Urban school neighbourhoods dominated by unhealthy food retailers and advertisements in Greater Tunis: a geospatial study in the midst of the nutrition transition.

Objective: Food environments are a major determinant of children's nutritional status. Scarce evidence on food environments exists in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This study aims to fill this gap by documenting the obesogenicity of food environments around schools in Greater Tunis, Tunisia - an LMIC of the Middle East and North Africa region with an ongoing nutrition transition and increasing rates of childhood obesity.

School and community drivers of child diets in two Arab cities: The SCALE protocol and innovative tools to assess children's food environments.

Background: In the context of the rapid nutrition transition experienced by middle-income countries of the Arab region, children and adolescent's food choices and dietary behaviors are early risk factors for the development of non-communicable diseases. Assessment of factors influencing food choices among this age group is challenging and is usually based on self-reported data, which are prone to information and recall bias. As the popularity of technologies and video gaming platforms increases, opportunities arise to use these tools to collect data on variables that affect food choice, dietary intake, and associated outcomes.

Does a school snack make a difference? An evaluation of the World Food Programme emergency school feeding programme in Lebanon among Lebanese and Syrian refugee children.

Objective: To investigate the effects of providing a daily healthy school snack on children's nutritional, social and educational outcomes and explore stakeholders' perceptions of an emergency school feeding programme (SFP).

Design: Convergence triangulation mixed-methods study design. Associations were examined between receiving the school feeding intervention and children's outcomes using multivariable regression models.

A test to measure oral iron absorption and glucose tolerance simultaneously in 18 to 55 year old premenopausal women.

Background & Aims: Several methods are available to measure iron absorption (IA). The oral iron absorption test (OIAT) measures IA based on a change in serum iron (ΔSeFe) concentration after an oral iron dose. The objective of this study was to validate the OIAT by comparing it to the reference method of fractional iron absorption (FIA) using red blood cell incorporation of stable iron isotopes from a labeled iron dose.

The Effect of the Temperature of Plain or Sweetened Water on Body Composition in Rats.

Introduction: Humans are known to adapt to external temperature variations by altering energy intake, expenditure, and body fat storage for insulation [1, 2]. However, it is not clear whether the temperature of ingested water would induce such effects. Similarly, the involvement of the temperature of the ingested beverage has not been addressed in terms of body weight changes [3].

Effect of Meal Acceptability on Postprandial Appetite Scores and Hormones of Male Participants with Varied Adiposity.

Objective: This study portrays the effect of hedonic manipulation (high acceptability [HA] vs. low acceptability [LA]) on postprandial hormones and appetite scores in healthy males.

Methods: Thirty participants (15 with normal weight and 15 with obesity) were recruited for a randomized, crossover design.