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Eat Better South Africa (EBSA) is an organization that provides low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) nutrition and health education programs for women from under-resourced South African communities. Community assessments are essential to explore participants’ potential facilitators and challenges of adhering to new dietary behaviours and should be implemented before any dietary interventions. This study is a qualitative community assessment to enable the EBSA program to better meet potential participants’ needs and explore their willingness to enrol in the EBSA program. Sixty women from two communities in the Western Cape were interviewed through six focus group discussions. A thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 12 software, and four themes were developed around the women’s (1) role within the households; (2) dietary behaviour; (3) health perceptions; and (4) willingness to participate in an LCHF program. Women mentioned that they were responsible for cooking and shopping for their households. They expressed their understanding of healthy and unhealthy behaviours and their dietary patterns. Some women showed concerns about LCHF diets, but others wanted to learn more due to their knowledge of other people’s positive experiences with the diet. There was a general desire to become healthy. However, the women anticipated dietary behaviour change to be challenging. Those challenges mostly revolved around their socioeconomic environments. The findings are intended to inform EBSA (or other nutrition interventions) on what to consider when implementing their interventions in these communities.

Scientific evidence suggests that low-carbohydrate high-fat (LCHF) diets may be effective for managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Eat Better South Africa (EBSA) is an organization that runs LCHF nutrition education programs for women from low-income communities. Three focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with 18 women who had taken part in an EBSA program between 2015 and 2017, to explore their perceptions and to identify the facilitators and barriers they faced in implementing and sustaining dietary changes. Thematic analysis of the focus groups was conducted using NVivo 12 software. Women reported that they decided to enroll in the program because they suffered from NCDs. Most women said that the EBSA diet made them feel less hungry, more energetic and they felt that their health had improved. Most women spoke of socioeconomic challenges which made it difficult for them to follow EBSA’s recommendations, such as employment status, safety issues in the community, and lack of support from relatives and doctors. Hence, women felt they needed more support from EBSA after the program. The social determinants that affected these women’s ability to change their health behavior are also NCD risk factors, and these should be assessed to improve the program for other communities.

The prevention of bone mass loss and related complications associated with osteoporosis is a significant public health issue. The Mediterranean diet (MD) is favorably associated with bone health, a potentially modifiable risk factor. The objective of this research was to determine MD adherence in a sample of women with and without osteoporosis. In this observational case-control study of 139 women (64 women with and 75 without osteoporosis) conducted in a primary-care health center in Girona (Spain), MD adherence, lifestyle, physical exercise, tobacco and alcohol consumption, pathological antecedents, and FRAX index scores were analyzed. Logistic multilinear regression modeling to explore the relationship between the MD and bone fracture risk indicated that better MD adherence was associated with a lower bone risk fracture. Non-pharmacological preventive strategies to reduce bone fracture risk were also reviewed to explore the role of lifestyle and diet in bone mass maintenance and bone fracture prevention.

The Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) has been promoted as a means of preventing and treating cardiodiabesity. The aim of this study was to answer a number of key clinical questions (CQs) about the role of the MedDiet in cardiodiabesity in order to provide a framework for the development of clinical practice guidelines. A systematic review was conducted to answer five CQs formulated using the Patient, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) criteria. Twenty articles published between September 2013 and July 2016 were included, adding to the 37 articles from the previous review. There is a high level of evidence showing that MedDiet adherence plays a role in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and improves health in overweight and obese patients. There is moderate-to-high evidence that the MedDiet prevents increases in weight and waist circumference in non-obese individuals, and improves metabolic syndrome (MetS) and reduces its incidence. Finally, there is moderate evidence that the MedDiet plays primary and secondary roles in the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The MedDiet is effective in preventing obesity and MetS in healthy and at-risk individuals, in reducing mortality risk in overweight or obese individuals, in decreasing the incidence of T2DM and CVD in healthy individuals, and in reducing symptom severity in individuals with T2DM or CVD.