Impact of nutrition knowledge on food evaluations.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored whether nutrition knowledge interacted with evaluations of a food's healthiness to influence food attitudes (ie, global evaluations). Since attitudes guide behavior, understanding factors that impact food attitudes is one way to understand food selection and why factors such as nutrition knowledge have only a modest impact on food selection. We hypothesized that the relation between health evaluations and food attitudes would be stronger for people high in nutrition knowledge. We also explored the macronutrient composition of foods, and how it related to attitudes and health evaluations. DESIGN: Survey employing multilevel analyses to examine within- and between-subject influences on food attitudes. SETTING: Student unions at two universities in the Southwestern US. SUBJECTS: A total of 138 participants (mean age=19.8; 69 males, 67 females, two unreported). INTERVENTIONS: Participants indicated their attitudes toward; experience with; and health, flavor, and affective evaluations of 24 foods before and after lunch and completed questionnaires assessing individual difference variables. RESULTS: Experience and evaluations of healthiness, flavor, positive affect, and negative affect all predicted food attitudes. Health evaluations were more strongly associated with attitudes for people high in nutrition knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a mechanism through which individual differences impact food attitudes and thus likely influence food selection.

Automated quantitation of circulating neutrophil and eosinophil activation in asthmatic patients.

BACKGROUND: Asthma has been associated with eosinophil activation, measured in serum, sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and urine. A whole blood automated method was developed to assess eosinophil and neutrophil activity in terms of peroxidase content and cell morphology using the Bayer haematology analyser. The method was applied to an in vitro stimulation model when fMLP was added to whole blood and the samples were then analysed for changes in granularity and shape. In addition, cells stimulated with interleukin (IL)-8 were examined by electron microscopy. METHODS: A cross sectional analysis was performed on venous blood from non-atopic, non-asthmatic normal subjects (n = 37), mild (n = 46) and symptomatic (n = 22) asthmatic patients on inhaled beta(2) agonist only, and more severe asthmatic patients (n = 17) on inhaled and oral corticosteroid therapy. Samples were analysed by the haematology analyser and peroxidase leucograms gated using the WinMDI software program. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the amount of light scatter by the neutrophil populations in the symptomatic (p = 0.007) and severe asthmatic (p = 0.0001) groups compared with the control group. However, abnormalities in eosinophil populations were not observed. In vitro activation of whole blood with fMLP caused similar changes in neutrophil light scatter, suggesting that neutrophil activation is present in peripheral blood of symptomatic asthmatic patients. IL-8 caused a change in shape of the neutrophils seen using transmission electron microscopy. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence of neutrophil activation can be seen in whole blood from patients with asthma using a novel automated method. This may potentially be applied to other inflammatory diseases.

Changes in food attitudes as a function of hunger.

This experiment investigated whether hunger selectively influences attitudes toward common food items. Participants completed a take-home questionnaire on which they rated their attitudes toward food and non-food items when they were either hungry (45 participants) or not hungry (45 participants); after returning the questionnaire, participants completed a second take-home questionnaire in the opposite hunger condition. Results of both between-subject and within-subject analyses revealed that participants rated foods more positively when hungry compared to not hungry and that there was no difference in the ratings of non-foods when hungry vs. not hungry. Moreover, attitudes toward high-fat foods changed more as a function of hunger than attitudes toward low-calorie foods. As attitudes are important for guiding behavior, these results suggest that food attitudes influence daily eating patterns and consumer decisions regarding food purchases. The findings may also have important health implications because hunger exerts a greater influence on attitudes toward high-fat foods.

Comparison of salmeterol and albuterol-induced bronchoprotection against adenosine monophosphate and histamine in mild asthma.

Short-acting beta(2)-agonists provide greater protection to bronchoconstriction induced by adenosine-5'-monophosphate (AMP) than does methacholine. Because AMP produces bronchoconstriction through release of mediators from mast cells, and methacholine directly constricts airway smooth muscle, this suggests that beta(2)-agonists stabilize mast cells in vivo. This in vivo property has not been demonstrated with long-acting beta(2)-agonists. We undertook two double-blind, randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled studies to investigate the effects of salmeterol and albuterol on airway responsiveness (AR) to AMP and histamine in patients with mild asthma. In the first study, 19 patients attended on four occasions to inhale salmeterol 50 micrograms or placebo 2 h before challenge with AMP or histamine. In the second study 16 patients (13 of whom had participated in the first study) were studied in a similar fashion but inhaled albuterol 400 micrograms or placebo 30 min prior to challenge. Salmeterol reduced AR to AMP and histamine by 3.4 +/- 0.3 and 3.9 +/- 0.3 doubling doses, respectively (NS). In contrast, albuterol demonstrated a greater protective effect on AMP than on histamine, reducing AR by 5.1 +/- 0.3 and 3.8 +/- 0.2 doubling doses, respectively (p < 0.005). Thus, in contrast to albuterol, salmeterol did not demonstrate mast-cell stabilizing properties in vivo at a time corresponding to maximal bronchodilatation. These findings might be explained by the unique pharmacologic profile of salmeterol in combination with the differential beta(2)-adrenoceptor pharmacology of bronchial mast cells and bronchial smooth muscle.

Effect of acute and chronic inhaled furosemide on bronchial hyperresponsiveness in mild asthma.

We determined whether chronic administration of furosemide aerosol would be beneficial for the treatment of asthma. First, we showed that furosemide aerosol delivered from a metered-dose inhaler (10 and 20 mg) significantly protected against sodium metabisulfite (MBS) challenge by 0.6 and 1.3 doubling dilutions respectively in 12 volunteers with mild asthma. In a double-blind cross-over study, we examined the effect of furosemide aerosol from a twice more efficient metered-dose inhaler (10 mg four times per day) inhaled over 4 wk versus placebo in 12 other asthmatic subjects. There was no significant effect of furosemide on bronchial responsiveness to methacholine or MBS. Treatment with furosemide over 1 mo did not improve bronchial hyperresponsiveness in subjects with mild asthma.

Tolerance to the nonbronchodilator effects of inhaled beta 2-agonists in asthma.

BACKGROUND: Tolerance to the direct bronchodilator effects of beta 2-agonists does not appear to occur in asthma. However, it is not known whether this is true for the nonbronchodilator effects of these agents, which protect the airways against bronchoconstrictive stimuli. METHODS: We investigated whether tolerance develops to the protective effect of inhaled terbutaline on airway responsiveness to the bronchoconstrictors methacholine (which acts directly on airway smooth muscle) and AMP (which acts indirectly by stimulating the release of mediators from mast cells) during sustained treatment with terbutaline. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, 12 patients with mild asthma each inhaled a single dose of terbutaline (500 micrograms) or placebo before a challenge with a series of doubling doses of inhaled methacholine or AMP, before and after treatment for seven days with 500 micrograms of terbutaline four times daily or placebo. RESULTS: Before the seven days of treatment with terbutaline, a single dose of terbutaline reduced airway responsiveness to methacholine by 2.7 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.9 to 3.5), but it had an even greater protective effect against AMP, reducing airway responsiveness by 3.8 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 2.7 to 4.9; P less than 0.001). After seven days of treatment with terbutaline, the protective effect of terbutaline against methacholine decreased to 2.2 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.3 to 3.0; P = 0.04), and that against AMP decreased even more, to 1.7 doubling doses (95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.4; P less than 0.001). By contrast, the bronchodilator response to terbutaline was unchanged during seven days of treatment with this agent. CONCLUSIONS: We observed tolerance to the nonbronchodilator actions of the inhaled beta 2-agonist terbutaline in patients with mild asthma, an effect that may be more pronounced in mast cells than in bronchial smooth muscle. This property of beta-agonists may constitute a drawback to their regular use in patients with asthma.