Weight Loss

Biography

Biography: Vezire Starova

Abstract

Food consumption and nutritional practices are an important part in the religious life for many denominations, including the Orthodox Christianity and Islam, which are dominant in the Republic of Macedonia. Observing religious fasting in the Republic of Macedonia has shown an increasing trend in recent years. 360 respondents from Skopje, observers of the religious fasting rules, categorized in age groups from 15 to 65 years of age, belonging to the Orthodox Christian and Muslim faiths participate in a two-step research during 2015. The research is based on individual surveying, using standardized survey tools containing nutritional/dietary information notes, type and frequency of food utilization (FFQ) and BMI. 24 hours recall survey is used to capture the consumption of macro and micro nutrients in both working and non-working days to monitor and analyze nutritional intake during fasting in terms of various micro and macro nutrients as well as glycemic index. The concluding results will be compared with the recommended nutrient intake annex of the second edition of the World Health Organization’s Vitamin and Mineral Requirements in Human Nutrition publication. The results from the survey will be entered in a database using Statistica 9 software which enables both preliminary and final analysis of the data. The Simplex method for optimizing the data will be used and the numeric calculation of the Simplex method will be conducted using the program language C++. Study results will be used to set-up the recommendations for future health promotion programs and mass media education for healthy nutrition during religious fasting in the country.