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t_Articles
t_Articles
W elcome
to the September edition of AFICNews.
AFICNews is a free monthly e-bulletin, providing updates on current food safety,
health and nutrition news trends around the Asia Pacific region. If you are not
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Dates
for Your Diary
|
Date |
Events |
|
September 30, 2007 |
World
Heart Day 2007, Theme ‘Team Up for Healthy Hearts!’
http://www.worldheart.org/awareness-whd.php |
|
November 5-7, 2007 |
2nd
International Conference on East-West Perspectives on Functional Foods:
Science, Innovations and Claims, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
http://www.functionalfoods2007asia.com/
|
|
November 6-10, 2007 |
Asian
Seed Congress 2007, Manila, Philippines,
http://www.apsaseed.org/pages.php?name=Asian%20Seed%20Congress |
|
November 14, 2007 |
World Diabetes Day 2007,
Theme ‘Diabetes in Children and Adolescents’
http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/ |
New
from AFIC
AFIC-hosted Symposium on Food and Health
Communications – International Perspectives, will be held in Bangkok on December
6th. The event will bring together communication experts, health and
education professionals, regulatory professionals and industry executives with
food-health responsibilities. This unique event will provide multiple
opportunities to share perspectives on the role of communications in advancing
public health; provide updates on research evidence for effective communications
in nutrition, food safety and health promotion; spotlight success stories and
identify challenges and opportunities for international collaboration in food
and health communications strategy. For more details, click on
http://www.afic.org/FIO2007/index.htm.
Food
in the News:
Survey
of Nutrition and Food Safety Features in Indian Magazines for Sale in July 2007
Note:
These
figures are based on simple counting method of topic headings and do not allow
for
differences in length or depth of articles.
Comments
on Most Frequently Reported Topics
Healthy
Eating & Lifestyles
(19% total
of tracked coverage)
The most
popular topic in the survey sample. The range of mainly evidence-based articles
included balanced lifestyles for current and long term health; tips for
management of appetite and portion control; lifestyles for weight management
with some emphasis on the role of physical activity; advice on cutting total,
saturated and trans fat intake in traditional Indian diets. Slightly less
serious but always popular dietary advice features on boosting immunity,
anti-ageing and appearance enhancement were also tracked. For related AFIC
resource, click on ‘Your Lifestyle and Your Blood Pressure - What's the Link?’
in
English,
ภาษาไทย
or
中文.
Overweight/Weight
Management
(12 % total
of tracked coverage)
More than
half of the articles tracked under this heading focused on weight loss. A
proportion of these highlighted and/or recommended extreme measures such as
surgery and very low calorie diets. The second most common theme tracked were
first principle of overweight – how to assess, why it is undesirable and likely
causes. Articles that promoted long term weight management and balanced
lifestyles for weight loss or weight maintenance were also tracked. For related
AFIC resource, click on ‘Eating Out of Home, Weight Management and How We Make
Food Choices’ in
English,
ภาษาไทย
or
中文.
Fats/Cholesterol/Heart
Disease
(11% total
of tracked coverage)
Most common
theme were diets and foods for prevention with reference to a host of nutrient
and bioactive compounds including antioxidants such as quercetin, healthful fats
such as those containing omega-3 fatty acids, reduced salt and higher potassium,
and low GI carbohydrates. A small proportion advised diets for management of
established heart disease. These could be further divided into those advising
evidence-based diets similar to those for prevention, and very small minority
making unsubstantiated miracle cure claims. For related AFIC resource, click on
‘Press Release - World Heart Day 30th September 2007 - Team Up for
Healthy Heart’ in
English,
ภาษาไทย
or
中文.
Diabetes
(9% total of tracked coverage)
Descriptions
of risk factors (mainly science-based but some with no proven scientific
rationale) and symptoms was common in the articles tracked. These trends are
perhaps inspired by the high rates of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and metabolic
syndrome in India. The importance of physical activity was spotlighted and
emerging research of foods and substances that may be helpful in controlling
blood sugar such as cinnamon were also tracked. For related AFIC resource click
on ‘What You Should Know About Type 2 Diabetes’ leaflet,
http://www.afic.org/T2dm_leaflet.pdf.
Functional
Foods
(9% total of
tracked coverage)
India is a
major suppler to the world of spices and so perhaps not surprising that a wide
range of spices and flavourings were the subject of most of the articles
tracked. Pepper, chili, cinnamon, garlic were just some of those named. Other
recognised functional foods featured included soy, green tea and berries. For
related AFIC resource, click on ‘A Question of Balance’ in
English,
ภาษาไทย
or
中文.
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