Earticle

Currently, consumers appear to have diversified characteristics with regard to food tastes and consumption habits. The globalization of markets and the migration phenomenon contributed to the modification of food preferences of consumers who gradually introduce into their eating habits foods and recipes typical of the tradition of foreign countries. In this scenario, also in Italy, it is going to increase the use of “foreign products” with the consequent fusion of traditional cuisine techniques and recipes with ingredients that are typical of foreign countries and cultures. Foods and ingredients originally consumed in Asian or South American countries are increasingly consumed by Italian people, who have notoriously a strong “food identity,” who generally follow the Mediterranean Diet, and who consume typical products of the country. More particularly, the use of “new” or “novel” spices compared to those traditionally used in the preparation of Italian food has grown in the last 10 years. This study is an exploratory survey on the consumption of spices in Sicily (Southern Italy), which is an Italian Region with a high level of immigrated people and a good level of social integration and progressive inclusion. The objective of this study is to know whether and how Sicilian consumers’ consumption preferences, use, and purchasing behaviors with regard to spices changed in the last few years. The results highlight an increasing use of novel spices for the preparation of the traditional recipes and a good appreciation by consumers. These results are interesting because they provide information about spices’ market development and food product marketing and internationalization. The survey gives interesting inputs for reflections about the relationship between food contaminations and social integration and insight into consumers’ preferences in Italy.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between hypertension and kimchi, a salt-fermented vegetable, intake. Methods: This study was based on the data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. In the final analysis, a total of 20,114 Korean adults (men = 7,815, women = 12,299) was included. Daily energy, nutrient, and kimchi intake were assessed using 24-hour dietary recall. The odds ratios for hypertension, according to groups of quintiles of kimchi consumption by gender, were assessed using logistic regression and multivariable models. Results: Out of 20,114 participants, 11.3% were newly diagnosed as having hypertension. Although participants with higher consumption of kimchi were more likely to have an older age, higher blood pressure, and a higher BMI, as well as higher consumption of calories and sodium, there was no significant difference in the distribution of prevalence of hypertension across quintiles of kimchi consumption in men and women. In multivariate models by gender, higher consumption of kimchi was not associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension (odds ratio = 0.87; 95% confidence interval = 0.70?1.08 for ≥216.5 g/day vs. <39.2 g/day; p for trend = 0.7532, in men; odds ratio = 1.04; 95% CI = 0.80?1.34 for ≥145.1 g/day vs. < 19.5 g/day; p for trend = 0.2875, in women). Conclusion: High consumption of kimchi was not associated with an increased prevalence of hypertension in humans. Our results suggested that high potassium intake due to high consumption of kimchi may have helped neutralize the effect of elevated sodium intake on blood pressure levels.

The aim of this study is to determine the tea and coffee consumption habits of individuals in Adana and ?zmir and to identify how the new trends are effective in consumption patterns. Therefore, the research is based on a comparison of two cities with distinctive culinary culture. Questionnaire technique was used to collect the data. Surveys were administered to 806 people in Adana and ?zmir, Turkey. The research shows that tea is preferred in Adana (63.3%), whereas participants in ?zmir opt for coffee (53.4%). The ratio of tasting international regional coffees is higher in ?zmir than in Adana. In both cities, black tea and Turkish coffee are among the most consumed drinks. Despite the increasing tendency of foreign beverages due to the impact of globalization, the local people kept their interest in tea and Turkish coffee drink which is a component of the national intangible cultural heritage of Turkey. It is recommended that foreign businesses should include these traditional drinks on the menu.

Among Mesoamerican cultures, P’urhepecha settlers inhabiting Michoacan State in Central Mexico preserve ancestral tradition on mushrooms eating. Most mycological knowledge available for this ethnical group has been addressed in the Patzcuaro’s Lake zone, whereas P’urhepecha communities in other cultural and ecological relevant geographic areas remain unstudied. Thus, this work describes the ethnomycological knowledge of a scarcely analyzed Arantepacua P’urhepecha community at Michoacan Plateau region. Through structured interviews and field collections, data on the use, knowledge, biomass extraction and nomenclature of wild mushrooms were obtained. A list of P’urhepecha names to design 16 wild mushrooms species and 11 fruitbody components is documented and studied community used Spanish popular names to describe 21 wild mushrooms species and 11 fruitbody structures. Most valuable consumed mushroom species for Arantepacua settlers belong to the Amanita, Boletus, Hypomyces and Ramaria genera. Gender roles on mushrooms collect and cooking, new terms in P’urhepecha dialect to refer the parts of a fruitbody and vegetative mycelium, as well as local recipes and nutritional relevance of the mushroom species consumed by studied community are addressed and discussed. The ethnomycological knowledge documented contributes new terms in P’urhepecha to name the parts of an agarical fruitbody, the mycelium and empirical knowledge about mycorrhizal associations. This was the first P’urhepecha ethnomycological study made outside the Lake Patzcuaro basin.

This study examines how online content exposure relates to xenophobic attitudes toward Chinese individuals within politically oriented Korean online communities. Drawing on the Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects and media exposure research, the study investigates both direct and indirect pathways linking content consumption, group norm conformity, and xenophobia. Survey data were collected from users of seven major Korean online communities identified as either conservative or progressive. Structural equation modeling results indicate that online content exposure is positively associated with xenophobia both directly and indirectly through conformity to defensive norms and heterogeneity norms. Multigroup analyses reveal that the normative mechanisms underlying xenophobia differ by political orientation. Conformity to heterogeneity norms appears to play a more prominent role among users in conservative communities, whereas conformity to defensive norms appears to be more influential among users in progressive communities. These findings suggest that passive exposure to community discourse may not be neutral but may enhance norm-based pathways to xenophobic attitudes. By integrating content consumption and norm conformity processes within a politically polarized context, this study contributes to understanding how online spaces structure intergroup attitudes in contemporary Korean society.

This study examines the impact of media consumption of K-pop and direct contact with South Koreans on American audiences' (N=260) attitudes toward South Korea as a country and its products, and behavioral intentions toward visiting South Korea and purchasing products from this country. Parasocial relationship was investigated as a mediator between K-pop media consumption and behavioral intentions. Structural Equation Modeling was used for data analysis and results indicated that direct contact quality significantly predicted all four dependent variables. K-pop consumption time predicted American female participants' behavioral intention towards visiting Korea. K-pop consumption frequency predicted participants' attitude towards Korean products for both males and females, and male participants' behavioral intention towards visiting Korea through the mediation of the parasocial relationship. Mediated contact frequency, but not mediated contact time, predicted participants' parasocial relationship with their favorite K-pop stars. Implications on distribution management of export-oriented media content, cross-cultural exchanges, and product placement in media contents were also discussed.

Background: Transfer of pesticides from environment to animal products is inevitable, so the purpose of the present work was to evaluate phosalone consumption via feeding with or without sodium bentonite (SB) on performance, blood metabolites and its transition to milk of Iranian Baluchi sheep. Methods: Twenty Baluchi ewes were divided into four treatments (P1 as control, P2, P3, and P4) of five animals in which phosalone, an organophosphate pesticide, was given via diet (only for P2 and P3) at a dose of 280 mg/ sheep/day for 63 consecutive days. The SB (32 g/sheep/day; for P3 and P4) was also evaluated for its ability to reduce deleterious effects of phosalone in the sheep diets. The control group (P1) did not receive any phosalone and SB during the experiment. Sampling was conducted in two periods of time including weeks 5 and 9. Results: Phosalone residues were observed in the milk samples of P2 and P3 groups during two sampling periods. During period 1, the transfer rate of phosalone from feed to milk was 0.23 and 0.02%, respectively for the contaminated diets (P2 and P3), which is relatively similar to period 2 (0.22 and 0.02%). Only 0.34 (period 1) and 0. 36% (period 2) of phosalone residue are excreted in the feces of P2 group following its daily consumption. Transfer of phosalone from feed to milk was affected (P < 0.05) by the dietary inclusion of a commercial SB, as it (SB) decreased excretion of phosalone via milk (P3). The phosalone and SB alone or together had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on the dry matter intake (DMI) and body weight (BW) gain, but feed efficiency, milk production, milk fat, dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity, hemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), albumin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) affected by the treatments in period 1 or 2 (P < 0.05). The Hb, RBC, and MCHC were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) by about 9.72, 20.77, and 9.71%, respectively in the group P2 as compared to those of the control group during period 1. The AChE inhibitory activity (period 1 and 2) significantly increased when phosalone administered via the diet (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Although there were no adverse effects on the performance of sheep following the intake of phosalone alone (P2 vs. P1), but other research on the long and short times to the phosalone in high and low doses with more animals is suggested. Overall, compared to the control group, addition of SB in the diet of sheep improved nutrient digestibility, animal performance, and milk health.

Soy isoflavones have been suggested to improve bone loss and lipid profile in postmenopausal women and ovariectomized rats. In present study, we investigated the hypothesis that consumption of soybean, mung bean, cowpea and azuki bean has a beneficial effect on lipid profile which associates with bone mass in ovariectomized rats. Forty two female Sprague-Dawley rats were either sham-operated (Sham) or surgically ovariectomized (OVX). Sham and OVX groups were fed a regular AIN-93M diet, but ovariectomized rats with soybean (OS), mung bean (OM), cowpea (OC) or adzuki bean (OA) were fed AIN-93M diet replacing 35% of corn starch with powdered OS, OM, OC or OA for 10 weeks. Total- and LDL-cholesterol concentrations were significantly lower in Sham and OC groups than other OVX groups. There was significant negative association between total cholesterol concentration and bone mineral density (BMD) of tibia in only OC group. In conclusion, total-cholesterol concentration was significantly and negatively correlated with BMD in rats consumed cowpea, suggesting that the reduced cholesterol concentration may have a beneficial effect on bone mass.

Purposes: The association between alcohol consumption, health, and mortality is intricate, with marital status being a determinant of drinking behavior. This study investigated the combined effect of alcohol consumption patterns and marital status on mortality in middle-aged and older Korean individuals. Methods: This prospective longitudinal study used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, conducted from 2006 to 2020. The study population comprised individuals who were consuming alcohol around the time of the basic survey and participated in the 1st wave 2006 study. We divided 3,823 drinkers older than 45 into four groups: "normal drinker and married (NM)," "normal drinker and unmarried (NUM)," "excessive drinker and married (EM)," and "excessive drinker and unmarried (EUM)." A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed for survival analysis. Results: The median survival time of the EUM group was 11.9 years. After adjusting for the covariates, the mortality risk among the NUM, EM, and EUM were approximately 1.67 times, 1.33 times, and 3.10 times higher than that among the NM, respectively. Conclusion: Middle- and old-aged unmarried people with excessive drinking patterns constitute a high-risk group for mortality. Community healthcare providers should focus on characteristics that differ by age, considering family-related factors, and assessing alcohol consumption patterns to reduce mortality. Among middle- and old-aged people, support for unmarried and excessive drinkers should be strengthened, and consultation on visiting community-based clinics should be promoted to improve firmly established alcohol consumption patterns.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary sodium nitrite and meat on human health. Sodium nitrite in processed meat is known to be one of the main precursors of carcinogens, such as N-nitroso compounds. However, we previously found that processed meat is not the primary source of sodium nitrite; nitrate or the conversion of nitrate in vegetables are contribute to generate more than 70% Sodium nitrite or nitrate containing compounds in body. Although the heavy consumption of meat is likely to cause various diseases, meat intake is not the only cause of colorectal cancer. Our review indicates that sodium nitrite derived from foods and endogenous nitric oxide may exhibit positive effects on human health, such as preventing cardiovascular disease or improving reproductive function. Therefore, further epidemiological studies considering various factors, such as cigarette consumption, alcohol consumption, stress index, salt intake, and genetic factors, are required to reliably elucidate the effects of dietary sodium nitrite and meat on the incidence of diseases, such as colorectal cancer.

Couscous is an ancient dish that is nearly ubiquitous throughout the North African countries. It is well known as a staple dish in Algeria as many differences can be found concerning its ethnic preparation and making. The present work, based on a survey, aimed to identify the traditional making diagram of couscous and to describe how couscous-based dishes are prepared. The consumption patterns were also identified in the Northeastern localities of Algeria. This study was undertaken through direct interviews with 517 persons who prepared Couscous using the traditional practices in the regions of Bejaia, Jijel, Constantine, Guelma, Oum El bouaghi, Khenchela, and Batna. From the survey, it seems that the first step of couscous making is a size classification of durumwheat semolina into coarse semolina (> 500 mm) and fine semolina (< 500 mm). The second step consists in steaming of coarse semolina before its hydration with salted water. The rolling calibration includes three substeps: nucleation, shaping, and finishing. The addition of cornstarch or wheat flour is performed during the finishing substep. After wet couscous steaming, the precooked couscous is dried under the shade followed by their exposure to the sun. The final step of couscous preparation is the packaging of dried couscous by adding some preservative and flavoring products. Couscous is prepared for several local events, family celebrations, or religious feasts with vegetable sauces and different meat sources such as red meat, chicken meat, fish, or ethnic meatbased products such as guedid, douara, bouzelouf, or merguez. Another variant of couscous, mesfouf, is further prepared with finely rolled semolina and some butter.

Fresh pork belly is a highly popular meat in South Korea, accounting for 59 % of the approximately 100 g of meat per capita that is consumed daily. Fresh pork belly offers not only high-quality protein from the lean cuts but also substantial micronutrients including fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. However, fresh pork belly generally consists of about 30 % fat, with saturated fatty acids representing half of this value. Excessive consumption of saturated fatty acids increases total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and triglycerides while decreasing high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, raising concerns about an increased risk of hyperlipidemia, followed by cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we discuss the consumption and production trends in South Korea, the general characteristics, and health issues related to fresh pork belly to delineate the features of pork production and consumer welfare.

The mobile device has been widely used in many areas. Task offloading is always used to overcome the limitation of processing ability and energy-supply of the mobile devices in the mobile cloud environment. Most researches suppose we know the detail of task (number of instructions) of every sub-task. But most of time, to get the detail of a task is very difficult. This paper uses the grey number to express that uncertain information and propose method to evaluate the performance of offloading tasks. Simulations show that our method selects the solution with the lowest energy consumption.

The study enrolled 440 participants. Traditional food consumption was low in this population with only 9.3% consuming these foods daily. At the individual level, 44.4% of study participants mentioned their consumption of traditional foods is facilitated by generational factors, while the most important barrier at this level was the inconvenience in accessing and preparing traditional foods (33.2%). At the community and national levels, the most important facilitator was family members (26.2%) and lack of environmental contaminants (38.9%), respectively, while most important barrier at the community and national levels was their residential location or residence (31.8%) and aggressive marketing of processed foods (47.8%), respectively.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the influence of lifestyle-related factors, such as sleep quality, eating habits, and perceived stress, on the incidence of thyroid cancer in healthy adults. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional case-control study comparing lifestyle-related factors in thyroid cancer and healthy groups. Outpatients with thyroid cancer were recruited from 2012 to 2013, 3~6 months after thyroidectomy at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea (n=468). For the control group, 935 healthy adults were recruited by propensity score matching on demographic characteristics in a 1:2 ratio from hospital health checkup data. The effect of sleep quality, eating habits, and perceived stress on the incidence of thyroid cancer was determined through multiple logistic regression analysis and backward stepwise variable selection. Results: Sleep disturbance and mild/moderate daytime dysfunction were found to have a 1.22 and 1.66/1.77-fold influence, respectively, in patients with thyroid cancer than in healthy controls (p

Lesotho is a small country (30,350 sq.km with about 2.233 million population), completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. The people of the Kingdom of Lesotho are referred to as Basotho. This study aimed to investigate the culinary practices with regard to traditional Basotho bread, thus serving as a basis for documenting an aspect of Basotho traditional food knowledge. The study was conducted in five districts of Lesotho using focus groups, each consisting of ten housewives in each district, and face-to-face interviews with 253 women respondents who completed a questionnaire related to their knowledge, preparation and consumption of traditional Basotho bread. Recipes for ten traditional Basotho breads were obtained during five focus group sessions. The survey revealed that most of the respondents (99%) prepare bread at a household level using wheat flour. A few (15%) use maize flour and sorghum flour is used by only (5%). The main preparation steps were identified as sorting, cleaning of grains, dry milling and/or wet milling, mixing ingredients, fermentation and cooking. Bread is used for household consumption and social functions, such as weddings and funerals. This paper documents the culinary practices for ten Basotho breads from maize, wheat and sorghum. Research geared to the improvement of the quality characteristics of maize and sorghum breads should be given the highest priority to encourage the use of local ingredients.

Purpose: This study explored the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and school factors, following the socioecological model, associated with sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in Korean high-school students. Methods: A total of 231 students from first to third grade, aged 15?18 years, participated in this cross-sectional study. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify the factors. Results: Among the intrapersonal factors, fast-food consumption (β = .13, t = 1.97, p = .050) and habit strength of SSB consumption were positively associated (β = .35, t = 4.30, p < .001), and sleep duration was negatively associated with SSB consumption (β = -.14, t = -2.02, p = .045). Among interpersonal factors, perceived SSB consumption by peers was positively associated (β = .30, t = 4.93, p < .001), and among school factors, vending machines at school (β = .13, t = 2.07, p = .039) and supermarkets and convenience stores near schools were positively associated with SSB consumption (β = .17, t = 2.87, p = .005). Conclusion: School nurses should propose policies and interventions that consider the multilevel factors to reduce SSB consumption in adolescents.

Purpose: This study examined the combined effects of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption, screen-based sedentary behaviors, and sleep duration on adolescent obesity. Methods: It followed a cross-sectional study design and conducted secondary analysis on data from 20,497 high school students who participated in the 17th (2021) Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. This study underwent logistic regression analysis in complex sampling analysis. Results: The combinations of low and medium consumption of SSBs, excessive screen-based sedentary behaviors, and short sleep durations were associated with a 1.18 and 1.12 fold increased likelihood of obesity (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.03?1.35) and (95% CI=1.02?1.22), respectively. The combination of high SSB consumption, appropriate screen-based sedentary behaviors, and short sleep duration (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.15, 95% CI=1.01?1.31) and high SSB consumption, excessive screen-based sedentary behaviors, and short sleep duration (aOR=1.40, 95% CI=1.16?1.69) were associated with obesity. Conclusion: Integrated and tailored programs considering combination patterns of SSB consumption, screen-based sedentary behaviors, and short sleep duration need to be developed for preventing adolescent obesity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of long- and short-term energy drinks on anxiety-like, depressionlike, and cognitive behavior in adolescent rats. Methods: Adolescent rats (age six weeks) were randomly classified into a control group (CON), a long-term administration group (LT), and a short-term administration group (ST). The LT group was orally administered 1.5 mL/100 g (body weight) of energy drink twice daily for 14 days, the ST group was orally administered for one day, and the control group applied the same amount of normal saline. Later, an open-field test, a forced swim test, novel object recognition test, and an 8-arm radial maze test was conducted to assess the rats’ anxiety, depression, and cognitive function. Results: There were different effects in the long- and short-term groups of energy drink administration. In the LT group, anxiety- and depressive-like behavior increased because of increased movement in the side corner and decrease of immobility time. Also, the time to explore novel objects decreased, and the number of correct responses was reduced, indicating a learning and memory function disorder. However, the ST group was not different from the control group. Conclusion: These results indicate that long-term consumption of energy drinks can increase anxiety-like, depression-like behavior, and this can lead to decrease in learning and memory functions. Thus, nurse and health care providers should understand the impact of energy drink consumption in adolescence to provide appropriate practices and education.