Background and objectives: Women's food choices and preferences are important as key decision-makers in household food handling, especially the selection of local and traditional foods that can potentially affect health and disease profile. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the barriers and facilitators of choosing local and traditional foods from the perspective of women living in Iran. Methods: This qualitative study was carried out using a semi-structured in-depth interview with 22 women aged 30-64 years old in Tehran (capital of Iran). The participants were recruited through purposive sampling with the maximum variation such as occupation, the district of residence, and education. Data collection and analysis were done simultaneously from the beginning of the study using the MAXQDA 10 software. Results and conclusions: The four main themes explored from the participants' statements included: "cultural contexts," "social barriers and motivations," "convenience, accessibility, and skills," and "religious considerations." The lessons derived from family, experiences, beliefs, ethnicity patterns, influences from traditional medicine, and priorities in a lifetime, family preferences, routine complications, facilities and ingredients, cookery skills, and religious rules and occasions were extracted as sub-themes including the barriers and facilitators of local and traditional foods in women. Considering the diversity of local and traditional foods in Iranian culture, encouraging the varied consumption of these foods could contribute to the sustainability of diet in communities. Therefore, emphasizing the special role of Iranian women in the household, it is necessary to educate women in order to regenerate the local and traditional food patterns in our country.

Abstract. The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased worldwide and various environmental factors have accelerated this trend. Several reports have suggested that food advertising causes childhood obesity. We proposed a review study to evaluate the relationship between TV food advertisements and obesity in children. By searching over electronic databases (including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar), the reference lists of original studies, and reviews using key search terms, 1181 articles were identified. Out of these, only 9 articles met the inclusion and quality criteria. Most of the longitudinal study carried out at the national level have reported a significant association between commercial viewing and BMI in children. The duration of these studies varied between 7 months and 5 years. The children’s TV viewing time was between 1.5 and 3.5 hours per day. Results of the reviewed studies have revealed a controversial attitude about the influence of TV food advertisements on obesity. However, three of four modeling studies indicated an increment in the prevalence of overweight and obesity following exposure to food advertisements. Further interventional and longitude studies are needed to achieve more precise results.

Background: Considering the incidence of malnutrition, a multidisciplinary approach with targeted nutrition is vital to improve the quality of care in cancer patients. This study aimed to investigate the overall nutritional status of Iranian cancer patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study in 70 cancer patients was conducted in Shohada-e Tajrish Hospital from February to April 2019. The cancer patients were assessed by demographics and Scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) utilized as a common tool to evaluate the nutritional status of patients with different types of cancer. Results: Overall, 20.0% and 70.0% of the patients had normal body mass index (BMI) and overweight/obese, respectively.  Moreover, 30.0% and 60.0% of the participants reported poor and normal intake, respectively. Males were more affected by malnutrition. Approximately 8.0% of the participants lost more than 10.0% of their weight; however, a vast majority of the patients maintained their weight. Conclusion: The high prevalence of malnutrition among the studied cancer patients demonstrated the necessity of nutritional care to improve possible malnutrition for better treatment results.