The purpose of this study is to present a concise and practical method of applying diet management in health and in some common diseases.

This investigation studies the effects of diets containing varying amounts of linoleic acid (a polyunsaturated fatty acid) and stearic acid (a saturated fatty acid) on tumorigenesis, weight and longevity in strain A/ST mice. Linoleic acid [ 18 carbons and 2 double bonds (18:2)] was chosen to represent a fatty acid known to enhance tumorigenesis and obesity in certain strains of mice. Stearic acid [ 18 carbons and no double bonds (18:0)] represents a saturated fatty acid known to increase the latency period for mammary tumor development and to decrease the rate of tumor growth. This study was conducted to determine whether the effects of fatty acids observed in younger mice on time to tumor, survival and body weights were also found in aging animals. Further, by varying the amount of linoleic acid in the diet, this study examined whether the tumor enhancing effects of increasing amounts of linoleic acid could be overcome by the incorporation of dietary stearic acid. All diets had equal percentages, by weight, of protein, salt, sucrose, mineral salt, and vitamin levels and an equal number of calories per gram of food. The SF diet was rich in linoleic acid. The SA-1 diet contained enough linoleic acid to prevent essential fatty acid deficiency, and the SA-4 diet contained the maximal amount of linoleic acid for tumor enhancement. Total body weight and tumor production in the three dietary groups show a relationship between an increase in body weight and tumor production as the amount of dietary linoleic acid increases. There also is an inverse relationship between animal survival and body weight as the amount of dietary linoleic acid increases. Survival thus appears to be dependent on tumor production in the three dietary groups, where there appears to be an inverse relationship between survival and time to tumor as the amount of dietary linoleic acid increases at each timepoint. These results suggest that the inclusion of stearic acid in the diet can, in part, overcome this enhancing effect of linoleic acid, even at the optimal tumor producing level of linoleic acid. The results of this study indicate that that effects of linoleic and stearic acid in aging mice are similar to those in younger animals. / Department of Biology

This thesis is focused on catering for pupils with celiac disease in school canteens. The first part, the theoretical one, deals with the disease itself; it gives basic information about the disease, its history, main symptoms, anatomy of healthy digestive system, and the most common health problems occurring when suffering from celiac disease. At the end of the theoretical part diagnosis of the disease is described as well as suitable and unsuitable diet food for celiac and food legislation. The practical part is a survey focused on catering for pupils with celiac disease at selected elementary schools. The survey was conducted in two regions in Valašské Meziříčí and in Prague. In the final part of my thesis special gluten-free menus for schools are suggested. The pedagogical outcome of my thesis is a lecture on celiac disease which can be held at elementary school s to help pupils find out basic information about this disease.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 16, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Kent S. Gates. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Background The costs of healthcare are on the rise. With an ageing population, growing demand for health services and expensive new technologies, Australia’s annual health care bill has more than doubled in the last ten years, and is projected to increase a further 127% by 2033. As third-party provider of health care, the Government must make difficult decisions about how best to allocate limited resources to the many new and existing drugs, technologies and health services available for prevention and treatment of disease. Cost-effectiveness analysis of interventions can help identify those that should be given funding priority in order to maximise population health, but its use in allocating resources to prevention has been limited. There have been few cost-effectiveness analyses of preventive interventions, particularly for the potentially more effective strategies targeting the whole population, such as taxation, regulation and community campaigns. Current methods are poorly designed for capturing the change in population distribution of risk that can occur with these types of interventions. Use of cost-effectiveness analysis has also been limited by the use of many different (and often simplistic) modelling methods and assumptions that prevent league table comparison of results to help identify most cost-effective strategies. This thesis presents new methods for evaluating cost-effectiveness of preventive interventions, with application to interventions promoting physical activity, preventing alcohol misuse, reducing body mass, promoting fruits and vegetables and reducing dietary salt intake, from an Australian health sector perspective. Methods Proportional multi-state life table models were developed for each risk factor and for risk factor combinations, using population impact fraction (PIF) functions to quantify the potential intervention impact of a change in individual or population risk factor exposure on disease and injury. The models were used to simulate population health in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and costs of disease treatment, over the lifetime of the Australian population in 2003, for a range of individual- and populationtargeted interventions using intervention costs and effects derived from Australian cost data and published evaluation studies. Monte-Carlo analysis was used to derive uncertainty around all outcome measures, and sensitivity of results to key modelling choices and assumptions was also evaluated. Cost-effectiveness of six physical activity interventions, ten alcohol interventions, two body mass interventions, 23 fruit and vegetable interventions and four dietary salt interventions was evaluated in comparison to current Australian practice. In addition, where multiple mutually-exclusive interventions were evaluated, a partial null (‘no current practice intervention’) scenario was calculated and cost-effectiveness of incrementally adding each intervention to a package was evaluated, to determine the optimal intervention mix and to compare optimal outcomes with the current practice. Findings For physical activity, a package of six individual- and population-targeted interventions is cost-effective and could avert a third of disease burden attributable to physical inactivity. For reducing alcohol misuse, a package of eight individual- and population-targeted interventions could avert a third of disease burden attributable to hazardous and heavy levels of drinking. Although the current practice of random breath testing is cost-effective, if the expenditure on random breath testing had been distributed to more cost-effective interventions, around ten times the improvement in population health could have been achieved. The individually-targeted interventions for body mass, fruits and vegetables and salt intake are not cost-effective. Providing incentives for food industry to reduce salt in processed foods, on the other hand, is far more effective in improving population health and can lead to cost-saving for the health sector in the long term. if (moderate) reductions in salt were made mandatory for food manufacturers, around 20 times the health gains achieved by the current voluntary program could be achieved. Overall, eight interventions are potentially cost-saving for the health sector: voluntary and mandatory limits on salt in processed foods; mass media- and pedometer-based community campaigns to promote physical activity; a community program to promote fruits and vegetables; and volumetric taxation, advertising bans and an increase of the minimum legal drinking age to 21 years to address alcohol misuse. A further 12 interventions for reducing alcohol misuse, and promoting physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption, are under a $50,000 per DALY threshold of costeffectiveness, and are also recommended for health sector investment. Implications The integration of a proportional multi-state life table model with PIF function in this research has proved to have a number of advantages over previous modelling methods. The PIF function enables better simulation of the true continuous distribution of risk in the population, and facilitates analysis of population-targeted interventions that shift the whole distribution of risk. It also substantially simplifies the integration of multiple risk factors into the one model, which was previously constrained by the need to create separate states for every risk factor category (e.g. active and inactive) and risk factor categories in combination (e.g. obese and active, obese and inactive, etc.). This not only makes for easier and more accurate analyses of interventions targeting multiple risk factors, but enables evaluation of packages of many different risk factor interventions. Further investment in preventive interventions is highly recommended. The population-targeted approaches hold most promise for improving population health. Although there is potential for opposition from industry stakeholders and public concern around Government paternalism, these interventions have most potential to generate cost-savings for the health sector in the long-term. Given the weaker evidence around effectiveness of these interventions, however, it is recommended that programs are implemented with sufficient funding for monitoring and evaluation of outcomes.

Appropriate nutrition is linked to the prevention of several major diseases, yet over 50% of Americans do not eat diets sufficient in the necessary proportions of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Increased interest in health prevention has led to the development of a variety of programs designed to change dietary habits. Most have been only marginally successful. One explanation for their failure is the lack of consideration given to the characteristics of the targeted population in the development of the programs. In this study, a five week multicomponent intervention was designed using marketing and psychological principles to increase the selection of dinner entrees low in fat, calories, and sugar and to improve participants‘ knowledge of and attitude toward appropriate nutrition. Subjects were 8600 students who ate in the dining halls of a large southeastern university. The study investigated the additive effectiveness of three intervention components in three dining halls. One dining hall received availability; the second, availability plus point of choice information; the third, availability‘ plus point of choice information plus an incentive program. The results were derived from three separate sources: cafeteria data, survey data, and individual data. Cafeteria results were not significant. Inspection of daily selection data revealed wide fluctuation in selection across entrees, indicating dramatic changes in student preferences. Inspection of weekly selection means revealed that the incentive program combined with increased availability and point of choice information was initially effective in increasing the selection of the Perfect Balance entree. Prompting was the most effective intervention, yielding an average increase of 31.5% in selection of the Perfect Balance entree. Survey data indicated a minor increase in knowledge in. the information condition. Across all conditions there was a decrease in self-efficacy. Forty-four individuals were involved in a tracking project designed to assess whether the aggregate impact of the interventions reflected consistent change within specific individuals or intermittent change across all individuals. Analyses indicated a significant increase in selection behavior across time ( p <.05). The condition by phase interaction approached significance ( p =.07). The greatest change occurred in the incentive condition with a 16% increase, compared to a .3% increase in the information condition, and a 2.5% increase in the availability condition. The social marketing analysis of the study reveals several important barriers to change: resistance from staff and administration, poor quality entrees, student distrust of the dining hall administration, and limited availability of certain entrees. / Ph. D.

Three experiments were conducted to determine how dietary lipid sources influence lipid and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolism when fed to young, growing chickens. In the first experiment, commercial meat-type chickens were fed one of four dietary lipids: 1) linseed oil (LO); 2) menhaden oil (MO); 3) soybean oil (SBO); or 4) chicken fat (CF). Chickens fed the polyunsaturated lipids, LO, MO, and SBO all had similar very low density lipoprotein + low density lipoprotein (VLDL + LDL) triacylglycerol concentrations which were lower than those for chickens fed CF. Tissue lipids from chickens fed LO contained more 20:5n3 compared with those fed SBO or CF. The amounts of 20:5n3 in tissues from chickens fed LO approached those found in tissues from chickens fed MO. Tissue lipids from LO and MO treatments exhibited decreased 20:4n6 concentrations compared with SBO or CF treatments. The data indicate that dietary n-3 lipid sources influence the fatty acid compositions of tissues and can be effectively used to enrich edible chicken tissues. The second experiment examined the effects of varying combinations of CF and MO on plasma triacylglycerols in broiler chickens. As the amount of dietary n-3 fatty acids and the polyunsaturate:saturate ratio increased, the concentration of triacylglycerols in plasma and the plasma VLDL + LDL fraction decreased. On the other hand, plasma triacylglycerol levels increased as the dietary n-6 fatty acids increased. The dietary n-3 fatty acids in the MO treatment led to higher levels of PUFA in the tissues evaluated. In the third experiment, female chickens from two genetic lines, high body weight (HW) and low body weight (LW), were fed SBO (rich in n-6 polyunsaturates) or MO (rich in n-3 polyunsaturates). The amounts of triacylglycerols in the plasma VLDL + LDL fractions were elevated in the LW chickens compared with the HW groups. Amounts of 18:1 isomers and total monounsaturates were highest in the livers and hearts of HW chickens. Feeding MO enriched the plasma, liver and heart tissues with n-3 polyunsaturates in both genetic lines. Plasma triacylglycerol concentrations were decreased in chickens fed MO at 56, but not at 84 days of age. The data suggest differences in lipid metabolism between the HW and LW lines which were not greatly affected by dietary n-6 or n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. / Ph. D.