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Background: Complications of anti-cancer therapies can lead to inadequate nutrient intake, indigestion and deficiency of nutrients. The present study aims to better understand the nutritional challenges of hospitalized patients with cancer. Methods: The participants were patients referred to the oncology ward of the hospital who were selected by the maximum diversity sampling of patients with various cancers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data and continued until data saturation with 20 participants. Inductive content analysis was applied to interpret data using MAXQDA 2018 software. Results: The views of hospitalized patients with cancer regarding the nutritional complications were explored in four main themes, including "Inefficiency in patient food management”, “The need for care and support of the treatment team”, “Problems due to the consequences of the disease”, “Patients' strategies in conditions of dissatisfaction with the hospital food environment”. The sub-themes included "Dissatisfaction with the hospital food environment”, “Neglect of patients' specific conditions”, “Problem with the characteristics of hospital food”, “Uncertainty of the responsible person/people”, “Lack of continuous communication between the treatment team and patients”, “Patients’ need to consult with the treatment team”, “Patients’ concerns”, “Disease side-effects”, “Chemotherapy side effect”, and “Dissatisfaction of food and environment". Conclusion: It is necessary to obtain a comprehensive understanding of patients' needs by a treatment team, including physicians, nurses, and nutritionists by establishing appropriate communication with the patients and nutrition education from the time of diagnosis and treatment

Background: Traffic Light Labeling (TLL) system is a simple tool to communicate information regarding the nutrients content of food products and has been widely applied to promote public health. However, evidence on the effectiveness of the TLL system on consumers’ choices is conflicting. The present study aims to systematically summarize the effects of TLL on consumers’ point of purchase behaviors. Methods: Five electronic databases, including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of knowledge, the Cochrane library, and Science direct were searched from 2000/01/01 to 2021/11/01. Randomized-controlled trials, in English or Farsi languages, investigating the effects of TLL on choosing healthier foodstuffs or beverages were examined for eligibility and included in the review. Of 6408 potentially relevant publications (including 1255 duplicates), five clinical trials were finally included in the study. Results: The duration of the interventions ranged from 4 to 12 weeks and all studies except one had high methodological quality. Out of 5, three clinical trials did not show positive effects of TLL on customers' choices to purchase healthier food products. Conclusions: The present review showed that TLL without other public health-promoting interventions may have no substantial effects on consumer’s food choice.

Background: The development of policies for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is highlighted as a priority in developing countries. This review study aimed to present the available policy options for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in the populations. Methods: To collect relevant English publications, five electronic databases, including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Embase, ProQuest, and Ovid from 2000 until 1st January 2021 were searched. The national or population based programs aimed to increase fruit and/or vegetable intake were included. Four types of policy options were recognized, including food promotion, school and workplace food environment regulations, agriculture, food production, supply and storage, and fiscal policies. Results: Increasing consumer’s knowledge has been more effective in increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among populations. However, most of the interventions in the workplace and school emphasize increasing knowledge and changing access to healthy food. Conclusion: In general, the evaluation of these policies has been done in the short term and has had a moderate impact on changing dietary behavior. Agricultural and food supply chain policies are currently less researched. Finally, recent evidence suggests that multi-component interventions are more effective than one-component interventions.

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.

Background: Healthy lifestyle is effective on preventing common elderly diseases. This study was conducted to evaluate the elderlies' lifestyle and its components in Tehran in 2017. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out with a descriptive-analytical design. The research population consisted of 200 elderly people from elderly care centers in Tehran City, Iran. A questionnaire, designed and validated by Babak et al., was used for lifestyle assessment. It dealt with dimensions of prevention, physical activity, exercise and entertainment, nutrition, stress management, as well as social and interpersonal relationships. Results: Results showed that the total score of lifestyle was 167.83 and 164.18 in men and women, respectively. Findings indicated that both genders were in good level of lifestyle and was no significant difference was observed between males and females (P < 0.05). A significant difference was observed between men and women in terms of stress and prevention components. The highest mean score of lifestyle was observed in prevention component of the participants who had associate degree (64.99 ± 5.89) and were single (60.75 ± 5.50). The lowest mean score of lifestyle was found in the field of exercise and entertainment in people who had elementary education degree (12.94 ± 4.12) and were divorced (13.00 ± 3.00). A significant relationship was found between age and nutritional area (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Considering the low scores of exercise and entertainment in the elderly people, an educational program should be designed to improve lifestyle among the elderly.

Background: Food security status is an important indicator for measuring the level of individuals' access to sufficient and nutritious food. This study was conducted to investigating the food security status in pregnant women in Yazd, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 351 pregnant women with gestational age of 24 to 32 weeks were randomly selected. Food security status was measured by household food insecurity access scale (HAFIS) questionnaire. Demographic information was extracted from the health records of mothers. The data were analyzed using logistic regression test. Results: The mean age of studied women was 27.84 ± 5.46 years and the mean of their food security score was 3.45 ± 4.40. Food secure, marginal insecurity, and severe insecurity were observed in 45.6, 39, and 15.4 percent of participants, respectively. Socioeconomic status (SES) and non-Persian ethnicity had a significant relationship (P = 0.40) with food insecurity. Logistic regression analysis showed that the odds ratio of severe food insecurity in the low SES was 13 times higher than its odds in the high SES. The odds ratio of severe food insecurity for non-Persian was also 6 times higher than its odds for Persian people. Conclusion: More than half of the pregnant women were in the mild to severe range of food insecurity and the prevalence of this situation was higher in women with low social economic status and non-native groups.