Perspective: Beyond the Mediterranean Diet-Exploring Latin American, Asian, and African Heritage Diets as Cultural Models of Healthy Eating

The Mediterranean diet is a well-studied cultural model of healthy eating, yet research on healthy models from other cultures and cuisines has been limited. This perspective article summarizes the components of traditional Latin American, Asian, and African heritage diets, their association with diet quality and markers of health, and implications for nutrition programs and policy. Though these diets differ in specific foods and flavors, we present a common thread that emphasizes healthful plant foods and that is consistent with high dietary quality and low rates of major causes of disability and deaths. In this perspective, we propose that nutrition interventions that incorporate these cultural models of healthy eating show promise, though further research is needed to determine health outcomes and best practices for implementation.

Dietary habits and perceptions of psoriatic patients: Mediterranean versus Asian diets

BACKGROUND

Mediterranean diets have been reported to improve psoriasis. Asian food has a unique character and differs from Mediterranean diets.

METHODS

This study compared the dietary intake of psoriatic patients and individuals without psoriasis, and investigated the association between diet and psoriasis severity. Data were collected on the frequency of consumption of Mediterranean and Asian diets.

RESULTS

One-hundred psoriatic patients and 100 individuals (age- and sex-matched controls) was conducted. In the case of the anti-inflammatory diets, the psoriatic patients consumed significantly less olive oil, berry fruits, fish, seafood, tree nuts, and eggs than the controls. As to the pro-inflammatory diets, greater quantities of dairy products and soft drinks were consumed by the psoriatic patients than the controls. Regarding Asian food, the patients consumed significantly less pickled foods and brown rice/Riceberry (a rice variety), but more coconut milk, than the controls. In terms of psoriasis severity, the patients with lower severities consumed significantly more vegetables; in contrast, a higher consumption of red meat, belly meat, and instant noodles was associated with greater psoriasis severities.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study adds further information on the role of diets-especially Asian diets-and psoriasis. These data should help patients and clinicians to focus more clearly on diet management.

Westernized diets lower arsenic gastrointestinal bioaccessibility but increase microbial arsenic speciation changes in the colon

Arsenic (As) is an important contaminant present in food and water. Several studies have indicated that the occurrence of As based skin lesions is significantly different when root and gourd rich diets are consumed compared to meat rich diets. Additionally, urinary As speciation from orally exposed individuals appears to depend on the composition of the diet. These observations imply that diet composition can affect both the bioavailable As fraction as the As speciation in the body. In this study, we used the in vitro gastrointestinal method (IVG) to evaluate how an Asian type diet (fiber rich) and a Western type diet (fat and protein rich), differ in their capability to release inorganic As (iAs(V)) and dimethyl arsinate (DMA(V)) from a rice matrix following gastrointestinal digestion. Moreover, we used a validated dynamic gut simulator to investigate whether diet background affects As metabolism by gut microbiota in a colon environment. An Asian diet background resulted in a larger As bioaccessibility (81.2%) than a Western diet background (63.4%). On the other hand, incubation of As contaminated rice with human colon microbiota in the presence of a Western type diet resulted in a larger amount of hazardous As species - monomethyl arsonite and monomethylmonothio arsonate - to be formed after 48 h. The permeability of these As species (60.5% and 50.5% resp.) across a Caco-2 cell line was significantly higher compared to iAs(V) and DMA(V) (46.5% and 28% resp.). We conclude that dietary background is a crucial parameter to incorporate when predicting bioavailability with bioaccessibility measurements and when assessing health risks from As following oral exposure.