The purpose was to compare maternal perceptions, feeding practices, and overweight status of children in immigrant households in California (US) with a cohort in Guanajuato, Mexico (MX). In 2006, staff interviewed mothers and weighed and measured their children, 1-6 years (US: n = 95 and MX: n = 200). Prevalence of overweight [body mass index z-score (BMIZ) >1.0 and <1.65] and obesity (BMIZ > 1.65) was 21.1 and 28.4% in the US respectively, compared to 11.5 and 12.9% in MX (p < 0.001). No differences were observed in maternal ability to identify correctly the child's weight status or ever being told the child was overweight. US children ate away from home more often (p < 0.0001), had fewer family meals (p < 0.0001), and played outdoors less often than MX children (p < 0.0002). Further analyses should examine how differences in eating and activity patterns explain the disparity in childhood obesity across the countries.

No abstract

Risk behaviors associated with life style may deliver in students´ health risk. Therefore, our objective is to describe health risk behaviors perceived by health area university students. For this a 14 item survey about risk behaviors related to physical activity practice, food consumption, drug use, stress level and sleep habits was applied in the health area students. 995 students were interviewed. Most were women (69%) with 20.1 + 1.8 years old. Of these women surveyed, twenty nine percent report no physical activity. Fifty one percent eat 5 fruit and vegetables 4 times/week or more. Only 30% drinks 2 L of water/day. Eighty two percent don’t smoke, 55% don’t drink alcohol and 90% don’t use drugs. Twelve percent reports to be on stress always and 72% sleep more than 7 hours/day only 3 times/week or less. This work concluded that university students of the Health Area don´t have the healthy life style that’s expected.

Cancer has increased in all the countries of the world and Mexico is no exception. The recognised risk factors for the main types of cancer are reviewed and searched through the Mexican government web pages and cancer prevention programmes to tackle the risk factors in the population. The Mexican government, a member of the World Health Organization, shows that the main approach is an early diagnosis rather than prevention, forgetting that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Effective public programmes should be promoted to reduce preventable risk factors in the population (smoking, nutrition, obesity, diet, environmental toxicity, sedentary lifestyle) and control the non-preventable factors (genetics) if we really want to control the incidence of different types of cancer.

In addition to the known metabolic alterations, obesity has consequences at the brain level, driving imbalance in neurotransmitters such as glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The consumption of fruits with antioxidant properties, such as the berrycactus Myrtillocactus geometrizans, could have beneficial effects in such an imbalance. The study objective was to evaluate frontal cortex neurotransmitter levels and weight changes in rats fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) and MG. To achieve that, five groups of Wistar rats received different diets for 24 weeks: standard diet (SDt), HFD, HFD + MG extract 150 mg (HMg150), HFD + MG extract 300 mg (HMg300), and HFD + MG extract 450 mg (HMg450); rats received MG extract for the last 4 weeks. Weight and food intake were recorded every week, and also neurotransmitter levels were quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography. Groups fed with HFDs had increased Glu and Gln levels, decreased GABA, and also gained more weight compared to the SDt group; MG extract of 450 mg decreased Glu levels. Concentrations of 300 and 450 mg of MG extract decreased weight compared to the HFD and HMg150 groups. This study reports that HFDs have an impact on neurotransmitter levels and weight, MG extract showed a reduction in Glu concentration and weight.