Virgínia Souza Santos

Quality of life and eating attitudes of health care students

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of life and eating attitudes of health care students of the undergraduate programs of a public university. METHOD Observational, cross-sectional, and quantitative study performed in a federal university. Three questionnaires were used for data collection: a socio-demographic and academic, the WHOQOL-BREF and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). RESULT 399 students participated in this study, most women, average age of 22 years, average scores of EAT-26 of 15.12 and quality-of-life averages above 60 points in all domains. The students of the undergraduate program in Nutrition presented more inappropriate eating attitudes than other health care students; as the age evolves, vulnerability to inadequate eating attitudes increases; and the family income influenced negatively the quality of life in Physical and Social domains. CONCLUSIONS Inadequate eating attitude diminishes the quality of life of health care students in all domains of the WHOOQOL-BREF.

Can lychee reducing the adipose tissue mass in rats

Lychee fruit has been studied owing to the presence of several bioactive compounds that can contribute to weight loss in obese individuals. However, the anti-obese potential of the fruit has not been explored yet. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different parts of lychee in reducing the adipose tissue mass of cafeteria diet-fed rats. Phenolic compounds and scavenging capacities were quantified. The food intake, apparent digestibility, weight of the body and liver, body mass, Lee Index, and the mass of epididymal and visceral adipose tissues were evaluated. The results were estimated by Tukey’s Test at 5% probability. A higher amount of phenolic compounds and scavenging capacity were observed in the peel of lychee as compared to the other parts of the fruit. The hypercaloric diet with lychee flour resulted in a higher apparent digestibility. There was no difference between groups control (C), hypercaloric (H), hypercaloric with lychee flour 50.00% peel and 50.00% seeds (H2F), and hypercaloric with lychee flour 33.33% peel, 33.33% pulp and 33.34% seeds (H3F) with respect to body and liver weight, corporal mass, and Lee Index. The hypercaloric diet-fed group exhibited an increase in visceral and epididymal adipose tissue mass, whereas the group fed with hypercaloric diets and flour made from the peel and seed of lychee presented a lower visceral adipose tissue mass. In conclusion, the use of lychee flour was considered viable because it decreased visceral adipose tissue mass in rats.

Gastronomy’s influence on fruits and vegetables acceptance by overweight children

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com children between 5 and 9 years old [1]. The weight excess can be resulted from the interaction between biological, behavioral and environmental factors. Inadequate eating habits besides fruits and vegetables low consumption are among the 10 risk factors for the occurrence of overweight in the whole world [2,3]. The obesity is a serious public health problem which can induce cardiovascular diseases in young adults [4]. According to Food and Nutrition Surveillance System Survey, in 2008 the consumption of fruits and vegetables was considered inadequate to 30% of 26,000 surveyed children and teenagers, since this amount did not report consuming these kinds of food during the week [5]. Fruits and vegetables consumption of the general population is lower than the recommended amount, which is 400 to 500 g per day [6]. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the consumption of these foods is lower than the recommended to more than 90% of Brazilian citizens [1].