Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc.

Malnutrition and reduced muscle mass have been associated with poor outcomes in many disease conditions including severe inflammatory bowel disease, liver failure and cancers. Studies have shown that use of an amino acid supplement can specifically support muscle and nutritional health of patients with liver cirrhosis and malnutrition in general. The investigators will perform new novel non-invasive measurements of muscle mass and strength as well as inflammatory markers and record food diaries in the investigators patients with inflammatory bowel disease, cirrhosis of the liver and other gastroenterology disease impacting patient nutrition. The investigators hope to determine if of the addition of BCAA in addition to best practice nutrition supports for patients with cirrhosis will improve muscle mass and clinical outcomes in the investigators patient cohort including hospitalization, rate of decompensations, frailty score and quality of life for patients with liver cirrhosis.
The investigators intend to investigate whether immune-metabolic profiles, circulating T-cells and circulating plasma cytokines (Afzal et al, J. Clin. Med. 2020) may act as biomarkers in combination with non-invasive novel markers of muscle mass in patients with chronic gastrointestinal illness, particularly cirrhosis to predict outcomes, and whether implementation of best practice nutritional supports with addition of Amino MP9 supplementation may impact functional outcomes. The immunometabolic profiles of these cohorts in relation to macrophage and T Cell function and differentiation have not been described previously.
The investigators also hope to develop a system facilitating accurate assessments of nutritional status in gastroenterology patients and determine if there is correlation with objective clinical activity measured using endoscopy, faecal calprotectin or radiological evidence of inflammation, currently measured as part of standard practice. Sub-analysis will investigate potential association between longitudinal diet evaluation using EDIP (empirical dietary inflammatory pattern) score and disease activity, clinical remission and response to medical therapy, all influencing quality of life and patient related outcome measures.
A prospective observational analysis of nutritional status and muscle mass or sarcopenia in patients attending gastroenterology services at Beaumont Hospital. Patients will be recruited from Gastroenterology and Hepatology outpatient clinics or inpatient capacity. Controls will be recruited from outpatient setting.

Assess the impact of chronic use of aspartame on glycemia, appetite and body composition.

Prevention of malnutrition in infants and children requires access and intake of nutritious food starting at birth with exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, breastfeeding in combination with complementary foods from 6-24 months of age, access to clean drinking water and sanitation, access to preventive and curative health care (including prenatal).
In Ghana, the Demographic and Health Survey of 2014 reports rates of stunting, wasting and underweight in children aged 0-59 months are 28%, 14% and 9% respectively. Furthermore, height for age starts dropping from age 4-6 months with children aged 6-23 months being more likely to be stunted (40%) than those below 6 months (4%). Infant and young child feeding data show that for breast-fed children ranging from 6 months through 35 months of age, cereals are predominantly the first foods introduced in the diet (6-8 months of age). As the child grows older, consumption of fruits rich in Vitamin A, other fruits and vegetables and meat, fish, poultry and eggs are reported by the mothers. The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found that the proportion of breast fed children aged 6-23 months who received a recommended variety of foods the minimum number of times per day increases with child's age from 28% in children 6-8 months to 50% in children aged 18-23 months.
The study objective is to examine the effect of providing a macro- and micro-nutrient fortified complementary food supplement (KokoPlusTM) on growth and nutritional status of Ghanaian infants.