Research from recent years indicates a problem of excessive body weight among soldiers, who, due to the kind of work carried out, should possess good health and fitness levels. The aim of the study was to determine the association between diet and physical activity and the nutritional status of soldiers of the Polish Air Cavalry Units. One hundred and twenty male soldiers (aged 28 ± 5 years) completed a questionnaire (food frequency questionnaire, long-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire). Body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis, and bone calcification of the forearm was assessed by the DXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) densitometric method. This study confirmed the association between both the diet and physical activity and body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), and bone mineral density (BMD) expressed as T-score. Significant negative correlations were found between BMI and the frequency of consumption of cereal products, meat products and fish, and nonalcoholic beverages, between FMI and cereal products, and between BMD T-score and meat products and fish, fat, nuts, and grains, sweets and snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages. Physical activity expressed as metabolic equivalent (MET-minutes/week) negatively correlated with FMI (but not BMI) and positively correlated with the BMD T-score. This study confirmed numerous irregularities in eating behavior and in nutritional status indices; therefore, there is a need for nutritional education and further monitoring of both dietary behaviors and nutritional status of soldiers.

The number of different types of cheese worldwide exceeds 4000 and dairy fat, composed of about 400 fatty acids (FA), is one of the most complex dietary fats. Cheeses are valuable sources of different bioactive FA, i.e., conjugated FA (CFA). The aim of present study was to determine FA profile of commercially available ripening cheeses, with the special emphasis on CFA profile. Multivariate analyses (cluster analysis (CA), principal component Analysis (PCA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA)) of chromatographic data have been proposed as an objective approach for evaluation and data interpretation. CA enabled the differentiation of ripening cheeses from fresh cheeses and processed cheeses. PCA allowed to differentiate some types of ripening cheese whereas proposed LDA model, based on 22 analyzed FA, enabled assessing cheeses type with average predictive sensitivities of 86.5%. Results of present study clearly demonstrated that FA and CFA content may not only contribute to overall nutritional characteristics of cheese but also, when coupled with chemometric techniques, may be used as chemical biomarkers for assessing the origin and/or the type of ripening cheeses and the confirmation of their authenticity, which is of utmost importance for consumers.

The aim of this study was to present overall lipid profile of organisms with ongoing neoplastic process and applied diet supplementation with pomegranate seed oil (PSO) and bitter melon extract (BME). The following were quantified in serum and cancerous tissues of rats suffering from mammary tumours: fatty acids, conjugated fatty acids and sterols, their oxidised metabolites (malondialdehyde and oxysterols) and lipoxygenase (LOX) metabolites of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The obtained results indicate that abnormalities in lipid metabolism accompany neoplastic process. These differences concern all classes of lipids and most pathways of their transformation, with the special emphasis on lipid peroxidation and LOX-mediated metabolism. Cancer process appears to be so detrimental that it may conceal positive influence of dietary modifications. The lack of anticarcinogenic properties of PSO and BME in this model may be due to their antioxidant properties or elevated levels of conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), which change CLA isomer activity from anti- to pro-tumorigenic. As CLA are the product of conjugated linolenic acids (CLnA) endogenous metabolism, high CLA levels may be explained by applied diet enrichment.

Obesity is a complex multifactorial abnormality that has a well-confirmed genetic basis. However, the problem still lies in identifying the polymorphisms linked to body mass and composition. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze associations between FTO (rs9939609), FABP2 (rs1799883), and LEP (rs2167270), LEPR (rs1137101), and MC4R (rs17782313) polymorphisms and obesity-related parameters. Unrelated Caucasian males (n = 165) were recruited. All participants had similar physical activity levels. The participants were divided into two groups depending on their body mass index (BMI) and fat mass index (FMI). All samples were genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). When tested individually, only one statistically significant result was found. The FTO A/T polymorphism was significantly associated with FMI (p = 0.01). The chance of having increased FMI was >2-fold higher for the FTO A allele carriers (p < 0.01). Gene–gene interaction analyses showed the additional influence of all investigated genes on BMI and FMI. In summary, it was demonstrated that harboring the FTO A allele might be a risk factor for elevated fat mass. Additionally, this study confirmed that all five polymorphisms are involved in the development of common obesity in the studied population and the genetic risk of obesity is linked to the accumulation of numerous variants.