Eating Disorders: Phosphatidylcholine Supplementation in Pregnant Women Consuming Moderate-Choline Diets Does Not Enhance Infant Cognitive Function: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.
Phosphatidylcholine supplementation in pregnant women consuming moderate-choline diets does not enhance infant cognitive function: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Nov 7;
Cheatham CL, Goldman BD, Fischer LM, da Costa KA, Reznick JS, Zeisel SH
BACKGROUND: Choline is essential for fetal brain development, and it is not known whether a typical American diet contains enough choline to ensure optimal brain development. OBJECTIVE: The study was undertaken to determine whether supplementing pregnant women with phosphatidylcholine (the main dietary source of choline) improves the cognitive abilities of their offspring. DESIGN: In a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, 140 pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive supplemental phosphatidylcholine (750 mg) or a placebo (corn oil) from 18 wk gestation through 90 d postpartum. Their infants (n = 99) were tested for short-term visuospatial memory, long-term episodic memory, language development, and global development at 10 and 12 mo of age. RESULTS: The women studied ate diets that delivered ?360 mg choline/d in foods (?80% of the recommended intake for pregnant women, 65% of the recommended intake for lactating women). The phosphatidylcholine supplements were well tolerated. Groups did not differ significantly in global development, language development, short-term visuospatial memory, or long-term episodic memory. CONCLUSIONS: Phosphatidylcholine supplementation of pregnant women eating diets containing moderate amounts of choline did not enhance their infants’ brain function. It is possible that a longer follow-up period would reveal late-emerging effects. Moreover, future studies should determine whether supplementing mothers eating diets much lower in choline content, such as those consumed in several low-income countries, would enhance infant brain development. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00678925.
HubMed – eating
Increasing the use of preventative health services to promote healthy eating, physical activity and weight management: the acceptability and potential effectiveness of a proactive telemarketing approach.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
BMC Public Health. 2012 Nov 7; 12(1): 953
Wolfenden L, Wiggers J, Paul C, Freund M, Lecathelinais C, Wye P, Gillham K
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Telephone based interventions are effective in promoting health behaviours. The use of telephone based support services to promote healthy eating, activity or weight loss, however, are currently under-utilised. The aim of this study was to assess the acceptability and potential effectiveness of a telemarketing approach in increasing community use of proactive services to encourage healthy eating, physical activity and weight loss. METHODS: The study employed a cross sectional design. Eligible consenting participants completed a 15 minute telephone survey conducted by trained telephone interviewers using computer assisted telephone interviewing technology. RESULTS: Overall, 87% of participants considered it acceptable for a health service to contact people by telephone to offer assistance to help them lose weight, eat healthily or be more physically active. Among participants with inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity or who were overweight, 64%, 54% and 61% respectively reported that they would use one or more of the proactive support services offered. Females and those from non -English speaking households who did not eat sufficient serves were significantly more likely to report that they would use support services. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that proactive telemarketing of health services to facilitate healthy eating, physical activity or weight loss is considered highly acceptable and may be effective in encouraging service use by more than half of all adults with these behavioural risks.
HubMed – eating
Pro-anorexia and pro-recovery photo sharing: a tale of two warring tribes.
Filed under: Eating Disorders
J Med Internet Res. 2012; 14(6): e151
Yom-Tov E, Fernandez-Luque L, Weber I, Crain SP
There is widespread use of the Internet to promote anorexia as a lifestyle choice. Pro-anorexia content can be harmful for people affected or at risk of having anorexia. That movement is actively engaged in sharing photos on social networks such as Flickr.To study the characteristics of the online communities engaged in disseminating content that encourages eating disorders (known as “pro-anorexia”) and to investigate if the posting of such content is discouraged by the posting of recovery-oriented content.The extraction of pro-anorexia and pro-recovery photographs from the photo sharing site Flickr pertaining to 242,710 photos from 491 users and analyzing four separate social networks therein.Pro-anorexia and pro-recovery communities interact to a much higher degree among themselves than what is expected from the distribution of contacts (only 59-72% of contacts but 74-83% of comments are made to members inside the community). Pro-recovery users employ similar words to those used by pro-anorexia users to describe their photographs, possibly in order to ensure that their content appears when pro-anorexia users search for images. Pro-anorexia users who are exposed to comments from the opposite camp are less likely to cease posting pro-anorexia photographs than those who do not receive such comments (46% versus 61%), and if they cease, they do so approximately three months later. Our observations show two highly active communities, where most interaction is within each community. However, the pro-recovery community takes steps to ensure that their content is visible to the pro-anorexia community, both by using textual descriptions of their photographs that are similar to those used by the pro-anorexia group and by commenting to pro-anorexia content. The latter activity is, however, counterproductive, as it entrenches pro-anorexia users in their stance.Our results highlight the nature of pro-anorexia and pro-recovery photo sharing and accentuate the need for clinicians to be aware of such content and its effect on their patients. Our findings suggest that some currently used interventions are not useful in helping pro-anorexia users recover. Thus, future work should focus on new intervention methods, possibly tailored to individual characteristics.
HubMed – eating
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