Interim Evaluation of Germany's Sugar Reduction Strategy for Soft Drinks: Commitments versus Actual Trends in Sugar Content and Sugar Sales from Soft Drinks.

Introduction: A high intake of sugar, in particular from sugar-sweetened soft drinks, increases the risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and dental caries. Germany has pursued a national strategy for sugar reduction in soft drinks based on voluntary commitments by industry since 2015, but its effects are unclear.

Methods: We use aggregated annual sales data from Euromonitor International to assess trends in mean sales-weighted sugar content of soft drinks and per capita sugar sales from soft drinks in Germany from 2015 to 2021.

Brown Bowel Syndrome: An Exceedingly Rare Condition with Longstanding Malabsorption and an Unusual Cause of Colon Pseudo-Obstruction.

Brown bowel syndrome (BBS) is an exceedingly rare condition usually associated with longstanding malabsorption of any etiology. As a result of vitamin E deficiency and subsequent mitochondrial degeneration due to oxidative stress induced by free radicals, lipofuscin granules accumulate in the smooth muscles of the gastrointestinal tract resulting in myopathy and dysmotility with underlying disease aggravation. The current study reports a BBS case in a 64-year-old female patient who had undergone jejunoileal bypass surgery as a bariatric procedure.

ESPEN guideline on hospital nutrition.

In hospitals through Europe and worldwide, the practices regarding hospital diets are very heterogeneous. Hospital diets are rarely prescribed by physicians, and sometimes the choices of diets are based on arbitrary reasons. Often prescriptions are made independently from the evaluation of nutritional status, and without taking into account the nutritional status.

Reproducibility and validity of ultrasound for the measurement of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues.

Background: Ultrasound represents a low-cost and widely available field method for assessing visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) but its measurement properties are uncertain. The aim of the current study was to examine the reproducibility and validity of ultrasound to quantify abdominal fat compartments.

Methods: In two study centers, VAT and SAT thicknesses were quantified by ultrasound two times by two observers each among 127 adults aged 20-70 years.

Breast-feeding and maternal risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective study and meta-analysis.

Aims/hypothesis: We aimed to examine the association between breast-feeding and maternal risk of type 2 diabetes and to investigate whether this association is mediated by anthropometric and biochemical factors.

Methods: A case-cohort study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam Study between 1994 and 2005 including 1,262 childbearing women (1,059 in a random sub-cohort and 203 incident cases) mainly aged between 35 and 64 years at baseline was applied. Self-reported lifetime duration of breast-feeding was assessed by questionnaire.

Large-scale association analysis identifies new risk loci for coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the commonest cause of death. Here, we report an association analysis in 63,746 CAD cases and 130,681 controls identifying 15 loci reaching genome-wide significance, taking the number of susceptibility loci for CAD to 46, and a further 104 independent variants (r(2) < 0.2) strongly associated with CAD at a 5% false discovery rate (FDR).

Influence of different CLA isomers on insulin resistance and adipocytokines in pre-diabetic, middle-aged men with PPARγ2 Pro12Ala polymorphism.

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) are natural PPARγ ligands, which showed conflicting effects on metabolism in humans. We examined metabolic effects of different isomers of CLA in subjects with PPARγ2 Pro12Ala polymorphisms. A total of 35 men underwent four intervention periods in a crossover study design: subjects with either genotypes received c9, t11 CLA or t10, c12 CLA, a commercially available 1:1 mix of both isomers or reference oil (linoleic acid (LA)).

The effect of FABP2 promoter haplotype on response to a diet with medium-chain triacylglycerols.

The fatty-acid-binding protein-2 (FABP2) gene has been proposed as a candidate gene for diabetes because the encoded protein is involved in fatty acid absorption and therefore may affect insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism. The rare haplotype (B) of its promoter was shown to be associated with a lower risk for type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a polymorphism in the FABP2 promoter does affect the metabolic response to either an medium-chain triacylglycerol (MCT) or an long-chain triacylglycerol (LCT) diet, which were suggested to differ in transport mechanisms, in affinity to FABP2, in activating transcription factors binding to the FABP2 promoter and in their effects on insulin sensitivity.

A variant in the heart-specific fatty acid transport protein 6 is associated with lower fasting and postprandial TAG, blood pressure and left ventricular hypertrophy.

Fatty acid transport protein 6 (FATP6) is primarily expressed in the heart and seems to be involved in cardiac fatty acid uptake. Therefore, we investigated whether a variation in the 5'-untranslated region of the FATP6 gene is associated with features of the metabolic syndrome and signs of myocardial alteration or heart failure. A total of 755 male participants from a Metabolic Intervention Cohort Kiel were genotyped for the FATP6-7T>A polymorphism (rs2526246) and phenotyped for features of the metabolic syndrome.

CLA does not impair endothelial function and decreases body weight as compared with safflower oil in overweight and obese male subjects.

Objective: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) showed a wide range of beneficial biological effects with relevance for cardiovascular health in animal models and humans. Most human studies used olive oil as a reference. This study assessed the effect of CLA as compared with safflower oil on endothelial function and markers of cardiovascular risk in overweight and obese men.

Large-scale association analysis identifies 13 new susceptibility loci for coronary artery disease.

We performed a meta-analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies of coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 22,233 individuals with CAD (cases) and 64,762 controls of European descent followed by genotyping of top association signals in 56,682 additional individuals. This analysis identified 13 loci newly associated with CAD at P < 5 × 10⁻⁸ and confirmed the association of 10 of 12 previously reported CAD loci. The 13 new loci showed risk allele frequencies ranging from 0.

Genome-wide association study identifies a new locus for coronary artery disease on chromosome 10p11.23.

Aims: Recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies identified 10 chromosomal loci for coronary artery disease (CAD) or myocardial infarction (MI). However, these loci explain only a small proportion of the genetic variability of these pertinent diseases. We sought to identify additional CAD/MI loci by applying a three-stage approach.

Human intestinal fatty acid binding protein 2 expression is associated with fat intake and polymorphisms.

The intestinal fatty acid binding protein (FABP2) is involved in lipid metabolism whereby variations in the promoter (haplotypes A/B) and exon 2 (Ala54Thr) are associated with dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. To elucidate which factors determine FABP2 expression in human mucosa, we investigated the association between fat intake, genotypes, biochemical variables, and FABP2 expression. FABP2 gene expression was assessed in duodenal specimens from 100 participants who answered a FFQ and who were genotyped and characterized for traits of metabolic syndrome and further biochemical data.