Perceived Nutrition and Health Concerns: Do They Protect against Unhealthy Dietary Patterns in Polish Adults?

Lifestyle Variation among the Elderly: Do Nutritional Knowledge and Diet Quality Differ When the Other Lifestyle Components Are Similar?

Older people's health is strongly determined by their lifestyle, and its deterioration is a cause for concern and calls for effective efforts to slow down the process. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between diet quality and other non-food lifestyle elements. The data were collected in 2017 through a cross-sectional survey among 271 Polish elder citizens. A K-means cluster analysis was applied to separate homogeneous groups by lifestyle components (without diet) and a logistic regression was used to analyze the relationships between identified clusters and sociodemographic characteristics, nutritional knowledge and diet quality. Three homogenous clusters were identified, i.e., individuals with moderate physical activity and recommended sleep duration (pro-healthy), with low physical activity (low PA), and with short sleep (short sleep). Gender, age, education, place of residence, BMI, and health-promoting diet index (pHDI) did not differentiate adherence to clusters. The probability of being in the pro-healthy cluster increased with nutritional knowledge and declaring the same or better health status compared to peers, while it decreased when above-average financial status was reported. The obtained results importantly extend the previous findings by showing that the individual elements of lifestyle should be also perceived in the context of others. Further research focused on lifestyle as a whole might considerably support the implementation of multifaceted lifestyle interventions.

Diet Quality and Changes in Food Intake during the University Studies in Polish Female Young Adults: Linkages with Food Experiences from Childhood and Perceived Nutrition Concerns

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood may be associated with unfavorable changes in food intake due to some substantial transformations in social life and environment. Factors that affect food choices and diet quality during early adulthood are still not well-recognized. This paper aims to explore the relationship between females’ childhood food experiences related to parents’ monitoring practices and healthy eating guidance, perceived nutrition concerns, changes in food intake during university studies, and diet quality. A cross-sectional study with the use of CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) was carried out on 657 female students aged 19–30 years. Beliefs and Eating Habits Questionnaire (KomPAN) was used to assess the frequency of eating various kinds of food and then to calculate the diet-quality index (DQI). Adults’ Memories of Feeding in Childhood (AMoFiC) questionnaire was used to assess food experiences from childhood, and Health Concern Scale (HCS) was used to assess nutrition concerns. Associations between changes in food intake, diet quality, and selected factors describing the study sample were verified using logistic regression analysis. The DQI of the majority of students indicated a low intensity of nonhealthy and pro-healthy dietary characteristics. The intensity was higher among nutrition and health students, those with low nutrition concerns, and those with childhood experiences of monitoring. The chances of a negative change in food intake were increased by a higher score for childhood food experiences associated with parents’ monitoring practices. The chances of a negative DQI were increased by bigger concerns about nutrition and by technical and agricultural majors; however, they were reduced by positive changes in food intake. Both childhood food experiences and perceived nutrition concerns should be factored into strategies aimed at improving youth diet and educating parents about effective parental feeding practices.

Are Nutritional Patterns among Polish Hashimoto Thyroiditis Patients Differentiated Internally and Related to Ailments and Other Diseases?

There is not any diet recommended for Hashimoto's disease, despite that those patients are often undernourished. Because of the high heterogeneity of Hashimoto's patients, insight into dietary patterns might shed some light on the patient-tailored dietary approach, thus improving their treatment and helping to identify patients with the highest probability of particular nutritional deficiencies. The aim of this study was to identify Hashimoto's patients' dietary patterns and their characterization based on both socio-demographic variables and dietary self-assessment. We collected data online from patients with Hashimoto's disease. The questionnaire formula used in the study was developed based on a validated food frequency questionnaire KomPAN®. K-means pattern analyses were used to characterize patients into patterns based on the frequency of particular types of foods consumption and socio-demographic factors. Four patterns were identified. We labeled them as 'Convenient', 'Non-meat', 'Pro-healthy', and 'Carnivores' with participants proportions at approximately one-fourth per each pattern. The patients were mainly of the female gender (94.08%), with a female: male ratio of 15.9. Hashimoto's patients differed in their food product choices, food choice motives, dieting experience, nutritional knowledge, smoking habits, food allergies and intolerances, and lipid disorders, and thus represent different eating patterns. However, these patterns were not determined by comorbidities or the majority of ailments.

Assessment of Plant Sterols in the Diet of Adult Polish Population with the Use of a Newly Developed Database

Plant sterols are compounds with multiple biological functions, mainly cholesterol-reducing. There are no comprehensive databases on plant sterols, which makes it difficult to estimate their intake in the Polish population. This work attempted to use international food databases, additionally supplemented by scientific data from the literature, to create a database of plant sterols, which would cover various kinds of foods and dishes consumed in Poland. The aim was to assess the size and sources of dietary plant sterols in the adult population of Poland. The literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify possible sources of published food composition data for plant sterols. The study group consisted of 5690 participants of the WOBASZ II survey. We identified 361 dietary sources of plant sterols based on the consumption of foods and dishes reported by participants. Cereals and fats provided 61% of the total plant sterols, and together with vegetables and fruits, this totaled 80%. The median intake of plant sterols in the Polish population was 255.96 mg/day, and for men and women 291.76 and 230.61 mg/day, respectively. Canola oil provided the most plant sterols at 16.92%, followed by white bread at 16.65% and soft margarine at 8.33%. The study found that plant sterol intake in Poland is comparable to other populations, and women’s diets are more dense in plant sterols. Due to the lack of literature sources on plant sterol content in some foods, future studies should expand and complete the databases on plant sterol content in foods.

Food Neophobia among Adults: Differences in Dietary Patterns, Food Choice Motives, and Food Labels Reading in Poles

Food neophobia (FN) is associated with reduced quality of diet in adults; thus, the understanding of the relationship between FN and food consumption in more depth appears to be a key issue. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between food neophobia, dietary patterns, food choice motives, and food label reading in the group of adults. Data were collected using the computer-assisted personal interviewing technique (CAPI). A cross-sectional quantitative survey was carried out in November-December 2017 in a sample of 1017 Polish adults. The questionnaire used in the study included the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), the Beliefs and Eating Habits Questionnaire (KomPAN), and questions regarding food choice motives, reading food labels, and sociodemographic characteristics. The food neophobics were older, had a lower level of education, and had higher BMI compared to others. Compared to others, among the food neophobics, there were more people who often consumed vegetables, fruit, meat, and meat products and who rarely consumed functional and convenience food, sweets, and sweetened beverages. When choosing food, more food neophobics chose healthy and tasteless food products, while more food neophilics chose unhealthy and tasty products. More food neophobics declared not reading price and shelf-life information on food labels compared to the other two groups. Although food neophobia may make adaptation to dietary recommendations difficult, health-promoting features of the diet were observed within the food neophobics. Actions focusing on food choice motives may help even more to limit the effects of food neophobia in adults. Further research is recommended to confirm the observed relationships under different sociocultural conditions.