Xanthophylls have attracted a lot of interest since their health benefits were documented. Unfortunately, studying their intestinal absorption is often affected by high baseline levels present in the fasting plasma. As α-cryptoxanthin is rarely found in the traditional European diet, its concentration in human plasma is extremely low. A pilot human intervention study was designed using α-cryptoxanthin for the first time as a marker xanthophyll in a minimally formulated cellulose-based supplement. α-Cryptoxanthin was administered in gelatin soft-gel capsules in multiple doses of 156μg/d to three male volunteers (age 27·3 (sd 4·7) years; BMI 21·6 (sd 0·3) kg/m2) for 16d after a 2-week carotenoid depletion period. Fasting blood samples were taken before the intervention and after 3, 6, 9, 13 and 16d. Plasma HPLC analyses allowed for determination of the concentration; liquid chromatography–MS in the single ion monitoring mode was used to confirm peak assignment. The concentrations of α-cryptoxanthin increased significantly after only 3d of supplementation. The concentration-time plots showed a characteristic shape with a first maximum after day 6, a decline until day 9 and a gradual second rise until the end of the study. Standardisation of plasma α-cryptoxanthin concentrations to triacylglycerol or total cholesterol did not influence the characteristics. The maximum concentrations reached at the end of the intervention period ranged from 0·077 to 0·160μmol/l. These results suggest a high intestinal absorption and an enrichment of α-cryptoxanthin in the plasma even from a minimally formulated cellulose-based supplement.

The contribution of the home use of margarines, made with partially hydrogenated vegetables oils, to total trans fatty acid intake is difficult to determine using dietary assessment because food composition databases are incomplete for trans fatty acids; moreover, hidden fats in manufactured foods may be the predominant sources of trans fatty acids. The objective of our study was to determine, using plasma phospholipid trans fatty acid composition as a surrogate measure of exposure, whether the home use of margarine or butter is an important determinant of trans fatty acid status. We conducted a community-based (Dunedin, New Zealand), cross-sectional survey of people who consumed either margarine (n 65) or butter (n 64) but not both for home use. The levels of the 18:1 trans isomers commonly found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were all significantly higher in the plasma phospholipids of margarine compared with butter consumers, with the exception of 18:1n-7t, which did not differ. Among margarine consumers, the percentage of total fat from margarine was significantly correlated with levels of phospholipid 18:1n−6t, 18:1n-8t and 18:1n-1/t isomers (r 0·57–0·63, P<0·001) but only weakly with 18:1n-7t (r 0·30, P=0·016). The intake of fat from fast foods, bakery products or meat and meat products was not associated with plasma phospholipid trans isomeric composition. The home use of margarine, made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, is an important determinant of trans fatty acid exposure in New Zealand.

Studies of diet and health focus increasingly on dietary patterns. Although the traditional Mediterranean diet is perceived as being healthy, there is little information on its possible benefit to young people. We studied whether closer adherence to the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern was associated with overall and cancer mortality in a cohort of 42237 young women, aged 30–49 years at enrolment, who were recruited in 1991–2 from the general population in the Uppsala Health Care Region, Sweden, and followed up, almost completely, for about 12 years. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was assessed by a 10-point score incorporating the characteristics of this diet. Among women less than 40 years old at enrolment – whose causes of death are mainly cancer with probable genetic influences, injuries or suicide – there was no association of the Mediterranean diet score with total or cancer mortality. Among women 40–49 years old at enrolment, a 2-point increase in the score was associated with considerable reductions in overall mortality (13%; 95% CI 1%, 23%; P∼0·05) and cancer mortality (16%; 95% CI −1%, 29%; P∼0·06). Few cardiovascular deaths occurred in this cohort of young women. The findings of the present study in a northern European population of young women indicate that closer adherence to a Mediterranean dietary pattern reduces mortality even among young persons.

It has been increasingly recognized that dietary factors play a major role in the development of chronic diseases, including cancers and CVD. The identification of patterns of nutrient intake in populations with different disease incidence will be helpful in understanding the diet and disease association. The present report describes nutrient intake in 74810 Chinese women, aged between 40 and 70 years, who participated in a population-based cohort study in Shanghai from 1997 to 2000. A food frequency questionnaire was used to derive estimates of nutrient intakes. The average daily energy intake was 7027·8kJ in the study population, with protein, fat and carbohydrates contributing 15·9%, 15·6% and 68·5%, respectively. Factors, including younger age, higher income, attainment of education at the college level or above, being married or holding a professional job, were related to higher intake levels of most nutrients. The present results highlight the need for continuing to promote public health strategies aimed at improving the diets of women from both older and lower socio-demographic backgrounds, and in the meantime, continuing to help address the current dearth of data on nutrient intakes for middle-aged and elderly urban Chinese women.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of Toona sinensis Roemor extracts on antioxidative activities, brain morphological changes and cognitive ability. In an in vitro study, the antioxidant capacities of water extracts from Toona sinensis Roemor leaf (TSL), root (TSR) and bark (TSB) were evaluated by an α,α-diphenyl-β-pricryl-hydrazyl radical-scavenging test. The results showed that the scavenging activities of all Toona sinensis Roemor extracts were over 80% at a concentration of 0·625mg/ml. In an in vivo study, 3-month-old male senescence-accelerated-prone 8 mice were used as the tested subjects and fed four different diets: casein diet or casein diet supplemented with 1% TSL, TSR or TSB extract for 12 weeks. The results showed that the mice supplemented with Toona sinensis Roemor extracts demonstrated significantly less amyloid β-protein deposition and lower levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances than the control group. All Toona sinensis Roemor diet groups also showed better active shuttle avoidance responses, and higher superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities, than the control group. It can thus be concluded that supplementation with either TSL, TSR or TSB extract could not only reduce the incidence of ß-amyloid plaques, but also improve learning and memory ability in senescence-accelerated-prone 8 mice. This might be due to the beneficial effects of Toona sinensis Roemor extracts on promoting the antioxidative defence system.

Infant birth weight has increased recently, representing an obstetric and potentially a public health problem since high birth weight involves a risk of obesity later in life. Maternal nutritional status is important for fetal growth and therefore relationships between maternal body weight and composition v. birth weight and infant subcutaneous adipose tissue were investigated in twenty-three healthy women and their newborn infants using multiple and simple linear regression analysis. Furthermore, using previously published data for nineteen infants, it was demonstrated that an anthropometric method could provide useful estimates of the amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue. Birth weight was correlated with the maternal content of total body fat (TBF) both before pregnancy and in gestational week 32 and, together with gestational age at birth, TBF (%) before pregnancy explained 45% of the variation in birth weight. This figure was not increased when gestational gains in weight or TBF were added to the model. Furthermore, in infants, birth weight correlated with the amount of their subcutaneous adipose tissue. Together maternal TBF (%) and amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue in infants explained 61–63% of the variation in birth weight while the amount of infant subcutaneous adipose tissue alone explained only 55%. The maternal TBF content is likely to be important for the recent increase in birth weight. This factor probably causes a general augmentation in fetal growth rather than a specific stimulation of adipose tissue growth.