Field assessments for obesity prevention in children and adults: physical activity, fitness, and body composition.

Nutrition and health educators work in community settings implementing lifestyle programs focused on obesity prevention and chronic disease risk reduction. These programs typically focus on improving diet and physical activity (PA) behaviors. Many nutrition educators may not be confident in their ability to select, administer, and interpret PA assessments to effectively evaluate their PA or lifestyle programs.

Evaluation of personal and built environment attributes to physical activity: a multilevel analysis on multiple population-based data sources.

Background. Studies have documented that built environment factors potentially promote or impede leisure time physical activity (LTPA). This study explored the relationship between multiple built environment factors and individual characteristics on LTPA.

Hand-held indirect calorimeter offers advantages compared with prediction equations, in a group of overweight women, to determine resting energy expenditures and estimated total energy expenditures during research screening.

Objective: To compare standardized prediction equations to a hand-held indirect calorimeter in estimating resting energy and total energy requirements in overweight women.

Design: Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured by hand-held indirect calorimeter and calculated by prediction equations Harris-Benedict, Mifflin-St Jeor, World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization/United Nations University (WHO), and Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). Physical activity level, assessed by questionnaire, was used to estimate total energy expenditure (TEE).

Glucose and insulin responses to whole grain breakfasts varying in soluble fiber, beta-glucan: a dose response study in obese women with increased risk for insulin resistance.

Background: A high intake of whole grains containing soluble fiber has been shown to lower glucose and insulin responses in overweight humans and humans with type 2 diabetes.

Aim Of The Study: We investigated the linearity of this response after consumption of 5 breakfast cereal test meals containing wheat and/or barley to provide varying amounts of soluble fiber, beta-glucan (0, 2.5, 5, 7.

Estimates of adherence and error analysis of physical activity data collected via accelerometry in a large study of free-living adults.

Background: Activity monitors (AM) are small, electronic devices used to quantify the amount and intensity of physical activity (PA). Unfortunately, it has been demonstrated that data loss that occurs when AMs are not worn by subjects (removals during sleeping and waking hours) tend to result in biased estimates of PA and total energy expenditure (TEE). No study has reported the degree of data loss in a large study of adults, and/or the degree to which the estimates of PA and TEE are affected.

A controlled trial of reduced meal frequency without caloric restriction in healthy, normal-weight, middle-aged adults.

Background: Although consumption of 3 meals/d is the most common pattern of eating in industrialized countries, a scientific rationale for this meal frequency with respect to optimal health is lacking. A diet with less meal frequency can improve the health and extend the lifespan of laboratory animals, but its effect on humans has never been tested.

Objective: A pilot study was conducted to establish the effects of a reduced-meal-frequency diet on health indicators in healthy, normal-weight adults.

Watermelon consumption increases plasma arginine concentrations in adults.

Objective: Watermelon is a rich source of citrulline, an amino acid that can be metabolized to arginine, a conditionally essential amino acid for humans. Arginine is the nitrogenous substrate used in the synthesis of nitric oxide and plays an essential role in cardiovascular and immune functions. No detailed studies have been conducted to evaluate plasma arginine response in humans after long-term feeding of citrulline from natural plant sources.

Low plasma retinol concentrations increase the risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia and long-term respiratory disability in very-low-birth-weight infants.

Background: The effect of inadequate vitamin A during the neonatal period on lung status is still unknown.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that low plasma retinol concentrations during the first month of life are independently associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and long-term respiratory morbidity at 6 mo gestationally corrected age (ie, the age the infant would be had the pregnancy gone to term).

Design: Respiratory outcome information was obtained to 6 mo corrected age for a historical cohort of very-low-birth-weight neonates (<1250 g) who were admitted to intensive care over a 7-y period.