فهرست مطالب r. sobhani

The optimal food basket is a scientific and powerful tool for developing food and nutrition policies, executive planning and assessment of programs to ensure food security and maintain the nutritional health of the community. This cross-sectional study was carried out with the aim of a) revising the optimal food basket of Iranians-2013 based on the principles of sustainable food and nutrition systems as a guide for policy making in the field of food and nutrition; and b) compiling a thrifty optimal food basket of Iran-2023 as a necessary tool in welfare and social support studies and planning.

After collecting opinions of experts and stakeholders from various fields, data of the reports on the comprehensive study of the food consumption patterns and the nutritional status of the Iranian households and individuals, 2017–2018, and information of the statistics center (quantity of consumption of food groups by people, quantitative share of food items, average and price range of food groups, necessary quantities of energy, macronutrients and micronutrients) as well as the Iranian food composition table were used as inputs of the model. Energy, protein and nutrients were defined for age and sex groups based on the latest WHO/FAO references as 100% of the energy needs in the optimal food basket, at least 95% of the energy requirements and 80% of the key nutrients (vitamin B2, vitamin A, Fe and Ca) for the thrifty food basket were covered. Considerations of national and international dietary guidelines promoting health and preventing diseases included fats, 15–30%; carbohydrates, 55–75%; proteins, 10–15%; saturated fatty acid, less than 10%; simple sugars, less than 10% energy; and total vegetables and fruits, more than 400 g. Solver was used as a Microsoft Excel add-in program to optimize the optimal and thrifty food basket values. To apply sustainability considerations, two environmental indicators of water and carbon footprint were calculated for the baskets.

The recommended per capita quantities of food in grams per day for the optimum food basket of Iran-1402 included bread, 290; rice, 70; pasta, 25; legumes and nuts, 30; potatoes, 70; vegetables and fruits, 200; red meat, 30; white meat (chicken and fish), 60; eggs, 40; dairies, 300; vegetable oils, 35; and sugar, 30. In the key micronutrients, riboflavin and vitamin A were provided more than the necessary quantity and iron and calcium in a range of 80–85% of the requirement. The optimal food basket designed-2023 included 5% less water footprint and 2% less carbon footprint than that the optimal food basket did for 2013. Mild increases in the environmental sustainability of the optimal food basket-2023 was majorly due to decreases in the share of meats, fruits and rice and increases in the share of legumes, compared to the food basket-2013. Increasing the quantity of dairy products is one of the reasons that weaken the environmental sustainability of the novel optimal food basket.

Availability of sufficient appropriate nutrition is a human right and a prerequisite for comprehensive sustainable development. Optimum and thrifty food baskets include a big step towards a healthier and more prosperous future for everyone. It is necessary to design and implement food and nutrition policies at macro-levels and continuously assessment and monitoring of their effects on the households and individuals.

As one of the most necessary human needs, groundwater resources play a key role in the economic and political processes of societies. Climatic and land-use changes made serious challenges to the quantity and quality of groundwater resources in the Tehran-Karaj study area. The main objective of the present study is to develop a method based on individual intelligent models, including adaptive neural-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), gene expression programming (GEP), and combined-wavelet (WANFIS, WGEP) methods for temporal and spatial estimation of total hardness (TH), total dissolved solids (TDS), and electrical conductivity (EC) variables in the groundwater resources of the Tehran-Karaj area for statistical period of 17 years (2004-2021). The results showed that 
combined-wavelet models have higher performance than individual models in estimating three selected variables. So that the performance improvement percentage of the WANFIS model compared to ANFIS and WGEP model compared to GEP, taking into account the evaluation index of root mean square error (RMSE) were obtained (23.713%, 18.018%), (12.581%, 33.116%), and (6.433%, 12.995%) for TH, TDS, and EC variables, respectively. The results indicated a very high spatial and temporal compatibility of the estimated values of the WGEP model with the observed values for all three qualitative variables in the Tehran-Karaj area. The results showed that the concentration of qualitative variables of groundwater resources from the north to the south of the study area has an upward trend for all three qualitative variables. In urban areas, pollution caused by sewage and population increase, as well as in agricultural areas, the use of chemical fertilizers and their continued infiltration into groundwater resources and 
over-extraction of groundwater resources aggravate their pollution. Therefore, in the study area, climatic changes and the type of land use are strongly related to the quality of groundwater resources.

It is necessary to investigate nutritional statuses of the people and how household consume foods in the country provide evidence and use them for education, promotion of food literacy and nutritional policies. The objective of this study was to assess and compare energy and nutrient intakes from the usual household food baskets based on climatic regions classification, 2015–2018.

In this repeated cross-sectional study, data of the household`s income and expenditure survey (HIES) of 128,716 Iranian households, 2015–2018, were used. Based on the division of Iran's provinces into 11 climatic regions in a study on the micronutrient status of Iran (National Integrated Micronutrient Survey 2012, NIMS-2), national data of the household income expenditure survey in 2015–2018 were separated. To estimate quantities of intake from the household usual baskets, the household intake quantity for each food item was converted to the individual level using adult male equivalent (AME) index. Using Nutritionist 4 software and coding in R program, quantities of energy intakes and micronutrients of iron, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin A were calculated. One-way analysis of variance and post-hoc tests were used to compare energy intakes and nutrients received from the usual household food baskets, 2015–2018.

In the four studied years, the highest average intake of energy (3127.575 kcal) and iron (27.453 mg) belonged to the Climatic Region 10 (Ilam, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Hamedan), the highest average calcium (1070.82 mg) and riboflavin (2.275 mg) belonged to the Climatic Region 2 (West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Ardabil) and the highest average of vitamin A intake (624.347 µg) belonged to the Climatic Region 9 (Zanjan, Qazvin, Qom and Markazi). The lowest average intake of all items except vitamin A in the four years of the study was linked to the Climatic Region 11 (Fars, Kerman, Kohkilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad) and the lowest average intake of vitamin A belonged to the Climatic Region 5 (Sistan Baluchistan and South Khorasan). Except for energy consumption, iron, calcium and riboflavin in the Climatic Region 7 (Bushehr, Hormozgan and Khuzestan) and calcium and riboflavin in the Climatic Region 8 (Tehran and Alborz), energy consumption and assessed micronutrients decreased in all climatic regions in 2018, compared to 2015. Regarding consumption of micronutrients, the average consumption of iron in all climatic regions in the four years of the study was higher than the recommended RDA. For calcium, intake was more than the RDA recommendation only in the Climatic Region 2. The average consumption of riboflavin was higher than the RDA recommendation in all the climatic regions. Regarding vitamin A, the average consumption in the four years of the study was lower than the RDA recommendation in all the climatic regions.

Overall, the findings showed that energy and micronutrient intakes from the usual household food baskets generally decreased over the years of the study. This situation was more significant in the Climatic Region 11 with significant droughts and in the Climatic Region 5 as a dry climatic region with low socioeconomic statuses. In addition, the average intakes of calcium and vitamin A in all climatic regions (except Climatic Region 2 regarding calcium) were lower than the recommended RDA. These findings emphasize the necessity of further planning for the implementation of policies focusing on food supports in drought-affected and deprived climatic regions.

The agricultural sector as one of the most important sectors of water consumption has great importance for the sustainability of the country's water resources systems. The objective of this study was to estimate the river water abstraction (RWA) for agricultural consumption in the study area of Nobaran in the Namak Lake basin. The RWA was estimated using variables related to morphological, hydrological, and land use factors, as well as a combination of their variables collected through field sampling. Data mining methods such as adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS), group method of data handling (GMDH), radial basis function (RBF), and regression trees (Rtree) were also used to estimate the RWA variables. In the current study, the GMDH24 model with a combined scenario including the variables of river width, river depth, minimum flow, maximum flow, average flow, crop, and the garden cultivated area was adopted as the best model to estimate the RWA variable. The RMSE value for the combined scenario of the GMDH24 model was found to be 0.046 for estimating RWA in the Nobaran study area. The results showed that the performance of the GMDH24 model for estimating RWA for maximum values is very acceptable and promising. Therefore, modeling and identifying various variables that affect the optimal RWA rate for agricultural purposes fulfills the objectives of integrated water resources management (IWRM).

Due to the importance of food environment of the public dining places in promoting sustainable diets, the present study was carried out to analyze canteen menu of the School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology sustainability and to develop a sustainable lunch menus.

First, nutrition information and quantity per capita of foods served within the last 20 days were asked from the food service manager of the canteen during the second semester of 2019–2020. The frequency of each food served, as well as food waste durung their preparation and consumption were recorded. Quantities of carbon, water and land footprints, costs and nutrient-rich food (NRF) index of the foods in the  two menus  were calculated. Then, a sustainable food menu for each two menus was designed in order to minimize water, carbon and land footprints and cost, as well as maxmizing NRF  through goal programming method.

Foods served in Menu 1, had higher mean water (P=0.011), carbon (P=0.001) and land footprints (P=0.022) and higher costs (P=0.001) but lower NRF (P=0.001), compared to those served in Menu 2. The average daily non-compostable, compostable and recyclable wastes included 19660, 6320 and 9010 g, respectively. Replacing the sustainable food menu designed for Menu 1 could decrease carbon, total water and land footprints and costs by 10, 13, 22 and 6%, respectively, and increased the NRF profile by 8%. Furthermore, replacing the sustainable menu designed for Menu 2 could result in 25, 23, 27 and 28% decreases in carbon, total water and land footprints and costs, respectively, and increased the NRF profile by 23%.

Replacement of the current menus with sustainable ones and planning to decrease food wastes are recommended to achieve national targets of resistive economy and sustainable development and to promote sustainable diets.

Pennyroyal is an aromatic herb that has been considered by various industries such as food and medicine, since it grows in different countries. Various industry`s attention to this worth product due to effective agent Pulegune (original compound essential oils of pennyroyal) that causes anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and aromatic properties. Essential oils of pennyroyal have a significantly effect on preventing the growth of several species of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria. Moreover, these oils maintain food quality by preventing the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids and increase product shelf life. So it seems that pennyroyal is an appropriate alternative for synthetic antioxidants. On the other hand, it can be used in treatment of many conditions. Thus, pennyroyal essential oils can be a good, nature and economy alternative for food and medicine industries. The present study focuses on the characteristics of pennyroyal essential oils.

Abstract Statins are the most common type of cholesterol- lowering drugs which have anti-inflammatory properties that may be beneficial in the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as asthma. Regarding to examine new medications for asthma management due to the side effects of existing routine asthma treatments, statins are one of drugs which have been suggested recently. Effect of atorvastatin on lung function and airway inflammation. In this triple blind clinical trial study sixty seven patients with moderate to severe asthma were entered. They were divided to two groups randomly. Case group were treatment by oral atorvastatin 40 mg daily and control group were treatment by placebo on lung function. Patients were visited and their lung volumes (FEV1, FVC, FEV1 /FVC, FEF 25-75%) and inflammatory biomarkers (ESR, Hs-CRP) and asthma control questionnaire score were measured every 4 weeks during the course. Fifty patients completed the study. Data was analyzed by χ 2, t-test and Mann-Whitney test. P value <0.05 was significant. There were no significant differences in lung volumes and inflammatory biomarkers between atorvastatin and placebo groups. We observed significant differences in the trend of lung volumes include FEV1, FEV1/FVC and FEF 25-75 % in each of the atorvastatin and placebo groups during the course of study (p<0.001) but there were no significant differences between them. There were significant differences in the trend of asthma control according to asthma control questionnaires in each of atorvastatin and placebo groups during the course (p <0.001). According to this study, atorvastatin does not show any significant anti-inflammatory activity in patients with moderate to severe asthma therefore it could not be beneficial for the short term treatment of asthma. But it seems that regular visit and patient education could lead to better asthma control.