15 February 2012
Insufficient dietary folate intake may be causally related to depressive symptoms in younger women, a new Japanese study suggests.
In the observational study, depressive symptoms and folate intakes were investigated in 141 women aged 18 to 28 years (1). Folate intake was calculated based on a diet questionnaire and the measurement of blood folate and homocysteine concentrations. The study results showed that the proportion of women with lower folate intake (less than 240 micrograms per day) was significantly higher in the women with depressive symptoms. Folate intakes of more than the recommended dietary allowance ( RDA) level of 240 micrograms per day were independently related to a decreased risk of depression.
The researchers concluded that this finding suggests that dietary folate intake may be causally related to depressive symptoms in women of reproductive age. If studies focused on investigating these causal relationships also turned out to have similar results, folate supplementation could reduce the incidence of depression.
30 March 2016
20 years after the last representative survey was carried out in the western part of Germany before reunification (Nationale Verzehrstudie I, 1985-1988) the Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection commissioned the Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Food to conduct a second national nutrition survey.
15 December 2012
Recently published systematic reviews and meta-analyses reported that eating at least two servings of fatty fish a week was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events while fish oil supplements did not show the same effect.
15 December 2011
Evidence of the efficacy of multiple micronutrient supplementation has been established with randomized controlled trials.
