The Many Faces of Chris Hoy
Olympic Champion Sir Chris Hoy attended a packed first night reception at the International Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conference in Newcastle on 16 December 2014. The lively Q&A session was hosted by retired cyclist Hannah Mayho who, since retiring from professional cycling due to injuries, went on to complete a BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics.
Sir Chris is Britain’s most successful athlete with six Olympic gold medals and 11 World Championship wins. And this week he added the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year lifetime achievement award to his already bulging trophy cabinet. After an illustrious car...
Source: The Nutrition Society - December 17, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: cassandra Source Type: news
Socio-economic inequalities in the diet in UK adults
This report expressed concern over whether people in the UK were eating enough fruit, vegetables and oily fish; and whether they were eating too much red and processed meat, sugar and saturated fat.
We found that, not only did the sample as a whole not meet recommended intakes, those of a lower SEP fared the worst. For the food groups, the least educated adults ate 128grams a day less fruit and vegetables than the most educated; the lowest occupational class consumed 26grams a day more red and processed meat than those in higher managerial occupations; and the highest income group were four times more likely than the lowe...
Source: The Nutrition Society - December 17, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: cassandra Source Type: news
Malnutrition: is under or over-nutrition a greater public health concern?
With constant headlines telling us about soaring obesity rates, malnutrition, in the form of under-nutrition, may not be the first nutrition related concern which springs to mind. However, the NHS reports that one in three people admitted to hospitals and care homes are either malnourished or at risk of malnutrition in the UK. Therefore, the elderly living in institutional settings must be considered a high risk population as under-nutrition is often misunderstood and neglected.
Screening is key to identify risk
Malnutrition can be difficult to recognise and studies have found that reported international prevalence varie...
Source: The Nutrition Society - December 4, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: cassandra Source Type: news
New research examines importance of gut microbiota for older people
This month’s featured paper is from Proceedings of The Nutrition Society and is entitled Gut microbiota in older subjects: variation, health consequences and dietary intervention prospects. Composed of trillions of microbes, the gut microbiota is a diverse ecosystem residing in the healthy human intestine, and collectively known as the gut microbiota. A wealth of research has focused on this commensal bionetwork of late and its implications for health are beginning to emerge.
Our knowledge of the human microbiome (the collection of genes/coding capacity of the microbiota) has expanded dramatically in the last decade due ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - November 5, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: cassandra Source Type: news
Paper of the Month: Predicting use of ineffective vegetable parenting practices with the Model of Goal Directed Behaviour
Many parents of pre-schoolers report difficulty in getting their child to eat vegetables. Parents use a broad variety of ways to influence what their young child eats. Some of the ways they select have the desired effect (i.e. effective vegetable parenting practices), while some do not (i.e. ineffective vegetable parenting practices). Most intervention programs have emphasized increasing parents' use of effective parenting practices, assuming that increased use of effective practices will displace use of ineffective practices. However, these programs have not always had the desired effects.
Increasing a parent’s ability...
Source: The Nutrition Society - October 2, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: DG Source Type: news
Ageing – a developmental triumph or the burden of success?
The age of the population is shifting with an estimate that, by 2050, the global elderly population will have risen to 1.5 billion people. Even developing countries will see this shift as nutrition, medication and sanitation improve and birth rates decrease. In many countries the elderly are celebrated through initiatives such as the International Day of Older Persons (UN) and Respect the Aged Day (Japan). However, increased life expectancy comes at a price as it does not necessarily guarantee an increase in healthy life expectancy.
This change in demographic has far-reaching economic impacts, particularly in healthcare wh...
Source: The Nutrition Society - September 23, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
Do we really know what we eat? How much? And when?
We’ve all seen the television programmes where compulsive eaters graze their way through the day without realising what, when or how much they have eaten. Munching on a cookie here, a doughnut there, supplemented by a few chocolate bars and cans of fizzy drink in between highly calorific ready meals or takeaways.
And then, when the TV show host replays secretly filmed footage of their day’s food intake back to them, hands are raised to mouths in shock horror at their own eating habits.
Unconscious grazing patterns
For nutritionists, dietitians and public health researchers trying to understand the dietary intake of...
Source: The Nutrition Society - September 9, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
How can nutritionists use and learn from ‘big data’?
In a unique collaboration the Nutrition Society has teamed up with the European Bioinformatics Institute to offer nutrition scientists and researchers a new workshop to understand how to access the huge databases provided by the EBI.
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is Europe's hub for big data in biology. EMBL-EBI was established in 1994 on the Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK, and is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
What is Bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is the application of computer technology to the storage, management and analysis of data from life science experiments. One of t...
Source: The Nutrition Society - September 8, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
Do you really understand nutrition statistics and how to use them?
Dr Graham Horgan is Principal Consultant for Human Health and Nutrition, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen. He will be delivering the Nutrition Society's Statistics for Nutrition Research workshop next week (Thursday 4 September). Writing about the Statistical analysis of nutritional studies in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2001, Dr Horgan said:
"Nutritional studies draw on many scientific disciplines, and one that must be prominent in any list is statistics, the science of variability. The consideration of variation is something which is ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - August 27, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
Huge demand for Nutrition Society training at ANEC VI in Ghana
The Nutrition Society's 'Scientific Writing for Publication' training workshop was a runaway success at the 6th African Nutrition Epidemiology Conference (ANEC VI) in Accra, Ghana.The workshop was free to attend to all conference registrants. Places were full days before the actual date of the workshop. Yet people queued up at seven that morning, hoping one or two places would become free at the last minute.
Course tutor Dr Basma Ellahi was delighted with the response and the enthusiasm of students who attended the session. She said:"There was a real thirst for learning at ANEC. There is a tangible need and desire amongst ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - August 20, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
Are you a scientist with clinical nutrition and/or metabolism research expertise?
The prestigious Nutrition Society Cuthbertson award supports our overall objective to advance the scientific study of nutrition and its application to the maintenance of human and animal health. We want to recognise and reward scientists who are making a difference in clinical nutrition and/or metabolism research that focuses on enhancing scientific evidence in nutritional management and in patient care. We encourage young scientists or clinicians who are 15 years within higher degree graduation to apply for the Cuthbertson award. The deadline for entries is 15 September 2014.
The Cuthbertson Medal will be presente...
Source: The Nutrition Society - August 14, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: DG Source Type: news
New Nutrition Society workshops aid Continuous Professional Development
It takes many months of planning and course development to design one of the Nutrition Society's training workshops.
For those working in the field of nutrition, these courses, usually accredited by the Association for Nutrition (AFN), offer a convenient way to keep learning as part of one's continuous professional development (CPD).
Continuous professional development
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says:"As organisations shift the responsibility for personal development back to the individual, the ability and insight to manage your own professional growth is seen as a key strength.... Many employers ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - August 13, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: RB Source Type: news
Does eating oats help control blood sugar and insulin for type two diabetes?
This month's featured paper is from the British Journal of Nutrition titled: Effect of oat intake on glycaemic control and insulin sensitivity: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most serious chronic diseases, the incidence rate of which gets sharp increases within the scope of world. Diabetes mellitus used to be most common (especially type 2) in developed countries. The greatest increase in prevalence is, however, expected to occur in Asia and Africa. Perhaps a "Western-style" diet is the most important factor of the DM incidence increase in developing countries. There ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - August 4, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: NS Publications Team Source Type: news
Does the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative increase breastfeeding?
This month’s featured paper is from Public Health Nutrition and entitled ‘Evaluating the impact of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative on breast-feeding rates: a multi-state analysis’Not only does breastfeeding improve the health of mothers and infants, but it also reduces health care costs and has a smaller environmental footprint than formula-feeding. Although currently three-quarters of US women start breastfeeding, women with lower education are much less likely to try. One known barrier is the lack of breastfeeding support that women receive in the hospital.
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was dev...
Source: The Nutrition Society - July 2, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: NS Publications Team Source Type: news
Fallacies about fructose-containing sugars and their effect on health
This month’s featured paper is from Nutrition Research Reviews and is entitled ‘Misconceptions about fructose-containing sugars and their role in the obesity epidemic’
In the past years, both scientific literature and other media have dispersed numerous misconceptions about the relation between specific food components and negative health outcomes. Sugar, for example, has often been suggested to be toxic and is scapegoated for its role in the increased obesity rates. Overconsumption of sugar is not the only cause of obesity, however, merely one of several causes. By disseminating common fallacies about fructose-conta...
Source: The Nutrition Society - June 2, 2014 Category: Nutrition Authors: NS Publications Team Source Type: news
