In this study of 20 moderately to severely depressed patients, diagnosed using current research diagnostic criteria and excluding known bipolar affective disorder and reactive depression, we investigated relationships between severity of depression and levels and ratios of n-3 and n-6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in plasma and erythrocyte phospholipids (PL). Severity of depression was measured using the 21-item Hamilton depression rating scale (HRS) and a second linear rating scale (LRS) of severity of depressive symptoms that omitted anxiety symptoms. There was a significant correlation between the ratio of erythrocyte PL arachidonic acid (AA) to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and severity of depression as rated by the HRS (P < 0.05) and the LRS for depression (P < 0.01). There was also a significant negative correlation between erythrocyte EPA and the LRS (P < 0.05). The AA/EPA ratio in plasma PL and the ratio of erythrocyte long-chain (C20 and C22 carbon) n-6 to long-chain n-3 PUFA were also significantly correlated with the LRS (P < 0.05). These findings do not appear to be simply explained by differences in dietary intake of EPA. We cannot determine whether the high ratios of AA/EPA in both plasma and erythrocyte PL are the result of depression or whether tissue PUFA change predate the depressive symptoms. We suggest, however, that our findings provide a basis for studying the effect of the nutritional supplementation of depressed subjects, aimed at reducing the AA/EPA ratio in tissues and severity of depression.

The role of lipids in providing energy and structural cellular components during vertebrate development is poorly understood. To elucidate these roles further, we visualized lipid deposition and examined expression of key lipid-regulating genes during zebrafish embryogenesis. We also conducted a semiquantitative analysis of lipidomic composition using liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry. Finally, we analyzed processing of boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) lipid analogs injected into the yolk using thin layer chromatography. Our data reveal that the most abundant lipids in the embryo are cholesterol, phosphatidylcholine, and triglyceride. Moreover, we demonstrate that lipids are processed within the yolk prior to mobilization to the embryonic body. Our data identify a metabolically active yolk and body resulting in a dynamic lipid composition. This provides a foundation for studying lipid biology during normal or pharmacologically compromised embryogenesis.

Objective: In light of the increasing prevalence of obesity in children and the potential of schools as a setting for intervention, we aimed to identify the main foods and beverages consumed at primary school and to determine differences in consumption patterns between children who used the school canteen and those who did not. Design: Cross-sectional survey of school foods in 1681 5-12 y old children, [2003][2004]. Setting: Barwon South-Western region of Victoria, Australia. Results: The school food provided an average (7s.e.m.) of 3087726 kJ. Bread was the most frequently consumed food and contributed 20% of total energy at school, biscuits 13%, fruit 10%, muesli/fruit bars 8%, packaged snacks 7%, and fruit juice/ cordial 6%. About 10% of children used the school canteen and these children obtained more total energy and more energy from cakes, fast foods and soft drink than noncanteen users (Po0.001). In all, 68% of children had fruit in their lunchboxes, however, over 90% of children had energy-dense, micronutrient-poor snacks ('junk food'). Conclusions: Fruit intake in primary schools seems reasonably high but could be targeted for further increase as part of promoting a healthy diet. Of concern, however, are the excessive amounts of energy-dense foods in school lunchboxes. These should be considered a priority for health promotion efforts along with reducing the consumption of sweetened drinks. These measures are urgently needed to improve the school-based diets of Australian children and attempt to curb the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity.

Objective: To examine the pattern of intake of key foods and beverages of children aged 4-12 years and the association with weight status. Design and setting: A computer-assisted telephone interview was used to determine the intake of fruit, vegetables, packaged snacks, fast foods and sweetened drinks 'yesterday' and 'usually' as reported by parents/guardians of a representative sample of 2184 children from the Barwon South-Western region of Victoria, Australia. Results: Children who consumed . 2-3, .3-4 and . 4 servings of fruit juice/drinks 'yesterday' were, respectively, 1.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-2.2), 1.7 (95% CI 1.2-2.5) and 2.1 (95% CI 1.5-2.9) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of fruit juice/drink 'yesterday', adjusted for age, gender and socio-economic status (SES). Further, children who had $ 3 servings of soft drink 'yesterday' were 2.2 (95% CI 1.3-3.9) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of soft drink 'yesterday', adjusted for age, gender and SES. In addition, children who 'usually' drank fruit juice/drinks twice or more per day were 1.7 (95% CI 1.2-2.4) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who drank these beverages once or less per week, adjusted for age, gender and SES. Although fast foods and packaged snacks were regularly eaten, there were no associations between weight status and consumption of these foods. Conclusions: Intake of sweetened beverages was associated with overweight and obesity in this population of Australian schoolchildren and should be a target for intervention programmes aimed at preventing unhealthy weight gain in children. KeywordsObesity Children Sweetened drinks Nutrition AustraliaExcessive weight gain in children, as in adults, is ultimately the result of a long-term energy imbalance. A high intake of energy-dense foods and energy-containing beverages such as fruit drinks and soft drinks is likely to promote unhealthy weight gain. Several studies have shown that the consumption of snacks and low-quality foods is positively associated with overweight in children 1,2 , although the positive relationship between dietary fat intake and body weight remains to be definitively established 3,4 . Intake of fast food by children has increased by 300% in two decades 2 , and the amount of fast food eaten may serve as an indicator of an overall unhealthy eating pattern. Bowman et al. have shown that on days when children consumed fast food products, the energy levels of their diet were higher, the energy density per gram was higher and the fruit and vegetable consumption was lower, resulting in a diet less likely to be healthful compared with days on which fast food products were not consumed 5 . Consumption of sweetened beverages has also been associated with overweight in children in a number of studies 1,6 -9 . Ludwig et al. 7 found that in children aged 11-12 years, the odds of becoming overweight increased 60% for each serving of sweetened drink...

Drugs that recapitulate aspects of the exercise adaptive response have the potential to provide better treatment for diseases associated with physical inactivity. We previously observed reduced skeletal muscle class IIa HDAC (histone deacetylase) transcriptional repressive activity during exercise. Here, we find that exercise-like adaptations are induced by skeletal muscle expression of class IIa HDAC mutants that cannot form a corepressor complex. Adaptations include increased metabolic gene expression, mitochondrial capacity, and lipid oxidation. An existing HDAC inhibitor, Scriptaid, had similar phenotypic effects through disruption of the class IIa HDAC corepressor complex. Acute Scriptaid administration to mice increased the expression of metabolic genes, which required an intact class IIa HDAC corepressor complex. Chronic Scriptaid administration increased exercise capacity, whole-body energy expenditure and lipid oxidation, and reduced fasting blood lipids and glucose. Therefore, compounds that disrupt class IIa HDAC function could be used to enhance metabolic health in chronic diseases driven by physical inactivity.

SUMMARYIn spite of greater awareness of the need for action to reduce obesity, the evidence on sustainable community approaches to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity is surprisingly sparse. This paper describes the design and methodological components of the Sentinel Site for Obesity Prevention, a demonstration site in the BarwonSouth West region of Victoria, Australia, that aims to build the programs, skills and evidence necessary to attenuate and eventually reverse the obesity epidemic in children and adolescents.The Sentinel Site for Obesity Prevention is based on a partnership between the region's university (Deakin University) and its health, education and local government agencies. The three basic foundations of the Sentinel Site are: multi-strategy, multi-setting interventions; building community capacity; and undertaking program evaluations and population monitoring. Three intervention projects have been supported that cover different age groups ( preschool: 2 -5 years, primary school: 5-12 years, secondary school: 13-17 years), but that have many characteristics in common including: community participation and ownership of the project; an intervention duration of at least 3 years; and full evaluations with impact (behaviours) and outcome measures (anthropometry) compared with regionally representative comparison populations.We recommend the Sentinel Site approach to others for successfully building evidence for childhood obesity prevention and stimulating action on reducing the epidemic.

SANIGORSKI, ANDREA M., A. COLIN BELL, PETER J. KREMER, AND BOYD A. SWINBURN. High childhood obesity in an Australian population. Obesity. 2007;15: 1908 -1912. Objective: The objective was to determine the prevalences of overweight and obesity in regional Australian children and to examine the association between BMI and indicators of socioeconomic status (SES). Research Methods and Procedures:Regionally representative cross-sectional survey of 2184 children, 4 to 12 years of age, was conducted, and the socio-demographic characteristics of their parents from regional Victoria, Australia, 2003 to 2004, were obtained. Results: The prevalences of overweight and obesity were 19.3 Ϯ 0.8% (proportion Ϯ standard error) and 7.6 Ϯ 0.6%, respectively, using international criteria, and the proportion of overweight/obese girls was significantly higher than that of boys (29.6 Ϯ 1.4% vs. 23.9 Ϯ 1.3%, 2 ϭ 9.01, p ϭ 0.003). Children from households of lower SES had higher odds of being overweight/obese; lower SES was defined by lower paternal education (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.30) and lower area-level SES (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.25), adjusted for age, gender, height, and clustering by school. Discussion: The prevalences of overweight and obesity are increasing in Australian children by about one percentage point per year. This equates to ϳ40,000 more overweight children each year, placing Australian children among those at highest risk around the world. In addition, girls are more likely to be overweight, and there is a general trend for children of lower SES to be at even greater risk of overweight and obesity.

We reported previously that intake of carbohydrate foods with a high glycemic index (GI) produced greater glycogen storage and greater postprandial glucose and insulin responses during 24 h of postexercise recovery than did intake of low-GI carbohydrate foods. In the present study we examined the importance of the greater incremental glucose and insulin concentrations on glycogen repletion by comparing intake of large carbohydrate meals ("gorging") with a pattern of frequent, small, carbohydrate snacks ("nibbling"), which simulates the flattened glucose and insulin responses after low-GI carbohydrate meals. Eight well-trained triathletes [x +/- SEM: 25.6 +/- 1.5 y of age, weighing 70.2 +/- 1.9 kg, and with a maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) of 4.2 +/- 0.2 L/min] undertook an exercise trial (2 h at 75% VO2max followed by four 30-s sprints) to deplete muscle glycogen on two occasions, 1 wk apart For 24 h after each trial, subjects rested and consumed the same diet composed exclusively of high-GI carbohydrate foods, providing 10 g carbohydrate/kg body mass. The "gorging" trial provided the food as four large meals of equal carbohydrate content eaten at 0, 4, 8, and 20 h of recovery, whereas in the "nibbling" trial each of the meals was divided into four snacks and fed at hourly intervals (0-11, 20-23 h). However, there was no significant difference in muscle glycogen storage between the two groups over the 24 h (gorging: 74.1 +/- 8.0 mmol/kg wet wt; nibbling: 94.5 +/- 14.6 mmol/kg wet wt). The results of this study suggest that there is no difference in postexercise glycogen storage over 24 h when a high-carbohydrate diet is fed as small frequent snacks or as large meals, and that a mechanism other than lowered blood glucose and insulin concentrations needs to be sought to explain the reduced rate of glycogen storage after consumption of low-GI carbohydrate foods.