The Contribution of Beverages to Intakes of Energy and MyPlate Components by Current, Former, and Never Smokers in the United States.

Background: Although beverage intake patterns have been shown to differ by smoking status, it is unknown whether the contributions of beverages to intakes of energy and MyPlate components also differ.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare beverage intakes and contributions of energy and MyPlate components by source (food alone, beverages alone, and food and beverages together) in diets of adult current, former, and never smokers.

Design And Participants: Dietary data from 4,823 men and 4,672 women aged ≥20 years who participated in What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2008, were analyzed.

Impulsivity and Fast-Food Consumption: A Cross-Sectional Study among Working Adults.

Background: Little is known about the decision-making process of adults who choose to eat at fast-food restaurants. Impulsivity is the concept that individuals value immediate rewards and disregard future costs.

Objective: To determine the association between impulsivity and consumption of fast food among employed adults and to explore their reasons for eating fast food.

Food insecurity is associated with poor sleep outcomes among US adults.

Background: Although food insecure (FI) adults are at risk of chronic conditions, little research attention is given to their health behaviors, such as sleep.

Objective: We examined the associations between adult food security status and sleep duration, sleep latency, and sleep complaints reported to a health care professional.

Methods: Our population-based sample included 5637 men and 5264 women (≥22 y) who participated in the NHANES 2005-2010.

The pancreas-brain axis: insight into disrupted mechanisms associating type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Epidemiological and observational studies indicate a positive correlation between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and dementia, with an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with insulin-treated diabetes patients. The purpose of this review is to reveal the molecular mechanisms that connect physiological and pathological processes commonly observed in T2DM and AD. Conformational modifications in peptide residues, such as amyloid-β peptide in AD and amylin in T2DM have been shown to instigate formation of insoluble protein aggregates that get deposited in extracellular spaces of brain and pancreatic tissue thus disrupting their normal function.

Undiagnosed prediabetes among food insecure adults.

Objectives: To identify sub-populations at risk for diabetes based on having prediabetes. Although food insecurity has been linked to diabetes, to our knowledge, no studies have examined whether food insecure individuals are more likely than fully food secure individuals to have undiagnosed prediabetes.

Methods: This study was based on a cross-sectional analysis of 6577 adults in the 2005-08 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Healthy snacking recommendations: one size does not fit all.

An underlying factor contributing to a lack of consensus in the scientific literature regarding the health effects of snacking may be the diversity of study populations. In fact, the influence of snacking likely varies with different target populations. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that snacking may make important contributions to a healthy diet, especially among older adults (≥65 years).

Life course epidemiology in nutrition and chronic disease research: a timely discussion.

Humans are exposed to a complex and changing combination of nutritional factors during the life course, necessitating their investigation over time to capture "critical periods of sensitivity." A life course approach provides a framework to examine trajectories and long-term effects of nutritional and other risk factors, particularly the role of timing, accumulation, and temporal relationships of these exposures in relation to chronic disease development. Currently, most epidemiologic research does not sufficiently address this issue in relation to disease etiology.

Noncoding RNAs in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Noncoding RNAs are widely known for their various essential roles in the development of central nervous system. It involves neurogenesis, neural stem cells generation, maintenance and maturation, neurotransmission, neural network plasticity, formation of synapses, and even brain aging and DNA damage responses. In this review, we will discuss the biogenesis of microRNA, various functions of noncoding RNA's specifically microRNAs (miRNAs) that act as the chief regulators of gene expression, and focus in particular on misregulation of miRNAs which leads to several neurodegenerative diseases as well as its therapeutic outcome.

A state-level examination of the association between home and community-based services and rates of nursing home residency with special attention to nutrition programs.

Federal food and nutrition programs implemented by the Administration on Aging and funded by the Older Americans Act (OAA) seek to enable older adults to remain in their homes and communities through a comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective array of services. We hypothesized that expenditures devoted to nutrition programs for home and community-based nutrition services were inversely related to changes in state-level rates of institutionalization for older adults from one year to the next, such that states that spend more money per capita on community-based nutrition programs would have smaller increases or greater decreases in rates of institutionalization, controlling for expenditures on other home and community-based services. We found, however, that there was not an effect of OAA Nutrition Services on the change in rates of nursing home residency.

Snacking is associated with overall diet quality among adults.

Snacking occasions are considered to contribute little more than energy to the diet; however, few studies have examined the role of snacking on overall diet quality. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between snacking frequency and overall diet quality. This study included 11,209 adults aged 20 years and older who participated in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The association between Healthy Eating Index-2005 scores and disability among older Americans.

Background: several studies examining diet and functional status of individuals have focused on single nutrients or food groups. Studies examining the relationship between diet and health have increasingly witnessed a shift in focus from single nutrients to overall diet quality. The objective of this study was to examine the association between overall diet quality and self-reported disability.

Higher Healthy Eating Index-2005 scores are associated with better physical performance.

Background: Little is known regarding the relationship between overall diet quality and physical performance among older adults. We examined the association between overall diet quality, as measured by the US Department of Agriculture's Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005), and physical performance, as measured by gait speed (n = 2,132) and knee extensor power (n = 1,392), among adults aged 60 years or older.

Methods: Using data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, multiple linear regression models controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, smoking status, comorbidities, medication use, cognitive function, body mass index, and physical activity were used in the analyses.

Signaling proteins that influence energy intake may affect unintentional weight loss in elderly persons.

After age 70 to 75 years, average body weight decreases both in ailing and healthy people because of a loss of appetite that results in reduced energy intake and the loss of body fat and lean muscle tissue. This so-called anorexia of aging predisposes elderly people to continued pathologic weight loss and malnutrition-major causes of morbidity and mortality. Health care professionals must understand the many factors involved in the anorexia of aging to help older adults prevent unintentional weight loss.

Smoking modifies the association between food insecurity and physical performance.

Few studies have examined the association between food insecurity and physical performance among older adults. To our knowledge, the effect modification of smoking status has never been examined in previous studies of food insecurity and physical performance. Using data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we examined if the association between food insecurity and physical performance including gait speed and knee extensor power varied by smoking status among a nationally representative sample of men and women (≥50 y).

Contribution of snacking to older adults' vitamin, carotenoid, and mineral intakes.

Decreased food and beverage consumption among older adults can lead to inadequate intakes of energy and numerous micronutrients. Although older adults are prone to having inadequate diets, little research attention has been directed at their dietary behaviors, such as snacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between snacking frequency and older adults' daily intakes of vitamins, carotenoids, and minerals.

Diet quality is low among female food pantry clients in Eastern Alabama.

Objective: Examine diet quality, food security, and obesity among female food pantry clients.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: A food pantry in Lee County, Alabama.

Weighty concerns: the growing prevalence of obesity among older adults.

The prevalence of obesity among older adults has increased during the past 20 years and will affect both medical and social services. Along with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and several cancers, obesity is associated with increased risk of physical and cognitive disability. However, relatively little attention has been given to the issue of weight management among community-dwelling older adults.

Race/Ethnicity differences in the relationship between obesity and gait speed among older Americans.

Projections indicate that the older American population will become more racially diverse in the future. Therefore, eliminating health disparities among older adults should be a public health priority. Using data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we examined the relationship between obesity, measured by BMI and waist circumference, and gait speed, a performance-based measure of physical function, in 2,285 older adults (≥60 y) in order to determine whether this relationship varies by race/ethnicity.

Height differences and the associations between food insecurity, percentage body fat and BMI among men and women.

Objective: The present study examined the associations between adult food insecurity (FI) and percentage body fat (%BF) and BMI, stratified by height (HT).

Design, Setting And Subjects: %BF, HT and BMI of 2117 men and 1909 women in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002 were analysed in relation to adult food security status using multiple regression procedures.

Results: Compared with the fully food-secure, men's %BF, BMI and HT were lower as FI intensified.

Total water intakes of community-living middle-old and oldest-old adults.

Background: Literature reporting total daily water intake of community-dwelling older adults is limited. We evaluated differences in total water intake, water sources, water from meal and snack beverages, timing of beverage consumption, and beverage selection for three older age groups (young-old, 65-74 years; middle-old, 75-84 years; and oldest-old, >or=85 years).

Methods: Data for 2,054 older adults from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for this study.

Food insecurity is not associated with lower energy intakes.

We examined the association between food insecurity and total daily energy intakes in American men and women. We estimated the number of daily snacks and meals consumed by individuals in different food security categories. Also, we calculated the energy contribution, energy density, and food group sources of those snacks and meals.

Benefits of snacking in older Americans.

Objective: Because energy intakes decline with age, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of snacking on energy intakes and energy density in older adults.

Design: Twenty-four-hour dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002 were used to compare the diets of snackers and nonsnackers.

Subjects: This study included 2,002 adults aged 65 years and older.

Length of hospital stays among obese individuals.

Objectives: We examined lengths of hospital stay among individuals categorized according to weight status.

Methods: We used data from the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Followup Survey to estimate length-of-stay differences.

Results: Individuals with body mass indexes (BMIs) of 35 kg/m2 or above, those with BMIs of 30 to 34 kg/m2, and those with BMIs of 25 to 29 kg/m2 had crude length-of-stay rates greater than those of normal-weight individuals.