Search Results (5)

Background/Objectives: Despite the growing awareness of nutrition and the popularity of healthy lifestyles among adolescents, disordered eating behaviors—such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder (BED), and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)—remain significant public health concerns. ARFID, officially recognized only in 2013, is still poorly understood among youth. This study aimed to assess the relationship between adolescents’ nutritional knowledge, emotional regulation, media influence, and eating behaviors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2024 among 120 students aged 15–17 attending W. Reymont Secondary School No. II in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland. Participants completed a custom-designed, paper-based questionnaire consisting of 30 single-choice questions and demographic items. The instrument assessed knowledge of eating disorders, body satisfaction, social media impact, and the emotional determinants of food choices. The tool was developed with expert input but has not undergone formal psychometric validation. While many adolescents demonstrated basic nutritional knowledge—such as awareness of BMI norms and food group distribution—they often failed to apply this knowledge to their dietary behaviors. Results: Significant gender differences were observed: girls were more likely to restrict food intake, report emotional eating, and engage in slimming behaviors, while boys were less emotionally reactive and less influenced by social media. Most participants reported eating one meal daily with family but rarely discussed nutrition at home. Emotional involvement in eating, particularly among girls, emerged as a key factor, more influential than social media in shaping dietary behaviors. Conclusions: The findings highlight a clear gap between nutritional knowledge and actual behavior among adolescents, driven in part by emotional dysregulation and body image concerns. School-based interventions should incorporate not only nutritional education but also emotional regulation strategies and media literacy to effectively support healthy eating behaviors in youth. Full article

Nowadays, obesity is a pandemic, and some people seek slimming diets to guarantee their health and quality of life. However, the cult of the healthy body has been an ongoing concern since the beginning of time. Irrespective of the century to which they belong, these cults reflect no empirical knowledge about physiology, nutrients or kilocalories, with some of them being quantitative diets in contrast to qualitative diets, or even simple food recommendations. On the other hand, some of these treatments might have led to the death of a patient, meaning that it is important for people seeking to lose weight to be followed by a nutrition professional until the individual reaches a desirable body weight. In this article, we highlight that each century and each decade have devised different treatments with the aim of improving health, but it will be science and history that will judge whether the results of these treatments have been adequate. Full article

In recent years, furosemide has been found to be abused in slimming health foods. There is an urgent need for a simpler, faster method for detecting furosemide in slimming health foods. In this study, a rapid, convenient and sensitive lateral flow immunochromatography (LFIA) based on Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) was established for the first time. Under optimal conditions, the qualitative limit of detection (LOD) of the AuNPs-based LFIA was 1.0~1.2 μg/g in slimming health foods with different substrates. AuNPs-LFIA could specifically detect furosemide within 12 min (including sample pretreatment) and be read by the naked eye. The developed AuNPs-LFIA showed high consistency with liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and no false positive or false negative results were found in spiked slimming health foods, proving that the AuNPs-LFIA should be accurate and reliable. The AuNPs-LFIA reported here provides a serviceable analytical tool for the on-site detection and rapid initial screening of furosemide for the first time. Full article

The first Swiss national dietary survey (MenuCH) was used to screen disease burdens and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of Swiss diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, slimming), with a focus on gender and education level. The Health Nutritional Index (HENI), a novel disease burden-based nutritional index built on the Global Burden of Disease studies, was used to indicate healthiness using comparable, relative disease burden scores. Low whole grain consumption and high processed meat consumption are priority risk factors. Non-processed red meat and dairy make a nearly negligible contribution to disease burden scores, yet are key drivers of diet-related GHGs. Swiss diets, including vegetarian, ranged between 1.1–2.6 tons of CO₂e/person/year, above the Swiss federal recommendation 0.6 ton CO₂e/person/year for all consumption categories. This suggests that only changing food consumption practices will not suffice towards achieving carbon reduction targets: Systemic changes to food provisioning processes are also necessary. Finally, men with higher education had the highest dietary GHG emissions per gram of food, and the highest disease burden scores. Win–win policies to improve health and sustainability of Swiss diets would increase whole grain consumption for all, and decrease alcohol and processed meat consumption especially for men of higher education levels. Full article

The risk of obesity-related disorders is increased among the elderly, so changing eating habits can be an important element of prevention. The main aim of this article is to consider whether looking at pictures that present either fattening food or healthy food may motivate elderly people to change their nutrition habits. Might priming different kinds of food influence the attractiveness of the food for people in late adulthood undergoing obesity therapy? Based on priming theories, we analysed the effects of the conscious processing of stimuli associated with dietary habits in individuals aged with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m². Our experiments confirmed the influence of a higher-priority goal of “slimming” on the perception and internalization of nutrition-related stimuli. In response to such stimuli, individuals who are actively involved in weight reduction and health-oriented programs use strategies for resisting temptation and to effectively “slim”. We present our findings in the context of their theoretical background and practical application. Full article