A pretest-posttest control group design was used to compare the effectiveness of a behavioral caloric reduction/exercise increase treatment package with a caloric reduction approach. The participants consisted of 32 people selected from those responding to a community newspaper advertisement announcing the weight control program. The caloric reduction/exercise treatment group focused on energy expenditure methods for reducing weight and improving physical fitness along with procedures for controlling food intake patterns. The caloric reduction group concentrated on procedures for controlling food intake patterns only. The results indicated that weight loss was achieved by both the caloric reduction group and the combined caloric reduction and exercise group, however, the latter group achieved significantly higher weight loss. Additionally, all measures of physical fitness improved most for the combined group. The results suggest the necessity of combining caloric reduction approaches and exercise in treating obesity.

No description available.

The consumption of meat and meat products has been cited as the most critical area to be addressed if we are to meet a sustainable future diet, regarding the impact on climate change and health. The numerous sustainability concerns that have been raised have stimulated calls to reduce the quantity of meat people in general eat, and have created an on-going global debate among policymakers, academics and practitioners. This research makes use of the Integrative Model of Behavioural Prediction (IMBP) in order to isolate the key determinants of what drives the intentions of middle to upper-income South Africans to engage in a meat-reduced diet (MRD). A two-phase methodology was utilised, by firstly conducting an elicitation study to identify the salient beliefs present in the population, and secondly by conducting a population survey to quantify the cognitive foundation of this behaviour. The empirical results showed that the areas of cognition which most strongly predict whether one intends to engage in an MRD were instrumental attitude, experiential attitude and injunctive norms. This study makes three primary contributions. Firstly, a theoretical contribution, through providing insight into how behavioural themes and beliefs materialise into changes in meat-consumption. Secondly, marketing practitioners can benefit from the insight offered by IMBP, which is valuable as it helps to identify what behavioural shift is required to promote MRDs. Lastly, this study contributes to the methodology utilised when applying the IMBP by applying the model to dietary behaviour, which has received comparatively less attention in the past.

Type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in the past decade among Black Americans. Researchers have suggested that Black Seventh-day Adventists, who follow a plant-based diet, are concerned about preventing the complications from this disease. The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore the chance and perceptions of complications from type 2 diabetes among 10 purposefully sampled Black Seventh-day Adventists. The health belief model (HBM) served as the conceptual framework. Two constructs, education and income, were chosen for this study. Education was chosen to increase understanding about the chronic nature of the disease, and income was chosen because it is not inexpensive to maintain a plant-based diet as someone with type 2 diabetes. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews which were inductively coded and then categorized around emerging themes. The key finding of this study revealed that these 10 participants relied on the Adventist lifestyle as an antidote to the complications of type 2 diabetes. The implications for positive social change include increased awareness and education of complications, and decreased risk for chances of complications among informants in this study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of socio- viii demographic characteristics, knowledge of coronary heart disease and behavior variables on blood cholesterol concentration among 218 selected subjects in northern Utah connnunities. The data were obtained from physicians' medical charts and a survey specifically designed for this study. A model was developed from an intensive review of literature and the current state of theoretical and empirical knowledge and was tested by means of path analysis. The model contained fourteen variables including familial coronary heart disease heredity, sex, age, the presence of disease(s), educational attainment, special dietary regimen, occupation, knowledge about coronary heart disease, Type A/B behavior patterns, attitude toward low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, saturated fat calorie intake, energy expenditure, relative body weight, and blood cholesterolconcentration. The model was evaluated for the entire sample as well as two subsamples of males and females. It was found that there was a strong causal relationship between the level of education and knowledge about coronary heart disease (CHD), and between its knowledge and attitude toward low-fat, low-cholesterol diets (less atherogenic diets). Furthermore, it was observed that a favorable positive attitude toward low-fat, low-cholesterol diets served directly to decrease the relative body weight. On the other hand, estimated expenditure of total energy was increased with increasing knowledge about coronary heart disease and in physically active occupations. There was a negative association between the estimated total energy expenditure and blood cholesterol concentration, while a weak positive relationship of relative body weight and saturated fat intake on cholesterol concentration in the blood was observed. Not only knowledge about coronary heart disease had a direct influence on attitude, but also age had a positive causal effect on attitude toward low-fat, low-cholesterol diets. The direct association of familial coronary heart disease heritability on blood cholesterol concentration was the strongest among other variables, followed by special diets, age, total energy expenditure, and saturated fat intake. About 28% of the variations in the blood cholesterol concentration among the entire sample could be explained by eleven variables combined compared with 36% for females and 23% for males. It was shown in the likelihood ratio test that the influence of social and demographic characteristics, knowledge about coronary heart disease, and behavior variables on blood cholesterol concentration was not significantly different between male and female samples. In conclusion, this research suggests the direction and magnitude of causal relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of coronary heart disease and behavior variables and serum cholesterol concentration. Therefore, the findings of this study indicate the potential value of educational programs for the coronary heart disease prevention.

Available evidence indicated that the deficiency of a specific nutrient in the diets adversely affect antibody production from a mild to severe degree. Studies of the effects of diet partially deficient in various essential nutrients on antibody response is meagre. Twelve groups of weanling rats were fed with diets prepared by diluting the basal diet with 0 to 75 percent sucrose for 46 days and their antibody response was measured on the 28th, 40th and 46th day using Salmonella pullorum as the anti gen. The rats fed the diet containing 75 percent sucrose and 25 percent basal diet had mean antibody titer of 15 as compared to 143 for their controls which were fed 100 percent basal diet. The antibody titer decreased as the basal diet was diluted with increasing amounts: of sucrose. Comparison of antibody titer with total serum proteirus, serum vitamin A, hemoglobin, and hematocrit showed that a multiple deficiency in the diet depresses antibody response much more severely than total serum proteins, serum vitamin A, hemoglobin or hematocrit . Rats which had coprophagy prevented had slightly lower food intake, growth rate, antibody response than rats allowed coprophagy.

This study examined the nutritional responses of mule deer during winter on range subjected to a system of spring livestock grazing. The specific purposes were 1) to determine the quality (crude protein, digestible energy, and digestibility) of diets consumed by mule deer in winter on ranges grazed and ungrazed by sheep in spring, 2) to determine the level of forage intake, as determined by the external indicator chromic oxide, for deer under the same grazing regimes, 3) to compare forage intake estimates determined by the external indicator (chromic oxide) with results obtained by ocular estimation, and 4) to determine the forage intake level and quality consumed by fawns, adult does, and yearling male castrates used as experimental subjects during one season of the study. The study was conducted within the framework of a completely random experimental design with two treatments. Variables noted for each unit observed included treatment (previously grazed and not grazed by sheep), season (early-winter versus late-winter), weeks within season (four weeks per season), and sex-age class of animal (fawns, does, castrates). The study site , located at Hardware Ranch, Cache County, Utah, was a shrub:grass:forb community with sagebrush and bitterbrush as co-dominants. Two adjacent 2.4 hectare pastures were fenced. A sheep grazing treatment of 150 sheep days per hectare was applied in late May, 1974 and again in late May, 1975 to one pasture. Hand-reared mule deer were placed in each pasture at a stocking rate of about 100 deer days per hectare for three six-week seasons, two beginning in early November 1974 and 1975, and the other beginning near the middle of March, 1975. Artificial diets were carefully formulated for analyses of the forage quality indices. These formulations were based on the determined botanical composition of diets consumed by the mule deer. Forage intake was determined for two seasons by use of the external indicator method utilizing chromic oxide and these values derived were compared to intake levels determined by an ocular estimation method. No treatment differences existed for forage quality across the three seasons of this study. Mean values for the three qualitative parameters evaluated were: crude protein content, 9.9 percent; digestible energy content, 2.2 kcals/g forage consumed; and dry matter digestibility, 45.5 percent. There were no treatment differences in the level of forage intake, as determined by the external indicator, across two seasons of this study. Mean intake level was 38.1 g/kg body weight per day. No treatment differences existed for the ocular estimation method of determining forage intake and this method was judged to be inferior to the external indicator method of determining forage intake. Few temporal changes between treatments occurred in forage quality and quantity during the early-winter seasons. Some t emporal differences between treatments did exist for forage quality and quantity during the late weeks of the late-winter 1975 season. Deer displayed a marked shift from browse to herbaceous plant material during spring green-up. Deer on the pasture previously grazed by sheep began this shift about one week earlier than those deer on the pasture not grazed by sheep. Interpretation of the results of the forage quality and forage quantity evaluations suggest that deer on the sheep- grazed treatment deferred use of available browse plants and consumed more herbaceous plant material. Therefore, by shortening the length of time that over-wintering deer are dependent upon a browse-dominated diet of lower palatability, lowered quality, and lowered intake, the animals should survive the winter in better physical condition. Thus, this study has shown that sheep grazing of mule deer winter range caused no detriment to the nutritional well-being and may indeed benefit deer to a small degree, particularly at the time of spring green-up. This suggests that a greater animal production per unit area of rangeland can be realized through common use grazing.

The effects of dietary calcium and phosphorus levels on audiogenic seizure susceptibility and brain neurotransmitter were investigated in magnesium deficient rats. For 17 days, male weanling rats were fed magnesium deficient diets which also contained deficient (-), adequate (=}, and excess (+) amounts of calcium and/or phosphorus. Reduction of seizure incidence was seen in low calcium and/or low phosphorus diets. High calcium, and high calcium in combination with high phosphorus increased the severity of seizures. High calcium and low phosphorus, and high phosphorus and low calcium diets prevented seizuring. Most magnesium deficient diets resulted in elevation of serum phosphorus, calcium, and sodium concentrations. Within diet treatments, animals that seized had higher serum mineral concentrations than animals that failed to seize. Magnesium deficiency increased serotonin in cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata and pons, and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid concentrations in cerebral cortex. There were no significant diet effects in brain neurotransmitter concentrations in the midbrain. Calcium seemed to play an important role in increasing both audiogenic seizure susceptibility and brain neurotransmitters. However, brain neurotransmitter levels were not related to seizure susceptibility. Calcium increased serum potassium and sodium concentrations and it increased brain serotonin concentration overall. Increasing dietary phosphorus levels increased serum phosphorus decreased serum calcium concentrations, but did not affect brain neurotransmitters.

M. S.

In the field of gerontology, there is a question regarding whether certain diseases can accelerate the progression of other diseases. Given that there is no existing cure for dementia, there is an undeniable upsurge in demand for research concerning identifying preventive measures that influence the onset or development of cognitive decline. Cerebral atherosclerosis is characterized by the thickening of artery walls within the brain. Many studies have shifted their focus on examining the role nutrients and food play in preventing cognitive decline, dementia, cerebral atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of existing observational and clinical trial evidence published up to date for the association of dietary intervention between cognitive health, dementia, AD, and cerebral atherosclerosis.