Other nutritional factors

Dietary fibre, which comprises all the non-digestible structural carbohydrates of plant cell walls and any associate lignin, provides a further example of a complex food-borne factor which cannot be classified as a nutrient, and which continues to generate debate over such issues as definition and analytical techniques. However, whatever the unresolved complexities, dietary fibre has a lengthy history and had proved itself eminently suitable as a component of functional food products long before the term was even coined. 

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Nestle Nutrition Services. (1999). Normal microbial flora of the gut and the immune system. In "Probiotics, Other Nutritional Factors, and Intestinal Microflora." (Lars A. Hanson and Robert H. Yolken, eds.), pp. 217-228. Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia. 

Unsaturated free fatty acids, having a higher affinity for albumin then tryptophan has, can help to liberate tryptophan 21). Unsaturated free fatty acids in the blood also, of course, come from food. Other nutritional factors, such as vitamin E can prevent autoxidation or enzymic oxidation, processes that inactivate the unsaturated free fatty acids (28). 

Severe negative nitrogen balance may occasionally have to be corrected by hyperalimentation or total parenteral nutrition (TPN). Intravenous solutions used in TPN contain essential and nonessential amino acids, plus a source of calories in the form of fat and carbohydrate. They "spare" the administered amino acids and allow them to be used for tissue repair. The TPN fluid must also contain all other nutritional factors required for life, including essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Severe metal and essential fatty acid deficiencies have been observed in situations in which such inclusions had not been made. 

Midtvedt T. Microbial functional activities. In Hanson LA, Yolken RH, editors. Probiotics, Other Nutritional Factors, and Intestinal Microflora. Philadelphia Lippincott-Raven, 1999 79-96. 

Perhaps more than any other nutritional factor, ascorbic acid has been the focus of the questions, How much ascorbic acid is required in humans for optimum health and well-being and What factors can change this requirement There seem to be no simple answers to these questions, but good progress has been made in fundamentals related to this problem, such as measurement of pool sizes and turnover in humans as a function of environmental variables. The lack of such physiological data for children, women, and pregnant women needs to be corrected. 

Occupational exposure to inhaled fluoride dusts in cryolite workers during aluminum refining has resulted in severe bone abnormalities, but safety equipment now limits such exposure. No cases of skeletal fluorosis are attributed to use of controlled fluoridation of water supplies. However, skeletal fluorosis may occur in areas of the world where naturally occurring drinking water has high levels of fluoride, such as China and the Indian subcontinent. It is thought that exposure to fluoride intakes of 10 to 25mg/day for 10 years or more may result in skeletal fluorosis, but other nutritional factors may make these populations more susceptible. ... 

Research at this time was highly eclectic. Chemists were applying an unprecedented effort to probing, emulating, and exploiting nature. Research on vitamins, amino acids, and other nutritional factors was highly productive. Efforts to improve upon such hormones as epineph-... 

In the investigation of vitamin deficiencies, it is well to bear in mind that diets deficient in a rangle vitamin produce metabolic disorders which alter the animal s requirement for other nutritional factors. Where pantothenic acid deficiency is concerned, there is evidence that the metabolism of ascorbic acid, biotin, protein, carbohydrate, and fat are involved. 

Consumption of diets rich in fhiits, vegetables and grains is correlated with a reduced risk of diseases such as cancer and heart disease in humans (1),(2). The benefit of plant foods is not solely due to the levels of vitamins or other nutritive factors they contribute to the diet, but may be due to activities of nonnutritive factors found in many plants. For example, many plant secondary components are antioxidants, and it has been hypothesized that antioxidant activity underlies the stated dietary correlation (3). 

Among other nutritional factors potentially interacting with Pb, those of the vitamin D endocrine system are probably the more significant. Unlike Ca and Fe, however, the vitamin D interaction has been much less studied in human populations and is even less understood. Vitamin D in the form of a dietary nutrient or as an endogenous substance biosynthesized in situ in amounts proportional to the intensity of solar stimulation has been reported to be variably associated with Pb uptake, retention, and toxicity. 

A lack of pantothenic acid results in premature graying of the hair in piebald rats, foxes, and dogs. But, neither pantothenic acid nor any other nutritional factor has been shown to be involved in the graying of hair in humans. 

INTERACTION OF VITAMIN E WITH OTHER NUTRITIONAL FACTORS... 

The importance of prenatal nutrition fgr the development of the teeth and jaws is well recognized (155,156). While earlier studies were concerned chiefly with maternal metabolism of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D, recent experimental studies (75) direct attention also to other nutritional factors. 

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