Do cancer patients change their diet in the e-health information era? A review of the literature and a survey as a proposal for the Italian population.

In recent years, there has been an explosion in the amount of available information on cancer in parallel with an ever-increasing number of cancer survivors. Cancer patients and long-term survivors are known to be more sensitive to health-related information and dietary changes could represent a potential consequence of this huge availability of messages. In our review about dietary changes after cancer diagnosis, we found that this topic is particularly investigated among the breast cancer population. The literature examined show that breast cancer patients modify their eating habits after diagnosis in a percentage that varies between approximately 30% and 60%. The most reported changes were an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, a decrease in the consumption of red meat, fats and sugary foods. Patients who reported changes were more likely to be younger, with higher educational levels and with a longer period of time since their diagnosis of cancer. It also emerged that cancer patients are often more likely to use supplements. This topic has not been investigated in cancer patients in Italy, therefore, we propose an approach to explore it with a structured questionnaire: The "ECHO SURVEY - Eating habits CHanges in Oncologic patients".

Blood orange juice inhibits fat accumulation in mice.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect of the juice obtained from two varieties of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck), Moro (a blood orange) and Navelina (a blond orange), on fat accumulation in mice fed a standard or a high-fat diet (HFD). METHODS: Obesity was induced in male C57/Bl6 mice by feeding a HFD. Moro and Navelina juices were provided instead of water. The effect of an anthocyanin-enriched extract from Moro oranges or purified cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) was also analyzed. Body weight and food intake were measured regularly over a 12-week period. The adipose pads were weighted and analyzed histologically; total RNA was also isolated for microarray analysis. RESULTS: Dietary supplementation of Moro juice, but not Navelina juice significantly reduced body weight gain and fat accumulation regardless of the increased energy intake because of sugar content. Furthermore, mice drinking Moro juice were resistant to HFD-induced obesity with no alterations in food intake. Only the anthocyanin extract, but not the purified C3G, slightly affected fat accumulation. High-throughput gene expression analysis of fat tissues confirmed that Moro juice could entirely rescue the high fat-induced transcriptional reprogramming. CONCLUSION: Moro juice anti-obesity effect on fat accumulation cannot be explained only by its anthocyanin content. Our findings suggest that multiple components present in the Moro orange juice might act synergistically to inhibit fat accumulation.