Meat/meat alternatives (M/MA) are key sources of Fe, Zn and protein, but intake tends to be low in young children. Australian recommendations state that Fe-rich foods, including M/MA, should be the first complementary foods offered to infants. The present paper reports M/MA consumption of Australian infants and toddlers, compares intake with guidelines, and suggests strategies to enhance adherence to those guidelines. Mother–infant dyads recruited as part of the NOURISH and South Australian Infants Dietary Intake studies provided 3 d of intake data at three time points: Time 1 (T1) (n 482, mean age 5·5 (sd 1·1) months), Time 2 (T2) (n 600, mean age 14·0 (sd 1·2) months) and Time 3 (T3) (n 533, mean age 24 (sd 0·7) months). Of 170 infants consuming solids and aged greater than 6 months at T1, 50 (29 %) consumed beef, lamb, veal (BLV) or pork on at least one of 3 d. Commercial infant foods containing BLV or poultry were the most common form of M/MA consumed at T1, whilst by T2 BLV mixed dishes (including pasta bolognaise) became more popular and remained so at T3. The processed M/MA increased in popularity over time, led by pork (including ham). The present study shows that M/MA are not being eaten by Australian infants or toddlers regularly enough; or in adequate quantities to meet recommendations; and that the form in which these foods are eaten can lead to smaller M/MA serve sizes and greater Na intake. Parents should be encouraged to offer M/MA in a recognisable form, as one of the first complementary foods, in order to increase acceptance at a later age.

Previous studies have shown that various dietary components may be implicated in the aetiology of pancreatic cancer. However, the possible relationship between diet-related inflammation and the risk of pancreatic cancer has not yet been investigated. We examined the ability of a newly developed literature-derived dietary inflammatory index (DII) to predict the risk of pancreatic cancer in a case–control study conducted in Italy between 1991 and 2008. This included 326 incident cases and 652 controls admitted to the major teaching and general hospitals for non-neoplastic diseases, frequency-matched to cases by study centre, sex and age. The DII was computed based on dietary intake assessed using a validated and reproducible seventy-eight-item FFQ. Logistic regression models were used to estimate multivariable OR adjusted for age, sex, study centre, education, BMI, smoking status, alcohol drinking and history of diabetes. Energy adjustment was performed using the residual method. Subjects with higher DII scores (i.e. representing a more pro-inflammatory diet) had a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, with the DII being used as both a continuous variable (ORcontinuous 1·24, 95 % CI 1·11, 1·38) and a categorical variable (i.e. compared with the subjects in the lowest quintile of the DII, those in the second, third, fourth and fifth quintiles had, respectively, ORquintile2 v. 1 1·70, 95 % CI 1·02, 2·80; ORquintile3 v. 1 1·91, 95 % CI 1·16, 3·16; ORquintile4 v. 1 1·98, 95 % CI 1·20, 3·27; ORquintile5 v. 1 2·48, 95 % CI 1·50, 4·10; Ptrend= 0·0015). These data suggest that a pro-inflammatory diet increases the risk of pancreatic cancer.

It has been postulated that Helicobacter pylori infection could affect growth and appetite, consequently influencing body weight. Therefore, the association between H. pylori infection and the dietary and anthropometric indicators of nutritional status of a paediatric population were investigated. A total of 525 children (aged 4–16 years) who were referred to the gastroenterology unit of the Sor Maria Ludovica Children's Hospital from Buenos Aires, Argentina, were enrolled and completed an epidemiological questionnaire. H. pylori infection was diagnosed using the 13C-urea breath test (13C-UBT). Height and weight were assessed for calculation of anthropometric indicators. Energy and macronutrient intakes were estimated by 24 h dietary recall. Data analysis was performed using a χ2 test, a Student's t test, a Mann–Whitney U test and linear and logistic regressions. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 25·1 % (with a mean age of 10·1 (sd 3·1) years). A tendency towards lower energy, carbohydrate, protein and fat intakes was observed in infected patients; however, it was not associated with H. pylori infection in any of the evaluated age groups (4–8, 9–13 and 14–16 years). Underweight, stunting, overweight and obesity were also not associated with the infection. Although height-for-age and BMI-for-age Z scores tended to be lower in infected patients, the differences between H. pylori-positive and H. pylori-negative children were not statistically significant. In conclusion, H. pylori infection was not associated with dietary intake or with anthropometric indicators in the present population of children with gastrointestinal symptoms; however, an increased sample size would be needed to confirm the observed tendency towards lower dietary intake and lower anthropometric indicators of nutritional status in H. pylori-infected children.

Coffee is central to the economy of many developing countries, as well as to the world economy. However, despite the widespread consumption of coffee, there are very few available data showing the usual intake of this beverage. Surveying usual coffee intake is a way of monitoring one aspect of a population's usual dietary intake. Thus, the present study aimed to characterise the usual daily coffee intake in the Brazilian population. We used data from the National Dietary Survey collected in 2008–9 from a probabilistic sample of 34 003 Brazilians aged 10 years and older. The National Cancer Institute method was applied to obtain the usual intake based on two nonconsecutive food diaries, and descriptive statistical analyses were performed by age and sex for Brazil and its regions. The estimated average usual daily coffee intake of the Brazilian population was 163 (se 2·8) ml. The comparison by sex showed that males had a 12 % greater usual coffee intake than females. In addition, the highest intake was recorded among older males. Among the five regions surveyed, the North-East had the highest usual coffee intake (175 ml). The most common method of brewing coffee was filtered/instant coffee (71 %), and the main method of sweetening beverages was with sugar (87 %). In Brazil, the mean usual coffee intake corresponds to 163 ml, or 1·5 cups/d. Differences in usual coffee intake according to sex and age differed among the five Brazilian regions.

It is widely assumed that nutrition can improve school performance in children; however, evidence remains limited and inconclusive. In the present study, we investigated whether serving healthy school meals influenced concentration and school performance of 8- to 11-year-old Danish children. The OPUS (Optimal well-being, development and health for Danish children through a healthy New Nordic Diet) School Meal Study was a cluster-randomised, controlled, cross-over trial comparing a healthy school meal programme with the usual packed lunch from home (control) each for 3 months (NCT 01457794). The d2 test of attention, the Learning Rating Scale (LRS) and standard tests on reading and mathematics proficiency were administered at baseline and at the end of each study period. Intervention effects were evaluated using hierarchical mixed models. The school meal intervention did not influence concentration performance (CP; primary outcome, n 693) or processing speed; however, the decrease in error percentage was 0·18 points smaller (P< 0·001) in the intervention period than in the control period (medians: baseline 2·03 %; intervention 1·46 %; control 1·37 %). In contrast, the intervention increased reading speed (0·7 sentence, P= 0·009) and the number of correct sentences (1·8 sentences, P< 0·001), which corresponded to 11 and 25 %, respectively, of the effect of one school year. The percentage of correct sentences also improved (P< 0·001), indicating that the number correct improved relatively more than reading speed. There was no effect on overall math performance or outcomes from the LRS. In conclusion, school meals did not affect CP, but improved reading performance, which is a complex cognitive activity that involves inference, and increased errors related to impulsivity and inattention. These findings are worth examining in future trials.

High dietary Na intake is associated with multiple health risks, making accurate assessment of population dietary Na intake critical. In the present study, reporting accuracy of dietary Na intake was evaluated by 24 h urinary Na excretion using the EPIC-Soft 24 h dietary recall (24-HDR). Participants from a subsample of the European Food Consumption Validation study (n 365; countries: Belgium, Norway and Czech Republic), aged 45–65 years, completed two 24 h urine collections and two 24-HDR. Reporting accuracy was calculated as the ratio of reported Na intake to that estimated from the urinary biomarker. A questionnaire on salt use was completed in order to assess the discretionary use of table and cooking salt. The reporting accuracy of dietary Na intake was assessed using two scenarios: (1) a salt adjustment procedure using data from the salt questionnaire; (2) without salt adjustment. Overall, reporting accuracy improved when data from the salt questionnaire were included. The mean reporting accuracy was 0·67 (95 % CI 0·62, 0·72), 0·73 (95 % CI 0·68, 0·79) and 0·79 (95 % CI 0·74, 0·85) for Belgium, Norway and Czech Republic, respectively. Reporting accuracy decreased with increasing BMI among male subjects in all the three countries. For women from Belgium and Norway, reporting accuracy was highest among those classified as obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2: 0·73, 95 % CI 0·67, 0·81 and 0·81, 95 % CI 0·77, 0·86, respectively). The findings from the present study showed considerable underestimation of dietary Na intake assessed using two 24-HDR. The questionnaire-based salt adjustment procedure improved reporting accuracy by 7–13 %. Further development of both the questionnaire and EPIC-Soft databases (e.g. inclusion of a facet to describe salt content) is necessary to estimate population dietary Na intakes accurately.

The impact of removing iodised salt on children's goitre status in a high-iodine area (HIA) remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to explore the changes in the prevalence of goitre in children after removing iodised salt from their diet. For this purpose, three towns with the median water iodine content of 150–300 μg/l were selected randomly in Hengshui City, Hebei Province, China. A total of 452 and 459 children were randomly selected from the three towns in order to measure thyroid volume by ultrasound before and after removing iodised salt, respectively. Their goitre status was judged using the criteria of age-specific thyroid volume recommended by the WHO. After removing iodised salt, the overall median urinary iodine content (MUIC) of children decreased from 518 (interquartile range (IQR) 347–735) to 416 (IQR 274–609) μg/l. The MUIC of children across sex and age group decreased significantly except for the age group of 9 years. The overall prevalence of goitre in the three towns significantly decreased from 24·56 % (n 111/452) to 5·88 % (n 27/459) (P< 0·001). Goitre prevalence in children aged 8–10 years decreased from 33·70 % (n 31/92), 23·32 % (n 45/193) and 20·96 % (n 35/167) to 6·10 % (n 10/164), 5·52 % (n 9/163) and 6·06 % (n 8/132), respectively. Goitre prevalence in boys and girls decreased from 27·05 % (n 66/244) and 21·63 % (n 45/208) to 6·66 % (n 15/226) and 5·15 % (n 12/233), respectively. The decreases in the prevalence of goitre in children across sex and age group were all statistically significant. The present study revealed that goitre prevalence in children decreased significantly after removing iodised salt from their diet for about 1·5 years in the HIA in Hebei Province.

Intakes of micronutrient-rich foods are low among Indian women of reproductive age. We investigated whether consumption of a food-based micronutrient-rich snack increased markers of blood micronutrient concentrations when compared with a control snack. Non-pregnant women (n 222) aged 14–35 years living in a Mumbai slum were randomised to receive a treatment snack (containing green leafy vegetables, dried fruit and whole milk powder), or a control snack containing foods of low micronutrient content such as wheat flour, potato and tapioca. The snacks were consumed under observation 6 d per week for 12 weeks, compliance was recorded, and blood was collected at 0 and 12 weeks. Food-frequency data were collected at both time points. Compliance (defined as the proportion of women who consumed ≥ 3 snacks/week) was >85 % in both groups. We assessed the effects of group allocation on 12-week nutrient concentrations using ANCOVA models with respective 0-week concentrations, BMI, compliance, standard of living, fruit and green leafy vegetable consumption and use of synthetic nutrients as covariates. The treatment snack significantly increased β-carotene concentrations (treatment effect: 47·1 nmol/l, 95 % CI 6·5, 87·7). There was no effect of group allocation on concentrations of ferritin, retinol, ascorbate, folate or vitamin B12. The present study shows that locally sourced foods can be made into acceptable snacks that may increase serum β-carotene concentrations among women of reproductive age. However, no increase in circulating concentrations of the other nutrients measured was observed.

The interaction of genetic and dietary factors, as an area of CVD research, has been explored poorly. The aim of the present study was to examine the interaction of dietary patterns and three genetic variants of APOA1 and APOC3, both independently and in combination, relative to the risk of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Tehranian adults. In the present matched, nested case–control study, 414 subjects with the MetS and 414 controls were selected from the participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. Dietary patterns were determined by factor analysis. APOC3 (rs5128 3238C>G) and APOA1 (rs670, − 75G>A and rs5069,+83C>T) SNP were genotyped by the conventional PCR followed by the restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. Overall, three major dietary patterns were extracted: healthy dietary pattern (HDP); Western dietary pattern (WDP); fat–sweet dietary pattern (FSDP). The A and T allele carriers of the APOA1 SNP had a greater risk of developing the MetS in the highest quartile of WDP scores (OR 3·22, 95 % CI 1·21, 8·58, Pinteraction= 0·03). Compared with other genotype combinations, the combined effect of APOC3/APOA1 (CC/GA+AA/CT+TT) genotypes showed a further increase in the risk of the MetS in the highest quartile of WDP scores (OR 1, 2·49, 8·73, 6·32, Ptrend< 0·001, Pinteraction= 0·003). A significant interaction was found between the quartiles of FSDP scores and the APOA1 diplotype (GA+AA/CT+TT). OR for these genotype carriers were 1, 0·65, 0·57 and 0·22 (Ptrend= 0·006) in the lowest to the highest quartile of FSDP scores when compared with the other combined genotypes (Pinteraction= 0·03). Our findings suggest that the WDP and FSDP are associated with APOA1 and APOC3 SNP in relation to the risk of the MetS.

Consumption of olive oil within the Mediterranean diet has been long known to have many health benefits. However, only over the last decade has epidemiological research confirmed its protective role against developing several chronic diseases. The objective of this review was to give an overview of the state of art epidemiological evidence concerning the relationship between olive oil and key public health outcomes including mortality, CVD, diabetes, metabolic syndrome (MetS), obesity and cancer, with a particular focus on recent results from cohort studies and dietary intervention trials. Recent epidemiological research has shown that regular consumption of olive oil is associated with increased longevity. This benefit is partly due to the olive oil's unequivocal cardio-protective role. There is converging evidence on the benefits of olive oil for preventing several CVD risk factors, including diabetes, MetS and obesity. Olive oil is also implicated in preventing certain cancers, with the most promising findings for breast and digestive tract cancers, although the data are still not entirely consistent and mainly from case–control studies. These health benefits are supported by strong mechanistic evidence from experimental studies, demonstrating that specific components of olive oil have antihypertensive, antithrombotic, antioxidant, antiinflammatory and anticarcinogenic action. Despite the accumulating epidemiological research, there is still a lack of consistent results from high-quality studies for many health outcomes (i.e. certain cancers and metabolism-related disorders). Further research is mandatory, above all from prospective studies and randomised dietary intervention trials when feasible, to confirm some of the still potential health benefits.

Cereal products exhibit a wide range of glycaemic indexes (GI), but the interaction of their different nutrients and starch digestibility on blood glucose response is not well known. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate how cereal product characteristics can contribute to GI and insulinaemic index and to the parameters describing glycaemic or insulinaemic responses (incremental AUC, maximum concentration and Δpeak). Moreover, interactions between the different cereal products characteristics and glycaemic response parameters were assessed for the first time. Relationships between the cereal products characteristics and the glycaemic response were analysed by partial least square regressions, followed by modelling. A database including 190 cereal products tested by the usual GI methodology was used. The model on glycaemic responses showed that slowly digestible starch (SDS), rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and fat and fibres, and several interactions involving them, significantly explain GI by 53 % and Δpeak of glycaemia by 60 %. Fat and fibres had important contributions to glycaemic response at low and medium SDS contents in cereal products, but this effect disappears at high SDS levels. We showed also for the first time that glycaemic response parameters are dependent on interactions between starch digestibility (interaction between SDS and RDS) and nutritional composition (interaction between fat and fibres) of the cereal products. We also demonstrated the non-linear effect of fat and fibres (significant effect of their quadratic terms). Hence, optimising both the formula and the manufacturing process of cereal products can improve glucose metabolism, which is recognised as strongly influential on human health.

Studies have suggested that maternal PUFA status during pregnancy may influence early childhood allergic diseases, although findings are inconsistent. We examined the relationship between maternal PUFA status and risk of allergic diseases in early childhood in an Asian cohort. Maternal plasma samples from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes mother–offspring cohort were assayed at 26–28 weeks of gestation for relative abundance of PUFA. Offspring (n 960) were followed up from 3 weeks to 18 months of age, and clinical outcomes of potential allergic diseases (rhinitis, eczema and wheezing) were assessed by repeated questionnaires. Skin prick testing (SPT) was also performed at the age of 18 months. Any allergic disease with positive SPT was defined as having any one of the clinical outcomes plus a positive SPT. The prevalence of a positive SPT, rhinitis, eczema, wheezing and any allergic disease with positive SPT was 14·1 % (103/728), 26·5 % (214/808), 17·6 % (147/833), 10·9 % (94/859) and 9·4 % (62/657), respectively. After adjustment for confounders, maternal total n-3, n-6 PUFA status and the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio were not significantly associated with offspring rhinitis, eczema, wheezing, a positive SPT and having any allergic disease with positive SPT in the offspring (P>0·01 for all). A weak trend of higher maternal n-3 PUFA being associated with higher risk of allergic diseases with positive SPT in offspring was observed. These findings do not support the hypothesis that the risk of early childhood allergic diseases is modified by variation in maternal n-3 and n-6 PUFA status during pregnancy in an Asian population.

Iodine nutrition is commonly assessed from iodine excretion in urine. A 24 h urine sample is ideal, but it is cumbersome and inconvenient. Hence, spot urine samples with creatinine to adjust for differences in void volume are widely used. Still, the importance of ethnicity and the timing of spot urine samples need to be settled. We, thus, collected 104 early morning spot urine samples and 24 h urine samples from Inuit and non-Inuit living in Greenland. Diet was assessed by a FFQ. Demographic data were collected from the national registry and by questionnaires. Iodine was measured using the Sandell–Kolthoff reaction, creatinine using the Jaffe method and para-amino benzoic acid by the HPLC method for the estimation of completeness of urine sampling and compensation of incomplete urine samples to 24 h excretion. A population-based recruitment was done from the capital city, a major town and a settlement (n 36/48/20). Participants were seventy-eight Inuit and twenty-six non-Inuit. The median 24 h iodine excretion was 138 (25th–75th percentile 89–225) μg/97 (25th–75th percentile 72–124) μg in Inuit/non-Inuit (P= 0·030), and 153 (25th–75th percentile 97–251) μg/102 (25th–75th percentile 73–138) μg (P= 0·026) when including compensated iodine excretion. Iodine excretion in 24 h urine samples increased with a rising intake of traditional Inuit foods (P= 0·005). Iodine excretion was lower in morning spot urine samples than in 24 h urine samples (P< 0·001). This difference was associated with iodine intake levels (P< 0·001), and was statistically significant when the iodine excretion level was above 150 μg/24 h. In conclusion, the iodine intake level was underestimated from morning spot urine samples if iodine excretion was above the recommended level.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between total and subtypes of bacterial fermented food intake (dairy products, cheese, vegetables and meat) and mortality due to all causes, total cancer and CVD. From the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands cohort, 34 409 Dutch men and women, aged 20–70 years who were free from CVD or cancer at baseline, were included. Baseline intakes of total and subtypes of fermented foods were measured with a validated FFQ. Data on the incidence and causes of death were obtained from the national mortality register. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyse mortality in relation to the quartiles of fermented food intake. After a mean follow-up of 15 (sd 2·5) years, 2436 deaths occurred (1216 from cancer and 727 from CVD). After adjustment for age, sex, total energy intake, physical activity, education level, hypertension, smoking habit, BMI, and intakes of fruit, vegetables and alcohol, total fermented food intake was not found to be associated with mortality due to all causes (hazard ratio upper v. lowest quartile (HRQ4 v. Q1) 1·00, 95 % CI 0·88, 1·13), cancer (HRQ4 v. Q1 1·02, 95 % CI 0·86, 1·21) or CVD (HRQ4 v. Q1 1·04, 95 % CI 0·83, 1·30). Bacterial fermented foods mainly consisted of fermented dairy foods (78 %) and cheese (16 %). None of the subtypes of fermented foods was consistently related to mortality, except for cheese which was moderately inversely associated with CVD mortality, and particularly stroke mortality (HRQ4 v. Q1 0·59, 95 % CI 0·38, 0·92, Ptrend= 0·046). In conclusion, the present study provides no strong evidence that intake of fermented foods, particularly fermented dairy foods, is associated with mortality.

Few studies have explored the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Evidence from non-Western areas is particularly lacking. In the present study, we aimed to examine the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of GDM in a Chinese population. A total of 3063 pregnant Chinese women from an ongoing prospective cohort study were included. Data on dietary intake were collected using a FFQ at 24–27 weeks of gestation. GDM was diagnosed using a 75 g, 2 h oral glucose tolerance test. Dietary patterns were determined by principal components factor analysis. A log-binomial regression model was used to examine the associations between dietary pattern and the risk of GDM. The analysis identified four dietary patterns: vegetable pattern; protein-rich pattern; prudent pattern; sweets and seafood pattern. Multivariate analysis showed that the highest tertile of the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM (relative risk (RR) 0·79, 95 % CI 0·64, 0·97), compared with the lowest tertile, whereas the highest tertile of the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM (RR 1·23, 95 % CI 1·02, 1·49). No significant association was found for either the protein-rich or the prudent pattern. The protective effect of a high vegetable pattern score was more evident among women who had a family history of diabetes (P for interaction = 0·022). These findings suggest that the vegetable pattern was associated with a decreased risk of GDM, while the sweets and seafood pattern was associated with an increased risk of GDM. These findings may be useful in dietary counselling during pregnancy.

The dietary inflammatory index (DII) is a new tool to assess the inflammatory potential of the diet. In the present study, we aimed to determine the association between the DII and BMI, waist circumference and waist:height ratio (WHtR). We conducted a cross-sectional study of 7236 participants recruited into the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea trial. Information from a validated 137-item FFQ was used to calculate energy, food and nutrient intakes. A fourteen-item dietary screener was used to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeDiet). Sex-specific multivariable linear regression models were fitted to estimate differences (and 95 % CI) in BMI, waist circumference and WHtR across the quintiles of the DII. All nutrient intakes, healthy foods and adherence to the MeDiet were higher in the quintile with the lowest DII score (more anti-inflammatory values) except for intakes of animal protein, saturated fat and monounsaturated fat. Although an inverse association between the DII and total energy was apparent, the DII was associated with higher average BMI, waist circumference and WHtR after adjusting for known risk factors. The adjusted difference in the WHtR for women and men between the highest and lowest quintiles of the DII was 1·60 % (95 % CI 0·87, 2·33) and 1·04 % (95 % CI 0·35, 1·74), respectively. Pro-inflammatory scores remained associated with obesity after controlling for the effect that adherence to a MeDiet had on inflammation. In conclusion, the present study shows a direct association between the DII and indices of obesity, and supports the hypothesis that diet may have a role in the development of obesity through inflammatory modulation mechanisms.

Dietary assessment in older adults can be challenging. The Novel Assessment of Nutrition and Ageing (NANA) method is a touch-screen computer-based food record that enables older adults to record their dietary intakes. The objective of the present study was to assess the relative validity of the NANA method for dietary assessment in older adults. For this purpose, three studies were conducted in which a total of ninety-four older adults (aged 65–89 years) used the NANA method of dietary assessment. On a separate occasion, participants completed a 4 d estimated food diary. Blood and 24 h urine samples were also collected from seventy-six of the volunteers for the analysis of biomarkers of nutrient intake. The results from all the three studies were combined, and nutrient intake data collected using the NANA method were compared against the 4 d estimated food diary and biomarkers of nutrient intake. Bland–Altman analysis showed a reasonable agreement between the dietary assessment methods for energy and macronutrient intake; however, there were small, but significant, differences for energy and protein intake, reflecting the tendency for the NANA method to record marginally lower energy intakes. Significant positive correlations were observed between urinary urea and dietary protein intake using both the NANA and the 4 d estimated food diary methods, and between plasma ascorbic acid and dietary vitamin C intake using the NANA method. The results demonstrate the feasibility of computer-based dietary assessment in older adults, and suggest that the NANA method is comparable to the 4 d estimated food diary, and could be used as an alternative to the food diary for the short-term assessment of an individual's dietary intake.

Socio-economic gradients in diet quality are well established. However, the influence of material socio-economic conditions particularly in childhood, and the use of multiple disaggregated socio-economic measures on diet quality have been little studied in the elderly. In the present study, we examined childhood and adult socio-economic measures, and social relationships, as determinants of diet quality cross-sectionally in 4252 older British men (aged 60–79 years). A FFQ provided data on daily fruit and vegetable consumption and the Elderly Dietary Index (EDI), with higher scores indicating better diet quality. Adult and childhood socio-economic measures included occupation/father's occupation, education and household amenities, which combined to create composite scores. Social relationships included social contact, living arrangements and marital status. Both childhood and adult socio-economic factors were independently associated with diet quality. Compared with non-manual social class, men of childhood manual social class were less likely to consume fruit and vegetables daily (OR 0·80, 95 % CI 0·66, 0·97), as were men of adult manual social class (OR 0·65, 95 % CI 0·54, 0·79), and less likely to be in the top EDI quartile (OR 0·73, 95 % CI 0·61, 0·88), similar to men of adult manual social class (OR 0·66, 95 % CI 0·55, 0·79). Diet quality decreased with increasing adverse adult socio-economic scores; however, the association with adverse childhood socio-economic scores diminished with adult social class adjustment. A combined adverse childhood and adulthood socio-economic score was associated with poor diet quality. Diet quality was most favourable in married men and those not living alone, but was not associated with social contact. Diet quality in older men is influenced by childhood and adulthood socio-economic factors, marital status and living arrangements.

High intakes of fruit and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer at several sites. Evidence has been derived mainly from case–control studies. We reviewed the relationship between consumption of vegetables and fruit and the risk of several common cancers in a network of Italian and Swiss case–control studies including over 10 000 cases of fourteen different cancers and about 17 000 controls. Data were suggestive of a protective role of vegetable intake on the risk of several common epithelial cancers. OR for the highest compared with the lowest levels of consumption ranged from 0·2 (larynx, oral cavity and pharynx) to 0·9 (prostate). Inverse associations were found for both raw and cooked vegetables, although for upper digestive tract cancers the former were somewhat stronger. Similar inverse associations were found for cruciferous vegetables. Frequent consumption of allium vegetables was also associated with reduced risk of several cancers. Fruit was a favourable correlate of the risk of several cancers, particularly of the upper digestive tract, with associations generally weaker than those reported for vegetables. A reduced risk of cancers of the digestive tract and larynx was found for high consumption of citrus fruit. Suggestive protections against several forms of cancer, mainly digestive tract cancers, were found for high consumption of apples and tomatoes. High intakes of fibres, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins were inversely related to various forms of cancer. In conclusion, data from our series of case–control studies suggested a favourable role of high intakes of fruit and vegetables in the risk of many common cancers, particularly of the digestive tract. This adds evidence to the indication that aspects of the Mediterranean diet may have a favourable impact not only on CVD, but also on several common (epithelial) cancers, particularly of the digestive tract.

Soya foods are one of the recommended alternatives to meat in many dietary guidelines. While this is expected to increase the intake of some nutrients, potential concerns regarding others have been raised. The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence and the association of soya food consumption with nutrient intakes and dietary patterns of Canadians (age ≥ 2 years). Cross-sectional data from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey (Cycle 2.2; n 33 218) were used to classify soya consumers and non-consumers. Soya consumers were further divided into two groups based on their soya protein intake. Sample weights were applied and logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between nutrient intakes and soya consumption, with cultural background, sex, age and economic status being included as covariates. On any given day, 3·3 % (n 1085) of Canadians consume soya foods, with females, Asian Canadians and adults with post-secondary education being more likely to be soya consumers. As a whole, adolescent and adult respondents who had consumed at least one soya food during their 24 h dietary recall had higher energy intakes, as well as increased intakes of nutrients such as protein, fibre, vitamin C, vitamin B6, naturally occurring folate, thiamin, Ca, P, Mg, PUFA, Fe and K and lowered intakes of saturated fat. These data indicate that soya food consumption is associated with improved diet quality of Canadians. However, future research is necessary to investigate the association between increased energy intake and soya consumption.