Vitamin-supplemented chewing gum can increase salivary and plasma levels of a panel of vitamins in healthy human participants

Nutritional Composition of Post-Catastrophic Foods

In addition to current challenges in food production arising from climate change, soil salinization, drought, flooding, and human-caused disruption, abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios (ASRS), e.g., a nuclear winter, supervolcano eruption, or large asteroid or comet strike, are catastrophes that would severely disrupt the global food supply and decimate normal agricultural practices. In such global catastrophes, teragrams of particulate matter, such as aerosols of soot, dust, and sulfates, would be injected into the stratosphere and block sunlight for multiple years. The reduction of incident sunlight would cause a decrease in temperature and precipitation and major shifts to climate patterns leading to devastating reductions in agricultural production of traditional food crops. To survive a catastrophic ASRS or endure current and future disasters and famines, humans might need to rely on post-catastrophic foods, or those that could be foraged, grown, or produced under the new climate conditions to supplement reduced availability of traditional foods. These foods have sometimes been referred to as emergency, alternate, or resilient foods in the literature. While there is a growing body of work that summarizes potential post-catastrophic foods and their nutritional profiles based on existing data in the literature, this article documents a list of protocols to experimentally determine fundamental nutritional properties of post-catastrophic foods that can be used to assess the relative contributions of those foods to a balanced human diet that meets established nutritional requirements while avoiding toxic levels of nutrients. © 2024 The Author(s). Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Total digestible glucans Basic Protocol 2: Apparent protein digestibility Basic Protocol 3: Vitamins B1, B3, B9, C, and D2 by HPLC Basic Protocol 4: Total antioxidant activity (DPPH-scavenging activity) Basic Protocol 5: Total phenolic compounds (Folin-Ciocalteu reagent method) Basic Protocol 6: Mineral content by ICP-OES.

Immediate and residual effects of functional chewing gum on sustained attention and mood

Objectives: Chewing gum has been shown to improve aspects of cognition and mood with sustained attention being particularly receptive to the effects of chewing. Chewing gum may also be a useful vehicle for administering functional ingredients. The herbal extract Rhodiola rosea and certain B-vitamins have previously been shown to improve aspects of cognition and subjective state, but their combined effects have not been studied to date.Methods: The current randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced crossover study compared the effects of a functional gum containing Rhodiola rosea and B-vitamins to flavour-matched regular chewing gum and a flavour-matched placebo. Thirty-six healthy young participants completed measures of attention and mood at baseline, during chewing, and 1-h after chewing.Results: Chewing both functional and regular gum was shown to reduce errors on a digit vigilance task compared to placebo irrespective of whether measured during or after chewing. There were no benefits to adding functional ingredients to the gum.Discussion: Future chewing research should consider different formats of placebo. Sex differences in response to chewing and the impact of rate and intensity of chewing should also be explored.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05544500.

The potential of salivary biomarkers of nutritional status and dietary intake: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES

To explore whether nutritional salivary biomarkers could be used to aid nutritional status assessment and/or support traditional dietary assessment methods for patients.

DATA AND SOURCES

Searches were performed using four electronic databases; MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science. Trial registers (i.e. Cochrane), grey literature and reference lists were searched.

STUDY SELECTION

Studies which measured nutritional salivary biomarkers related to nutritional status and/or dietary intake outcome were included. No restrictions on participants' age, study design, publication date, setting or health status. Animal studies, non-English language studies, commentaries, and conference abstracts were excluded.

RESULTS

Study titles and abstracts were screened (n = 7982), full-texts assessed (n = 176) and 85 studies were included in a narrative synthesis. The most promising salivary biomarkers for nutritional status included: glucose, where saliva and serum levels were positively correlated in those with type 2 diabetes (T2D), higher salivary calcium levels in post-menopausal women in general and specifically those with lower bone mineral density (BMD), and salivary vitamin D to assess vitamin D status in healthy volunteers. Higher salivary total antioxidant capacity (TAC), nitrate/nitrite and fluoride were observed with increased antioxidant, nitrate/nitrite and fluoride dietary intake, respectively. A meta-analysis found significantly higher mean salivary glucose (n = 12) in T2D compared with healthy controls, but there was substantial heterogeneity (I²=94%) and evidence of publication bias.

CONCLUSIONS

The most promising salivary biomarkers identified in this systematic review were, glucose, vitamin D, calcium, TAC, nitrate/nitrite and fluoride. However, this was based on a small number of studies of varying quality, with many lacking a salivary assay performance assessment.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

At present, nutritional salivary biomarkers cannot be used alone to assess nutritional status or dietary intake. Further research into the most promising nutritional salivary biomarkers is required.