Marije Oostindjer

The role of red and processed meat in colorectal cancer development: a perspective

This paper is based on a workshop held in Oslo, Norway in November 2013, in which experts discussed how to reach consensus on the healthiness of red and processed meat. Recent nutritional recommendations include reducing intake of red and processed meat to reduce cancer risk, in particular colorectal cancer (CRC). Epidemiological and mechanistic data on associations between red and processed meat intake and CRC are inconsistent and underlying mechanisms are unclear. There is a need for further studies on differences between white and red meat, between processed and whole red meat and between different types of processed meats, as potential health risks may not be the same for all products. Better biomarkers of meat intake and of cancer occurrence and updated food composition databases are required for future studies. Modifying meat composition via animal feeding and breeding, improving meat processing by alternative methods such as adding phytochemicals and improving our diets in general are strategies that need to be followed up.

Resistant starch diet induces change in the swine microbiome and a predominance of beneficial bacterial populations

BackgroundDietary fibers contribute to health and physiology primarily via the fermentative actions of the host’s gut microbiome. Physicochemical properties such as solubility, fermentability, viscosity, and gel-forming ability differ among fiber types and are known to affect metabolism. However, few studies have focused on how they influence the gut microbiome and how these interactions influence host health. The aim of this study is to investigate how the gut microbiome of growing pigs responds to diets containing gel-forming alginate and fermentable resistant starch and to predict important interactions and functional changes within the microbiota.ResultsNine growing pigs (3-month-old), divided into three groups, were fed with either a control, alginate-, or resistant starch-containing diet (CON, ALG, or RS), and fecal samples were collected over a 12-week period. SSU (small subunit) rDNA amplicon sequencing data was annotated to assess the gut microbiome, whereas comprehensive microarray polymer profiling (CoMPP) of digested material was employed to evaluate feed degradation. Gut microbiome structure variation was greatest in pigs fed with resistant starch, where notable changes included the decrease in alpha diversity and increase in relative abundance of Lachnospiraceae- and Ruminococcus-affiliated phylotypes. Imputed function was predicted to vary significantly in pigs fed with resistant starch and to a much lesser extent with alginate; however, the key pathways involving degradation of starch and other plant polysaccharides were predicted to be unaffected. The change in relative abundance levels of basal dietary components (plant cell wall polysaccharides and proteins) over time was also consistent irrespective of diet; however, correlations between the dietary components and phylotypes varied considerably in the different diets.ConclusionsResistant starch-containing diet exhibited the strongest structural variation compared to the alginate-containing diet. This variation gave rise to a microbiome that contains phylotypes affiliated with metabolically reputable taxonomic lineages. Despite the significant microbiome structural shifts that occurred from resistant starch-containing diet, functional redundancy is seemingly apparent with respect to the microbiome’s capacity to degrade starch and other dietary polysaccharides, one of the key stages in digestion.

Diet and Physical Activity Apps: Perceived Effectiveness by App Users

Background Diet and physical activity apps are two types of health apps that aim to promote healthy eating and energy expenditure through monitoring of dietary intake and physical activity. No clear evidence showing the effectiveness of using these apps to promote healthy eating and physical activity has been previously reported. Objective This study aimed to identify how diet and physical activity (PA) apps affected their users. It also investigated if using apps was associated with changes in diet and PA. Methods First, 3 semi-structured focus group discussions concerning app usability were conducted (15 app users and 8 nonusers; mean age 24.2 years, SD 6.4), including outcome measures such as motivations, experiences, opinions, and adherence. Results from the discussions were used to develop a questionnaire. The questionnaire, which contained questions about behavior changes, app usage, perceived effectiveness, and opinions of app usability, was answered by 500 Norwegians, with a mean age of 25.8 years (SD 5.1). Results App users found diet and PA apps effective in promoting healthy eating and exercising. These apps affected their actions, health consciousness, and self-education about nutrition and PA; and were also a part of their social lives. Over half of the users perceived that apps were effective in assisting them to eat healthily and to exercise more. Diet apps were more effective when they were frequently used and over a long period of time, compared to infrequent or short-term use (P=.01 and P=.02, respectively). Users who used diet and PA apps, perceived apps as more effective than users who only used one type of app (all P<.05). App users were better at maintaining diet and PA behaviors than nonusers (all P<.05). Young adults found apps fun to use, but sometimes time consuming. They wanted apps to be designed to meet their personal expectations. Conclusions App usage influenced action, consciousness, self-education about nutrition and PA, and social life. It facilitated maintaining a healthy diet and exercising more. Diet and PA apps of the future can be further strengthened by being tailored to meet personal needs.

Potential applications of gut microbiota to control human physiology

The microorganisms living in our gut have been a black box to us for a long time. However, with the recent advances in high throughput DNA sequencing technologies, it is now possible to assess virtually all microorganisms in our gut including non-culturable ones. With the use of powerful bioinformatics tools to deal with multivariate analyses of huge amounts of data from metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics, we now start to gain some important insights into these tiny gut inhabitants. Our knowledge is increasing about who they are, to some extent, what they do and how they affect our health. Gut microbiota have a broad spectrum of possible effects on health, from preventing serious diseases, improving immune system and gut health to stimulating the brain centers responsible for appetite and food intake control. Further, we may be on the verge of being capable of manipulating the gut microbiota by diet control to possibly improve our health. Diets consisting of different components that are fermentable by microbiota are substrates for different kinds of microbes in the gut. Thus, diet control can be used to favor the growth of some selected gut inhabitants. Nowadays, the gut microbiota is taken into account as a separate organ in human body and their activities and metabolites in gut have many physiological and neurological effects. In this mini-review, we discuss the diversity of gut microbiota, the technologies used to assess them, factors that affect microbial composition and metabolites that affect human physiology, and their potential applications in satiety control via the gut-brain axis.

Effects of hemin and nitrite on intestinal tumorigenesis in the A/J Min/+ mouse model.

Red and processed meats are considered risk factors for colorectal cancer (CRC); however, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. One cause for the potential link between CRC and meat is the heme iron in red meat. Two pathways by which heme and CRC promotion may be linked have been suggested: fat peroxidation and N-nitrosation. In the present work we have used the novel A/J Min/+ mouse model to test the effects of dietary hemin (a model of red meat), and hemin in combination with nitrite (a model of processed meat) on intestinal tumorigenesis. Mice were fed a low Ca2+ and vitamin D semi-synthetic diet with added hemin and/or nitrite for 8 weeks post weaning, before termination followed by excision and examination of the intestinal tract. Our results indicate that dietary hemin decreased the number of colonic lesions in the A/J Min/+ mouse. However, our results also showed that the opposite occurred in the small intestine, where dietary hemin appeared to stimulate tumor growth. Furthermore, we find that nitrite, which did not have an effect in the colon, appeared to have a suppressive effect on tumor growth in the small intestine.

Olfaction: An Overlooked Sensory Modality in Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare

It has long been known that odors and olfaction play a major role in behavioral development and expression in animals. The sense of smell is employed in numerous contexts, such as foraging, mate choice, and predation risk assessment. Indeed, olfaction is the primary sensory modality for most mammals, and many domestic species kept by humans, including chickens (1). Odors are therefore likely to influence many of the handling and management procedures carried out with animals, whether on farms, in zoos, in the laboratory, or in the family home. Despite this, applied ethologists and animal welfare scientists have not to any great extent investigated chemosensory perception or included odors in their studies.

The Potential of Class II Bacteriocins to Modify Gut Microbiota to Improve Host Health.

Production of bacteriocins is a potential probiotic feature of many lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as it can help prevent the growth of pathogens in gut environments. However, knowledge on bacteriocin producers in situ and their function in the gut of healthy animals is still limited. In this study, we investigated five bacteriocin-producing strains of LAB and their isogenic non-producing mutants for probiotic values. The LAB bacteriocins, sakacin A (SakA), pediocin PA-1 (PedPA-1), enterocins P, Q and L50 (enterocins), plantaricins EF and JK (plantaricins) and garvicin ML (GarML), are all class II bacteriocins, but they differ greatly from each other in terms of inhibition spectrum and physicochemical properties. The strains were supplemented to mice through drinking water and changes on the gut microbiota composition were interpreted using 16S rRNA gene analysis. In general, we observed that overall structure of the gut microbiota remained largely unaffected by the treatments. However, at lower taxonomic levels, some transient but advantageous changes were observed. Some potentially problematic bacteria were inhibited (e.g., Staphylococcus by enterocins, Enterococcaceae by GarML, and Clostridium by plantaricins) and the proportion of LAB was increased in the presence of SakA-, plantaricins- and GarML-producing bacteria. Moreover, the treatment with GarML-producing bacteria co-occurred with decreased triglyceride levels in the host mice. Taken together, our results indicate that several of these bacteriocin producers have potential probiotic properties at diverse levels as they promote favorable changes in the host without major disturbance in gut microbiota, which is important for normal gut functioning.

Are School Meals a Viable and Sustainable Tool to Improve the Healthiness and Sustainability of Children´s Diet and Food Consumption? A Cross-national Comparative Perspective

ABSTRACT There is little agreement among governments, institutions, scientists and food activists as to how to best tackle the challenging issues of health and sustainability in the food sector. This essay discusses the potential of school meals as a platform to promote healthy and sustainable food behavior. School meal programs are of particular interest for improving public diet because they reach children at a population scale across socio-economic classes and for over a decade of their lives, and because food habits of children are more malleable than those of adults. Current research on the history and health implications of school meal programs is reviewed in a cross-national comparative framework, and arguments explored that speak for the need of a new developmental phase of school meals as an integrative learning platform for healthy and sustainable food behavior. Nutritional, social, practical, educational, economical, political, and cultural perspectives and challenges linked to the implementation of healthy and sustainable school meals are discussed. Finally, the need for long-term interventions and evaluations is highlighted and new research directions are proposed.

Snacks With Nutrition Labels: Tastiness Perception, Healthiness Perception, and Willingness to Pay by Norwegian Adolescents

OBJECTIVEnConsumers tend to have the perception that healthy equals less tasty. This study aimed to identify whether information provided by the Keyhole symbol, a widely used front-of-package symbol in Nordic countries to indicate nutritional content, and percent daily values (%DVs) affect Norwegian adolescents perception of the healthiness of snacks and their intention to buy them.nnnDESIGNnTwo tasks were used to evaluate adolescents perception of snacks with the Keyhole symbol: with %DVs or with no nutrition label. A third task was used to test their abilities to use %DVs (pairwise selections). A survey obtained personal attributes.nnnPARTICIPANTSnA total of 566 Norwegian adolescents.nnnMAIN OUTCOME MEASURESnTaste perception, health perception, and ability to use %DVs.nnnANALYSISnLinear mixed models and logistic models that tested effects of labels and personal attributes on main outcome measures.nnnRESULTSnThe Keyhole symbol increased health perception without influencing taste perception of snacks. Norwegian adolescents had limited abilities to use information from the %DVs correctly to identify healthier foods.nnnCONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONSnNorwegian adolescents had a positive perception of the Keyhole symbols. Keyhole symbols as a simple, heuristic front-of-package label have potential as an information strategy that may influence self-efficacy in promoting healthy snack choices among adolescents.

Getting Norway to eat healthier: What are the opportunities?

Aim: Increased food consumption and the related problem of obesity have spurred initiatives to motivate consumers to eat healthier. Some strategies have shown positive but only short-term effects, as consumers or other stakeholders do not accept them sufficiently in the long term. The aim of this study was to investigate opportunities for healthier eating in Norway according to both consumers and other stakeholders. Methods: Five focus-group sessions were conducted with individuals working in the food industry, retail, public health, research and various non-governmental organisations related to food consumption. Topics that were discussed in the focus groups were transformed into a consumer survey, which was conducted with 1178 respondents. Results: The focus groups often indicated a specific responsibility for the food industry to get people to eat healthier. Survey respondents indicated that all actors in the food chain had responsibility for healthier eating in the population, but agreed that the food industry, as well as the health authority, have major responsibilities. Food education was regarded as a favourable strategy in the focus groups and by survey respondents to help people to eat healthier, as were less advertising of unhealthy food and developing new healthy food products. Such strategies should be focused on parents, families, schools and children according to both focus group and survey participants. Implementation challenges include consumers wanting freedom to choose what they eat and consumers wanting food information that is easier to understand. Conclusions: This study showed that consumers and other stakeholders see opportunities for healthier eating in Norway by providing more food education and clearer food information, targeted towards children, families and parents.