Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs

Bioactive Foods in Health Promotion

Ronald Ross Watson, Victor R Preedy, Victor R. Preedy

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780128029725
• eBook ISBN:
  9780128029893
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Nutrition, Dietics & Bariatrics
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs: Bioactive Foods in Health Promotion brings together experts from around the world working on the cutting edge of research on fruit, vegetables, and herbs in health promotion. Offering a timely, concise, scientific appraisal of the efficacy of key foods to prevent disease and improve the quality of life, Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs: Bioactive Foods in Health Promotion provides valuable evidence-based conclusions and recommendations. This reference text will encourage further research on the potential benefits of fruits and vegetables in health and disease prevention, providing a basis for possible dietary modifications by the government and the public. - Provides insight on bioactive constituents found in fruits and vegetables that can be further studied to improve health and disease resistance or incorporated into other food products and used as alternative medicines and dietary supplements - Includes valuable information on how fruits are important sources of bioflavonoids and nonnutritive bioactives that modify body functions - Offers a conclusion or summary of evidence at the end of each chapter to enhance understanding of new approaches in the field

Section 1

Overview of Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs in Health

Outline

Chapter 1 Socioeconomic inequalities in fruit and vegetable intakes

Chapter 2 Industrial freezing, cooking, and storage differently affect antioxidant nutrients in vegetables

Chapter 3 Pharmacological properties of some medicinal plants, its components and using fields

Chapter 4 Nutritional indicators and health aspects of fruit and vegetable consumption in aged adults

Chapter 5 Diabetes, diabetic complications, and flavonoids

Chapter 6 Curcumin: The epigenetic therapy

Chapter 7 Nutraceuticals as therapeutic agents for inflammation

Chapter 8 Vegetarian diets and disease outcomes

Chapter 9 Diet and nutrition role in prostate health

Chapter 1

Socioeconomic inequalities in fruit and vegetable intakes

Lukar Thornton, Dana Lee Olstad, Karen Lamb and Kylie Ball, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

Abstract

In developed countries, certain population groups are at increased risk of consuming inadequate quantities of fruits and vegetables for good health. Specifically, this includes persons of low socioeconomic position (SEP), such as those with low levels of education, on low incomes, working in low status occupations, or living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Our levels of understanding around the reasons for the socioeconomic gradients in fruit and vegetable consumption vary among age groups. This chapter presents an overview of evidence of SEP variations in fruit and vegetable consumption in children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. It also details the evidence describing potential mechanisms underlying these differences. Implications of these data for both future research and health policy and practice are described.

Keywords

Socioeconomic; education; income; occupation; health inequalities; mediators

Chapter Outline

Introduction 4

Overview of Evidence on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption 4

Children 5

Adolescents 6

Adults 7

Older adults 7

Summary 8

Mechanisms Underlying Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption 8

Children 9

Adolescents 10

Adults 11

Older adults 13

Summary 14

Future Research Directions 14

Measures of socioeconomic position 14

Measures of fruit and vegetable intake 15

Understudied Populations 15

Improvements to study design and statistical analysis 16

Implications for Practice 16

Conclusion 17

References 17

Introduction

Socioeconomic position (SEP) refers to an individual’s social and economic ranking within society based on access to resources (such as material and social assets, including income, wealth, and educational credentials) and prestige (ie, an individual’s status in a social hierarchy, linked for instance to their occupation, income, or education level) (Krieger et al., 1997). Individual SEP can be measured using a variety of indicators which commonly include education, occupation, and income (Galobardes et al., 2006). Composite measures are frequently used when examining neighborhood level measures of SEP and are commonly created by combining census data on a range of indicators.

Although SEP has been measured in different ways, studies have demonstrated with reasonable consistency an increased risk of low or inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption among those of lower SEP compared with those of higher SEP. This chapter provides an overview of evidence pertaining to socioeconomic inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption in children, adolescents, adults, and older adults (see “Overview of Evidence on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption” section). Guided by a socioecological framework, in the “Mechanisms Underlying Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption” section, we explore the underlying mechanisms that may be driving these differences. Findings from these sections are used to inform recommendations for future research (see “Future Research Directions” section) and policy (see “Implications for Practice” section).

Overview of Evidence on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

While SEP can be measured and defined in multiple ways, it is common for studies to consider a single indicator when examining associations between SEP and fruit and vegetable intake (Turrell et al., 2003). Although indicators of SEP can be correlated, each measures a different aspect of social stratification so it may be appropriate to examine more than one SEP indicator within a single study. Furthermore, these indicators can be measured in different ways which can influence study findings, relevance, and interpretability. For example, education can be quantified in a variety of ways, including years of education completed or categories detailing the highest level of education attained (eg, trade certificate/college qualification/bachelor degree); indicators of work status can be measured using employment status (eg, employed/unemployed/retired) or job classification (eg, white collar/blue collar); income can be measured using either individual or household income (Shavers, 2007). Measures also differ between age groups. For example, when considering the SEP of a child, parental education and occupation have been the most frequently used indicators, although other measures have included indicators of SEP at the school (eg, percentage receiving free school meals) or neighborhood level (eg, median household income of the neighborhood of residence) (Zarnowiecki et al., 2014b). It is important to be mindful of these measurement differences when interpreting the literature on links between SEP and fruit and vegetable intake.

The following overview of existing evidence on socioeconomic inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption is largely restricted to evidence from developed countries, primarily because these countries typically have more established systems of nutrition monitoring and reporting of inequalities in diet. Furthermore, factors affecting food supply, diets, and socioeconomic variations in diet are likely to be substantially different between developed and developing countries.

Children

Children’s SEP is primarily determined on the basis of indicators of parental SEP. A comprehensive review of studies that have examined fruit and vegetable consumption among children and adolescents in relation to SEP concluded that, although SEP was operationalized differently across studies, low SEP was consistently associated with less frequent intake of fruits and vegetables, especially when family income was the indicator of interest (Rasmussen et al., 2006). These early findings have been largely verified by more recent analyses. An Australian study showed that in general, lower SEP was associated with lower intake of fruits and vegetables among children aged 9–13 years using a variety of SEP indicators (Zarnowiecki et al., 2014a). A similar conclusion was reached in a national, cross-sectional study of 2–16 year olds in Australia, which identified socioeconomic gradients in fruit and vegetable intakes using several indicators (Cameron et al., 2012). While a limited number of studies have shown null findings (eg, indices of SEP (parental income, education, child-reported family affluence) were unrelated to children’ fruit and vegetable intake in one Canadian province (Attorp et al., 2014)); on the whole, there is generally strong evidence of socioeconomic gradients in children’s fruit and vegetable intakes.

In other studies using a more limited range of single SEP indicators, children (10–15 years) with more highly educated parents were more likely to consume vegetables daily than those with less educated parents (Ahmadi et al., 2015). The frequency of fruit intake was higher among children whose parents were employed in higher status occupations compared to those whose parents were employed in mid or low status occupations in another study (Sandvik et al., 2010).

Some evidence also suggests that SEP variations in children’s fruit and vegetable intakes may be increasing over time. An analysis of two cross-sectional groups of 10–12 year olds (n = 1488 in 2001; n = 1339 in 2008) in Norway found that fruit and vegetable intake among 10–12 year olds of less educated parents was lower in 2008 than in 2001, whereas the reverse was found among children whose parents were more highly educated (Hilsen et al., 2011). Thus the difference in the frequency of fruit and vegetable intake between children with lower and more highly educated parents was 0.9 times/week in 2001, but had widened to 2.4 times/week by 2008.

Adolescents

Like children, adolescent SEP is most often measured on the basis of parental SEP. As previously described, two studies that included both children and adolescents found evidence of socioeconomic gradients in fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents (Rasmussen et al., 2006; Cameron et al., 2012). Studies conducted exclusively among adolescents support these findings.

In Australia, adolescents (12–15 years) with more highly educated mothers consumed fruit more frequently than those with less educated mothers (Ball et al., 2009). In Norway, adolescents (mean age 12.5 years in 2002; mean age 15.5 years in 2005) with more highly educated parents and higher household incomes consumed fruits and vegetables more often than those with less educated parents and...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section 1: Overview of Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs in Health
• Section 2: Fruit and Health and Diseases
• Section 3: Vegetables in Health and Diseases
• Section 4: Herbs in Health and Diseases
• Index