A growing body of evidence highlights the close association between nutrition and human health. Fat is an essential macronutrient, and vegetable oils, such as palm oil, are widely used in the food industry and highly represented in the human diet. Palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid, is the principal constituent of refined palm oil. In the last few decades, controversial studies have reported potential unhealthy effects of palm oil due to the high palmitic acid content. In this review we provide a concise and comprehensive update on the functional role of palm oil and palmitic acid in the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The atherogenic potential of palmitic acid and its stereospecific position in triacylglycerols are also discussed.

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Background/objective: Several articles have described body composition in anorexia nervosa, whereas little is known about this issue in underweight ballet dancers and constitutionally lean females. The main aim of this study was to assess whether phase angle (a bioimpedance variable related to body cell mass) differs according to the type of underweight in female adolescents and young women. Subjects/methods: Skinfold thicknesses and bioimpedance analysis (whole body and limbs) were evaluated in three groups of underweight patients (30 patients with anorexia nervosa, 10 constitutionally lean individuals and 15 classical dancers) and 30 normal weight controls. Results: There were no differences between the three groups of underweight patients with respect to anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) variables with the exception of phase angle. The latter was significantly higher in dancers, lower in anorectic patients and not different in constitutionally lean patients, as compared with controls. Conclusions: Phase angle (assessed by single-frequency BIA) appears to discriminate between different forms of underweight, being an effective marker of qualitative changes in body composition.

Objective: The nutrition transition model provides an integrated approach to analyse global changes in food consumption and lifestyle patterns. Whether variability in food availability for consumption, lifestyle and sociodemographic factors is associated with the worldwide prevalence distribution of overweight, obesity and hypertension is unclear. Design: Ecological analysis. Setting: Country-specific prevalence estimates of overweight, obesity and hypertension were obtained. Prevalence estimates were then matched to yearand country-specific food and energy availability for consumption of cereals, sugar, sweeteners and honey, vegetable oils, fruits, starchy roots, pulses, total vegetables, alcoholic beverages, total meat, animal fat, eggs, milk, and fish and seafood. The per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), urbanization rates and prevalence of physical inactivity for each country were also obtained. Subjects: The overweight, obesity and hypertension databases included information from 128, 123 and seventy-nine countries, respectively. Results: Consumption of sugar and animal products were directly associated with GDP and urbanization rates. In a multivariate regression model, physical inactivity (B 5 0?01, SE 5 0?005, P 5 0?003), cereal consumption (B 5 20?02, SE 5 0?006, P , 0?001) and sugar consumption (B 5 0?03, SE 5 0?01, P 5 0?03) were significant predictors of obesity prevalence. Midpoint age (B 5 0?21, SE 5 0?10, P 5 0?02), prevalence of overweight (B 5 0?18, SE 5 0?08, P 5 0?02) and consumption of cereals (B 5 20?22, SE 5 0?10, P 5 0?02) were significant predictors of hypertension. Women appeared to have a significant obesity excess compared with men. Conclusions: High sugar consumption and sedentary lifestyle are associated with increased obesity prevalence. The non-linear association of sugar consumption with prevalence of obesity suggests that effective strategies to reduce its consumption may have differential effects in countries at different stages of the nutrition transition.

These findings suggest that promoting MVPA may be have a beneficial effect on attention capacity, an important component of cognition, in adolescents.