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    Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Effects of the Daily Consumption of Ruminant Milk on Digestive Comfort and Nutrition in Older Women: The YUMMI Study.
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2024-12-06) Ong SP; Miller JC; McNabb WC; Gearry RB; Ware LM; Mullaney JA; Fraser K; Hort J; Bayer SB; Frampton CMA; Roy NC; Miranda JM
    BACKGROUND: Age-related changes can lead to dietary insufficiency in older adults. The inclusion of high-quality, nutrient-dense foods such as ruminant milks can significantly improve health outcomes. However, many older adults worldwide do not meet daily milk intake recommendations because of digestive discomfort and health concerns. Ovine and caprine milks are increasingly popular for their perceived digestive and nutritional benefits. While preclinical studies suggest differences in milk digestion, human studies investigating acute postprandial responses remain inconclusive, and the impacts of sustained milk consumption remain uncertain. OBJECTIVES: Hence, we present a randomized controlled trial investigating how the sustained consumption of bovine, caprine, or ovine milk influences digestion, nutrition, and metabolism in older women. METHODS: A total of 165 healthy older women were randomized to receive bovine, caprine, or ovine milk, or no milk, twice daily for 12 weeks. The primary outcome is the impact of milk consumption on digestive comfort assessed via the Gastrointestinal Syndrome Rating Scale (GSRS). Secondary outcomes include changes in nutrient intake, plasma amino acid and lipid appearance, bowel habits, the gut microbiota, cardiometabolic health, physical function, physical activity, sleep, mood, sensory perception, and emotional response. CONCLUSIONS: The findings could inform dietary recommendations for older women and facilitate the development of targeted functional food products.
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    Gut Microbial Metabolites and Biochemical Pathways Involved in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Effects of Diet and Nutrition on the Microbiome
    (Elsevier Inc on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition, 2020-05) James SC; Fraser K; Young W; McNabb WC; Roy NC
    The food we consume and its interactions with the host and their gut microbiota affect normal gut function and health. Functional gut disorders (FGDs), including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), can result from negative effects of these interactions, leading to a reduced quality of life. Certain foods exacerbate or reduce the severity and prevalence of FGD symptoms. IBS can be used as a model of perturbation from normal gut function with which to study the impact of foods and diets on the severity and symptoms of FGDs and understand how critical processes and biochemical mechanisms contribute to this impact. Analyzing the complex interactions between food, host, and microbial metabolites gives insights into the pathways and processes occurring in the gut which contribute to FGDs. The following review is a critical discussion of the literature regarding metabolic pathways and dietary interventions relevant to FGDs. Many metabolites, for example bile acids, SCFAs, vitamins, amino acids, and neurotransmitters, can be altered by dietary intake, and could be valuable for identifying perturbations in metabolic pathways that distinguish a "normal, healthy" gut from a "dysfunctional, unhealthy" gut. Dietary interventions for reducing symptoms of FGDs are becoming more prevalent, but studies investigating the underlying mechanisms linked to host, microbiome, and metabolite interactions are less common. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the recent literature to assist with further progression of research in this field.
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    Evaluation of Protein Adequacy From Plant-Based Dietary Scenarios in Simulation Studies: A Narrative Review
    (Elsevier Inc on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition, 2024-02) Soh BXP; Smith NW; R von Hurst P; McNabb WC
    Although a diet high in plant foods can provide beneficial nutritional outcomes, unbalanced and restrictive plant-based diets may cause nutrient deficiencies. Protein intake from these diets is widely discussed, but the comparison of animal and plant proteins often disregards amino acid composition and digestibility as measurements of protein quality. Poor provision of high-quality protein may result in adverse outcomes, especially for individuals with increased nutrient requirements. Several dietary modeling studies have examined protein adequacy when animal-sourced proteins are replaced with traditional and novel plant proteins, but no review consolidating these findings are available. This narrative review aimed to summarize the approaches of modeling studies for protein intake and protein quality when animal-sourced proteins are replaced with plant foods in diet simulations and examine how these factors vary across age groups. A total of 23 studies using dietary models to predict protein contribution from plant proteins were consolidated and categorized into the following themes-protein intake, protein quality, novel plant-based alternatives, and plant-based diets in special populations. Protein intake from plant-based diet simulations was lower than from diets with animal-sourced foods but met country-specific nutrient requirements. However, protein adequacy from some plant-sourced foods were not met for simulated diets of children and older adults. Reduced amino acid adequacy was observed with increasing intake of plant foods in some scenarios. Protein adequacy was generally dependent on the choice of substitution with legumes, nuts, and seeds providing greater protein intake and quality than cereals. Complete replacement of animal to plant-sourced foods reduced protein adequacy when compared with baseline diets and partial replacements.
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    Use of the DELTA Model to Understand the Food System and Global Nutrition
    (Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition, 2021-10) Smith NW; Fletcher AJ; Dave LA; Hill JP; McNabb WC
    BACKGROUND: Increasing attention is being directed at the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of the global food system. However, a key aspect of a sustainable food system should be its ability to deliver nutrition to the global population. Quantifying nutrient adequacy with current tools is challenging. OBJECTIVE: To produce a computational model illustrating the nutrient adequacy of current and proposed global food systems. METHODS: The DELTA Model was constructed using global food commodity balance sheet data, alongside demographic and nutrient requirement data from UN and European Food Safety Authority sources. It also includes nutrient bioavailability considerations for protein, the indispensable amino acids, iron, and zinc, sourced from scientific literature. RESULTS: The DELTA Model calculates global per capita nutrient availability under conditions of equal distribution and identifies areas of nutrient deficiency for various food system scenarios. Modeling the 2018 global food system showed that it supplied insufficient calcium (64% of demographically weighted target intake) and vitamin E (69%), despite supplying sufficient macronutrients. Several future scenarios were modeled, including variations in waste; scaling up current food production for the 2030 global population; plant-based food production systems; and removing sugar crops from the global food system. Each of these scenarios fell short of meeting requirements for multiple nutrients. These results emphasize the need for a balanced approach in the design of future food systems. CONCLUSIONS: Nutrient adequacy must be at the forefront of the sustainable food system debate. The DELTA Model was designed for both experts and nonexperts to inform this debate as to what may be possible, practical, and optimal for our food system. The model results strongly suggest that both plant and animal foods are necessary to achieve global nutrition. The model is freely available for public use so that anyone can explore current and simulated global food systems.
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    The role of holistic nutritional properties of diets in the assessment of food system and dietary sustainability
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023) Dave LA; Hodgkinson SM; Roy NC; Smith NW; McNabb WC
    Advancing sustainable diets for nutrition security and sustainable development necessitates clear nutrition metrics for measuring nutritional quality of diets. Food composition, nutrient requirements, and dietary intake are among the most common nutrition metrics used in the current assessment of sustainable diets. Broadly, most studies in the area classify animal-source foods (ASF) as having a substantially higher environmental footprint in comparison to plant-source foods (PSF). As a result, much of the current dietary advice promulgates diets containing higher proportions of PSF. However, this generalization is misleading since most of these studies do not distinguish between the gross and bioavailable nutrient fractions in mixed human diets. The bioavailability of essential nutrients including β-carotene, vitamin B-12, iron, zinc, calcium, and indispensable amino acids varies greatly across different diets. The failure to consider bioavailability in sustainability measurements undermines the complementary role that ASF play in achieving nutrition security in vulnerable populations. This article critically reviews the scientific evidence on the holistic nutritional quality of diets and identifies methodological problems that exist in the way the nutritional quality of diets is measured. Finally, we discuss the importance of developing nutrient bioavailability as a requisite nutrition metric to contextualize the environmental impacts of different diets.
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    Effects of Green and Gold Kiwifruit Varieties on Antioxidant Neuroprotective Potential in Pigs as a Model for Human Adults.
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2024-04-09) Kanon AP; Giezenaar C; Roy NC; Jayawardana IA; Lomiwes D; Montoya CA; McNabb WC; Henare SJ; Digiacomo M
    Kiwifruit (KF) has shown neuroprotective potential in cell-based and rodent models by augmenting the capacity of endogenous antioxidant systems. This study aimed to determine whether KF consumption modulates the antioxidant capacity of plasma and brain tissue in growing pigs. Eighteen male pigs were divided equally into three groups: (1) bread, (2) bread + Actinidia deliciosa cv. 'Hayward' (green-fleshed), and (3) bread + A. chinensis cv. 'Hort16A' (yellow-fleshed). Following consumption of the diets for eight days, plasma and brain tissue (brain stem, corpus striatum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex) were collected and measured for biomarkers of antioxidant capacity, enzyme activity, and protein expression assessments. Green KF significantly increased ferric-reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) in plasma and all brain regions compared with the bread-only diet. Gold KF increased plasma ascorbate concentration and trended towards reducing acetylcholinesterase activity in the brain compared with the bread-only diet. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between FRAP in the brain stem, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus with the total polyphenol concentration of dietary interventions. These findings provide exploratory evidence for the benefits of KF constituents in augmenting the brain's antioxidant capacity that may support neurological homeostasis during oxidative stress.