Gene-Diet Interactions: Viability of Lactoferrin-Fortified Yoghurt as an Element of Diet Therapy in Patients Predisposed to Overweight and Obesity

Given the availability of molecular tools, population studies increasingly include the gen-diet interactions in their considerations. The use of these interactions allows for the obtaining of more uniform research groups. In practice, this translates into the possibility of reducing the size of the research group while maintaining the precision of the research. The research results obtained in this way can be used to select certain ingredients and foods in a dietary intervention with a higher degree of personalisation. In both prophylaxis and dietary therapy of overweight and obesity, the proper selection of bioactive ingredients best suited to the given group of consumers is of key importance. Hence, the aim of the presented study was to assess the effectiveness of a dietary intervention with the use of lactoferrin (LF)-fortified yoghurt, in terms of the ability to regulate body weight and carbohydrate metabolism in individuals whose genomes contained single nucleotide polymorphisms that predisposed them to increased accumulation of fatty tissue and consequently overweight or obesity. A group of 137 participants (98 women and 37 men) of Polish origin were screened for the presence of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs993960-FTO gene, rs7903146-TCF7L2 gene, rs10830963-MTNR1B gene, and rs1121980-FTO gene). Subsequently, a group of 19 participants diagnosed with the presence of risk factors within said SNPs underwent a 21-day dietary intervention (crossover study) with the use of yoghurt fortified with lactoferrin (200 mg/day). The results of the study revealed a genetic difference between the Polish population and the European average, in terms of the SNPs analysed. The dietary intervention showed a statistically significantly higher efficiency in terms of body mass reduction (p = 0.000) and lowering the glycated haemoglobin ratio (HbA1c) (p = 0.000) when consuming specially prepared yoghurt containing lactoferrin, as compared to results registered for unfortified yoghurt. Given the above, yoghurt fortified with LF should be considered as a viable element of diet therapy in overweight and obese patients diagnosed with risk factors within the analysed polymorphisms.

Properties of Yoghurt Fortified in Lactoferrin with Effect of Storage Time

The stability of fortified yoghurts during refrigerated storage is important for industry and the consumer. The aim of the study was to evaluate the nutritional value, microbiological quality, organoleptic properties, and structure of natural yoghurts made with the addition of lactoferrin during refrigerated storage. In this study, we produced natural yoghurts fortified in lactoferrin, using YC-X11 yoghurt starter culture based on Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Physicochemical (acidity, nutritional value and structure) as well as microbiological and organoleptic changes occurring during 28-days refrigerated storage were determined. Storage research made it possible to determine the direction of changes taking place in the products. The analysed parameters did not differ statistically significantly between the control yoghurts and those with the addition of lactoferrin. Textural and rheological studies also shown that the addition of lactoferrin did not significantly change the structure of the yoghurt. The yoghurts were characterized by high sanitary and hygienic quality during the whole refrigerated storage. Lactoferrin has a positive effect on the durability of the product.

Two is better than one: Using a single emotion lexicon can lead to unreliable conclusions

Emotion lexicons became a popular method for quantifying affect in large amounts of textual data (e.g., social media posts). There are multiple independently developed emotion lexicons which tend to correlate positively with one another but not entirely. Such differences between lexicons may not matter if they are just unsystematic noise, but if there are systematic differences this could affect conclusions of a study. The goal of this paper is to examine whether two extensively used, apparently domain-independent lexicons for emotion analysis would give the same answer to a theory-driven research question. Specifically, we use the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and NRC Word-Emotion Association Lexicon (NRC). As an example, we investigate whether older people have more positive expression through their language use. We examined nearly 5 million tweets created by 3,573 people between 18 to 78 years old and found that both methods show an increase in positive affect until age 50. After that age, however, according to LIWC, positive affect drops sharply, whereas according to NRC, the growth of positive affect increases steadily until age 65 and then levels off. Thus, using one or the other method would lead researchers to drastically different theoretical conclusions regarding affect in older age. We unpack why the two methods give inconsistent conclusions and show this was mostly due to a particular class of words: those related to politics. We conclude that using a single lexicon might lead to unreliable conclusions, so we suggest that researchers should routinely use at least two lexicons. If both lexicons come to the same conclusion then the research evidence is reliable, but if not then researchers should further examine the lexicons to find out what difference might be causing inconclusive result.