How Do School Salad Bars Impact Elementary School Students' Dietary Quality and Energy Intake at Lunch? A Randomized Controlled Plate Waste Investigation.

Children's dietary quality is suboptimal, increasing the risk of numerous chronic illnesses. Salad bars (SBs) have potential to enhance children's nutritional intake within the National School Lunch Program (NSLP); yet, empirical support is lacking. To address this gap, we evaluated the impact of school salad bars on dietary quality and energy intake at lunch.

School Nutrition Personnel Perceptions of School Salad Bars before and after COVID-19.

Many schools have salad bars as a means to increase students' fruit and vegetable intake. School nutrition programs experienced drastic changes to the school food environment due to COVID-19. The aim of the current study was to understand cafeteria personnel's experiences related to salad bar implementation before the COVID-19 pandemic and in the current school environment to inform efforts to enhance salad bar sustainability.

Dietary Supplement Use in Transmasculine People: Results of an Online Survey of Volunteer Adults.

Introduction: Health inequities and disparities in nutrition research exist among transmasculine people. A dearth of evidence on dietary supplement use and motivations exist, partially due to constrained collection of sex and gender identity in national surveys.

Objective: We sought to investigate common motivations and use of dietary supplements in a voluntary survey of transmasculine people.

Food sources of energy and nutrients among US college students: The cohort study.

Identifying the food sources contributing most to total energy percentage, macronutrients, vitamin and mineral consumption among college freshmen, and whether sex played a role. First-year undergraduate students ( = 269). Diet was assessed using a DHQ-III and estimated with food source composition tables.

Design and rationale for evaluating the impact of salad bars on elementary school students' fruit, vegetable, and energy intake: a wait list control, cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Most children do not consume the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable (FV) servings. Changing the school food environment can be a cost-efficient, effective approach to improving children's dietary quality. There is great popular support for school salad bars as a means to increase children's FV intake within the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), yet empirical research is limited.

Loneliness is associated with unhealthful dietary behaviors and physical inactivity among US college students.

To evaluate dietary and physical activity behavior in relation to loneliness among college students. Three-hundred forty-six incoming first-year students in Fall 2019 at a large state University in the US. : Students completed online surveys in Fall 2019.

Why don't college freshmen meet the US dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat?

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate how well college students meet U.S. dietary guidelines by examining the mean intakes of nutrients to limit (sodium, sugar, refined grains, and saturated fat), and what factors lead to exceeding the dietary recommendations.

Dietary Intake and Representativeness of a Diverse College-Attending Population Compared with an Age-Matched US Population.

Young adults typically gain more dietary autonomy as they start college, though this can also present nutritional challenges; however, research on the generalizability of their dietary intake data is scarce. To address this representativeness concern, we compared food and nutrient intakes reported by college freshmen attending a large, diverse university to an age-matched sample from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We studied 269 students 18-24 years old recruited through the Mason: Health Start Here (HSH) study, a population-based cohort study of college students.

Protocol for the Mason: Health Starts Here prospective cohort study of young adult college students.

Background: Young adulthood is a period of increasing independence for the 40% of young adults enrolled in U.S. colleges.

Effect of Overeating Dietary Protein at Different Levels on Circulating Lipids and Liver Lipid: The PROOF Study.

Background: During overeating, a low protein diet slowed the rate of weight gain and increased the energy cost of the added weight, suggesting that low protein diets reduced energy efficiency. The Protein Overfeeding (PROOF) study explored the metabolic changes to low and high protein diets, and this sub-study examined the changes in body composition and blood lipids when eating high and low protein diets during overeating.

Methods: Twenty-three healthy volunteers (M = 14; F = 9) participated in an 8-week, parallel arm study where they were overfed by ~40% with diets containing 5% (LPD = low protein diet), 15% (NPD = normal protein diet), or 25% (HPD = high protein diet) protein.

Associations of Perfluoroalkyl substances with blood lipids and Apolipoproteins in lipoprotein subspecies: the POUNDS-lost study.

Background: The associations of perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure with blood lipids and lipoproteins are inconsistent, and existing studies did not account for metabolic heterogeneity of lipoprotein subspecies. This study aimed to examine the associations between plasma PFAS concentrations and lipoprotein and apolipoprotein subspecies.

Methods: The study included 326 men and women from the 2-year Prevention of Obesity Using Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS) Lost randomized trial.

Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in bone mineral density: A prospective analysis in the POUNDS-LOST study.

Background: Recent studies suggested an inverse association between exposures to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and bone mineral density (BMD). Whether exposures to PFASs are also associated with changes in BMD has not been examined.

Methods: Five major PFASs (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, PFOS; perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA; perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, PFHxS; perfluorononanoic acid, PFNA; perfluorodecanoic acid, PFDA) and BMD (g/cm) at six bone sites (spine, total hip, femoral neck, hip intertrochanteric area, hip trochanter, and hip Ward's triangle area) were measured at baseline among 294 participants in the POUNDS-LOST study, a weight-loss trial, of whom a total of 175 participants had BMD measured at both baseline and year 2.

Melatonin in Medicinal and Food Plants: Occurrence, Bioavailability, and Health Potential for Humans.

Melatonin is a widespread molecule among living organisms involved in multiple biological, hormonal, and physiological processes at cellular, tissue, and organic levels. It is well-known for its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, and renowned antioxidant effects, acting as a free radical scavenger, up-regulating antioxidant enzymes, reducing mitochondrial electron leakage, and interfering with proinflammatory signaling pathways. Detected in various medicinal and food plants, its concentration is widely variable.

Perfluoroalkyl substances and changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate in response to weight-loss diets: A prospective study.

Background: The potential endocrine-disrupting effects of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been demonstrated in animal studies, but whether PFASs may interfere with body weight regulation in humans is largely unknown. This study aimed to examine the associations of PFAS exposure with changes in body weight and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in a diet-induced weight-loss setting.

Methods And Findings: In the 2-year POUNDS Lost randomized clinical trial based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that examined the effects of energy-restricted diets on weight changes, baseline plasma concentrations of major PFASs were measured among 621 overweight and obese participants aged 30-70 years.

Plasma fatty acyl-carnitines during 8 weeks of overfeeding: relation to diet energy expenditure and body composition: the PROOF study.

Objective: Overfeeding is a strategy for evaluating the effects of excess energy intake. In this secondary analysis we tested the possibility that different levels of dietary protein might differentially modify the response of fatty acyl-carnitines to overfeeding.

Methods: Twenty-three healthy adult men and women were overfed by 40% for 8 weeks while in-patients with diets containing 5% (LPD), 15% (NPD) or 25% (HPD) protein.

Plasma Amino Acids During 8 Weeks of Overfeeding: Relation to Diet Body Composition and Fat Cell Size in the PROOF Study.

Objective: Different amounts of dietary protein during overfeeding produced similar fat gain but different amounts of gain in fat-free body mass. Protein and energy intake may have differential effects on amino acids during overfeeding.

Methods: Twenty-three healthy adult men and women were overfed by 40% for 8 weeks with 5%, 15%, or 25% protein diets.

Effect of Three Levels of Dietary Protein on Metabolic Phenotype of Healthy Individuals With 8 Weeks of Overfeeding.

Context: Obesity is associated with insulin resistance and other metabolic changes that might be modified by overfeeding diets with different protein levels.

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the effect of overfeeding diets with 5%, 15%, or 25% energy from protein on insulin sensitivity and compartments of body fat in healthy men and women.

Methods: Fifteen men and five women were overfed by approximately 40% for 56 days with 5% (low protein), 15% (normal protein), or 25% (high protein) protein diets.

Effect of protein overfeeding on energy expenditure measured in a metabolic chamber.

Background: Energy expenditure (EE) increases with overfeeding, but it is unclear how rapidly this is related to changes in body composition, increased body weight, or diet.

Objective: The objective was to quantify the effects of excess energy from fat or protein on energy expenditure of men and women living in a metabolic chamber.

Design: We conducted a randomized controlled trial in 25 participants who ate ∼40% excess energy for 56 d from 5%, 15%, or 25% protein diets.

Effects of weight gain induced by controlled overfeeding on physical activity.

It is unclear whether physical activity changes following long-term overfeeding and in response to different dietary protein intakes. Twenty-five (16 males, 9 females) healthy adults (18-35 yr) with BMI ranging from 19 to 30 kg/m(2) enrolled in this inpatient study. In a parallel group design, participants were fed 140% of energy needs, with 5, 15, or 25% of energy from protein, for 56 days.

Interaction between dietary fat and exercise on excess postexercise oxygen consumption.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of increased physical activity on subsequent sleeping energy expenditure (SEE) measured in a whole room calorimeter under differing levels of dietary fat. We hypothesized that increased physical activity would increase SEE. Six healthy young men participated in a randomized, single-blind, crossover study.

Neck circumference is a predictor of metabolic syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea in short-sleeping obese men and women.

Background: The constellation of metabolic syndrome, although controversial with regard to its clinical usefulness, is epidemiologically related to increased diabetes risk and cardiovascular mortality. Our goal was to investigate the associations among neck circumference (NC), obstructive sleep apnea syndromes (OSAS), and metabolic syndrome in obese men and women sleeping less than 6.5 hr per night.

Sleep extension improves neurocognitive functions in chronically sleep-deprived obese individuals.

Background: Sleep deprivation and obesity, are associated with neurocognitive impairments. Effects of sleep deprivation and obesity on cognition are unknown, and the cognitive long-term effects of improvement of sleep have not been prospectively assessed in short sleeping, obese individuals.

Objective: To characterize neurocognitive functions and assess its reversibility.

Variants in glucose- and circadian rhythm-related genes affect the response of energy expenditure to weight-loss diets: the POUNDS LOST Trial.

Background: Circadian rhythm has been shown to be related to glucose metabolism and risk of diabetes, probably through effects on energy balance. Recent genome-wide association studies identified variants in circadian rhythm-related genes (CRY2 and MTNR1B) associated with glucose homeostasis.

Objective: We tested whether CRY2 and MTNR1B genotypes affected changes in measures of energy expenditure in response to a weight-loss diet intervention in a 2-y randomized clinical trial, the POUNDS (Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies) LOST Trial.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a predictor of abnormal glucose metabolism in chronically sleep deprived obese adults.

Context: Sleep abnormalities, including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), have been associated with insulin resistance.

Objective: To determine the relationship between sleep, including OSA, and glucose parameters in a prospectively assembled cohort of chronically sleep-deprived obese subjects.

Design: Cross-sectional evaluation of a prospective cohort study.

Lateral hypothalamic area deep brain stimulation for refractory obesity: a pilot study with preliminary data on safety, body weight, and energy metabolism.

Object: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) has been suggested as a potential treatment for intractable obesity. The authors present the 2-year safety results as well as early efficacy and metabolic effects in 3 patients undergoing bilateral LHA DBS in the first study of this approach in humans.

Methods: Three patients meeting strict criteria for intractable obesity, including failed bariatric surgery, underwent bilateral implantation of LHA DBS electrodes as part of an institutional review board- and FDA-approved pilot study.