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Associations Between Rapid Infant Weight Gain, Infant Feeding Practice and the Infant Gut Microbiome
Migration allows animals to track favorable environments and avoid harmful conditions but is energetically costly. There are different types of migration, such as tidal/daily, seasonal, and lifetime. Locust migratory swarms are one such famous phenomena that can have dramatic effects on human livelihoods. During long-distance flight, locusts rely on lipid oxidation from fat stores, while initial flight is fueled by carbohydrates. However, limited studies have tested how dietary macronutrients affect insect flight performance. Therefore, we asked: How do different dietary macronutrient ratios affect prolonged flight migration? We predicted that high carbohydrate diets would lead to high body lipid synthesis which would increase flight performance. We reared locusts in three crowded cages from 5th instar to adulthood on artificial diet varying in p:c ratio, supplemented with lettuce and water tubes, ad libitum. We used 7-14-day old adult males for flight performance assays where each day we used new individuals for tethered flight for 12 h in wind tunnels (~12 km·h-1) and video recorded their flight. We found that locust flight duration and quality increased with a decrease of dietary p:c ratio. Using control groups of locusts, we estimated that across 1 day of flight (up to 12 h), locusts lost on average in all treatments ~25 or ~30% of their total body lipid content. We concluded that long distance flight is improved by a high carbohydrate and low protein diet for L. migratoria by increasing their fuel sources. This work was supported by NSF # 1942054.
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Aim The aim of his study was to examine the glycemic response to three different types of pasta: wheat, rice and corn. Breath hydrogen, assessment of mood states, blood glucose and insulin were collected after ingestion of these pastas to determine the glycemic effects of these foods.
Methods: A double blinded crossover study design was utilized on a group of healthy individuals, and the test meals of wheat, rice and combinations of rice/corn, and corn/quinoa pastas were consumed one week apart in random order. Collections of fasting venous blood samples for insulin analysis, capillary blood from a finger stick for glucose analysis, breath hydrogen samples and satiety scales were used for glycemic response and mood states were collected prior to the meal (baseline) and then again after ingestion of the test meals. Attempts were made to explore the glycemic response of these test meals in relation to mood states.
Results: The glucose response showed no significant difference at baseline (p = .683) among all groups and no significant differences were seen post treatment at 30 minutes (p = .875). However, after 60 minutes all of the glucose concentrations began to decline except for the rice pasta which peaked at 90 minutes and the wheat pasta gave the most sustained decrease. The AUC glucose values showed no significant difference at both 120 (p=0.196) and 240 (p=0.734) minutes but with wheat pasta producing the lowest mean value. The POMS scores showed no significant differences between groups over time (p=.239) but the wheat group produced the highest score (worsening moods states).
Conclusion: These results indicate that the formulation and processing of gluten free pastas may affect the rate and absorption and the subsequent glycemic response after the consumption of these foods. Whether or not wheat contains an ingredient that slows absorption and/or negatively affects mood remains undetermined warrants future research in this area.