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Background Todays, due to the impact of human food choices on increasing greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and environmental degradation, there is a new approach about changing the pattern of food production and consumption, including sustainable food and nutrition system related to consumption. This study aimed to explore the components of a sustainable diet among the factors that affect people’s food choices. Methods This qualitative study was carried out using an in-depth interview with 33 individuals aged 30–64 years old living in different areas of Tehran. Data collection, data analysis and theoretical conceptualization were performed simultaneously. MAXQDA 10 software was used for managing and organizing the data. Results In this paper, the findings are categorized according to the key components of a sustainable diet in five themes: “Health and Nutrition”, “Food and Agriculture Security”, “Environment and Ecosystems”, “Markets, food trade and production chains”, “social, cultural, and policy factors” were categorized. Meanwhile, the components of the “Health and Nutrition” domain had the highest contribution and the components of the two domains “food and agriculture” and “environment and ecosystems” had the lowest role based on the participants’ perception in this study. Conclusion Considering to the low importance of the components of a sustainable diet in food choices of the community, promoting the individual awareness of sustainable diet components, clarifying the importance of food choices in creating environmental impacts and leading the national macro policies in the field food and nutrition toward sustainable diet goals are essential.

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 AND OBJECTIVE Traffic light labelling (TLL) policy has been adopted to improve consumers' food choices. This qualitative study examined the consumers' perception of TLL and nutritional facts table (NFT) in Iran. DESIGN We applied a qualitative method to explore public views and perceptions of NFT and TLL in Iran. Participants ageing 20-75 years old were selected by maximum diversity sampling and interviewed using a semi-structured in-depth interview. The interviews were continued until data saturation was achieved after interviewing 35 participants with five more interviews to ensure no new emerging perception. Data was analysed by directed content analysis in MAXQDA 10 software. FINDINGS Findings indicated that a large number of the participants were not aware of NFT and TLL. There are some reasons for not paying attention to NFT and TLL, which include lack of enough knowledge about NFT and TLL concepts and defects in appearance and details written in these labels, lack of appropriate education about labels, place of putting the labels and lack of enough time for using the labels during shopping. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that educational interventions should be applied to ensure their effectiveness in improving healthy food choices.

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 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.

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.

Context: Childhood obesity has become one of the most concerning public health issues and several innovative strategies are being applied to tackle the issue. Reformulation of children-oriented food products may play a role in improving childhood obesity. However, there is not sufficient evidence that shows the effectiveness of this policy. This paper provides a systematic review of the evidence to examine the efficacy of food product reformulation on calorie intake and weight modification of children with obesity. Evidence Acquisition: A comprehensive literature search was undertaken for different types of studies. PubMed, Cochrane Library Database, EMBASE and SCOPUS were referred to as the source of literature. Results: Seven thousand four hundred and three results were entered into our study for screening and evaluation. Our study showed that there was no clear evidence that supported the effectiveness of this intervention. However, some bodies of literature show calorie intake reduction, but no weight modification. Conclusions: Although there is enough evidence to show that reformulation may promote healthy dietary patterns, its impact on weight status is not convincing. Long term running intervention needs to be applied to examine the possible implications of food reformulation policy on the weight status of the children.

Background Todays, due to the impact of human food choices on increasing greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and environmental degradation, there is a new thinking about changing the pattern of food production and consumption, including sustainable food and nutrition system related to consumption. This study aimed to explore the dimensions of a sustainable diet among the determinants of people's food choices. Methods This qualitative study was carried out using an in-depth interview with 33 individuals aged 30-64 years old living in different areas of Tehran. Data gathering, data analysis and theoretical conceptualization were performed simultaneously and from the beginning of the research, and for managing and organizing the data, the MAXQDA 10 software was used. Results In this paper, the findings are categorized according to the key components of a sustainable diet in five themes: "Health and Nutrition", "Food and Agriculture Security", "Environment and Ecosystems", "Markets, food trade and production chains", "social, cultural, and policy factors" were categorized. Meanwhile, the components of the "Health and Nutrition" domain had the highest contribution and the components of the two domains "food and agriculture" and "environment and ecosystems" had the lowest role among the statements of the participants in this study. Conclusion considering to the low importance of the dimensions of a sustainable diet in food choices of the community, promoting the individual awareness of sustainable diet components, clarifying the importance of food choices in creating environmental impacts and leading the national macro policies in the field food and nutrition toward sustainable diet goals are essential.

Background: Imbalanced diet, as it may cause micronutrient malnutrition has been known as a causal factor for several chronic diseases. Several studies in Iran have shown that some micro-nutrient deficiencies are prevalent and of high concern. Minerals such as calcium and iron can supply physical and mental health as well as survival, and growth development. In this study, Nutrient density analysis was used to display Iranian households' diet quality. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, the diet quality of seven provinces, namely Eastern Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Tehran, Khorasan, Khouzestan, Sistan Balochestan and Fars was assessed in terms of calcium and iron. To do so, the data were obtained through national household food consumption survey conducted by National Nutrition & Food Technology Research Institute, 2000-02, in Iran. Results: Generally, 80% of households' calcium density was less than the standard value and this rate was 40-70% for iron. Index of nutrition quality (INQ) for calcium and iron were respectively almost 1/2 and 1/3 of requirements in all provinces. Conclusions: There were significant differences in calcium intake density between the rural and urban households however; there were no differences between the selective provinces and all over the country