The annual scientific conference of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand was held virtually on the 2nd and 3rd December 2021. The aim of the annual conference is to foster discussion and disseminate the results of nutrition-related research. The conference also provides an opportunity for those working in practice to share their experiences and keep up to date with scientific advancements. The theme of the conference was ‘Reconnecting – Tūhono’. One hundred and sixty-nine delegates attended over the two days. The programme comprised five plenary sessions, five concurrent oral sessions, and twenty-three short, prerecorded videos, with the latter serving as a replacement for the traditional poster format. Highlights of the five plenary sessions included presentations on food sovereignty by Dr Bevan Eruti and Christina McKerchar; women’s health by Dr Megan Ogilvie and Dane Baker; sustainable diets by Dr Brent Clothier, Dr Nick Smith, and Dr Cristina Cleghorn; healthy environments for children by Jasmin Jackson; and the gut–brain axis and future foods by Dr Pramod Gopal, Tracey Bear, and Dr Jocelyn Eason. The Muriel Bell Lecture entitled ‘Lick the plate clean: the intersection of food, nutrition, and waste’ was presented by Professor Sheila Skeaff of the Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago.

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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become an enormous worldwide health problem, both in developed and less developed countries. The incidence and prevalence of CKD is high, and is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Of note, CKD is the 12th most common primary cause of death, accounting for about 1 million deaths per year worldwide. CKD and end-stage renal disease are characterized by the progressive development of a series of complications, such as anemia, hyperkalemia, hypervolemia, mineral and bone disorders (CKD-MBD), metabolic acidosis, hyperuricemia and wasting; all of these complications have been shown to be associated with adverse outcomes, and can contribute either individually or in association to the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality observed in CKD. While at this time CKD progression is not treated with high efficacy, new biomarkers of kidney fibrosis have become available in recent years and new treatments for kidney fibrosis and cell loss could become soon available. In addition recent progress in our understanding of CKD pathophysiology together with the development of novel therapeutic agents has led to a renewed attention on the treatment of CKD–associated metabolic complications which are now are amenable to therapeutic interventions. All these important issues are addressed in this volume.

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This reprint focuses on the current progress in sports medicine, with a specific interest in surgery, exercise therapy, and multi-disciplinary research. With the advancement of society, more attention is paid to the quality of life, which emphasizes the importance of sports and exercise. Correspondingly, there is a great need for sports medicine. This issue collected novel findings on sports medicine in surgery, conservative therapy, and the application of exercise training in other disorders

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Complexity is a ubiquitous phenomenon in physiology that allows living systems to adapt to external perturbations. Fractal structures, self-organization, nonlinearity, interactions at different scales, and interconnections among systems through anatomical and functional networks, may originate complexity. Biomedical signals from physiological systems may carry information about the system complexity useful to identify physiological states, monitor health, and predict pathological events. Therefore, complexity analysis of biomedical signals is a rapidly evolving field aimed at extracting information on the physiological systems. This book consists of 16 contributions from authors with a strong scientific background in biomedical signals analysis. It includes reviews on the state-of-the-art of complexity studies in specific medical applications, new methods to improve complexity quantifiers, and novel complexity analyses in physiological or clinical scenarios. It presents a wide spectrum of methods investigating the entropic properties, multifractal structure, self-organized criticality, and information dynamics of biomedical signals touching upon three physiological areas: the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, the heart-brain interactions. The book is aimed at experienced researchers in signal analysis and presents the latest trends in the complexity methods in physiology and medicine with the hope of inspiring future works advancing this fascinating area of research.

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This Special Issue invites contributions that explore cutting-edge research in bioelectronics and wearable devices, particularly in works that push the boundaries in collecting physiological signals, which can be pivotal for health assessment and disease diagnosis. This publication aims to spotlight innovative developments that promise to revolutionize personalized healthcare through state-of-the-art technological integration.

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The concept of mechanism in biology has three distinct meanings. It may refer to a philosophical thesis about the nature of life and biology, to the internal workings of a machine-like structure, or to the causal explanation of a particular phenomenon. In this Special Issue, we try to discuss these possible biological mechanisms that underlie the beneficial effects of physical fitness and sports performance, as well their importance and role/influences on physical health.Despite the significant body of knowledge regarding the physiological and physical effects of different training methods (based on dimensions of load), some of the biological causes for those changes are still unknown. Additionally, few studies have focused on the natural biological variability in humans and how specific properties of humans may justify different effects for the same training intervention. Thus, more original research is needed to provide plausible biological mechanisms that may explain the physiological and physical effects of exercise and training in humans.In this Special Issue, we gather the contributions that describe and list the links between physical fitness, sports performance, and human biology.

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Calcium is the main mineral in the body, involved in a variety of structural and functional roles. The maintenance of calcium homeostasis is perhaps the most studied function of vitamin D. This Special Issue of Nutrients, “Calcium, Vitamin D and Health” contains 12 original publications and two reviews investigating the contribution of (mainly) vitamin D and calcium on relevant health outcomes in a variety of populations, which reflect the evolving and broad interest of researchers on this topic.

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This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to be the leading cause of mortality worldwide, with an estimated 17.9 million deaths in 2019, representing 32% of all global deaths. Heart attacks and strokes accounted for approximately 85% of these fatalities The prevalence of CVDs is worsened by metabolic diseases, particularly diabetes, which affects about 422 million people globally, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, and causes 1.5 million deaths annually. Early detection and intervention of CVDs and metabolic diseases are crucial, as many cases can be prevented by addressing modifiable behavioral risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and harmful alcohol consumption. Significant advancements in treatment, from pharmacological developments to both invasive and non-invasive techniques, are continuously being made. Given the complexity and clinical significance of this topic, Biomedicines is proud to present a Special Issue titled "Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease: New Treatments and Future Directions 2.0". This issue aims to compile contemporary scientific information on emerging treatments for CVDs and metabolic diseases. They provide valuable insights to the field and enhance our understanding of these interconnected health challenges.

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This reprint provides insights into the cardiovascular risk landscape, emphasizing the impact of major risk factors and their interaction with the cardiovascular system. In this Special Issue, the role of other less established risk factors such as uric acid, sleep disorders, or blood pressure variability has been taken into consideration. Evidence-based strategies to prevent the detrimental consequences of these risk factors have been focused on in this Special Issue, with particular emphasis on glycemic control, lipid management, hypertension diagnosis, blood pressure regulation, and implementation of lifestyle modifications. By implementing the most modern strategies and fostering collaboration across disciplines, we can reduce the cardiovascular risk, thereby avoiding adverse outcomes.

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In the ancient past, cocoa has been appreciated as a high-calorie food to boost energy in soldiers and for its undefined medicinal and mystical properties. During other times, chocolate has been considered as the forbidden “food of God”: a treasure of pleasure for the mind and the soul. The overall perception of the consumer for chocolate was of a “charming” and appealing food with lots of negative aspects related to high sugar content leading to consider chocolate as “junk food” for its “obesigen” calories. Recently, in association with the renewed interest of nutrition science in alternative source of health-promoting foods and ingredients, a large body of research has been conducted to unravel the pro and cons of cocoa in relation to human health. Epidemiological evidences indicate that cocoa consumption helps preventing cardiovascular disease for its high content in bioactive flavonoids. Clinical trials show that chocolate consumption might improve vascular function, decreasing platelet aggregation and display an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. The putative protective action of cocoa seems to be multi-factorial and involving different aspects of vascular, antioxidant and endothelial function. However, the mechanism(s) that account for the benefits of cocoa it is still unclear.The aim of this Research Topic is therefore to provide the reader with an objective picture of the state of art on the association between cocoa and health, mainly through the evidences of human trials; overwhelmingly considered the golden standard for nutritional science. The Research Topic will cover the analysis of the manufacturing processes of the chocolate and the antioxidant effects in humans as well as the majority of the putative health effects of chocolate and cocoa, such as anti-inflammatory properties, effect on immunity, platelet aggregation, blood pressure, endothelial function and cognitive behavior. Unraveling the functional properties of cocoa will help to understand if the 'food of God' is a primordial gift for the health of mankind.

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When the domestic government, the private sector, and people in various professional fields talk about long-term care issues, they all focus on creating a warm and home-like care institution. However, we actively emphasize the importance of community-based long-term care. For “aging in place”, the development of domestic non-institutional care is still in its infancy, and some long-term care needs must still be met through institutional care, and the facilitation of the extension or outreach of community-based care and respite service platforms for the development of community-based long-term care still rely on institutional care. The history of the development of long-term care in Taiwan is much shorter than that of Japan, Europe, the United States, and Canada. Despite years of hard work and rapid development, the long-term care resources needed to establish a complete system in terms of universalization, fairness, accessibility, and selectivity are not available. In the future, based on the soundness of institutional care, it hoped that outreach will move toward the goals of community care and aging in place. We hope the studies in this Special Issue will help further develop clinical medicine for healthcare and stainability.

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In recent years, artificial intelligence has increasingly been playing an essential role in diverse areas in medicine, assisting clinicians in patient management. In nephrology and transplantation, artificial intelligence can be utilized to enhance clinical care, such as through hemodialysis prescriptions and the follow-up of kidney transplant patients. Furthermore, there are rapidly expanding applications and validations of comprehensive, computerized medical records and related databases, including national registries, health insurance, and drug prescriptions. For this Special Issue, we made a call to action to stimulate researchers and clinicians to submit their invaluable works and present, here, a collection of articles covering original clinical research (single- or multi-center), database studies from registries, meta-analyses, and artificial intelligence research in nephrology including acute kidney injury, electrolytes and acid–base, chronic kidney disease, glomerular disease, dialysis, and transplantation that will provide additional knowledge and skills in the field of nephrology and transplantation toward improving patient outcomes.

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This book entitled “Cocoa, Chocolate, and Human Health” presents the most recent findings about cocoa and health in 14 peer-reviewed chapters including nine original contributions and five reviews from cocoa experts around the world. Bioavailability and metabolism of the main cocoa polyphenols, i.e., the flavanols like epicatechin, are presented including metabolites like valerolactones that are formed by the gut microbiome. Many studies, including intervention studies or epidemiological observations, do not focus on single compounds, but on cocoa as a whole. This proves the effectiveness of cocoa as a functional food. A positive influence of cocoa on hearing problems, exercise performance, and metabolic syndrome is discussed with mixed results; the results about exercise performance are contradictive. Evidence shows that cocoa flavanols may modulate some risk factors related to metabolic syndrome such as hypertension and disorders in glucose and lipid metabolism. However, several cardiometabolic parameters in type 2 diabetics were not affected by a flavanol-rich cocoa powder as simultaneous treatment with pharmaceuticals might have negated the effect of cocoa. The putative health-promoting components of cocoa are altered during processing like fermentation, drying, and roasting of cocoa beans. Chocolate, the most popular cocoa product, shows remarkable losses in polyphenols and vitamin E during 18 months of storage.

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It is a great pleasure to provide you this Special Issue of Nutrients related to the 5th International Conference “Vitamin D—Minimum, Maximum, Optimum”, under the auspices of the European Vitamin D Association (EVIDAS). The conference and the forthcoming papers serve as an international forum for the presentation and discussion of current basic and clinical research in the field of vitamin D. Organizing this subsequent Special Issue was truly challenging, given that vitamin D has recently been shown by prestigious medical journals to be an epiphenomenon that coincides with diseases, and that the correction of vitamin D deficits has limited clinical meaning. On the other hand, it was recognized that vitamin D deficiency is a global health problem with potential negative consequences on health, welfare, and morbidity during growth and adulthood, therefore influencing healthcare services worldwide. Thus, due to mutually exclusive conclusions, it was essential to discuss and share scientific reports and evidence demonstrating both the benefits and lack thereof in relation to human health. Prof. Dr. Pawel Pludowski Guest Editor

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This Special Issue of Nutrients, entitled "DHA for Optimal Health", consists of evidence-based original research or reviews of the scientific literature. Manuscripts focus on the evidence that underpins dietary requirements throughout the lifespan (from in-utero to the elderly) for optimal brain function and/or prevention (or treatment) of disease.

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This reprint focuses on exercise and physical activity research among people living with diabetes and covers a broad overview of exercise-related topics. These range from short-term effects of exercise and using daily activity measurements as vital signs in diabetes care centers to the health and fitness benefits of resistance and aerobic exercise training of all kinds, exercise prescription as a form of complementary medicine, as well as the challenges faced by children and/or adults regarding exercise programming at the community level. The goal was to cover a broad range of diabetes research, including all forms of diabetes mellitus across all life spans.

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Cardiometabolic risk factors and type 2 diabetes are the largest contributors to the global disease burden and disease-related mortality. Visceral obesity drives the progression of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors and type 2 diabetes, and behavioral lifestyle weight loss interventions are important strategies for the prevention of these metabolic alterations. Despite the consistent evidence that the greater the body weight loss, the greater the preventive effect on cardiometabolic risk factors or diabetes, too radical strategies might be unfeasible on a large scale, and the long-term maintenance of weight reduction following restricted calorie diets represents a major challenge. Changes in diet composition acting on nutrient quality independently of changes in energy intake may be effective in cardiometabolic and diabetes risk prevention, offering a more feasible and safe alternative treatment to energy restriction. The aim of the present Special Issue is to summarize recent evidence on "Diet Quality and Risk of Cardiometabolic and Diabetes". More specifically, the impact of diet quality in terms of micro- or macronutrient composition, beyond the effect of diet restriction, on the prevention of cardiometabolic and diabetes risk as well as diabetes management, will be discussed. Personalized quality dietary interventions for cardiometabolic health and diabetes prevention, as well as possible underlying mechanisms, will also be addressed in this Special Issue.

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In recent years, diet- and lifestyle-related disorders have become a major health threat in Europe and worldwide. The contributions in this monograph include 2 review articles and 19 original contributions from several countries that provide new information on the existing research elucidating important aspects of children’s and adolescents’ nutrition and lifestyle behavior. The data included in this Special Issue are from large epidemiological studies, including several multicenter and multinational studies, as well as datasets from surveillance initiatives. The topics of interest of this Special Issue include the co-occurrence of multiple health behaviors in children, the role of parenting and early feeding practices, dairy consumption in childhood, validity of dietary intake data, dietary supplement use in children, as well as socioeconomic disparities and eating culture. The diverse articles in this Special Issue highlight the complexity and extent to which nutrition and physical activity behaviors may influence different health aspects of children and adolescents. As seen by the various findings and recommendations, not only is more work in this area required but the translation of this work to practice and policy is imperative if we are to address the challenges impacting the nutrition, physical activity, and health of young populations.

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Several lines of evidence indicate that healthy diet and exercise can prevent cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer such as colon cancer, and smoking-related cancers. Dietary patterns defined as the quantities, proportions, variety, or combination of different foods and drinks, and the frequency with which they are habitually consumed are also associated with an increased or decreased incidence of chronic diseases. Lately, an association has been found between eating habits, exercise, and psychological and/or mental disorders. This Special Issue of Nutrients, entitled “Dietary Habits, Beneficial Exercise, and Chronic Diseases: Latest Advances and Prospects”, contains 20 manuscripts, either describing original research or reviewing the scientific literature, focused on the relationship between dietary habits (macronutrients, micronutrients, etc.) and/or exercise with metabolic, cardiovascular, neurological, mental, rheumatic, inflammatory, gastrointestinal, odontostomatological, and other chronic diseases.

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Dietary habits differ from person to person and usually are determined by cultural habits and traditions that determine lifestyles linked to the socio-demographic characteristics associated with ethnicity. It is known that dietary habits, lifestyle and socio-demographic factors impact human health. Eating disorders, increasing consumption of less-healthy foods, lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, along with other factors, increase risk of diseases such as dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and various mental disorders. This reprint entitled “Dietary Influence on Nutritional Epidemiology, Public Health and Our Lifestyle”, addresses the associations between some dietary patterns, lifestyle and socio-demographic factors, analyzed either separately or in combination, with the risk and management of cardiovascular diseases and mental health problems, such as depression and dementia. This reprint includes nine original articles and one systematic review.

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Metabolic syndrome is defined by a cluster of interrelated cardiovascular risk factors (hyperglycemia, hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and central adiposity), linked to a chronic, systemic, and low-grade inflammation, which severely increases the risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A growing body of evidence generated in the last decades has shown that not only the energy balance but also the macro-, micro-, and non-nutrient composition of the diet may influence the onset and progression of metabolic syndrome. However, further research is required to increase our understanding about the contribution of diet to metabolic syndrome prevention.

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Food quality, including dietary quality and diversity, is as essential to human health as air is to human life. In addition, other healthy lifestyle factors, including a healthy body mass index, regular exercise, no smoking, and sufficient sleep duration, are associated with a lower incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases and longer life expectancy. More importantly, maternal healthy lifestyle factors are also associated with a substantially reduced risk of chronic diseases in their offspring. Childhood is a critical period for the development of a healthy lifestyle and the prevention of chronic diseases in adulthood. However, the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing and unhealthy lifestyles are becoming an epidemic, posing a potential future burden of adult chronic disease. The aim of this Special Issue is to identify and assess dietary factors, including dietary diversity and specific nutrients/phytochemicals, as well as other healthy lifestyle factors, in the prevention and management of childhood chronic diseases. Additionally, we want to identify gaps and tools that could help with the assessment of children’s health. We wanted to encourage all researchers who work in this field to submit original research, reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses to this Special Issue to broaden our knowledge and pave the way for new research directions.

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Dyslipidemia, and particularly hypercholesterolemia, remains a main cardiovascular disease risk factor, partly reversible with the improvement of life-style, including dietary, habits. Even when a pharmacological treatment is begun, dietary support to lipid-lowering is always desired. This book will provide a selection of new evidence on the possible lipid-lowering effects of some dietary and medicinal plant components, reporting some interesting reviews, experimental data and results from clinical trials. The book is adapted for experts in nutrition but also for all scientists involved in cardiovascular disease prevention.

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