of food consumed together (dietary patterns) may have a greater influence on health than nutrients or food groups consumed independently. This study investigated the relationship between dietary patterns, body composition and metabolic biomarkers of premenopausal New Zealand women from three ethnic groups. In total, 408 New Zealand European, Māori and Pacific women aged 16-45 years participated in the Women's EXPLORE (EXamining Predictors Linking Obesity Related Elements) study.

Adherence to daily dietary and activity goals set within a Māori and Pacific weight loss competition.

Background: New Zealand Pacific and Māori populations measure disproportionately high on the international body mass index (BMI). Information is needed on what behavioural weight loss goals to recommend and how to attract and retain them in interventions. Our team weight loss competition trial for participants with a BMI ≥30 used cash prizes to incentivise completion of nine daily behaviour goals.

An innovative team-based weightloss competition to reduce cardiovascular and diabetes risk among Māori and Pacific people: rationale and method for the study and its evaluation.

Background: Obesity rates for New Zealand (NZ) Pacific and Māori (NZ indigenous people) are among the highest in the world. Long-term results of weight management programmes for adults have been modest but primarily focused on individuals. This paper describes the rationale and methodology for a trial of a culturally tailored team-based weightloss competition conducted online with community level support.

Fat Sensation: Fatty Acid Taste and Olfaction Sensitivity and the Link with Disinhibited Eating Behaviour.

Perception of fat taste, aroma, and texture are proposed to influence food preferences, thus shaping dietary intake and eating behaviour and consequently long-term health. In this study, we investigated associations between fatty acid taste, olfaction, mouthfeel of fat, dietary intake, eating behaviour, and body mass index (BMI). Fifty women attended three sessions to assess oleic acid taste and olfaction thresholds, the olfactory threshold for -butanol and subjective mouthfeel ratings of custard samples.

Is Sweet Taste Perception Associated with Sweet Food Liking and Intake?

A range of psychophysical taste measurements are used to characterize an individual's sweet taste perception and to assess links between taste perception and dietary intake. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between four different psychophysical measurements of sweet taste perception, and to explore which measures of sweet taste perception relate to sweet food intake. Forty-four women aged 20-40 years were recruited for the study.

Exploring the challenges in obtaining physical activity data from women using hip-worn accelerometers.

Quality objective physical activity data are required to inform physical activity-based health improvement initiatives, however, various challenges undermine acquisition of such data. We examined the efficacy and challenges of a hip-worn accelerometry protocol in women. Specific objectives included determining accelerometer-wear-compliance rates and understanding the barriers and acceptability of wearing accelerometers.

Effect of mouth rinsing and ingestion of carbohydrate solutions on mood and perceptual responses during exercise.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether mouth rinsing or ingesting carbohydrate (CHO) solutions impact on perceptual responses during exercise.

Methods: Nine moderately trained male cyclists underwent a 90-min glycogen-reducing exercise, and consumed a low CHO meal, prior to completing an overnight fast. A 1-h cycle time trial was performed the following morning.

Could Vaping be a New Weapon in the Battle of the Bulge?

Obesity is set to overtake tobacco smoking in many countries as the primary cause of several high-cost diseases. Tobacco smoking mitigates weight gain through nicotine's effect on the brain and metabolism. Smoking, however, is associated with many illnesses and premature death and appropriately has been discouraged leading to declining prevalence rates.

Understanding Pasifika youth and the obesogenic environment, Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand.

Aim: In New Zealand, the burden of obesity is greatest among Pacific people, especially in children and adolescents. We investigated the factors of the obesogenic environment that were indigenous to Pasifika youths' social-cultural context, their food purchasing behaviours, and associated anthropometric measures.

Methods: An exploratory study of 30 Pasifika youth aged 16-24 years in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.

Carbohydrate mouth rinsing has no effect on power output during cycling in a glycogen-reduced state.

Background: The effect of mouth rinsing with a carbohydrate (CHO) solution on exercise performance is inconclusive with no benefits observed in the fed state. This study examined the effect of CHO mouth rinse or CHO ingestion on performance in 9 moderately trained male cyclists.

Methods: Four trials were undertaken, separated by 7 days, in a randomized, counterbalanced design.

Diet-induced obesity and prenatal undernutrition lead to differential neuroendocrine gene expression in the hypothalamic arcuate nuclei.

Previously we reported that prenatal undernutrition (UN) leads to a dysregulation of appetite suppression through alterations in hypothalamic neuropeptide gene expression. In the current study, we expand our observations and investigate neuroendocrine transcriptional responses and central leptin sensitivity within the arcuate nucleus of rats exposed to prenatal UN or a postnatal high-fat diet (HF). Pregnant Wistar rats were fed a standard chow diet either ad libitum (AD) or at 30 % of AD intake throughout gestation (UN) resulting in either control or intrauterine growth-restricted female offspring.

Predictors and risks of body fat profiles in young New Zealand European, Māori and Pacific women: study protocol for the women's EXPLORE study.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) (kg/m(2)) is used internationally to assess body mass or adiposity. However, BMI does not discriminate body fat content or distribution and may vary among ethnicities. Many women with normal BMI are considered healthy, but may have an unidentified "hidden fat" profile associated with higher metabolic disease risk.

Metabolic programming of adipose tissue structure and function in male rat offspring by prenatal undernutrition.

Background: A number of different pathways to obesity with different metabolic outcomes are recognised. Prenatal undernutrition in rats leads to increased fat deposition in adulthood. However, the form of obesity is metabolically distinct from obesity induced through other pathways (e.

Multi-omic integrated networks connect DNA methylation and miRNA with skeletal muscle plasticity to chronic exercise in Type 2 diabetic obesity.

Epigenomic regulation of the transcriptome by DNA methylation and posttranscriptional gene silencing by miRNAs are potential environmental modulators of skeletal muscle plasticity to chronic exercise in healthy and diseased populations. We utilized transcriptome networks to connect exercise-induced differential methylation and miRNA with functional skeletal muscle plasticity. Biopsies of the vastus lateralis were collected from middle-aged Polynesian men and women with morbid obesity (44 kg/m(2) ± 10) and Type 2 diabetes before and following 16 wk of resistance (n = 9) or endurance training (n = 8).

High-fat diets rich in ω-3 or ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids have distinct effects on lipid profiles and lipid peroxidation in mice selected for either high body weight or leanness.

Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the response of muscle lipid peroxidation and the fatty-acid profile of three groups of mice-high body weight (DU6) obesity-prone mice, high treadmill performance (DUhTP) lean mice, and unselected control mice (DUK) fed high-fat diets (HFDs) rich in ω-3 or ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA).

Methods: The isocaloric HFDs were enriched with either ω-3 PUFA (27% fish oil, ω-3 HFD) or ω-6 PUFA (27% sunflower oil, ω-6 HFD), and the control group was fed standard chow (7.2% fat).

Postnatal development of metabolic flexibility and enhanced oxidative capacity after prenatal undernutrition.

Metabolic flexibility is the body's ability to adapt to changing energy demand and nutrient supply. Maternal undernutrition causes growth restriction at birth and subsequent obesity development. Intriguingly, metabolic flexibility is maintained due to adaptations of muscle tissue.

Dietary methyl donor deficiency during pregnancy in rats shapes learning and anxiety in offspring.

Two important lines of research have enhanced our understanding of the molecular role of nutrition in influencing behavior. First, exposure to an adverse environment during early life can influence the long-term behavior of the offspring. Second, regulation of the nervous system development and functioning appears to involve epigenetic mechanisms that require a continuous supply of methyl group donors in food.

Pre- and postnatal methyl deficiency in the rat differentially alters glucose homeostasis.

Background/aims: Early-life methyl-donor deficiency is implicated in growth restriction and later-life development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We ascertained whether dietary methyl-donor deficiency in the mother during pregnancy or during postweaning growth in the rat would impair glucose homeostasis, insulin secretion and pancreatic endocrine development in young adults.

Methods: Effects of maternal methyl deficiency (90% deficiency in methionine, folate and choline) were compared with those of postweaning methyl deficiency and with control diets for effects on growth, impaired glucose tolerance, insulin secretion and pancreas development in offspring.

Metabolic responses to high-fat diets rich in n-3 or n-6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in mice selected for either high body weight or leanness explain different health outcomes.

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that diets high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) confer health benefits by improving insulin sensitivity and lipid metabolism in liver, muscle and adipose tissue.

Methods: The present study investigates metabolic responses in two different lines of mice either selected for high body weight (DU6) leading to rapid obesity development, or selected for high treadmill performance (DUhTP) leading to a lean phenotype. At 29 days of age the mice were fed standard chow (7.