Category: Diet and Nutrition

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Intermittent Fasting could be Unsafe for Teenagers

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A recent study reveals that age plays a significant role in the outcomes of intermittent fasting. Researchers from Technical University of Munich (TUM), LMU Hospital Munich, and Helmholtz Munich discovered that chronic intermittent fasting disrupted the development of insulin-producing beta cells in young mice. The findings, published in Cell Reports, raise concerns about potential risks for humans, especially teenagers.

“Intermittent fasting is known to have benefits, including boosting metabolism and helping with weight loss and heart disease. But until now, its potential side effects weren’t well understood,” says Alexander Bartelt, the Else Kröner Fresenius Professor and Chair of Translational Nutritional Medicine at TUM. In a recently published study, the team shows that intermittent fasting during adolescence could have long-term negative effects on metabolism.

Fasting improves metabolism in older mice, but not in the young

The researchers studied three groups of mice: adolescent, adult, and older animals. The mice remained without food for one day and were fed normally on two days. After ten weeks, insulin sensitivity improved in both the adult and older mice, meaning that their metabolism responded better to insulin produced by the pancreas. This is key to regulating blood sugar levels and preventing conditions like type 2 diabetes.

However, the adolescent mice showed a troubling decline in their beta cell function, the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Insufficient insulin production is linked to diabetes and disrupted metabolism. “Intermittent fasting is usually thought to benefit beta cells, so we were surprised to find that young mice produced less insulin after the extended fasting,” explains Leonardo Matta from Helmholtz Munich, one of the study’s lead authors.

Defective beta cells resemble those of type 1 diabetes patients

The researchers used the latest single-cell sequencing to uncover the cause of the beta cell impairment. By examining the blueprint of the pancreas, the team found that the beta cells in the younger mice failed to mature properly. “At some point, the cells in the adolescent mice stopped developing and produced less insulin,” says Peter Weber from Helmholtz Munich, also a lead author. Older mice, whose beta cells were already mature before the fasting began, remained unaffected.

This shows an accumulation of beta cells from the pancreas of an older mouse.
Beta cells from an older mouse.

The team compared their mouse findings to data from human tissues. They found that patients with type 1 diabetes, where beta cells are destroyed by an autoimmune response, showed similar signs of impaired cell maturation. This suggests that the findings from the mouse study could also be relevant to humans.

“Our study confirms that intermittent fasting is beneficial for adults, but it might come with risks for children and teenagers,” says Stephan Herzig, a professor at TUM and director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer at Helmholtz Munich. “The next step is digging deeper into the molecular mechanisms underlying these observations. If we better understand how to promote healthy beta cell development, it will open new avenues for treating diabetes by restoring insulin production.”

Source: Technical University of Munich (TUM)

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Calorie Labels on Menus could Make Eating Disorders Worse

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Calorie labels on restaurant menus are negatively impacting people with eating disorders, according to a new study published in the BMJ Public Health.

The review, which is the first of its kind, is led by researchers at King’s College London. It found that individuals who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder changed their behaviours if presented with a menu featuring calorie labels.

This included avoiding restaurants, triggering eating disorder thoughts and paying more attention to calorie labels as identified by eye tracking research.

The research found that some people with eating disorders reported that seeing menu labels reinforced their eating disorder beliefs.

The study evaluated existing research to help build a picture of how nutritional labels on menus impact people with a lived experience of eating disorders or disordered eating. It reviewed 16 studies from the UK, US, Canada and Saudi Arabia which included 8,074 participants in total.

The study highlights that people with eating disorders can feel that eating disorders are perceived as less important in the light of obesity prevention policies.

However, physical health cannot be measured by a single indicator such as weight. Some argue that calorie labels can be seen as a blunt instrument to fix a complicated problem and that people with eating disorders could be losing out.

Food labelling came into force in England in 2022. Restaurants, take-aways and cafes with 250 employees or more must display the calories of the food and drink they sell on menus, online menus and take-away platforms. The measure was an attempt to curb rising obesity levels. The United States and Canada have also made calorie displays mandatory, however, few policies targeting obesity have considered the potential impact on eating disorders.

The eating disorder charity Beat estimates that at least 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder. The number of people admitted to hospital with an eating disorder has risen approximately 7% each year since 2005 – 2006.

Senior author Dr Tom Jewell, Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at King’s College London, said: “Our study highlights that people with lived experience of eating disorders are frustrated at being left out of the conversation around calorie labels.”

Striking a balance between the positive and harmful impacts of calorie labels on menus is vital in any public health policies.Dr Tom Jewell, Senior author and Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at King’s College London

“Policymakers should consider the impact on both obesity and eating disorders when making decisions about nutrition labelling. A recent review found that calorie labelling has a modest effect on people’s behaviour but this needs to be counterbalanced with the potential harm it does for people with eating disorders.”

Co-author Dr Nora Trompeter, Research Fellow University College London, said: “Our study provides an important addition to the evidence base around calorie labels.”

Typically, there is a lot of focus on whether policies are effective in reducing obesity, but it is also critical to investigate whether these policies inadvertently harm people with eating disorders.

“Our review also shows that more research is needed to fully understand the impact of calorie labels on individuals with eating disorders. For example, none of the studies included young people.”

Source: King’s College London

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‘Healthy’ Vitamin B12 Levels not Enough to Ward off Neuro Decline

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Meeting the minimum requirement for vitamin B12, needed to make DNA, red blood cells and nerve tissue, may not actually be enough – particularly if for older adults. It may even put them at risk for cognitive impairment, according to a study published in Annals of Neurology.

The research found that older, healthy volunteers, with lower concentrations of B12, but still in the normal range, showed signs of neurological and cognitive deficiency. These levels were associated with more damage to the brain’s white matter – the nerve fibres that enable communication between areas of the brain – and test scores associated with slower cognitive and visual processing speeds, compared to those with higher B12.

The UC San Francisco researchers, led by senior author Ari J. Green, MD, of the Departments of Neurology and Ophthalmology and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences, said that the results raise questions about current B12 requirements and suggest the recommendations need updating.

“Previous studies that defined healthy amounts of B12 may have missed subtle functional manifestations of high or low levels that can affect people without causing overt symptoms,” said Green, noting that clear deficiencies of the vitamin are commonly associated with a type of anaemia. “Revisiting the definition of B12 deficiency to incorporate functional biomarkers could lead to earlier intervention and prevention of cognitive decline.”

Lower B12 correlates with slower processing speeds, brain lesions

In the study, researchers enrolled 231 healthy participants without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, whose average age was 71. They were recruited through the Brain Aging Network for Cognitive Health (BrANCH) study at UCSF.

Their blood B12 amounts averaged 414.8pmol/L, well above the U.S. minimum of 148pmol/L. Adjusted for factors like age, sex, education and cardiovascular risks, researchers looked at the biologically active component of B12, which provides a more accurate measure of the amount of the vitamin that the body can utilize. In cognitive testing, participants with lower active B12 were found to have slower processing speed, relating to subtle cognitive decline. Its impact was amplified by older age. They also showed significant delays responding to visual stimuli, indicating slower visual processing speeds and general slower brain conductivity.

MRIs revealed a higher volume of lesions in the participants’ white matter, which may be associated with cognitive decline, dementia or stroke.

While the study volunteers were older adults, who may have a specific vulnerability to lower levels of B12, co-first author Alexandra Beaudry-Richard, MSc, said that these lower levels could “impact cognition to a greater extent than what we previously thought, and may affect a much larger proportion of the population than we realize.” Beaudry-Richard is currently completing her doctorate in research and medicine at the UCSF Department of Neurology and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa.

“In addition to redefining B12 deficiency, clinicians should consider supplementation in older patients with neurological symptoms even if their levels are within normal limits,” she said. “Ultimately, we need to invest in more research about the underlying biology of B12 insufficiency, since it may be a preventable cause of cognitive decline.”

Source: University of California – San Francisco

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Myth busted: Healthy Habits Take Longer than 21 Days to Set in

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Forming a healthy habit can take longer than you expect. In the first systematic review of its kind, University of South Australia researchers found that new habits can begin forming within about two months (median of 59-66 days) but can take up to 335 days to establish.

It’s an important finding that could inform health interventions to promote healthy behaviours and prevent chronic disease.

Many conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, lung diseases and stroke, can be prevented by changing unhealthy habits or lifestyle factors. University of South Australia researcher, Dr Ben Singh, says that contrary to popular belief, healthy habits take far longer than three weeks to lock down.

“Adopting healthy habits is essential for long-term well-being but forming these habits – and breaking unhealthy ones – can be challenging,” Dr Singh says.

“At the beginning of the year, many of us are setting goals and making plans for the months ahead –things like being more active, cutting back on sugar, or making healthier food choices – but while common wisdom suggests that it takes just 21 days to form such habits, these claims are not evidence-based.

“In our research, we’ve found that habit formation starts within around two months, but there is significant variability, with formation times ranging from four days to nearly a year.

“So, it’s important for people who are hoping to make healthier habits not to give up at that mythical three-week mark.”

The study of more than 2600 participants also found that certain factors can influence successful habit formation.

“When trying to establish a new healthy habit, success can be influenced by a range of things including how frequently we undertake the new activity, the timing of the practice, and whether we enjoy it or not,” Dr Singh says.

“If you add a new practice to your morning routine, the data shows that you’re more likely to achieve it. You’re also more likely to stick to a new habit if you enjoy it.

“Planning and intending to complete a new behaviour can also help solidify a new habit, so make sure you continue to make time to include your new healthy habits into your everyday activities. This could be as easy as laying out your gym clothes the night before a morning walk or having a healthy lunch ready to go in the fridge.

“Tailoring habit-building strategies into our day and making plans on how we can achieve them, will put you in a position for success.”

While more research is needed, researchers say that these findings can guide public health initiatives and personalised programs that support sustained and healthy behaviour change.

Source: University of South Australia

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Slow Traffic Pushes Commuters to Choose Fast Food

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Ever notice how much more tempting it is to pick up fast food for dinner after being stuck in traffic? It’s not just you. New research shows that traffic delays significantly increase visits to fast food restaurants, leading to unhealthier eating.

“In our analysis focusing on Los Angeles County, unexpected traffic delays beyond the usual congestion led to a 1% increase in fast food visits. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s equivalent to 1.2 million more fast food visits per year in LA County alone. We describe our results as being modest but meaningful in terms of potential for changing unhealthy food choices,” said study author Becca Taylor, assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Taylor and her co-authors had access to more than two years’ of daily highway traffic patterns in Los Angeles, along with data showing how many cell phone users entered fast-food restaurants in the same time period.

With these data, the team created a computational model showing a causal link between unexpected traffic slow-downs and fast food visits. This pattern held at various time scales, including 24-hour cycles and by the hour throughout a given day. When analysed by the day, traffic delays of just 30 seconds per mile were enough to spike fast-food visits by 1%.

“It might not be intuitive to imagine what a 30-second delay per mile feels like,” Taylor said. “I think of it as the difference between 10a.m. traffic and 5p.m. traffic.”

When the researchers broke the day into hour-long segments, they found a significantly greater number of fast food visits when traffic delays hit during the evening rush hour. At the same time, grocery store visits declined slightly.

“If there’s traffic between 5 and 7p.m., which happens to be right around the evening meal time, we see an increase in fast food visits,” Taylor said.

“Drivers have to make a decision about whether to go home and cook something, stop at the grocery store first, or just get fast food.”

Considering every major city has both traffic and fast food restaurants lining highway feeder roads, it’s not a stretch to extrapolate the pattern beyond Los Angeles.

Taylor and her co-authors say the link between traffic and unhealthy food choices is just one more reason policymakers around the country and the globe should prioritize infrastructure reforms to ease congestion.

“Our results contribute to the literature suggesting time constraints are really important to the food choices people make. Any policies aimed at loosening time constraints – and traffic is essentially lost time – could help battle unhealthy eating,” Taylor said. “That could mean improvements in infrastructure to mitigate traffic congestion, expanding public transport availability, and potentially increasing work from home opportunities.”

Source: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

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The Importance of Vitamin D during First Trimester

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Low vitamin D levels in the first trimester of pregnancy are associated with higher rates of preterm birth and decreased foetal length, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences. This research provides evidence that early pregnancy or even preconception may represent critical time points for intervening with women who have low vitamin D status, to optimise pregnancy outcomes.

Celeste Beck, who earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2023, and Alison Gernand, Beck’s doctoral adviser and associate professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, led the study. Their results were recently published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“More than 25% of women who are pregnant or lactating have lower than recommended levels of vitamin D,” Gernand said, explaining that prior research has demonstrated the effect of vitamin D on foetal skeletal growth, maternal immune function at the foetal interface, and the development of the placenta in pregnant women. “A lot of the development early in pregnancy requires vitamin D, so we conducted this study to better understand how early-pregnancy vitamin D status is related to pregnancy outcomes.”

Most prior studies on vitamin D status in pregnant women have measured vitamin D concentrations starting in the second trimester or later, the researchers said. The researchers said this study, to their knowledge, is the first to examine both first and second trimester maternal vitamin D status in relation to longitudinal foetal growth and pregnancy outcomes.

The researchers at Penn State partnered with colleagues at the University of Utah to test blood samples from 351 women collected as part of the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and recruited pregnant women across the United States between 2010 and 2013.

According to the Institute of Medicine, less than 50nmol/L represents an insufficiency of vitamin D. When the researchers compared outcomes for women with vitamin D insufficiency (less than 50nmol/L) to women with sufficient vitamin D (more than or equal to 50nmol/L), they found no statistical differences in pregnancy outcomes. However, when the researchers compared pregnancy outcomes across a wider range of vitamin D concentrations, they found that pregnant women with first trimester vitamin D concentrations lower than 40 nmol/L were four times more likely to experience a preterm birth compared to women with vitamin D concentrations more than or equal to 80nmol/L.

Despite the higher risk of preterm birth in women with low vitamin D status, the researchers cautioned that these results were based on a very low number of preterm births in this study and recommend that additional, larger studies be conducted.

The researchers also observed an association between first-trimester vitamin D concentrations and certain foetal growth patterns. Women with higher levels of vitamin D experienced a small but statistically significant increase in foetal length.

Source: Penn State

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A ‘Non-industrialised’ Style Diet can Reduce Risk of Chronic Disease

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Researchers have found that a newly developed diet inspired by the eating habits of non-industrialised societies can significantly reduce the risk of a number of chronic diseases typical of processed, low-fibre industrialised diets – and are to share recipes with the public.

Their paper, published in Cell, shows that a newly developed diet that mimics eating habits in non-industrialised communities led to significant metabolic and immunological improvements in a human intervention study. In just three weeks the diet:

  • Promoted weight loss
  • Decreased bad cholesterol by 17%
  • Reduced blood sugar by 6%
  • Reduced C-reactive Protein (a marker of inflammation and heart disease) by 14%

These improvements were linked to beneficial changes in the participants’ gut microbiome, the home to trillions of bacteria that play a vital role in our health, influencing digestion, immunity, and metabolism. The research was conducted by an international teams of scientists led by Professor Jens Walter, a leading scientist at University College Cork. The human trial was performed at the University of Alberta in Canada, Prof Walter’s previous institution.

“Industrialisation has drastically impacted our gut microbiome, likely increasing the risk of chronic diseases.” explained Prof Walter, who is also a Principal Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland, a world-renowned Research Ireland centre

“To counter this, we developed a diet that mimics traditional, non-industrialised dietary habits and is compatible with our understanding on diet-microbiome interactions. In a strictly controlled human trial, participants followed this diet and consumed L. reuteri, a beneficial bacterium prevalent in the gut of Papua New Guineans but rarely found in the industrialised microbiomes.”

The study demonstrated that the new diet entitled NiMeTM (Non-industrialised Microbiome Restore) diet enhanced short-term persistence of L. reuteri in the gut.

However it also improved microbiome features damaged by industrialisation, such as reducing pro-inflammatory bacteria and bacterial genes that degrade the mucus layer in the gut. These changes were linked to improvements in cardiometabolic markers of chronic disease risk.

Although participants did not consume fewer calories on the NiMe diet, they lost weight, and the diet alone led to considerable cardiometabolic benefits.

In previous research, Prof Walter’s team, studying the gut microbiome in rural Papua New Guinea, found that individuals there have a much more diverse microbiome, enriched in bacteria that thrive from dietary fibre, and with lower levels of pro-inflammatory bacteria linked to western diet. This information was used to design the NiMeTM diet.

The NiMeTM diet shares key characteristics of non-industrialised diets:

  • Plant-based focus, but not vegetarian: Primarily made up of vegetables, legumes, and other whole-plant foods. One small serving of animal protein per day (salmon, chicken, or pork).
  • No dairy, beef, or wheat: Excluded simply because they are not part of the traditional foods consumed by rural Papua New Guineans.
  • Very low in processed foods that are high in sugar and saturated fat.
  • Fibre-rich: Fibre content was 22 grams per 1000 calories – exceeding current dietary recommendations.

“Everybody knows that diet influences health, but many underestimate the magnitude”, said Prof. Walter.

Commenting on this study, Prof. Paul Ross, Director of APC Microbiome Ireland, said: “This study shows that we can target the gut microbiome through specific diets to improve health and reduce disease risk. These findings could shape future dietary guidelines and inspire the development of new food products and ingredients, as well as therapeutics, which target the microbiome”.

“The recipes from the NiMe Diet will be posted to our Instagram ( @nimediet ) and Facebook pages, and they will also be included in an online cookbook soon. It is important to us to make these recipes freely available so that everyone can enjoy them and improve their health by feeding their gut microbiome,” said Dr Anissa Armet from the University of Alberta, a registered dietitian that designed the NiMe diet and one of the lead authors of the publication.

Source: University College Cork

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In Obesity or Not, Individuals Prefer High-calorie Food

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Calorie content drives food preference despite similar taste in individuals with and without obesity

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Higher calorie foods were preferred among individuals with and without obesity despite similar taste and texture, according to a study published December 17th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Albino Oliveira-Maia from the Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal, and colleagues.

Eating sends signals to the brain with information about a food’s energy content, which can influence food preferences irrespective of flavor. People with obesity often have impairments in areas of the brain where dopamine is released, which may drive reward-related eating and a preference for energy-dense foods rich in fat and sugars. Weight loss due to bariatric surgery has been associated to a normalization of reward-related eating with a shift of preferences toward healthier options, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood.

In this study, after examining a large group of healthy volunteers, researchers compared food preferences in three groups: 11 individuals with obesity, 23 post-bariatric surgery patients, and 27 non-obese control subjects. They gave participants sweetened low-fat yogurt with and without maltodextrin (a carbohydrate that adds calories to the yogurt with no impact on taste or texture). Participants ate the yogurt at home, alternating between the maltodextrin-containing and -free yogurt. All three groups ate more of the maltodextrin-containing yogurt, despite rating both as equally pleasant. Somewhat unexpectedly, the effects of maltodextrin on yogurt consumption were similar in individuals with obesity relative to their non-obese counterparts.

The study also used radioactive iodine labelling and single photon emission computed tomography to visualise dopamine receptors in the brain. Consistent with previous studies, individuals with obesity had lower dopamine receptor availability than non-obese controls. Dopamine receptor availability was similar in the surgical and non-obese groups and was associated with more restrained eating. These results suggest that obesity-related brain changes can be reversed after bariatric surgery, potentially impacting the amount of food consumed but not necessarily the types of food preferred.

The authors add, “We were very intrigued that, while behaviour was guided towards eating yoghurts with higher energy-content, this did not seem to be a result of explicit choices, since consistent changes in pleasantness of flavours enriched with carbohydrates were not found. Importantly, this behaviour was maintained in patients with obesity and after weight-loss surgery, even though there were important differences in their brain dopaminergic system.”

Provided by PLOS

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Developing a Grapefruit that Won’t Interfere with Medication Levels

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Grapefruit and pummelo contain compounds called furanocoumarins that may affect the blood levels of more than 100 prescription drugs, so that people taking these medications are advised to remove these fruits from their diets. Research published in New Phytologist reveals genetic information about the synthesis of furanocoumarins in different citrus plant tissues and species and provides new insights that could be used to develop grapefruit and pummelo that lack furanocoumarins.

The research indicates that the production of furanocoumarins in citrus fruit is dependent on the integrity of a single gene within a multi-gene cluster that encodes enzymes of the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase family.

“This research helps us to understand why fruit of certain citrus species produce furanocoumarins and demonstrates how breeders and researchers could develop furanocoumarin-free citrus varieties,” said co–corresponding author Yoram Eyal, PhD, of the Volcani Center, in Israel.

Source: Wiley

Categories : Diet and Nutrition VaccinesTags :

Study in SA Children Finds Undernutrition may Weaken Measles Vaccination

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Amid a global surge in measles cases, new research suggests that undernutrition may be exacerbating outbreaks in areas suffering from food insecurity. A study involving over 600 fully vaccinated children in South Africa found those who were undernourished had substantially lower levels of antibodies against measles.

Researchers from McGill University, UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the University of Pretoria tracked the children’s growth over time as an indicator of undernutrition and measured their antibody levels through blood tests. Children who were stunted around age three had an average of 24-per-cent-lower measles antibody levels by age five compared to their typical-sized peers.

The findings, published in Vaccine, suggest that undernutrition may affect the duration of vaccine protection.

This indicates that addressing child hunger could be a key piece of the puzzle in preventing viral outbreaks, said senior author Jonathan Chevrier, an Associate Professor at McGill.

A growing threat worldwide

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that causes symptoms such as a rash, fever and cough, and can lead to severe complications, especially in young children. The disease is a threat in regions where it was once under control, including Canada, which in 2024 reported its highest number of cases in nearly a decade.

“Global measles cases declined from 2000 to 2016, but the trend reversed in 2018, driven in part by under-vaccination and the impact of the pandemic. Measles is now making a strong comeback in many parts of the world despite being preventable with vaccination and adequate immunity,” said co-author Brian Ward, Professor at McGill’s.

“We need to vaccinate children against infectious diseases that are preventable and ensure they are protected,” said first author Brenda Eskenazi, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is especially important now, given that many known diseases are expected to spread with climate change.”

About 22% of children under age five worldwide – approximately 148 million – were stunted in 2022, Chevrier added, with the highest rates in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The team plans to monitor the children in the study as they grow older to understand whether the effects of early-life undernutrition persist.

Source: McGill University