The distinct Tibetan regional diet is strongly influenced by the regional biogeography, indigenous traditions, popular religious beliefs and food taboos. In the context of the nutritional transition in Tibet, studies seldom report on the food consumption and dietary patterns of Tibetan residents. This is a cross-section study of 552 local adults (≥18 years old, 277 men and 275 women) living in 14 agricultural countries along the Yarlung Tsangpo River. Dietary intakes were assessed by a culturally specific FFQ and compared with the Chinese Dietary Pagoda (2016). Dietary Patterns were extracted by using PCA method. The binary logistic regression model was applied to assess the association between independent variables (genders, regions and age groups) and adherence to dietary patterns. With the exception of meat (100 ± 260 g/day) and soybean nuts (42 ± 12 g/day), which exceeded the recommended dietary intakes of CDP, the dietary intake of other foods were not up to the recommended value. In particular, the intake of aquatic products (2 ± 0.1 g/day), vegetables (90 ± 19 g/day), dairy products (114 ± 29 g/day), cereals (117 ± 27 g/day) and fruits (97 ± 25 g/day) were seriously inadequate, which were 95%, 70%, 62%, 53.2% and 51.5% lower than the recommended intakes, respectively. Four dietary patterns were identified. “Local traditional diet” was characterized by a high intake of tsampa (roasted highland barley flour), culturally specific beverages (sweet tea and yak buttered tea), potato and yak beef and was associated with female, rural and older adults (≥51 years old). The male, urban and 18~30 years old group had a higher adherence score with the “Han diet”, which was comprised of rice, pork, dumplings, eggs, milk and cabbage. The “Beverage diet”, which mainly include tsampa, chang (homemade barley wine) and sweet tea, was associated with the following group: female, urban and aged 18~30 years. The “Out-sourced diet” pattern, consisting of mainly rice, steam bread and some processed meat, was associated with being male, urban and 18–30 years of age. These findings indicate that the dietary practice of the Tibetan people still has strong local characteristics, but it is also undergoing a dietary transition with the penetration of the Chinese Han diet and the increased consumption of outsourced (processed) foods. The unbalanced dietary intake of Tibetan residents should be taken seriously by all parties.

Consumers who are environmentally and health conscious are increasingly looking for plant-based alternatives to replace animal-based products in their daily diets. Among these alternatives, there is a growing demand for meat analogues that closely resemble the taste and texture of meat. As a result, significant efforts have been dedicated to developing meat analogues with a desirable meat-like structure. Currently, soy protein and wheat gluten are the main ingredients used for producing these meat analogues due to their availability and unique functionalities. This study observed that high moisture extrusion at moisture levels of 50–80% has become a common approach for creating fibrous structures, with soy protein and wheat gluten being considered incompatible proteins. After the structuring process, they form two-phase filled gels, with wheat gluten acting as the continuous phase and soy protein serving as a filler material. Moreover, the formation of soy protein and wheat gluten networks relies on a combination of covalent and non-covalent interaction bonds, including hydrogen bonds that stabilize the protein networks, hydrophobic interactions governing protein chain associations during thermo-mechanical processes, and disulfide bonds that potentially contribute to fibrous structure formation. This review provides case studies and examples that demonstrate how specific processing conditions can improve the overall structure, aiming to serve as a valuable reference for further research and the advancement of fibrous structures.

Mung beans contain abundant flavonoids like vitexin and isovitexin, which contribute to their strong bioactivities, such as antioxidant effects, so efforts should focus on extracting bioactive flavonoids as well as aligning with the goal of green extraction for specific applications. Deep eutectic solvent coupled with ultrasound-assisted extraction (DES-UAE) was applied to extract flavonoids from mung beans, and eight different DESs were compared on the extraction yield. In addition, the traditional extraction method with 30% ethanol was performed as the reference. The results showed that ethylene glycol-glycolic acid achieved the highest yield among all the DESs, 1.6 times that of the reference values. Furthermore, the DES-UAE parameters were optimized as a 60 mL/g liquid–solid ratio, 30% water content in DES, 200 W ultrasonic power, 67 °C ultrasonic temperature, and 10 min extraction time, leading to the DES extract with the maximum extraction yield of 2339.45 ± 42.98 μg/g, and the significantly stronger DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging ability than the traditional extract. Therefore, employing DES and ultrasonic extraction together offers a green method for extracting flavonoids from mung beans, advancing the development and utilization of plant-derived effective components in a sustainable manner.

Biofortification is one of the most successful approaches to enhance the level of micronutrients in wheat. In the present study, wheats with zinc biofortification (foliar fertilization and breeding strategies) were milled into five components (whole flour, break flour, reduction flour, fine bran, and coarse bran) and their mineral content and nutritional components were evaluated. The results revealed that biofortification greatly increased the Zn concentration (by 30.58%–30.86%) and soluble Zn content (by 28.57%–42.86%) of whole flour after digestion. This improvement is mainly in break flour, reduction flour, and fine bran. Meanwhile, the contents of macronutrients including ash, lipids, and proteins and micronutrients containing iron, calcium, and vitamins (B₁, B₆, and B₉) increased after biofortification. In addition, there was a decline in the concentrations of vitamins B₂ and B₅. Although dietary fibers and starch are the major carbohydrates, total dietary fiber exhibited a declining trend in coarse bran, and starch exhibited a rising trend in break and reduction flour. There was a decrease in the molar ratio of phytates: zinc did not promote a significant improvement in zinc bioaccessibility. These results can be useful for generating wheat varieties rich in micronutrients as well as having better nutritional traits.

The purposes of the present work are to assess how 6-gingerol (6G) positively influences serum glucose regulation in mice with prediabetes triggered by streptozotocin (STZ) plus a high-fat diet (HFD) and to clarify its underlying mechanisms. An analysis of prediabetic symptoms and biochemical characteristics found that 6G intervention was significantly associated with reduced fasting glucose levels, alleviated insulin resistance, better glucose tolerance, hepatic and pancreatic impairment, and dyslipidemia. For the recognition of the target gut microbiota and the pathways linked to 6G’s hypoglycemic function, a combination of hepatic RNA and 16S rRNA sequencing was employed. Specifically, 6G significantly improved the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and elevated the relative abundances of Alistipes, Alloprevotella, and Ruminococcus_1. Furthermore, 6G supplementation inhibited gluconeogenesis and stimulated glycolysis by activating the PI3K/AKT axis, which also repressed the oxidative stress through Nrf2/Keap1-axis initiation. In addition, Spearman’s correlation analyses reveal a complex interdependency set among the gut microbiota, metabolic variables, and signaling axes. Taken together, the hypoglycemic effect of 6G is partially mediated by altered gut microbiota, as well as by activated Nrf2/Keap1 and PI3K/AKT axes. Thus, 6G may be used as a candidate dietary supplement for relieving prediabetes.