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Browsing by Author "Foster, Michelle, advisor"

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    Promoting the consumption of beans and other pulses for public health: a translational approach to address consumer barriers to intake
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Didinger, Chelsea, author; Foster, Michelle, advisor; Bunning, Marisa, advisor; Thompson, Henry, committee member; Jablonski, Becca, committee member
    Beans and other pulses (i.e., the dry, edible seeds of non-oilseed legumes like chickpeas, cowpeas, dry beans, dry peas, and lentils) are linked to a myriad of positive impacts on human and environmental health, including promotion of gut health and healthy weight management, reduction of chronic disease risk, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in soil health, conservation of water resources, and more. Moreover, pulses are highly nutrient-dense, have a long shelf-life, demonstrate wide culinary versatility, and are relatively affordable compared to other foods. Accordingly, pulses offer the chance to consume a healthful diet based on sustainable food choices, all at an economical price point. Although this combination of positive assets may make pulses seem like a natural choice for consumers to include as a dietary staple, global consumption of pulses has stagnated at around 21 g/day/capita. This research focuses on United States consumers, who eat less than 1 cup of cooked pulses per week, which is below the recommendation. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), there are only four dietary components of public health concern (i.e., nutrients or other dietary components – like fiber – for which low intakes are associated with health concerns) in the United States. Among these four dietary components of public health concern are dietary fiber and potassium. Pulses are rich in both, thus increasing intake across the population could contribute to raising levels of these critical dietary components. Although it depends on age group and gender, the levels of pulse intake recommended by the DGA are around 1 – 3 cups per week. Increasing intake to meet this recommendation would help provide adequate levels of dietary components of public health concern. Raising it even further, to around 1 cup per day, has been associated with numerous human health benefits, as discussed in the Introduction. Reversing the current trend of dramatically low consumption would allow the public to better capitalize on all the benefits that pulses have to offer. To achieve this, it is vital to address the potential barriers to pulse intake that consumers face, paramount among them being unfamiliarity with how to cook and prepare pulses, long cooking times, and concerns over flatulence. Simultaneously, it is key to highlight the many motivating factors to eat pulses, including taste and culinary versatility, nutrition and health, and environmental benefits. Through engaging in a translational approach that addresses barriers and emphasizes motivators, not only is knowledge disseminated, but consumers can be motivated to engage in behavior change and increase their pulse consumption. This research is comprised of three primary efforts designed to directly target motivators and mitigate barriers to pulse consumption in the United States: 1.) creation of an Extension Bean Toolkit, which includes various consumer resources and an online 1-hour class; 2.) development of the Bean Cuisine and engagement with citizen scientists to improve the cuisine and monitor impacts of participation; and 3.) testing of the effects of elevation and soaking conditions on bean cooking time to address the concern over long cooking times and provide consumers with accessible cooking tips. Before designing the Extension Bean Toolkit, a Food Habits Survey was conducted to better understand preparation and consumption habits, barriers, motivators, and potential points of consumer interest related to pulses. Based on results and in conjunction with review of the literature, resources were developed for the toolkit, as well as the 1-hour class, titled Beans: Good for You, Good for the Planet. Participation in the class resulted in significant gains in knowledge about pulses, an increase in the importance of motivators, a decrease in how much barriers discourage consumers, and consumption frequency also appeared to increase. See Chapter 2 for details. The Bean Cuisine is a 2-week cuisine (i.e., meal plan) with 56 pulse-centric recipes that correspond to 14 unique breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner ideas. The Bean Cuisine was designed to have 35% of dietary protein from pulses, due to recent preclinical findings that suggest this level of consumption is when benefits for gut health and weight maintenance are attained. The main barrier addressed was lack of awareness of how to cook and prepare pulses, and culinary versatility was a main motivator. Fifty-six citizen scientists were recruited and provided feedback on one day (i.e., four recipes) of the Bean Cuisine, and impacts of participation were monitored. The Bean Cuisine was modified based on their feedback to improve the recipes to ensure they were clearly written and the taste would appeal to a wider audience. Participation in the project resulted in significant gains in knowledge about pulse health benefits, versatility, and how to cook dry pulses. Moreover, common themes in free response data demonstrated that citizen scientists had increased awareness of pulse variety and versatility, they changed the frequency of and ways in which they ate pulses, they had a positive experience and thus a good perception of citizen science, and that some became pulse advocates, sharing the benefits of pulses with their communities. More details can be found in Chapter 3. Not knowing how to cook dry pulses and the long cooking times pose barriers to regular pulse intake. Therefore, to be able to provide consumers with better information regarding the effects of cooking conditions and elevation on cooking time, a Mattson cooker was used to assess the cooking time of pinto beans at four locations, ranging from around sea level to over 3,000 meters. Seven different cooking conditions were evaluated in replicate at each location: an overnight soak or a quick soak in only water or in a 1% solution of sodium chloride or sodium bicarbonate, with a no soak and no salt added comparison. Cooking time increased with elevation, and both the soaking of beans and the addition of salt shortened cooking time. A handout was created to equip consumers with information and practical, accessible tips to facilitate faster, better experiences when cooking dry pulses. Refer to Chapter 4 for details. Through the Extension Bean Toolkit and Bean Cuisine citizen science work, a translational approach was adopted to reach the public with current research findings that aligned with areas in which they expressed interest. The mitigation of potential barriers to pulse intake and the highlighting of the numerous benefits of pulses was a primary focus in this work. After participating in the Extension class or citizen science project, participants demonstrated greater knowledge about pulses. More importantly, they expressed a greater intention to eat pulses, indicating that participation in these translational projects helped motivate them to change their behavior and regularly integrate more pulses into their diets.
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    Testing the metabolic sink postulate: subcutaneous adipose tissue the protective depot
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Booth-Kalajian, Andrea Deborah, author; Foster, Michelle, advisor; Wier, Tiffany, committee member; Melby, Chris, committee member; Santangelo, Kelly, committee member
    Adipose tissue distribution and not body mass index is the major predictor of risk for obesity-related chronic disease. Specifically, central adiposity, intra-abdominal/visceral adipose tissue accumulation, is associated with adverse metabolic outcomes such as, but not limited to, insulin resistance syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension [1, 2]. Conversely, peripheral adiposity, subcutaneous/gluteofemoral adipose tissue accumulation, is considered protective against metabolic disease [3, 4]. It is proposed that the subcutaneous adipose depot functions as a "metabolic sink" to sequester and store lipid from circulation, preventing ectopic deposition. Therefore, an individual with high overall fat mass primarily located in the lower body subcutaneous adipose depots could be metabolically healthy while obese. While subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) has been associated with improved insulin sensitivity and lower risk of adverse metabolic outcomes, it has not been fully examined for exact mechanisms or causality. The broad goal of this proposal was to identify and understand how adipose tissue contributes to the development, progression, and possibly resistance to metabolic disease. The specific goal of this dissertation was to examine how SAT protects against metabolic dysregulation. One of the protective properties of LBSAT is its ability to expand and proliferate with new/healthy, lipid-filling adipocytes. We examined adipose tissue compensation following intra-abdominal fat removal and glucose homeostasis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ; an activator of adipogenesis) knockout mice and control mice received either Sham surgery or intra-abdominal lipectomy. The inability of cell proliferation following lipectomy in PPARγ knockout mice induces glucose intolerance. Control mice with intra-abdominal lipectomy had increases in peripheral adipose mass, cell size redistribution, and improved glucose tolerance. The Foster lab previously demonstrated that removal of LBSAT caused skeletal muscle, but not liver, lipid accumulation in standard CHOW and high fat diet (HFD) mice. Additionally, LBSAT removal resulted in deterioration of systemic glucose tolerance and muscle insulin sensitivity in HFD animals only. Hence, we proposed that muscle triglyceride deposition per se was not sufficient to explain systemic glucose intolerance. One purpose of this dissertation was to further examine the protective properties of SAT and to investigate the fundamental mechanisms that contribute to impairment of glucose tolerance. We sought to extend our previous research with a systematic approach. We hypothesized that SAT has a dose-dependent association with systemic glucose regulation and maintenance of insulin sensitivity in nearby muscle. Our focus here was to examine the relation between peripheral adipose tissue and glucose homeostasis. This was accomplished with progressive removal of adipose tissue: ~20%, 40%, or 80% of the total SAT. Mice fed HFD for 13 weeks exhibit a dose-dependent decline in systemic glucose tolerance. This was accompanied by a decline in femoral muscle insulin response in the basal state but not the insulin-stimulated state. Muscle triglycerides were significantly high in all surgery groups. Other contributing factors were eliminated, including circulating factors, adipocyte distribution and compensation, or liver triglycerides. Therefore, we have demonstrated a dose-response effect of progressive SAT removal on glucose intolerance and basal muscle insulin insensitivity. In addition to metabolic outcomes, we seek to identify a lipid signature that is linked to diet-induced impairments in glucose tolerance. Liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LCMS) were used to identify differential diet patterns of lipid species between CHOW and HFD. Mice that did not have fat removed and were fed a healthy chow diet have intramuscular triglycerides that are consistent with longer chain fatty acids (more carbons) and a higher degree of unsaturation (less hydrogens). They also have high abundance of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylinositol. Diet-induced obesity is associated with femoral muscle lipids that include diacylglycerides and sphingomyelin. Overall, when examining the total lipid profile in muscle, healthy fats were more influential than unhealthy ones. In summary, inhibition of adipocyte proliferation results in glucose intolerance following intra-abdominal fat removal. Progressive subcutaneous fat removal results in a dose-dependent deterioration of systemic and muscle glucose homeostasis. Thus, peripheral fat does indeed serve as a "metabolic sink" that sequesters excess energy and preserves metabolic regulation. Muscle lipid accumulation per se is not detrimental to health, but the types of lipids that are stored should be considered.