Low-GI and/or low-GL diets are independently associated with a reduced risk of certain chronic diseases. In diabetes and heart disease, the protection is comparable with that seen for whole grain and high fiber intakes. The findings support the hypothesis that higher postprandial glycemia is a universal mechanism for disease progression.

Craniofacial factors and obesity contribute differentially to OSA in Caucasian and Chinese patients. For the same degree of OSA severity, Caucasians were more overweight, whereas Chinese exhibited more craniofacial bony restriction.

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mean (Standard Deviation). A total of 101 athletes (Males: 37; Females: 64), 18.6 (4.6) years were recruited mainly from team sports (72.0%). Females scored higher than males for both nutrition knowledge (Females: 59.9%; Males: 55.6%; p = .017) and total A-ARFS (Females: 54.2% Males: 49.4%; p = .016). There was no significant influence of age, level of education, athletic caliber or team/individual sport participation on nutrition knowledge or total A-ARFS. However, athletes engaged in previous dietetic consultation had significantly higher nutrition knowledge (61.6% vs. 56.6%; p = .034) but not total A-ARFS (53.6% vs. 52.0%; p = .466). Nutrition knowledge was weakly but positively associated with total A-ARFS (r = .261, p= .008) and A-ARFS vegetable subgroup (r = .252, p = .024) independently explaining 6.8% and 5.1% of the variance respectively. Gender independently explained 5.6% of the variance in nutrition knowledge (p= .017) and 6.7% in total A-ARFS (p = .016). Higher nutrition knowledge and female gender were weakly but positively associated with better diet quality. Given the importance of nutrition to health and optimal sports performance, intervention to improve nutrition knowledge and healthy eating is recommended, especially for young male athletes.

The aim of the present study was to investigate and benchmark the level of general nutrition knowledge in elite Australian athletes (EA) against a similar aged community (CM) and criterion sample with dietetic training (DT). EA (n 175), CM (n 116) and DT (n 53) completed the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (GNKQ), which assesses four domains (sections A -D) of general nutrition knowledge (section A: dietary guidelines; section B: sources of nutrients; section C: choosing everyday foods; section D: diet -disease relationships). Age, sex and education level were collected in all groups, and athletic calibre and sport type (team or individual) in EA. Dietitians and nutrition scientists (n 53) re-examined the GNKQ for content validity, resulting in instrument revision (R-GNKQ; ninety-six items). Psychometric assessment (internal consistency: Cronbach-a; test-retest: Spearman rank correlation) was performed in a sub-sample (n 28). Independent t tests, ANOVA and ANCOVA (x 2 for categorical variables) were used to assess between-group differences. DT scored higher than EA and CM in all sub-sections and overall (P,0·005). EA scored lower than CM in GNKQ for section B (P, 0·005) and overall (P,0·005), and in R-GNKQ for section B (P, 0·005), section C (P,0·005), section D (P¼0·006) and overall (P,0·005). Overall score was influenced by age (P¼ 0·036 for GNKQ: P¼0·053 for R-GNKQ), sex (P¼ 0·016 for GNKQ: P¼ 0·003 for R-GNKQ) and athletic calibre (P¼0·029 for R-GNKQ only), but not level of education, living situation or ethnicity. EA and CM performed best on section A and worst on D. EA had lower overall general knowledge scores than CM. This was significantly influenced by age and sex.

This randomised controlled trial examined anthropometric changes and cardiovascular bene®ts of six months of weight management in 110 free living women, aged 18±68 y and BMI 25±50 kg/m 2 , who received 1200 kcal/d diet treatments of either high (58% energy, n 57) or low (35% energy, n 53) carbohydrate (CHO) content. Body weight, plasma total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglyceride and blood pressure were measured. Examination at three months showed women on high CHO lost (mean AE s.e.m.) 4.3 AE 0.5 kg and those on low CHO lost 5.6 AE 0.6 kg of body weight. Changes in risk factors did not signi®cantly differ between the two diet treatments throughout the study. However those on high CHO diets signi®cantly lowered their plasma total cholesterol by 0.33 mmol/l (95% CI: 0.10, 0.55), LDL cholesterol by 0.23 mmol/l (0.02, 0.43) and HDL cholesterol by 0.05 mmol/l (0.03, 0.10), while women on low CHO diets lowered only plasma triglyceride by 0.28 mmol/l (0.08, 0.48). Blood pressure did not change signi®cantly on either diet. After six months, women on high CHO lost 5.6 AE 0.8 kg and those on low CHO lost 6.8 AE 0.8 kg. On the high CHO diet, total cholesterol remained signi®cantly below the baseline value at 0.34 mmol/l (0.13, 0.56), triglyceride was signi®cantly lowered by 0.27 mmol/l (0.10, 0.45), and HDL cholesterol returned to the baseline value. On the low CHO diet, triglyceride remained the only risk factor to be signi®cantly improved. A subgroup of 46 postmenopausal women lost signi®cantly (P`0.05) more weight on the low CHO diet than high CHO diet. In conclusion, these results provided some support for preferring a high CHO diet to a lower CHO approach in weight management, from the point of view of risk reduction, but do not indicate a consistently more rapid weight loss with either diet.

Iron is an essential micronutrient for human health and inadequate intake may result in iron deficiency (ID) or iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). Unlike other recent studies investigating iron status in young women, this cross-sectional study analysed dietary intake and biochemical data from healthy young (18–35 years) women (n = 299) to determine the association between both haem iron (HI) and non-haem iron (NHI) intakes and serum ferritin (SF). Dietary restraint and possible inflammation secondary to obesity were also measured and accounted for, and energy intake was adjusted for using the residuals method. Independent samples t-tests and chi-squared tests were performed, and factors found to be significantly different between iron replete (IR) and ID/IDA participants were analysed using general linear modelling. ID/IDA participants consumed significantly lower total energy than iron replete (IR) (p = 0.003). Lower energy intake was also associated with higher levels of dietary restraint (p = 0.001). Both HI and NHI were positively associated with SF with HI was found to be a stronger predictor (β = 0.128, p = 0.009) than NHI (β = 0.037, p = 0.028). The study demonstrates that intake of both HI and NHI, as well as adequate dietary energy, are associated with normal iron status levels in young women, and that restrained eaters may be at greater risk of low iron status.

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