Nutrients

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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nutrition is the material basis allowing organisms to engage in activities and ensuring the normal growth and development of the human body. A healthy and nutritious diet helps to protect against malnutrition as well as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc. Urbanization and globalization have altered diet and nutrition in rural areas; people have begun to pay more attention to their health and seek healthy and nutritious food. However, there are obvious contradictions between people's dietary aims and dietary behaviors, especially in rural areas. A large number of farmers have continued traditional dietary habits (e.g., high-carb, high-salt, high-sugar diets and long-term consumption of food at night). Such a diet may greatly impact the welfare of rural residents, leading to, for example, increased disease, increased medical burden, decreased human capital, etc., and thus threatening the sustainable development and revitalization of rural areas. This Special Issue calls for research assessing farmers' nutritional behaviors and their impacts on household welfare, as well as those focusing on the challenges of transitioning farmers' dietary preferences. Both original research (e.g., empirical analysis, modeling studies) and review articles (e.g., systematic reviews and meta-analyses) will be considered.

Dr. Xin Deng
Dr. Li Ma
Dr. Yingnan Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

nutrition and environment
cooking energy
dietary habit
green food
exercise
rural poverty
household welfare
digital media and food culture

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2072 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Diet and Blood Concentrations of Essential and Non-Essential Elements among Rural Residents in Arctic Russia

by Tatiana Sorokina, Nikita Sobolev, Natalia Belova, Andrey Aksenov, Dmitriy Kotsur, Anna Trofimova, Yulia Varakina, Andrej M. Grjibovski, Valerii Chashchin, Rimma Korobitsyna and Yngvar Thomassen

Nutrients 2022, 14(23), 5005; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14235005 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1673

Abstract

Nutrition is an essential factor for human health. Earlier research has suggested that Arctic residents are vulnerable to environmental toxic exposures through traditional foods. Although Russia is the largest Arctic country, the evidence on the topic from the Russian part of the Arctic is scarce. We studied associations between blood concentrations of essential and non-essential elements and traditional food consumption in 297 adults from seven rural settlements in the Nenets Autonomous Area, Northwest Russia. Blood arsenic concentration was positively associated with consumption of rainbow smelt, pink salmon, Arctic char and navaga fish. Frequent consumption of northern pike was associated with increased concentration of blood mercury. Blood mercury and arsenic concentrations were significantly associated with blood selenium. We also observed positive associations between blood lead levels and the frequency of goose consumption. Moreover, subjects who reported to be hunters had higher blood levels of lead, suggesting contamination of goose meat with fragments of shotgun shells. Blood cobalt and manganese concentrations were inversely associated with serum ferritin levels. Positive associations between blood levels of manganese and lead were observed. Moreover, blood lead concentrations were significantly associated with cadmium, mercury, copper, and zinc. Our results corroborate earlier findings on the traditional foods as source of non-essential elements for the Arctic residents. Observed correlations between the levels of lead and other elements warrant further research and may have potential implications for the studies on the associations between essential elements and health outcomes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nutrition and Dietary Intake in Rural Areas)

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Other

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11 pages, 1269 KiB

Open AccessBrief Report

Influence of Prefecture-Level Yield of Not-for-Sale Vegetables on Vegetable Intake in Japan: A Natural Experiment

by Daisuke Machida

Nutrients 2022, 14(14), 2884; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14142884 - 14 Jul 2022

Viewed by 1334

Abstract

Increased vegetable intake contributes to better health for people. The distribution of not-for-sale vegetables is an important source of vegetable intake in Japan. This study examined the impact of prefecture-level yield of not-for-sale vegetables on vegetable intake in Japan. This study regarded the increase in yield of not-for-sale Chinese cabbage in Nagano Prefecture in 2012 as a natural experiment. The years 2012 and 2016 were the large-scale survey years of the Japanese National Health and Nutrition Survey. Therefore, the effect of the change in prefecture-level yield of not-for-sale vegetables on vegetable intake was evaluated by comparing the changes in Chinese cabbage intake in Nagano between 2012 and 2016 with those of other prefectures classified in the same regional block as Nagano. Statistical analysis was performed using general linear models to examine the interaction of year and prefecture with Chinese cabbage intake. Consequently, the regression coefficient for the interaction term was −3.38 (95% CI, −9.59–2.83), that of the model adjusted for basic characteristics and energy intake was −2.99 (95% CI, −9.22–3.24), and that of the model adding health-related variables was −5.03 (95% CI, −12.40–2.34). The prefecture-level yield of not-for-sale vegetables typically had a minor effect on vegetable intake. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nutrition and Dietary Intake in Rural Areas)

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