Health literacy enhancement through food guide and hygiene education: a study among Taiwanese students.

The World Health Organization defined health as 'a condition of full physical, mental and social well-being'. Nutrition and food safety are intertwined and two of the most influential determinants of human health. This study primarily aimed to design and implement a specialized curriculum focused on food hygiene, and Taiwan's daily food guide to enhance health literacy among junior high students in Taiwan.

Effects of molecular weight fraction on antioxidation capacity of rice protein hydrolysates.

Rice protein was used as a starting material to provide rice protein hydrolysates (RPH) through enzyme-assisted extraction. RPH was further fractionated using ultrafiltration membrane (UF) and classified by molecular weight (MW; MW < 1 kDa, MW 1-10 kDa, and MW > 10 kDa). Peptides with MW < 1 kDa possessed superior antioxidant properties (p < 0.

Fermented Supernatants of GKM3 and GKK2 Protect against Protein Glycation and Inhibit Glycated Protein Ligation.

With age, protein glycation in organisms increases continuously. Evidence from many studies shows that the accumulation of glycated protein is highly correlated with biological aging and the development of aging-related diseases, so developing a dietary agent to attenuate protein glycation is very meaningful. Previous studies have indicated that lactic acid bacteria-fermented products have diverse biological activities especially in anti-aging, so this study was aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of the fermented supernatants of GKM3 (GKM3) and GKK2 (GKK2) on protein glycation.

Evaluating the Antioxidants, Whitening and Antiaging Properties of Rice Protein Hydrolysates.

Plant-derived protein hydrolysates have potential applications in nutrition. Rice protein hydrolysates (RPHs), an excellent source of proteins, have attracted attention for the development of cosmeceuticals. However, few studies have reported the potential application of RPH in analysis, and this study examined their antioxidant activities and the inhibitory activities of skin aging enzymes.

Enhanced thermal stability of green banana starch by heat-moisture treatment and its ability to reduce body fat accumulation and modulate gut microbiota.

The physicochemical properties (including morphology, pasting, and thermal properties) of resistant starch (RS) in green banana starch were analyzed after the heat-moisture treatment in the presence of citric acid (CAHMT) at different temperatures. Moreover, this study evaluated whether the administration of CAHMT banana starch could reduce body fat accumulation and modulate gut microbiota. Our results demonstrated that the CAHMT process (90 °C) resulted in a higher retention (80.

Impact of dietary ingredients on the interpretation of various fecal parameters in rats fed inulin.

In the present study, the influences of diets (i.e. chow and AIN-93 diets) on the interpretation of various fecal parameters including viable microbiota, moisture, weight, and short-chain fatty acids in rats fed different amounts of inulin (0.

Presence of spores and vegetative cells in rat intestine and feces and their physiological effects.

This study was aimed to investigate the presence of vegetative cells in the intestine and fecal samples in rats fed spores as well as to estimate the ratios of spores and vegetative cells in these samples. A two-step process has been developed to enumerate in different mixed bacterial samples, specifically (1) observation of yellow ring formation on modified GYEA medium upon incubation at 55°C, (2) microscopic examination of spore formation after 7 d of incubation. Our results have demonstrated the presence of vegetative cells in the intestinal and fecal samples in rats fed spores.

Changes in physicochemical properties of corn starch upon modifications by atmospheric pressure plasma jet.

The influences of atmospheric pressure plasma jet on different physicochemical properties of corn starch were evaluated after treated with the plasma jet (30 min) at different strengths (400 W-800 W). Our results demonstrated that residual aging effects of plasma on starch could be eliminated by washing the treated samples with distilled water at a ratio of 1:30, w/v. After plasma and washing treatments, significant (p < 0.

Inclusion of Fructooligosaccharide and Resistant Maltodextrin in High Fat Diets Promotes Simultaneous Improvements on Body Fat Reduction and Fecal Parameters.

This study investigated the effects of incorporating a mixture of fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and resistant maltodextrin (RMD) at a ratio of 1:2 on body fat accumulation and fecal bacterial parameters in rats. Our results indicated that high dietary fat consumption might effectively ( < 0.05) increase body fat, but consequently inducing a significantly ( < 0.

Application of corona electrical discharge plasma on modifying the physicochemical properties of banana starch indigenous to Taiwan.

Corona electrical discharge (CED) belongs to an atmospheric pressure cold plasma. In this study, raw banana starch (indigenous to Taiwan), which contained resistant starch and amylose at a level of 58.4 g/100 g and 14.

Classification and regulatory perspectives of dietary fiber.

This review discusses the history and evolution of the state of dietary fiber (DF) with account of refinements in extraction methods and legal definitions subsequent to the launch of DF hypothesis. For a long time, defining and regulating DFs relied heavily on their chemical compositions and analytical methods. Although chemical compositions and analytical methods still play an important role in the definition of DF, physiological activity has also been taken into consideration.

Natural Dietary and Herbal Products in Anti-Obesity Treatment.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is on the rise around the world. Common comorbidities associated with obesity, particularly diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease have an impact on social and financial systems. Appropriate lifestyle and behavior interventions are still the crucial cornerstone to weight loss success, but maintaining such a healthy lifestyle is extremely challenging.

Microspheres as carriers for lipase inhibitory substances to reduce dietary triglyceride absorption in mice.

The present study intends to use microspheres as a delivery system of chlorogenic acid (CGA) to investigate the influences of CGA microspheres on dietary fat absorption and fecal triglyceride excretion in a mice model. Microspheres have an average particle size of about 53.3 μm.

Variations in the efficacy of resistant maltodextrin on body fat reduction in rats fed different high-fat models.

Many studies have utilized a variety of methods to induce obesity in rodents, but they often received inconsistent results. The present study intended to use resistant maltodextrin (RMD) as a means to investigate the variations in its efficacy on body fat accumulation under the influence of four high-fat (HF) models of 23% or 40% total fat, comprising soybean oil, lard, and/or condensed milk. Results indicated that integrating condensed milk into the diets could help increase diet intake, boost energy intake, increase weight gain, and enhance fat formation.

Global hunger: a challenge to agricultural, food, and nutritional sciences.

Hunger has been a concern for generations and has continued to plague hundreds of millions of people around the world. Although many efforts have been devoted to reduce hunger, challenges such as growing competitions for natural resources, emerging climate changes and natural disasters, poverty, illiteracy, and diseases are posing threats to food security and intensifying the hunger crisis. Concerted efforts of scientists to improve agricultural and food productivity, technology, nutrition, and education are imperative to facilitate appropriate strategies for defeating hunger and malnutrition.

Intestinal health benefits of the water-soluble carbohydrate concentrate of wild grape ( Vitis thunbergii ) in hamsters.

The dose-response relationship of the water-soluble carbohydrate concentrate (WSCC) from wild grape ( Vitis thunbergii Sieb. & Zucc.) on intestinal health was investigated in this study.

Effect of diallyl sulfide on in vitro and in vivo Nrf2-mediated pulmonic antioxidant enzyme expression via activation ERK/p38 signaling pathway.

Increasing oxidative stress is intimately involved in the pathogenesis of lung failure. Nuclear factor-erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key element in redox homeostasis. Nrf2 regulates antioxidant-associated genes that are often the target of phytochemicals in chemoprevention.

Improvement of the hypocholesterolemic activities of two common fruit fibers by micronization processing.

This study investigated and compared the potential hypocholesterolemic activities of different insoluble fibers (IFs) prepared from carambola and orange pomace with or without micronization processing. After micronization, the cation-exchange and water-holding capacities of these pectic polysaccharide-rich IFs were effectively increased (from 140 to 180% and from 260 to 290%, respectively). The abilities of these microsized fruit IFs to lower the concentrations of serum triglyceride (by 15.

Inhibitory effects of ganoderma lucidum on tumorigenesis and metastasis of human hepatoma cells in cells and animal models.

Metastasis is considered to be the major cause of death in patients with cancers, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly metastatic cancer. Ganoderma lucidum , a well-known mushroom with various biological effects, is a functional food known to contain lucidenic acid. The objectives of this study were to investigate the anti-invasion effect of a lucidenic acid-rich G.

Particle size reduction effectively enhances the cholesterol-lowering activities of carrot insoluble fiber and cellulose.

This study investigated and compared the effects of particle size reduction on the cholesterol-lowering activities of carrot insoluble fiber-rich fraction (IFF) and plant cellulose. Our results demonstrated that micronization treatment effectively pulverized the particle sizes of these insoluble fibers to different microsizes. Feeding the micronized insoluble fibers, particularly the micronized carrot IFF, significantly (p < 0.

Investigation on the lipid- and cholesterol-lowering abilities of biocellulose.

The present study investigated and compared the physicochemical properties as well as the hypolipidemic and hypocholesterolemic effects between plant cellulose and biocellulose. Biocellulose had higher water-holding and cation-exchange capacities than plant cellulose ( approximately 2- and 6-fold, respectively). The results showed that the administration of plant cellulose and biocellulose to hamsters effectively ( P < 0.

Micronization increases vitamin E carrying and releasing abilities of insoluble fiber.

This study was to investigate the effects of micronization on vitamin-carrying capacity and slow-release ability of carambola (starfruit) insoluble fiber (IF) and cellulose using in vitro and in vivomodels. Upon micronization, carambola IF (8.1 microm) underwent structural changes to expose more functional groups in the fiber matrix and to exhibit higher oil-holding capacity ( approximately 20.

Effects of water-soluble carbohydrate concentrate from Chinese jujube on different intestinal and fecal indices.

This study was to investigate the effects of water-soluble carbohydrate concentrate (WSCC) prepared from Chinese jujube ( Zizyphus jujuba) on different intestinal and fecal indices in a hamster model. WSCC contained carbohydrates (771 g kg(-1) of WSCC) including glucose, fructose, pectin polysaccharide, and hemicellulose. The administration of WSCC (5.

Lucidenic acid inhibits PMA-induced invasion of human hepatoma cells through inactivating MAPK/ERK signal transduction pathway and reducing binding activities of NF-kappaB and AP-1.

Ganoderma lucidum has been reported to be associated with suppressed motility, invasion and metastasis of several types of cancers, but its mechanism of action remains unclear. In our previous study, lucidenic acids A, B, C and N were isolated from a new strain of G.lucidum and all of them were found to have potential anti-invasive activity on phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA)-induced HepG(2) cells by suppressing the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 activity.

The anti-invasive effect of lucidenic acids isolated from a new Ganoderma lucidum strain.

Ganoderma lucidum is a well-known mushroom with various pharmacological effects that has been used for health and longevity purposes. The objective of this study was to investigate the anti-invasive effect of lucidenic acids isolated from a new G. lucidum strain (YK-02) against human hepatoma carcinoma (HepG(2)) cells.