Mental ill health is currently one of the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. A growing body of data has emerged supporting the role of diet, especially polyphenols, which have anxiolytic and antidepressant-like properties. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of a high polyphenol diet (HPD) compared to a low polyphenol diet (LPD) on aspects of psychological well-being in the Polyphenol Intervention Trial (PPhIT). Ninety-nine mildly hypertensive participants aged 40–65 years were enrolled in a four-week LPD washout period and then randomised to either an LPD or an HPD for eight weeks. Both at baseline and the end of intervention, participants’ lifestyle and psychological well-being were assessed. The participants in the HPD group reported a decrease in depressive symptoms, as assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and an improvement in physical component and mental health component scores as assessed with 36-Item Short Form Survey. No differences in anxiety, stress, self-esteem or body image perception were observed. In summary, the study findings suggest that the adoption of a polyphenol-rich diet could potentially lead to beneficial effects including a reduction in depressive symptoms and improvements in general mental health status and physical health in hypertensive participants.

SummaryThe purpose of this study was to investigate the association between dietary flavonoid intake and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among Korean women aged $30 y. This study used data collected from the 2007-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We excluded subjects who had energy intake ,500 kcal or $5,000 kcal, were diagnosed with chronic disease, were taking medication, or were pregnant or lactating. The final subjects included 7,963 women, and they were divided into 2 groups, the normal fasting glucose (NFG) group (n57,738) and the T2DM group (n5225). The intake of flavonoids was estimated on the basis of the flavonoid database. After adjustment for confounding factors, the mean intakes of fruits, anthocyanidins, and flavones were significantly lower in the T2DM group than in the NFG group. In multiple regression analysis, the dietary flavone intake was negatively associated with systolic blood pressure, triglyceride, TG/HDL-cholesterol, and homesostatic model assessment of insulin resistance. Daily intake of flavones above the 25th percentile was associated with a lower prevalence of T2DM compared with intake below the 25th percentile (OR50.593, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.414-0.847). These study results showed that dietary flavone intake may have some beneficial effects in reducing CVD risks and prevalence of T2DM in Korean women. Key Words flavonoids, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, Korean women Dietary flavonoids, abundant in fruits and vegetables, are a group of naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds (1). The major health benefits of flavonoids include their antioxidative (2), anti-inflammatory (3), and antiplatelet (4) properties, as well as their antihypertensive (5), and lipid-reducing (6) properties. Several studies have shown that dietary flavonoids are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) incidences (7,8). Dietary flavonoids might also decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence or mortality (9-12) by reducing the baseline measures of several CVD risk factors such as blood pressure (13), total cholesterol (TC), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (14).T2DM is one of the most common metabolic disorders across the globe (15). The consumption of dietary flavonoids has been shown to be associated with lower incidences of T2DM (7,8). Abundant literature exists reporting that flavonoids decrease plasma glucose and improve insulin secretion and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), factors which are implicated in the development of T2DM (16,17). One of the main causes of morbidity and mortality observed among individuals with T2DM is CVD. DeSouza and Fonseca (18) identifies increased blood pressure and triglyceride (TG) levels, and decreased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) as some of the factors that lead to CVD complications among T2DM patients. Thus, controlling these common risk factors is important in reducing CVD mortality among T2DM patient...

BackgroundAge-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the major causes of irreversible blindness. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is any relationship between dietary intake of fruits and vegetables (F&V) and antioxidant nutrients including carotenoids and AMD according to smoking status in elderly men.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional analysis using nationally representative samples of elderly aged ≥ 65 years (n = 1414) from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2010–2012).ResultsThe current smokers consumed less food in total, and, in particular, less cereals/potatoes/sugar products, fruits and vegetables than the nonsmokers and former smokers (p < 0.05). Intake of energy, thiamin, vitamin C, vitamin A, and β-carotene were significantly lower in the current smokers than in the nonsmokers and the former smokers. For current smokers, the ORs of the highest tertile compared with the lowest tertile were 0.36 (95% CI: 0.14–0.96, p for trend = 0.0576) for F&V, 0.32 (95% CI: 0.12–0.85, p for trend = 0.0561) for vitamin C, 0.23 (95% CI: 0.08–0.67, p for trend = 0.0038) for α-carotene, 0.13 (95% CI: 0.04–0.46, p for trend = 0.0003) for β-carotene after adjusting for confounding factors. In contrast, there was no association between antioxidant nutrient intake and AMD among the nonsmokers and former smokers.ConclusionsThese results suggest that increased consumption of fruits and vegetables containing antioxidant components such as vitamin C, α-carotene, and β-carotene may have a protective effect on AMD. These effects may be more evident among current smokers.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESComplications of diabetes, such as cardiovascular disease, are associated with increased mortality among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Homocysteine has been recently identified as a predictor of cardiovascular disease-related complications in diabetes. We investigated whether or not supplementation with folic acid tablets can lower homocysteine levels and improve parameters related with vascular complications.SUBJECTS/METHODSWe conducted a non-randomized 8-week trial involving postmenopausal diabetic women (n = 25) supplemented with 800 µg of folic acid (400 µg twice a day) daily. Subjects' serum levels of folate, homocysteine, and vitamin B12 were measured, along with vascular function and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity.RESULTSFolic acid supplementation significantly increased serum folate levels (P < 0.0001), reduced homocysteine levels (P < 0.0001), and increased vitamin B12 levels (P = 0.0063). There were significant decreases in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels as well as the ratios of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocities were not altered by supplementation. Changes in serum vitamin B12 after folic acid supplementation were negatively correlated with changes in brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity.CONCLUSIONSIn this study on postmenopausal Korean women with type 2 diabetes mellitus, folic acid supplementation reduced serum homocysteine levels, increased serum folate and vitamin B12 levels, and lowered lipid parameters.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESThis study was aimed at examining the association between dietary flavanones intake and lipid profiles according to the presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Korean women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).SUBJECTS/METHODSA cross-sectional analysis was performed among 502 female T2DM patients (non-MetS group; n = 129, MetS group; n = 373) who were recruited from the Huh's Diabetes Clinic in Seoul, Korea between 2005 and 2011. The dietary intake was assessed by a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and the data was analyzed using the Computer Aided Nutritional Analysis program (CAN-Pro) version 4.0 software. The intake of flavanones was estimated on the basis of the flavonoid database.RESULTSIn the multiple linear regression analysis after adjustment for confounding factors, daily flavanones intake was negatively associated with CVD risk factors such as total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and apoB and apoB/apoA1 ratio only in the MetS group but not in the non-MetS group. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds ratio for a higher apoB/apoA1 ratio above the median (≥ 0.74) was significantly low in the 4th quartile compared to that in the 1st quartile of dietary flavanones intake [OR: 0.477, 95% CI: 0.255-0.894, P for trend = 0.0377] in the MetS group.CONCLUSIONSDietary flavanones intake was inversely associated with the apoB/apoA1 ratio, suggesting a potential protective effect of flavanones against CVD in T2DM women with MetS.