A growing body of evidence highlights the close association between nutrition and human health. Fat is an essential macronutrient, and vegetable oils, such as palm oil, are widely used in the food industry and highly represented in the human diet. Palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid, is the principal constituent of refined palm oil. In the last few decades, controversial studies have reported potential unhealthy effects of palm oil due to the high palmitic acid content. In this review we provide a concise and comprehensive update on the functional role of palm oil and palmitic acid in the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The atherogenic potential of palmitic acid and its stereospecific position in triacylglycerols are also discussed.

Healthy lifestyles are associated with better health-related quality of life (HRQoL), favorable prognosis and lower mortality in breast cancer (BC) survivors. We investigated changes in HRQoL after a 12-month lifestyle modification program in 227 BC survivors participating in DEDiCa trial (Mediterranean diet, exercise, vitamin D). HRQoL was evaluated through validated questionnaires: EQ-5D-3L, EORTC-QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BR23. Baseline changes were tested using analysis of variance. Multiple regression analyses were performed to assess treatment effects on HRQoL. Increases were observed in global health status (p < 0.001), physical (p = 0.003), role (p = 0.002) and social functioning (p < 0.001), body image (p < 0.001), future perspective (p < 0.001), well-being (p = 0.001), and reductions in fatigue (p < 0.001), nausea and vomiting (p = 0.015), dyspnea (p = 0.001), constipation (p = 0.049), financial problems (p = 0.012), sexual functioning (p = 0.025), systematic therapy side effects (p < 0.001) and breast symptoms (p = 0.004). Multiple regression analyses found inverse associations between changes in BMI and global health status (p = 0.048) and between serum 25(OH)D levels and breast symptoms (p = 0.002). A healthy lifestyle treatment of traditional Mediterranean diet and exercise may impact positively on HRQoL in BC survivors possibly through reductions in body weight while vitamin D sufficiency may improve BC-related symptoms. These findings are relevant to BC survivors whose lower HRQoL negatively affects treatment compliance and disease outcomes.

Objective: The nutrition transition model provides an integrated approach to analyse global changes in food consumption and lifestyle patterns. Whether variability in food availability for consumption, lifestyle and sociodemographic factors is associated with the worldwide prevalence distribution of overweight, obesity and hypertension is unclear.Design: Ecological analysis.Setting: Country-specific prevalence estimates of overweight, obesity and hypertension were obtained. Prevalence estimates were then matched to year- and country-specific food and energy availability for consumption of cereals, sugar, sweeteners and honey, vegetable oils, fruits, starchy roots, pulses, total vegetables, alcoholic beverages, total meat, animal fat, eggs, milk, and fish and seafood. The per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), urbanization rates and prevalence of physical inactivity for each country were also obtained.Subjects: The overweight, obesity and hypertension databases included information from 128, 123 and seventy-nine countries, respectively.Results: Consumption of sugar and animal products were directly associated with GDP and urbanization rates. In a multivariate regression model, physical inactivity (B = 0·01, se = 0·005, P = 0·003), cereal consumption (B = −0·02, se = 0·006, P < 0·001) and sugar consumption (B = 0·03, se = 0·01, P = 0·03) were significant predictors of obesity prevalence. Midpoint age (B = 0·21, se = 0·10, P = 0·02), prevalence of overweight (B = 0·18, se = 0·08, P = 0·02) and consumption of cereals (B = −0·22, se = 0·10, P = 0·02) were significant predictors of hypertension. Women appeared to have a significant obesity excess compared with men.Conclusions: High sugar consumption and sedentary lifestyle are associated with increased obesity prevalence. The non-linear association of sugar consumption with prevalence of obesity suggests that effective strategies to reduce its consumption may have differential effects in countries at different stages of the nutrition transition.

Evidence suggests a beneficial role of the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in healthy subjects. HRQoL is relevant in cancer therapy and disease outcomes, therefore we investigated the association between adherence to the MedDiet and HRQoL in breast cancer survivors participating in the multicentre trial DEDiCa. Diet and HRQoL were assessed at baseline in a subgroup of 309 women enrolled within 12 months of breast cancer diagnosis without metastasis (stages I-III, mean age 52±1 yrs, BMI 27±7 kg/m²). The 14-item PREDIMED questionnaire was used to analyse adherence to the MedDiet. HRQoL was assessed with three validated questionnaires measuring physical, mental, emotional and social factors: EQ-5D-3L, EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BR23. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the possible role of the MedDiet on HRQoL. Patients with higher adherence to MedDiet (PREDIMED score >7) showed significantly higher scores for physical functioning (p = 0.02) and lower scores on the symptomatic pain scale (p = 0.04) assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire compared to patients with a lower adherence to MedDiet (PREDIMED score ≤7). Higher scores from the EQ-5D-3L indicating higher well-being were observed mainly in participants with higher MedDiet adherence (p = 0.05). In adjusted multivariate analyses significant positive associations were found between MedDiet, physical functioning (p = 0.001) and EQ 5D-3L score (p = 0.003) while inverse associations were found with pain and insomnia symptoms (p = 0.005 and p = 0.029, respectively). These results suggest that higher adherence to the MedDiet in breast cancer survivors is associated with better aspects of quality of life, specifically higher physical functioning, better sleep, lower pain and generally higher well-being confirming findings in healthy subjects.