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Aims: To determine the prevalence of overweight, obesity and dietary habits of under graduate students of Lagos State University. Study Design: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria, between June 2016 and July 2016. Methodology: 150 undergraduate students were selected through multistage random sampling. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, dietary habit and physical activity was obtained using structured questionnaire. Weight, height, Percentage Body Fat (PBF), waist and hip circumferences were measured according to standard procedures to compute Body Mass Indices (BMI), Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) and finally determine nutritional status. The data were presented as frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviations. Chi square was used to test for significant differences and level of significance set at 0.05. Results: The mean BMI, PBF and WHR of the participants were 23.4 ± 2.3 kg/m2, 23.1 ± 5.0% and 0.83 ± 0.09, respectively. Majority of the participants (86.7%) were of normal weight while 8% (10.4% males and 5.5% females) and 5.3% (5.2% males and 5.5% females) were overweight and obese, respectively. Using WHR, more number of students were overweight/obese (34%) compared to BMI (13.3%) and PBF (8.7%), all indicated higher abnormal status among males than females. Few students exhibited poor eating (15%) and physical inactivity (16%) habits. Majority of the students (75.3%) skipped breakfast and the least daily consumed food group was legume/nut group (0.5%). Snacks (42%) and processed (20%) foods were consumed more than roots/tubers (14%) which are staple foods. Conclusion: Central obesity was high among undergraduate students of Lagos State University. Breakfast skipping and low legume meal consumption were major dietary problems. Healthy lifestyle should be promoted among the university students to prevent overweight/obesity and its associated diseases.

Cereals remain the major components of traditional complementary foods but possess antinutritional factors in addition to nutrients. High  antinutrient content have been linked to poor quality complementary foods and high level of undernutrition among children less than two years. Hence, this study examined the effect of fermentation, germination and combined germination-fermentation processing methods on the nutrient and antinutrient contents of Quality Protein Maize (QPM). Maize seeds were fermented and germinated for 72 hours. A batch of the germinated seeds was further fermented for 24 and 48 hours separately. The raw and processed maize seeds were chemically analysed for proximate, mineral (calcium, iron and zinc) and antinutrient (phytate, tannin, oxalate, saponin, polyphenol and hemaglutinnin) composition. ANOVA was used to detect significant differences. Result showed that the crude protein content of raw QPM seeds increased significantly from 10.04% to 10.44% after  fermentation while it decreased to 9.12% following germination (72 hours)-fermentation (48 hours). Crude fat content decreased significantly with  the treatments (4.70-3.20%). Calcium (10.38-4.23mg/100g) and iron (3.70-1.90mg/100g) contents decreased significantly with all the methods.  Germination and combined germination-fermentation reduced more antinutrients in maize compared to fermentation. Fermented seeds had the least tannin (28-27.5 mg/100g) and phytate (967.5-828.5 mg/100g) reduction while the oxalate (590-646 mg/100g), saponin (425-545 mg/100g) and hemaglutinnin (17.31-19.53 mg/100g) contents increased. Germination-fermentation (24 hours) decreased phytate content by > 90% and retained more iron (79 vs 61%) and zinc (80 vs 74%) than fermentation. Combined germination-fermentation (24 hours) was more effective in antinutrient reduction in Quality Protein Maize seeds. Keywords: Maize, complementary foods, antinutrients, processing

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