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Dietary niacin Intake and its association with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality rates in individuals with metabolic syndrome

Individuals with metabolic syndrome face elevated cardiovascular and mortality risks, and there is ongoing debate regarding the cardiovascular effects of niacin and its impact on the prognosis of metabolic syn...

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Association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among individuals with gout and hyperuricemia

We aimed to probe the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among patients with gout and hyperuricemia (HUA).

Methodology and challenges for harmonization of nutritional data from seven historical studies

Collection of detailed dietary data is labor intensive and expensive, harmonization of existing data sets has been proposed as an effective tool for research questions in which individual studies are underpowered

Associations between dietary total antioxidant capacity and sarcopenia: a cross-sectional study

No study has investigated the relationship between dietary total antioxidant capacity and sarcopenia so far.

Artificially sweetened beverage consumption and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: an updated systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Artificially sweetened beverages (ASB) are consumed globally, but their impact on overall health remains uncertain. We summarized published associations between ASB intake with all-cause and cause-specific mor...

Validation of an web-based dietary assessment tool (RiksmatenFlex) against doubly labelled water and 24 h dietary recalls in pregnant women

Digital technologies have enabled new possibilities to assess dietary intake and have shown promise in terms of decreased participant burden, improved accuracy and lower costs. However, their potential and val...

Disproportionately higher cardiovascular disease risk and incidence with high fructose corn syrup sweetened beverage intake among black young adults–the CARDIA study

The black/white heart disease mortality disparity began increasing in the early 1980’s, coincident with the switch from sucrose to high-fructose-corn-syrup/(HFCS) in the US food supply. There has been more fructo...

Validation of a digital food frequency questionnaire for the Northern Sweden Diet Database

Dietary habits strongly influence health, with poor diets contributing to numerous deaths annually. Addressing this requires improved dietary habits and consistent monitoring thereof. In northern Sweden, a val...

Reply to Ghobadi and Jafari: diet quality in relation to the risk of hypertension among Iranian adults: cross-sectional analysis of Fasa PERSIAN cohort study

Ghobadi and Jafari have mentioned some points about our article titled “Diet quality in relation to the risk of hypertension among Iranian adults: cross-sectional analysis of Fasa PERSIAN cohort study” which w...

The association between serum phosphate and length of hospital stay and all-cause mortality in adult patients: a cross-sectional study

Data is limited on the prevalence of hypophosphatemia in general hospitalized patients, and its association with length of hospital stay (LOS) and mortality remained unclear. We aimed to investigate the preval...

Effects of a cafeteria-based sustainable diet intervention on the adherence to the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet and greenhouse gas emissions of consumers: a quasi-experimental study at a large German hospital

Sustainable diets contribute to improving human health and reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). Here, we established the effects of a facility-based sustainable diet intervention on the adher...

Very high high-density lipoprotein cholesterol may be associated with higher risk of cognitive impairment in older adults

Previous studies have shown that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels are positively associated with cognitive function across a range of concentrations. However, recent studies have suggested t...

Is the frequency of breakfast consumption associated with life satisfaction in children and adolescents? A cross-sectional study with 154,151 participants from 42 countries

The promotion of daily breakfast consumption and the importance of making appropriate breakfast choices have been underscored as significant public health messages. The aim of this study was to examine the rel...

Seafood intake in childhood/adolescence and the risk of obesity: results from a Nationwide Cohort Study

Obesity has been linked to various detrimental health consequences. While there is established evidence of a negative correlation between seafood consumption and obesity in adults, the current research on the ...

Serum levels of vitamin B12 combined with folate and plasma total homocysteine predict ischemic stroke disease: a retrospective case-control study

This study aimed to identify and quantify the association and investigate whether serum vitamin B12 alone or vitamin B12 combined with folate and plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) levels could be used to predic...

Lower energy intake associated with higher risk of cardiovascular mortality in chronic kidney disease patients on a low-protein diets

An increasing number of studies shown that inadequate energy intake causes an increase in adverse incidents in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on low-protein diets (LPD). The study aimed to investigate t...

Experiences participating in federal nutrition assistance programs during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic: an investigation in Vermont

Federal nutrition assistance programs serve as safety nets for many American households, and participation has been linked to increased food security and, in some instances, improved diet quality and mental he...

Brief instruments for measuring nutrition literacy - the Nutrition Health Literacy Scale and the Self-Perceived Food Literacy Scale Short Form

A healthy diet is a critical factor in maintaining long-term health. In addition to a health-promoting food environment, the nutrition health literacy (NHL) and food literacy (FL) of the population are importa...

Adverse events profile associated with intermittent fasting in adults with overweight or obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

There is little evidence to comprehensively summarize the adverse events (AEs) profile of intermittent fasting (IF) despite its widespread use in patients with overweight or obesity.

Differences in the cost and environmental impact between the current diet in Brazil and healthy and sustainable diets: a modeling study

While healthy and sustainable diets benefit human and planetary health, their monetary cost has a direct impact on consumer food choices. This study aimed to identify the cost and environmental impact of the c...

Correlation between serum trimethylamine-N-oxide and body fat distribution in middle-aged and older adults: a prospective cohort study

Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) is linked with obesity, while limited evidence on its relationship with body fat distribution. Herein, we investigated the associations between serum TMAO and longitudinal change ...

Identifying the barriers and facilitators to fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Australian adults: a mixed methods analysis

Low fruit and vegetable consumption is a leading contributor to non-communicable disease risk. However, understanding of barriers and facilitators to fruit and vegetable intake in rural settings is limited. Th...

Dietary choline intake in European and non-european populations: current status and future trends—a narrative review

Choline is a nutrient necessary for the proper functioning of the body with a multidimensional impact on human health. However, comprehensive studies evaluating the dietary intake of choline are limited. The a...

Association of maternal ultra-processed food consumption during pregnancy with atopic dermatitis in infancy: Korean Mothers and Children’s Environmental Health (MOCEH) study

Maternal diet during pregnancy might influence the development of childhood allergic disorders. There are few studies on the association between processed food intake and infant atopic dermatitis (AD) during p...

Assessing the relative validity of a web-based self-administered 24-hour dietary recall in a Canadian adolescent’s population

Healthy eating habits at a young age are crucial to support growth and development and good general health. In this context, monitoring youth dietary intakes adequately with valid tools is important to develop...

Effects of DASH diet with or without time-restricted eating in the management of stage 1 primary hypertension: a randomized controlled trial

Time-restricted eating (TRE), a popular form of intermittent fasting, has shown benefits for improving metabolic diseases and cardiometabolic health. However, the effect of TRE in the regulation of blood press...

A comprehensive approach to lifestyle intervention based on a calorie-restricted diet ameliorates liver fat in overweight/obese patients with NAFLD: a multicenter randomized controlled trial in China

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a globally increasing health epidemic. Lifestyle intervention is recommended as the main therapy for NAFLD. However, the optimal approach is still unclear. This stud...

Fish oil supplementation and risk of incident systemic lupus erythematosus: a large population-based prospective study

Although fish oil has been considered to have an anti-inflammatory effect and has been proven to play a beneficial role in the incidence of numerous diseases, the association between fish oil supplementation a...

Association of weight-adjusted waist index with all-cause mortality among non-Asian individuals: a national population-based cohort study

The Weight-Adjusted Waist Index (WWI) is a new indicator of obesity that is associated with all-cause mortality in Asian populations. Our study aimed to investigate the linear and non-linear associations betwe...

Relationship between sex, APOE genotype, endocannabinoids and cognitive change in older adults with metabolic syndrome during a 3-year Mediterranean diet intervention

The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) has demonstrated efficacy in preventing age-related cognitive decline and modulating plasma concentrations of endocannabinoids (eCBs) and N- acylethanolamines (NAEs, or eCB-like co...

Association between serum vitamin D level and Graves’ disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis aims to analyze the relationship between serum vitamin D (VD) levels and Graves’ disease (GD).

Gardening and subjective cognitive decline: a cross-sectional study and mediation analyses of 136,748 adults aged 45+ years

Given the benefits of gardening for physical and psychological health, we explored whether gardening was associated with lower risks of subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a precursor of dementia, and SCD-rela...

Association between watching eating shows and unhealthy food consumption in Korean adolescents

Eating habits formed during adolescence greatly influence the maintenance of health in adulthood. With the recent development of social media and easy access to the Internet, adolescents watch plenty of food v...

Diet quality from mid to late life and its association with physical frailty in late life in a cohort of Chinese adults

It is unclear if improving diet quality after midlife could reduce the risk of physical frailty at late life. We aimed to associate changes in diet quality after midlife with physical frailty at late life.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and its association with sustainable dietary behaviors, sociodemographic factors, and lifestyle: a cross-sectional study in US University students

Promoting healthy and sustainable diets is increasingly important and the Mediterranean Diet (MD) has been recognized as an appropriate example that can be adapted to different countries. Considering that the ...

Trends in the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from food and beverage purchases in Mexico: 1989–2020

Assessing the trends in dietary GHGE considering the social patterning is critical for understanding the role that food systems have played and will play in global emissions in countries of the global south. O...

Higher oxidative balance score was associated with decreased risk of erectile dysfunction: a population-based study

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a prevalent condition that is thought to be significantly impacted by oxidative stress. The oxidative balance score (OBS) has been built to characterize the state of antioxidant/pr...

Correction: Effect of soy isoflavone supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

The original article was published in Nutrition Journal 2024 23 :32

National trends in nine key minerals intake (quantity and source) among U.S. adults, 1999 to march 2020

Changes in economy and dietary guidelines brought a great shock to diet quality and meal behaviors, but if these transformations have extended to minerals intake and their sources was still poorly understood. ...

Causal relationship of interleukin-6 and its receptor on sarcopenia traits using mendelian randomization

Previous research has extensively examined the role of interleukin 6 (IL-6) in sarcopenia. However, the presence of a causal relationship between IL-6, its receptor (IL-6R), and sarcopenia remains unclear.

Development and application of the Meal and Snack Assessment (MESA) quality scale for children and adolescents using item response theory

Meals differ in terms of food items and nutritional quality. The aim of the present study was to propose a scale to measure the meals quality of schoolchildren according to food processing degree, perform a pr...

Estimating effects of whole grain consumption on type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease: a burden of proof study

Previous studies on whole grain consumption had inconsistent findings and lacked quantitative assessments of evidence quality. Therefore, we aimed to summarize updated findings using the Burden of Proof analys...

Nonlinear relationship between oxidative balance score and hyperuricemia: analyses of NHANES 2007–2018

Limited data regarding the correlation between oxidative balance score (OBS) and hyperuricemia highlights the necessity for thorough investigations. This study aims to examine the link between OBS, which incor...

Effects of whole grains on glycemic control: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials

Whole grains have recently been promoted as beneficial to diabetes prevention. However, the evidence for the glycemic benefits of whole grains seems to conflict between the cohort studies and randomized contro...

Remnant cholesterol is an effective biomarker for predicting survival in patients with breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The relationship between remnant cholesterol (RC) and the prognosis of patients with breast cancer has not been clearly reported. This study inve...

Epidemiological study of pediatric nutritional deficiencies: an analysis from the global burden of disease study 2019

Nutritional deficiencies (ND) continue to threaten the lives of millions of people around the world, with children being the worst hit. Nevertheless, no systematic study of the epidemiological features of chil...

Association between watching eating broadcast “Mukbang and Cookbang” and body mass index status in South Korean adolescents stratified by gender

It has been suggested that Mukbang and Cookbang, a type of eating broadcast originating from Korea and gaining popularity, may contribute to obesity. However, despite suggestions that Mukbang might contribute ...

The global diet quality score as an indicator of adequate nutrient intake and dietary quality – a nation-wide representative study

The Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) was developed to be a simple, timely and cost-effective tool to track, simultaneously, nutritional deficiency and non-communicable disease risks from diet in diverse settin...

Development of a sustainable diet index in US adults

A transformation towards healthy diets through a sustainable food system is essential to enhance both human and planet health. Development of a valid, multidimensional, quantitative index of a sustainable diet...

Maternal vitamin D status and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in twin pregnancies: a longitudinal twin pregnancies birth cohort study

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy, with significant short-term and long-term implications for both mothers and their offspring. Previous studies have indicated the poten...

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Nutrition Journal

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How the Nutrition Facts Label Has Changed Food in the U.S.

Almost all packaged food sold in the U.S. for the past three decades has sported a Nutrition Facts label, with major consequences for the food system

Xaq Frohlich, The Conversation US

Lab-Grown Meat Is Getting Closer to Tasting Like Real Beef

Cultured meat that tastes and smells more appetizing could enhance public perception of artificial steaks

Helena Kudiabor, Nature magazine

Are Ultra-Processed Foods Really all that Unhealthy?

Processed foods have been blamed for many health problems, but dietary research is tricky and nuanced

Amos Zeeberg, OpenMind Magazine

Can You Eat Cicadas? Can Your Dog Do So?

Here’s what a chef, a vet and two anthropologists have to say about eating periodical cicadas

Meghan Bartels

Could Magnesium and TikTok’s ‘Sleepy Girl Mocktail’ Actually Help You Sleep?

TikTok’s “sleepy girl mocktails” remind us how important magnesium is for sleep and health

Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Your Body Has Its Own Built-In Ozempic

Popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, target metabolic pathways that gut microbes and food molecules already play a key role in regulating

Christopher Damman, The Conversation US

Ozempic and Other Weight-Loss Drugs Are Sparking a Risky New War on Obesity

The world has launched into an era of injectables not just to treat obesity but to manage weight. Is that all good news?

Arthur Caplan

How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?

Caffeine can help you feel energized. But is there a limit to how much your body can handle?

Joanna Thompson

We Need to Better Understand Malnutrition-Related Diabetes

Food insecurity saps the health of people and economies worldwide. Addressing it would pay dividends

Jameel Barkat, Amit Sadhukhan

How Do Ultraprocessed Foods Affect Your Health?

Ultraprocessed foods have become a mainstay of modern diets and could be taking a toll on our health

Lori Youmshajekian

How the Daughter of Sharecroppers Revolutionized Preschoolers' Health

Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in nutrition in 1936, showed the importance of good health and developed a program that became the model for Head Start

Carol Sutton Lewis, Danya AbdelHameid, Elah Feder, The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Spicy Food Probably Doesn’t Cause Long-Term Harm

While spicy food can cause pain, it isn’t linked to higher mortality rates

Paul D. Terry, The Conversation US

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• Published: 02 August 2024

Food is brain medicine — relevance and translation to neurology

• Mitchell S. V. Elkind   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2562-1156 1 , 2 , 3 &
• Kevin G. Volpp 1 , 4 , 5 , 6  

Nature Reviews Neurology ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The importance of diet for brain health is increasingly recognized by neurologists, but many neurological disorders impair the ability of individuals to eat healthily. A new initiative known as ‘Food Is Medicine’ has the potential to facilitate healthier eating among people with neurological disorders to improve and maintain brain health.

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Mitchell S. V. Elkind & Kevin G. Volpp

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Mitchell S. V. Elkind

Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

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Elkind, M.S.V., Volpp, K.G. Food is brain medicine — relevance and translation to neurology. Nat Rev Neurol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-024-01003-4

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Changing the Food Environment One Checkout Lane at a Time

• 1 Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• 2 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
• Original Investigation Food Environment After Implementation of a Healthy Checkout Policy Jennifer Falbe, ScD, MPH; Samantha Marinello, PhD; Ethan C. Wolf, BS; Sarah Solar, BS; Lisa M. Powell, PhD JAMA Network Open

Recent advances in obesity pharmacotherapy and food-as-medicine programs have expanded clinical tools for treating obesity, nutrition insecurity, and diet-sensitive chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Despite new therapies, obesity and food insecurity continue to rise in the United States and disproportionately affect the health of low-income and racial and ethnic minority groups. The ubiquitous unhealthy food environment undermines health and health equity goals by promoting consumption of cheap, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages. Real progress in reducing diet-sensitive chronic diseases and nutrition insecurity will not occur without changing the current food environment.

One strategy to promote healthier choices is to alter the food environment’s choice architecture by placing healthy food and beverages in highly visible and accessible locations. Health-promoting choice architecture is effective in a variety of retail settings, including food stores located in low-income communities. 1 The food industry has leveraged unhealthy choice architecture for decades to increase their profits by marketing tempting food and beverages high in added sugars, sodium, and unhealthy fats. In most grocery and convenience stores, candy, sugar-sweetened beverages, and salty snacks are found in prominent locations near front entrances, on aisle endcaps, and in checkout lanes, leading to impulse purchases. 2 Despite evidence that unhealthy marketing practices have a larger effect on low-income and racial and ethnic minority shoppers, 2 - 4 these practices have gone unchecked.

Some supermarkets and other food retailers have voluntarily implemented programs (eg, healthy shelf labels) to help their customers make healthy choices. However, these efforts are inconsistently implemented and not regulated. Policies are needed to ensure that health-promoting interventions in the food environment are equitably applied in all stores and communities.

In March 2021, the city of Berkeley, California, took an important first step in this direction by implementing a first-of-its-kind healthy checkout ordinance that restricted the types of food and beverages that could be placed in large (>2500 sq ft) stores’ checkout lanes to include only unsweetened beverages and foods with minimal added sugars (≤5 g/serving) or sodium (≤200 mg/serving). The study by Falbe et al 5 assessed compliance with the new policy in a pre-post (February 2021 to February 2022) natural experiment comparing 23 Berkeley stores with 75 comparison stores from 3 similar California cities that did not implement a healthy checkout policy. Results demonstrated that within 1 year of the ordinance Berkeley stores had an impressive 65% relative increase in all compliant healthy checkout facings and a 125% relative increase in compliant food and beverage checkout facings.

Compliance with a city-mandated healthy checkout policy is an important real-world implementation outcome for changing the food environment. Although Berkeley may not be representative of many cities in the United States, the findings by Falbe et al 5 provide evidence that a citywide policy was feasible, acceptable, and effective for changing the food environment of store checkout lanes. It is likely that most stores in Berkeley were compliant with the policy without much regulation, as the ordinance was not enforceable until January 2022, 1 month prior to the postpolicy assessment.

Realistically, healthy checkout policies alone are unlikely to change the overall diet or health of most individuals. Multilevel policies are needed to address different aspects of the food environment, 6 particularly with the expansion of online grocery shopping, including for shoppers using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance benefits. Although future adaptation and innovation will be needed, there is strong existing evidence for 3 policies to promote healthier food and beverage choices that, if implemented broadly, could significantly change the US food environment.

First, healthy placement policies to improve the availability and visibility of healthy foods in stores or online are supported by research demonstrating that prominent placement of healthy food options in checkout lanes, endcaps, front of store, and online improve shoppers’ healthy choices. 1 , 2 , 6 Falbe et al 5 observed the highest compliance with the Berkeley healthy checkout policy in large supermarkets, mass merchandisers, and other chain stores, suggesting potential for national scalability of these policies. With more than 250 000 retailers in the United States authorized to accept SNAP benefits, healthy placement standard policies in SNAP-authorized stores, particularly supermarket and superstore chains, could have a large public health impact. 7 Similar to tobacco, the food industry’s widespread unhealthy food and beverage marketing practices target Black, Latino, and low-income consumers, particularly those using SNAP. 3 , 4 Healthy placement standards would improve food purchases of all customers, without interfering with freedom of choice. 8

Second, front-of-package labeling policies are supported by numerous studies showing that simple and easily visible labels assist consumers with making healthy choices. 6 Following publication of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated a review of potential front-of-package labels. The FDA is currently considering a variety of evidence-based strategies, including multiple traffic lights, guiding stars, and warning labels, before making a recommendation for a standardized front-of-package system that would be implemented nationally. 9

Third, policies to tax sugar-sweetened beverages have been implemented in some US cities. The largest is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a 1.5-cent/oz tax on sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages starting in 2017. Two years after implementation, taxed beverage sales decreased by at least 35% compared with before the policy. 10 Although taxed beverage prices increased approximately 29% (with 68% of the cost of the tax passed through to consumers), taxation of both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages aimed to distribute the cost burden more equitably across different socioeconomic and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Local and national policies to improve the food environment are critical but will not be sufficient for sustaining a healthy food system. 6 The food industry must also contribute by innovating healthier products (eg, low in added sugars, sodium, and unhealthy fats) that are affordable. Implementation of SNAP healthy placement standards and front-of-package labeling could nudge manufacturers to reformulate products to align with these healthy food policies. 6 However, it will be important to monitor unintended consequences, such as new marketing strategies aimed at circumventing regulations.

The study by Falbe et al 5 demonstrated successful implementation of a healthy checkout policy in Berkeley, California, within just 1 year of the ordinance. Results of this study add to the evidence for effective and acceptable healthy food policies and open the door for other cities, states, and countries to follow suit. We have enough data. It is time to take action.

Published: August 8, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.21639

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License . © 2024 Thorndike AN. JAMA Network Open .

Corresponding Author: Anne N. Thorndike, MD, MPH, Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 100 Cambridge St, Ste 1600, Boston, MA 02114 ( [email protected] ).

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

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Thorndike AN. Changing the Food Environment One Checkout Lane at a Time. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(8):e2421639. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.21639

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Common low-calorie sweetener may be riskier for the heart than sugar, study suggests

Another study is raising concern about the safety of the widely used sugar alcohol sweetener erythritol , a low-calorie sugar substitute found in “keto-friendly” foods, baked goods and candies. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic compared erythritol to typical sugar and found only erythritol caused worrisome cardiovascular effects. 

Although the study was small, it’s the first head-to-head look at people’s blood levels after they consume products with erythritol or sugar (glucose). 

“We compared the results, and glucose caused none of the problems,” said Dr. Stanley Hazen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and the lead author of the study, published Thursday morning in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 

Erythritol is one ingredient on a growing list of nonsugar sweeteners found in low-calorie and sugar-free foods. Erythritol and xylitol are sugar alcohols that are sweet like sugar but with far fewer calories. Erythritol is often mixed with another sweetener, stevia, and xylitol is often found in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste. 

Earlier studies from Hazen’s lab — one published last year and the other in June — found potential links between the sugar alcohols and an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The research suggested both sugar alcohols might make blood platelets stickier and therefore more susceptible to clotting and blocking veins or arteries, in turn contributing to heart attacks and strokes.

For the new research, Hazen’s team analyzed the heart effects of erythritol and regular sugar — in this case, simple glucose — by enrolling two groups of healthy middle-aged male and female volunteers: 10 who consumed the erythritol and 10 who consumed sugar.

Both groups fasted overnight. In the morning, their blood was drawn to measure platelet activity. Then, half the volunteers drank glasses of water with 30 grams of glucose mixed in, and half drank glasses of water with 30 grams of erythritol. Hazen said 30 grams of erythritol is an amount typical of erythritol-sweetened foods. 

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Around 30 minutes after each group consumed the sweetened drinks, their blood was drawn and retested. Researchers found the people who consumed erythritol had increased platelet aggregation — meaning the blood was more likely to clot. Adults who drank the normal sugar drink had no changes in platelet aggregation. 

The researchers measured a 1,000-fold increase in blood erythritol levels in the group given the erythritol drink. Those who drank glucose water didn’t have any changes in blood erythritol levels, and their blood glucose levels were only slightly increased. The finding stood out to Hazen, because it far exceeded the trace levels of erythritol that occur naturally in the blood. 

“The amount in sugar substitutes is thousands of folds higher than what is made in our bodies, so to call it ‘natural,’ it’s not,” he said. “Your best recommendation is to avoid the sugar substitutes, and sugar alcohols in particular, because there’s an acute increase in the likelihood of clotting events once you ingest them.”

The Food and Drug Administration considers artificial sweeteners, including erythritol and xylitol, as GRAS, or generally recognized as safe . Hazen hopes mounting evidence about the sugar alcohols might trigger the FDA to look more closely at the data. 

Outside the U.S., the concerns have drawn interest among food regulators. Last year, for instance, the European Food Safety Authority recommended that the European Commission request data about how much erythritol is in food, which could help clarify the risks. 

Do the findings indicate that erythritol is worse overall than high-calorie sugar? Valisa Hedrick, a registered dietitian at Virginia Tech, said a diet high in sugary foods can lead to elevated blood glucose levels that are also linked to stroke and clotting risks. Hedrick wasn’t involved in the Cleveland Clinic study.

The study has several important limitations. Beyond the small number of participants, it measured the effects of erythritol and glucose at only one point in time, as opposed to over months or years of consistent consumption, Hedrick noted.

And the amount of glucose in the sugar water — about 30 grams — is the equivalent of about 120 calories of sugar. Sugary beverages, especially juices and sodas, often contain more sugar. 

For example, a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 39 grams of sugar, and 12 ounces of Mountain Dew contains 46 grams. 

Michael Goran, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, said it might also be worth comparing erythritol to both fructose and glucose. The combination of fructose and glucose is more typical of sugary juices and sodas than glucose alone, he said. Goran wasn’t part of the new study.

Hazen’s study looked at glucose alone. 

Although the Cleveland Clinic study didn't find negative effects from consuming sugar, the researchers agreed the data doesn’t mean sugar is in the clear. Higher amounts of sugar may cause similar platelet effects, especially in people with diabetes, who can’t effectively regulate high blood glucose.

Hazen’s study focused specifically on healthy people, not people with diabetes.

It could also be important to analyze whether heart effects differ when people consume food with erythritol compared with water with erythritol, said Dr. Michelle Pearlman, a gastroenterologist who is CEO and a co-founder of the Prime Institute in Miami.

“Factors such as protein, fat, fiber and other nutrients might influence this response,” she said. 

Ultimately, said Hedrick of Virginia Tech, the new study underscores the need for more research comparing the health effects of sweeteners versus sugar.

Hazen and his colleagues concluded the research by urging further studies focusing on erythritol’s heart risks, particularly in people already at higher risk of strokes and clotting. 

NBC News contributor Caroline Hopkins is a health and science journalist who covers cancer treatment for Precision Oncology News. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Is bone mineral density in middle-aged and elderly individuals associated with their dietary patterns a study based on nhanes.

• 1 Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
• 2 School of Medical Information Engineering, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

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Bone mineral density (BMD) is an important index for predicting fracture risk and diagnosing osteoporosis. With the worldwide epidemic of osteoporosis, understanding the relationship between dietary patterns and BMD is critical to public health. The study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to explore the relationship between dietary patterns and BMD. We analyzed 8,416 NHANES survey participants aged 40 years and older over three non-consecutive cycles from 2013 to 2020.Three different dietary patterns were identified by combining factor analysis and cluster analysis: "Low protein-High Dietary fiber-Vitamin A-Magnesium (LP-HDF-Vit A-Mg)","High macronutrient -Choline -Selenium (HM-Cho-Se)" and "Low macronutrient -Vitamin D-Calcium (LM-Vit D-Ca)". We found that women, older adults, and people of certain ethnic groups were at higher risk for low BMD. Participants who adhered to the "HM-Cho-Se" and "LP-HDF-VitA-Mg" patterns had significantly higher BMD than those who adhered to the "LM-Vit D-Ca" pattern. After adjusting for demographic variables, the "HM-Cho-Se" pattern was still positively associated with BMD. However, the "LM-Vit D-Ca" pattern was not significantly associated with BMD or the risk of suffering low BMD.This suggests that better adherence to the "HM-Cho-Se" pattern may reduce the risk of developing low BMD and also suggests that these nutrients may have potential synergies for bone health. However, there are limitations to the study, including the potential subjectivity of its cross-sectional design and factor analysis. Future studies should employ longitudinal designs, including different age groups, to better understand the causal relationship between dietary patterns and BMD. Despite these limitations, our findings highlight the importance of dietary factors in maintaining bone health and suggest potential dietary interventions to reduce the risk of low BMD and osteoporosis.

Keywords: dietary pattern, bone mineral density, factor analysis, Cluster analysis, Crosssectional study

Received: 05 Mar 2024; Accepted: 05 Aug 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Runting, Qingyue, Yining, Huiyu, Shu and Xixi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Luo Qingyue, Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China Yuan Yining, Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China Shu Huiyu, Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China Yang Shu, School of Medical Information Engineering, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 611137, Sichuan Province, China Feng Xixi, Department of Public Health, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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More Evidence Links Ultraprocessed Foods to Dementia

Recent research, including a new study on processed meat, has suggested these foods can affect brain health. Experts are trying to understand why.

By Dana G. Smith and Alice Callahan

People who regularly eat processed red meat, like hot dogs, bacon, sausage, salami and bologna, have a greater risk of developing dementia later in life. That was the conclusion of preliminary research presented this week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

The study tracked more than 130,000 adults in the United States for up to 43 years. During that period, 11,173 people developed dementia. Those who consumed about two servings of processed red meat per week had a 14 percent greater risk of developing dementia compared to those who ate fewer than three servings per month.

Eating unprocessed red meat, like steak or pork chops, did not significantly increase the risk for dementia, though people who ate it every day were more likely to report that they felt their cognition had declined than those who ate red meat less often. (The results of the study have not yet been published in a journal.)

The vast majority of processed meats are classified as “ ultraprocessed foods ” — products made with ingredients that you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen, like soy protein isolate, high fructose corn syrup, modified starches, flavorings or color additives. Many of these foods also have high levels of sugar, fat or sodium, which have long been known to adversely affect health.

Ultraprocessed foods, which also include items like sodas, flavored yogurts, instant soups and most breakfast cereals, make up a huge part of the American diet. They account for about 58 percent of the calories consumed by both children and adults, on average. In the last decade, researchers have linked these foods to health conditions including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and some types of cancer and gastrointestinal diseases.

Now scientists are examining the connection between these foods and brain health.

What does the research suggest?

Several studies published in the past few years have found an association between eating more ultraprocessed foods and cognitive decline. In one study of more than 10,000 middle-aged adults in Brazil , for example, people who consumed 20 percent or more of their daily calories from ultraprocessed foods experienced more rapid cognitive decline, particularly on tests of executive functioning, over the course of eight years.

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Zoe, a microbiome-focused nutrition company, raises $15M to expand in the US

Zoe , a nutrition company based in London, is expanding its presence in the United States after raising $15 million in a Series B extension.

Here’s how it works: Zoe sends customers at-home testing materials to collect blood or feces to test blood fat, blood sugar, and gut microbiome health. Following those results, the company scores every food (on a scale from 0 to 100), so people can make better choices of what to eat. 

Along the way, Zoe teaches users how to swap, add, and combine foods so you can eat in the best way for your body. For example, it might advise a user to swap out toast with peanut butter, bananas, and sliced almonds for toast with cream cheese, avocado, and chia seeds. It also tracks their progress with continued gut microbiome testing.

The new investment comes from the U.S.-based investment company Coefficient Capital and gives Zoe $118 million in total funding to date, including a £25 million ($30 million at the time) raise in 2022.

The latest raise follows the completion of a randomized controlled trial published in Nature Medicine in May 2024. The trial looked at the effects of personalized nutrition on cardiometabolic health. This is among 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers Zoe has published over the past seven years and is meant to counter the perception that microbiome mapping is squishy science .

Company CEO Jonathan Wolf explained that the trial is the same thing that is done for vaccines or drugs and is the “gold standard in medicine.” It’s a full trial where you compare the intervention — in this case, Zoe’s membership — against the control, or basic standard of care in the U.S. and dietary guidelines.

What makes it interesting, other than finding out the results, is that the researchers are obliged to publish the outcome, no matter what it says.

“As a CEO, it’s terrifying to go into this RCT because you are committed,” Wolf told TechCrunch. “If it proves that Zoe doesn’t work, you’ve got to publish it.” 

The research showed Zoe did work and “comprehensively outperformed the control,” he said. Results showed that using Zoe can improve biological markers after three to four months, and also made a positive impact on how people felt, something Wolf said he wasn’t expecting. For example, Zoe users reported improvements to mood, sleep, and energy.

Losing weight has always been a trend but is particularly hot now with the rise of GLP-1 injectables like Ozempic and Wegovy, However, Wolf was clear that Zoe wasn’t going after weight loss. Instead, the company is focused on nutrition, and better nutrition often leads to weight loss.

“Nutrition has been horrendously understudied because there’s been no money in it from pharmaceutical companies,” Wolf said. “Therefore, advice is often ‘eat more vegetables.’ And most of the advice that we have been taught has turned out to just be wrong. For example, if you need to lose weight, you should go on a calorie-controlled diet. All the latest nutritional science says that calorie-controlled diets do not work for 80% of people.”

Wolf didn’t disclose financial numbers but did say that the company had virtually no revenue two years ago. Now its paid customer base has risen to more than 100,000. Most are purchasing a 12-month subscription, which costs $29 per month in the U.S., or $348 per year. 

The company’s products are available in the United States everywhere except New York, due to regulatory challenges that Wolf and his team are working through. The new funding will help the company increase its presence in the U.S.

“We are going to start investing in marketing because there are millions of people we know we can help in the States,” Wolf said. “For the first time, the product is ready and mature enough for us to do that.”

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• v.4(5); 2013 Sep

Nutrition research to affect food and a healthy lifespan 1, 2

Sarah d. ohlhorst.

3 American Society for Nutrition, Bethesda, MD

Robert Russell

4 NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, Bethesda, MD, and Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA

Dennis Bier

5 USDA/Agricultural Research Service Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

David M. Klurfeld

6 Human Nutrition Program, USDA/Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD

Zhaoping Li

7 Center for Human Nutrition, University of California Los Angeles, and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

Jonathan R. Mein

8 Monsanto Center for Food and Nutrition Research, Monsanto Vegetable Seed, Kannapolis, NC

John Milner

9 NIH National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD

A. Catharine Ross

10 Department of Nutritional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; and

Patrick Stover

11 Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Emily Konopka

Proper nutrition offers one of the most effective and least costly ways to decrease the burden of many diseases and their associated risk factors, including obesity. Nutrition research holds the key to increasing our understanding of the causes of obesity and its related comorbidities and thus holds promise to markedly influence global health and economies. After outreach to 75 thought leaders, the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) convened a Working Group to identify the nutrition research needs whose advancement will have the greatest projected impact on the future health and well-being of global populations. ASN’s Nutrition Research Needs focus on the following high priority areas: 1 ) variability in individual responses to diet and foods; 2 ) healthy growth, development, and reproduction; 3 ) health maintenance; 4 ) medical management; 5 ) nutrition-related behaviors; and 6 ) food supply/environment. ASN hopes the Nutrition Research Needs will prompt collaboration among scientists across all disciplines to advance this challenging research agenda given the high potential for translation and impact on public health. Furthermore, ASN hopes the findings from the Nutrition Research Needs will stimulate the development and adoption of new and innovative strategies that can be applied toward the prevention and treatment of nutrition-related diseases. The multidisciplinary nature of nutrition research requires stakeholders with differing areas of expertise to collaborate on multifaceted approaches to establish the evidence-based nutrition guidance and policies that will lead to better health for the global population. In addition to the identified research needs, ASN also identified 5 tools that are critical to the advancement of the Nutrition Research Needs: 1 ) omics, 2 ) bioinformatics, 3 ) databases, 4 ) biomarkers, and 5 ) cost-effectiveness analysis.

INTRODUCTION

The attainment of good nutrition depends on and encompasses the entire food supply. Plant and animal foods and their various components are the primary vehicles that provide nourishment to human beings. Nutrition is vital, not only in the growth and development of humans and animals but also in the prevention and treatment of disease. Nutrition is also fundamental to the maintenance of good health and functionality. Basic and applied research on the interrelations between nutrition and noncommunicable diseases, nutrient composition, and nutrition monitoring represents the underpinnings for healthy populations and robust economies. Thus, innovative nutrition research and education provide the basis for solutions to larger health-related issues, allowing individuals to live healthier, more productive lives.

The importance of nutrition, as an integral part of the solution to many societal, environmental, and economic challenges facing the world, has just started to be fully appreciated. The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) has identified the “grand” challenges facing nutrition research and science in the 21st century, termed “Nutrition Research Needs.” Findings from these Nutrition Research Needs will elucidate strategies that can be applied toward the prevention and treatment of both infectious and noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Nutrition research holds the key to increasing our understanding of the underlying causes of obesity and its related comorbidities and thus holds promise to markedly influence global economies. Knowledge about adequate nutrition also has an important role in reducing or ending global and domestic food insecurity through direct and purposeful agricultural practices. Population growth will undeniably lead to increased global demand for a safe, available, sustainable, and affordable food supply, while continuing to demand nutritional adequacy.

The ASN Nutrition Research Needs project was originally conceptualized by ASN’s Public Policy Committee to identify worldwide nutrition research needs. This effort will be used to educate and communicate to policy makers and other stakeholders the need and value of increased nutrition research funding to meet societal needs. ASN’s Public Policy Committee reached out to nearly 75 thought leaders in September 2011 to develop a draft list of nutrition research needs.

In February 2012, ASN convened a Working Group of nutrition scientists and researchers representing a cross-section of the Society’s membership to determine the nutrition research needs that will have the greatest impact on the health and well-being of global populations. The names of the Working Group members are listed in the Acknowledgments. Starting with the draft list, the Working Group narrowed down and pulled together 6 nutrition research needs for which advancement would have the greatest projected impact on future health and well-being.

The ASN then informed its membership of the 6 priority research needs and sought further member input. A workshop was held during ASN’s 2012 Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, with nearly 250 attendees. The research needs were also shared via ASN’s member newsletter, which reaches the entire membership base of nearly 5000 individuals, to inform and seek input from members who did not attend the annual meeting or the workshop. Member feedback on the Nutrition Research Needs was incorporated during development of the final document.

THE TOP NUTRITION RESEARCH NEEDS

The top 6 nutrition research needs cut across the entire research spectrum from basic science to health policy, from discovery to application. Specific research areas are listed under each research need. These 6 nutrition research needs are highlighted in the hope that they will prompt scientists from all disciplines to collaborate to advance these challenging research needs that have high potential for translation and public health impact. Although the topics presented focus principally on human nutrition research, the Working Group recognized that nutrition research using animal models is an essential foundation for making new discoveries that can be translated to advances in human nutrition. Further, the importance of animal nutrition research is emphasized within these research needs in particular: “Understanding the role of nutrition in health maintenance” and “Understanding the food supply/environment.” The research community will benefit from clearly articulated nutrition research priorities that will lead to science-based information, help to shape policy and enhance future funding for nutrition research, and thereby further promote the field of nutrition science.

1) Understanding variability in individual responses to diet and foods

A top priority for future nutrition research is the need to better understand variability in metabolic responses to diet and food. Enormous variability exists in individual responses to diet and food components that affect overall health. Discoveries underpinning this variability will lead to advances in personalized nutrition interventions and will better inform health and food policies, including Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for nutrient needs and, ideally, future recommendations for known bioactive food components. Research in the following areas is necessary to determine the origins and architecture of variability and to explain similar or dissimilar responses to diet and food components by subpopulations, as influenced by genetic, epigenetic, and ethnic and/or racial differences.

Omics research, such as nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics (e.g., epigenetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), will help to determine how specific nutrients interact with genes, proteins, and metabolites to predict an individual’s health. Omics provide information on individualized nutrient requirements, including how nutrients are digested, absorbed, and metabolized, and their functions in the body. Omics will help to determine and reflect an individual’s nutritional status and will aid in the creation of new nutritional and disease biomarkers.

Microbiome.

Diverse microbes, such as bacteria and viruses, live in and on the body and contribute to the microbiome, which is estimated to have 10 times as many cells as the body itself ( 1 ). Microbes can vary in type and quantity, making each organism’s microbiome unique—although subpopulations may have similar microbiome characteristics. The microbiota needs to be better defined, and changes due to diet, age, physiologic state, and disease need to be determined. Research is needed to determine the microbiome’s role in varying biological responses to diet and food components and its importance in disease prevention and progression. Conversely, research is also needed to determine how the microbiome is influenced by diet and other environmental factors.

Biological networks.

Basic research is needed to provide a better understanding of biological networks, such as an individuals’ genome (DNA/RNA protein profiles), and how these networks affect metabolic responses to diet and food. Environmental interactions, including nutrients and other dietary components, bacteria, viruses, and chemical contaminants, all may affect the responsiveness of biological networks to specific foods and the entire diet.

Tissue specificity and temporality.

Research is needed to describe the mechanisms by which dietary factors affect variability in development and functioning, including which tissues are most influenced by dietary factors and when during the most critical stages in life this influence occurs.

2) Understanding the impact of nutrition on healthy growth, development, and reproduction

Epigenetics/imprinting..

Epigenetics and imprinting research examines how exposures to dietary components during critical periods of development may “program” long-term health and well-being. Research is needed to determine how early nutritional events contribute to disease later in life and alter normal developmental progression.

Early nutrition.

Research is necessary to better understand the role of diet and individual food components on normal growth and development. This includes the role of parent’s preconception diets, the maternal diet during pregnancy, and early nutritional events. Studies indicate that the timing of an infant’s introduction to solid foods may increase the likelihood of becoming obese later in life ( 2 ). These findings are important given that the number of overweight children in the United States has increased dramatically in recent years ( 3 ). Research is now needed to determine the best approaches to influence these factors during early life. The important role of nutrition throughout early life on growth and development, as well as on health and well-being, needs to be continually assessed.

Nutrition and reproductive health.

The impact of nutrition on reproductive health, including before and after conception, requires further research. Nutrition has a direct impact on both maternal and paternal fertility and the ability to conceive and also plays a key role in preventing diseases related to reproductive organs, including prostate and ovarian cancers. Although numerous studies have investigated how fruit and vegetable consumption may affect risk of breast, prostate, and other cancers, there is no clear consensus in the scientific literature. Thus, well-designed controlled intervention studies are needed to determine whether effects are limited to subpopulations, what factors influence a response and what mechanisms may account for changes in health.

3) Understanding the role of nutrition in health maintenance

Health maintenance includes noncommunicable disease prevention and treatment as well as weight management. The role that food components, particularly novel ingredients, contribute to health maintenance requires continuing research. Researchers and the public rely on dietary guidance, including the DRIs, to guide nutrition recommendations and health policy. Research is needed to better define the nutrient needs that best support health maintenance in all populations and their subgroups, from infancy throughout life. Nutrition across life is a fundamental issue that requires investigation so that recommendations will “match” with true biological needs.

Optimal bodily function.

Research is needed to determine the roles that nutrition and fitness, both singularly and together, have in maintaining bodily functions, including cognitive, immune, skeletal, muscular, and other functions. Evolving research areas include prevention of disease-related processes, such as inflammation, and definition of mechanisms that have an important role in health maintenance, such as immunocompetence. Animal models are used to understand the requirements for optimal health in humans and production animals.

Energy balance.

Research is also needed to examine the use of a systems approach to achieve energy balance including and integrating environmental, biological, psychosocial, and food system factors. A systems approach is preferable because the standard experimental approach of varying one factor at a time has accomplished little to address the populationwide problem of energy imbalance. A solution-oriented approach that is comprehensive in nature and takes into account the complexities of achieving energy balance must be created. Although far more research is needed to identify systemwide changes that maximize energy balance, intriguing examples exist. “Shape Up Somerville, MA,” effectively reduced weight gain in high-risk children through a multifaceted community-based environmental change campaign ( 4 ). Shape Up Somerville increased the community’s physical activity and healthful eating through physical infrastructure improvements and citywide policy and programming changes.

4) Understanding the role of nutrition in medical management

The rapid translation of nutrition research advances into evidence-based practice and policy is a priority for ensuring optimal patient care and effective disease management. Nutrition researchers have a key role in bridging the gap between disease prevention and disease treatment by fostering clinical research, providing innovative education for caregivers and patients, and delineating best practices for medical nutrition in primary care settings.

Disease progression.

To improve the medical management of disease, research is needed to determine how nutritional factors influence both disease initiation and progression, as well as how nutrition affects a patient’s response to therapy. Genetic and epigenetic variations among individuals can result in both positive and negative responses to diets, to specific foods, and to novel food components. The issue of individual variability is of considerable importance in refining medical management, including nutrition support, and requires continuing research.

Expanded research will allow us to better understand and minimize unfavorable impacts of both reduced and elevated nutrient intakes on disease progression and overall health. Disease/mortality response curves are U-shaped for many nutrients (that is, there is an increased risk of adverse outcomes if the nutrient is ingested in either too low or too high amounts). The importance of achieving a proper nutrient balance is seen in the example of chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation contributes to many noncommunicable diseases and can result from high intakes of proinflammatory omega-6 fatty acids in the face of low intakes of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids ( 5 ). Research will help to determine the desired intake for essential and nonessential nutrients alone and when combined with other nutrients in the diet.

Nutrition support for special subgroups.

Nutrition research is needed to establish the required nutritional needs that best support survival, growth, and development in subpopulations, such as in chronically diseased patients, in children, and in aging adults. With the success of medical advances, as have been seen with in vitro fertilization and neonatal care, caring for preterm infants presents a new challenge in early nutritional management. Preterm infants have special nutrition needs that will greatly affect their future growth and development, as well as their eventual health status as adults.

5) Understanding nutrition-related behaviors

Drivers of food choice..

Understanding the link between behavior and food choices can help tackle obesity and other nutrition-related issues that are a public health priority. Individual food choices can be influenced by a number of different drivers including the following:

• Government policy
• Environmental cues
• Cultural differences
• Communication tools, such as social networking and food marketing

Research is needed to identify the impact of these various drivers and understand how they work alone or together to influence nutrition-related behavior. Research will show how these drivers should be altered to have the highest positive influence on individual behavior and therefore public health. For example, the state of Mississippi recorded a 13% decline in obesity among elementary school students from 2005 to 2011 ( 6 ). Multiple changes in the environment occurred, such as the setting of standards for foods sold in school vending machines, setting a requirement for more school exercise time, mandating healthier environments in childcare settings, and establishing programs that encouraged fruit and vegetable consumption. The challenge now is to determine what effect these combined actions will have on obesity-related behaviors in the long run.

Nutrition and brain functioning.

Further explorations of the biochemical and behavioral bases for food choices and intake over time are essential. Brain function as it relates to food desire and choice needs to be clarified through research, and the multiple hormones that affect eating require further study as well. Factors such as meal frequency and size, speed of meal consumption, and how these factors are influenced by social cues require objective data, which can only be provided by research. Understanding how the marketing of healthy behaviors could help consumers achieve dietary guidance goals should be a priority. As part of this approach, innovative and practical methods for accurately measuring and evaluating food purchases and eating occasions must be developed.

Imprinting.

Because of the high propensity of obese children remaining obese as adults ( 7 ), additional research is needed to determine how eating and satiety behaviors are imprinted during critical periods of development and to show how food components affect neural biochemistry and brain functioning—and therefore shape behavior. This research will provide us with a better understanding of how and why an individual makes particular food choices. Although scientists recently validated the concept that food availability during pregnancy has permanent effects on gene expression in children ( 8 ), human studies are needed to confirm or refute the hypothesis that fetal programming, resulting from maternal obesity, leads to excess weight in children and into adulthood.

6) Understanding the food supply/environment

Food environment and food choice..

Simply knowing or understanding what constitutes a healthy diet is not enough to change an individual’s diet or lifestyle. Understanding how the food environment affects dietary and lifestyle choices is necessary before effective policies can be instituted that will change a population’s diet in a meaningful way. Examples of key questions that should be addressed include the following:

• Is current dietary guidance an effective way of communicating dietary change?
• Do food assistance programs promote positive dietary patterns or have negative dietary and health consequences?
• What role does food advertising play in food decision-making among different age groups and educational levels?
• How do farm-to-fork food systems, with an increased emphasis on local agricultural production and consumption, influence dietary patterns and behaviors?
• How can farm-to-fork food systems ultimately be used to promote healthy behaviors and improve public health?
• How can we most effectively measure, monitor, and evaluate dietary change?

Food composition and novel foods and food ingredients.

Having an affordable, available, sustainable, safe, and nutritious food supply is also an important underpinning for making significant changes to a population’s diet and lifestyle. Examples of key research areas to address include the following:

• Enhancing our knowledge of the nutrient and phytonutrient content and bioavailability of foods produced, processed, and consumed
• Studying how to better align and foster collaboration between nutrition and agricultural production
• Can shifting agricultural focus from principally agronomic to include quality factors (such as taste, flavor, and nutritional value) have positive effects on fruit and vegetable consumption?
• Can we leverage technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, to develop novel foods and food ingredients that will improve health, both domestically and abroad, and provide credible, tangible functional health benefits?

Public/private partnerships.

To tackle these enormous challenges requires the coordinated efforts of public and private partners. The development of public/private partnerships between food and agricultural industries, government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations has the potential to advance nutrition research, enabling meaningful changes to be made to American and global diets (e.g., increased fruit and vegetable consumption to match government recommendations). We need to examine successful examples of public/private partnerships that have resulted in improved nutritional status and food security in specific populations ( 9 ).

CROSS-CUTTING TOOLS TO ADVANCE NUTRITION RESEARCH

Nutrition research is truly a cross-cutting discipline, and the Working Group identified several tools that are also necessary to advance the priority needs in nutrition research. Adequately powered intervention trials continue to be essential for validating research theories arising from experimental and epidemiologic studies. However, the development of new, impactful tools will help us to more effectively quantify dietary intake and food waste and to determine the effectiveness of nutrition standards, such as DRI values and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans . Although not a traditional tool, multidisciplinary partnerships among scientific societies, government, industry, academia, and others are fundamental to advance the nutrition research agenda. ASN and its membership must be proactive not only in efforts to advance nutrition research (including initiating and leading partnerships) but also in developing the tools needed to enhance the field. ASN recognizes the need to facilitate effective communication among academia, industry, government agencies, consumers, and other stakeholders to advance nutrition.

Omics (especially genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) will enable us to determine how specific nutrients interact with genes, proteins, and metabolites to predict the future health of an individual. A field of study that encompasses technological advances as well as omics-based research, it is sometimes referred to as personalized nutrition. Omics hold the keys to major nutrition breakthroughs in noncommunicable disease and obesity prevention. Omics provide information on how well nutrients are digested, absorbed, metabolized, and used by an individual. Moreover, omics will lead to new biomarkers that reveal a person’s nutritional status and health status all at one time.

2) Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that uses computer science and information technology to develop and enhance techniques to make it easier to acquire, store, organize, retrieve, and use biological data. Bioinformatics will enable nutrition researchers to manage, analyze, and understand nutrition data and to make connections between diet and health that were not previously possible. Databases are necessary to gain the full benefits of bioinformatics, because they make nutrition data easily accessible in a machine-readable format.

3) Databases

Accurate, up-to-date food and nutrient databases are essential to track and observe trends related to the nutrition and health of individuals. Databases link food and supplement composition and intake data to health outcomes. Nutrient databases should be expanded to cover more foods and their bioactive components, including nonessential nutrients. Nutrition data must be incorporated into databases related to novel research areas, such as nutrigenomics and the microbiome, to adequately link these areas with nutrition. Data collection must also be improved with enhancements such as photographic food intake documentation, direct upload of food composition and sensory characteristics (if not proprietary) from food manufacturers, and biological sample collection.

4) Biomarkers

Intake, effect, and exposure biomarkers allow us to determine and monitor the health and nutritional status of individuals and subpopulations, including ethnic and racial minorities. Biomarkers that are responsive to diet and nutrition will help assess disease progression and variability in response to treatment, while improving early diagnosis and prevention. Biomarkers must continue to be developed and validated to accurately track food and nutrient intake given our rapidly changing food supply.

5) Cost-effectiveness analysis

Cost-effectiveness analysis is a tool used to calculate and compare the relative costs and benefits of nutrition research interventions. Cost effectiveness analysis helps to determine the most cost-effective option that will have the greatest benefit to public health.

CONCLUSIONS

The multidisciplinary nature of nutrition research requires collaboration among research scientists with differing areas of expertise, many different stakeholders, and multifaceted approaches to develop the knowledge base required for establishing the evidence-based nutrition guidance and policies that will lead to better health and well-being of world populations. Proper nutrition offers one of the most effective and least costly ways to decrease the burden of chronic and noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors, including obesity. Although there is skepticism about the ability to complete large, well-controlled dietary interventions at a reasonable cost in the United States, the success of the Lyon Diet Heart study in France ( 10 , 11 ) and the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) study in Spain ( 12 ), both of which used variations of the Mediterranean diet, show this approach can be successful, even in the presence of drug treatment of cardiovascular risks in the latter study. Both of these studies showed significant reductions in cardiovascular disease (and cancer in the Lyon study) after relatively modest dietary changes.

Perhaps the greatest barrier to advancing the connections between food and health is the variability in individual responses to diet; it is also the origin of public skepticism to acceptance of dietary advice and the opportunity for entrepreneurship in the private sector. Imagine being able to identify, with certainty, those most likely to benefit from prescriptive nutrition advice through the various omic technologies and then providing these groups of people with customized nutrition advice based on their metabolic risk profiles. This is the new frontier of the nutritional sciences that offers the opportunity to predictably engineer our physiologic networks for health through diet. The confidence this approach would bring to the skeptical consumer would improve adherence to weight management and disease treatment techniques and improve the chances of success for disease prevention. To realize the full positive impact of achieving good nutrition on disease prevention and the health of populations, we must have the will to invest in and support the 6 key areas of nutrition research that have been outlined above.

Acknowledgments

The Nutrition Research Needs Working Group consisted of Dennis Bier, David M Klurfeld, Zhaoping Li, Jonathan R Mein, John Milner, A Catharine Ross, Robert Russell (Chair), and Patrick Stover. They were supported by ASN staff members Sarah D. Ohlhorst and Emily Konopka.

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Article types, manuscript submission, artwork and illustrations guidelines, supplementary information (si), after acceptance, research data policy and data availability statements, scientific style, ethical responsibilities of authors, competing interests, research involving animals, their data or biological material, authorship principles, research involving human embryos, gametes and stem cells, plant ethics, editorial procedure, open access publishing.

• Mistakes to avoid during manuscript preparation

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Blenkinsopp A, Paxton P. Symptoms in the pharmacy: a guide to the management of common illness. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 1998.

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• Nomenclature: Insofar as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by IUPAC .
• Genus and species names should be in italics.
• Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.
• Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols, etc.: Italic for single letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities; Roman/upright for numerals, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative); Bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are expected to adhere to internationally accepted nomenclature

• for receptors:

www.guidetopharmacology.org

• and enzymes:

International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

• Manuscripts submitted to the journal are expected to adhere to internationally accepted nomenclature for receptors ( http://www.guidetopharmacology.org/ ) and enzymes ( https://www.enzyme-database.org/ ).

The journal subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics ( COPE ) and commits to investigate allegations of misconduct in order to ensure the integrity of research.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
• Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
• Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
• Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

- an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

- an expression of concern may be placed with the article

- or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform , watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement.Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘ Declarations ’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

• Partial financial support was received from [...]
• The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
• This study was funded by […]
• This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

• The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
• No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
• No funding was received for conducting this study.
• No funds, grants, or other support was received.

Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

Non-financial interests: none.

Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

• The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
• The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
• All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
• The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

The welfare of animals (vertebrate and higher invertebrate) used for research, education and testing must be respected. Authors should supply detailed information on the ethical treatment of their animals in their submission. For that purpose they may use the ARRIVE checklist which is designed to be used when submitting manuscripts describing animal research.

For studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.

Authors are recommended to comply with:

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and consult the IUCN red list index of threatened species .

• Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

When reporting results authors should indicate:

• … that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted. Please provide the name of ethics committee and relevant permit number;

• … whether the legal requirements or guidelines in the country and/or state or province for the care and use of animals have been followed.

Researchers from countries without any legal requirements or guidelines voluntarily should refer to the following sites for guidance:

– The Basel Declaration describes fundamental principles of using animals in biomedical research

– The International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) provides ethical guidelines for researchers as well as editors and reviewers

– The Association for the study of Animal Behaviour describes ethical guidelines for the treatment of animals in research and teaching

– The International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics provide guidelines for authors on animal ethics and welfare

Researchers may wish to consult the most recent (ethical) guidelines available from relevant taxon-oriented professional societies.

If a study was granted exemption or did not require ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript.

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Ethics approval’.

Examples of statements to be used when ethics approval has been obtained:

• All procedures involving animals were in compliance with the European Community Council Directive of 24 November 1986, and ethical approval was granted by the Kocaeli University Ethics Committee (No. 29 12 2014, Kocaeli, Turkey).

• All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ARVO Statement for Use of Animals in Ophthalmic Vision and Research. The ethical principles established by the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No. 8523, revised 2011) were followed. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Use (Protocol No. 06174/14) of FCAV/Unesp, Jaboticabal.

• This study involved a questionnaire-based survey of farmers as well as blood sampling from their animals. The study protocol was assessed and approved by Haramaya University, research and extension office. Participants provided their verbal informed consent for animal blood sampling as well as for the related survey questions. Collection of blood samples was carried out by veterinarians adhering to the regulations and guidelines on animal husbandry and welfare.

• All brown bear captures and handling were approved by the Ethical Committee on Animal Experiments, Uppsala, Sweden (Application C18/15) and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in compliance with Swedish laws and regulations.

• The ethics governing the use and conduct of experiments on animals were strictly observed, and the experimental protocol was approved by the University of Maiduguri Senate committee on Medical Research ethics. Proper permit and consent were obtained from the Maiduguri abattoir management, before the faecal samples of the cattle and camels slaughtered in this abattoir were used for this experiment.

Examples of statements to be used when no ethical approval is required/exemption granted:

• No approval of research ethics committees was required to accomplish the goals of this study because experimental work was conducted with an unregulated invertebrate species.

• As the trappings of small mammals were conducted as part of regular pest control measures in accordance with the NATO Standardized Agreement 2048 "Deployment Pest and Vector Surveillance and Control ", no approval by an ethics committee was required.

• All experiments have been conducted as per the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee, Department of Zoology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. However, the insect species used in this study is reared for commercial production of raw silk materials, as a part of agro-based industry. Therefore, use of this animal in research does not require ethical clearance. We have obtained permission from the office of Research officer sericulture, Baripada, Orissa, India for the provision of infrastructure and support for rearing of silkworm both in indoor and outdoor conditions related to our study to promote sericulture practices.

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

• ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
• managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
• providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
• making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis , it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

• Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

Manuscripts that report experiments involving the use of human embryos and gametes, human embryonic stem cells and related materials, and clinical applications of stem cells must include confirmation that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations (See also Research involving human participants, their data or biological material .

The manuscript should include an ethics statement identifying the institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee) approving the experiments and describing any relevant details. Authors should confirm that informed consent (See also Informed Consent ) was obtained from all recipients and/or donors of cells or tissues, where necessary, and describe the conditions of donation of materials for research, such as human embryos or gametes. Copies of approval and redacted consent documents may be requested by the Journal.

We encourage authors to follow the principles laid out in the ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation .

In deciding whether to publish papers describing modifications of the human germline, the Journal is guided by safety considerations, compliance with applicable regulations, as well as the status of the societal debate on the implications of such modifications for future generations. In case of concerns regarding a particular type of study the Journal may seek the advice from the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group.

The decision to publish a paper is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.

This journal values stewardship, transparency, and adhering to governance with regards to collecting and utilizing specimens and conducting experiments and/or field studies. Therefore the journal sets out the following guidelines:

Field studies involving genetically engineered plants must be conducted in accordance with national or local legislation and, if applicable, the manuscript needs to include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licences.

Authors utilizing genetic plant resources received via local suppliers/collectors, such as species collected from protected areas or endangered species with medical importance, must conduct their experiments following the Nagoya Protocol (as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity).

Authors whose research is focusing on quarantine organisms (i.e. harmful or pest organisms, including plant pathogens) should adhere to national legislation and notify the relevant National Plant Protection Organization of new findings before publication. More information can be found via the International Plant Protection Convention .

In principle, it is recommended that authors comply with:

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and consult the IUCN red list index of threatened species
• Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Voucher specimens ensure that the identity of organisms studied in the field or in laboratory experiments can be verified, and ensure that new species concepts can be applied to past research. Voucher specimens documenting all investigated accessions (for population samples at least one specimen per population) are to be deposited in a public herbarium, for example: Index Herbariorum , or other public collection providing access to deposited material. Information on the voucher specimen and who identified it must be included in the manuscript such as Genus name, species name, author, and year of publication.

Manuscripts containing new taxon names or other nomenclatural acts must follow the guidelines set by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants .

Authors describing new fungal taxa should register the names with a recognized repository, such as Mycobank , and request a unique digital identifier which should be included in the published article.

Single-blind peer review

This journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure.

This journal also publishes special/guest-edited issues. The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general.

Additionally, if a guest editor authors an article in their issue/collection, they will not handle the peer review process.

Peer review policy:

This journal follows a single-blind peer reviewing procedure. Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or more experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Food, Nutrition and Health , including information on fees, funding and licences, visit our Open access publishing page .

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A top nutrition scientist and gut health expert shares the two supplements he takes — and the three he ditched

• Dr. Tim Spector, a nutrition scientist and gut health expert, has stopped taking most supplements.
• Spector still takes two supplements that he said are backed by research.
• He explained why he doesn't take vitamin D, but does take vitamin B12.

Supplements can feel inescapable: they're seemingly in every grocery store and being peddled by influencers across social media. But with dietitians recommending people get their nutrients from food, it can be hard to know whether we should join the more than half of US adults who take supplements every day, according to the CDC.

Dr. Tim Spector , a top British epidemiologist, gut health expert, and cofounder of the science and nutrition company ZOE, has a simple answer: no.

After assessing the evidence, he stopped taking vitamin C, vitamin D, and omega-3 supplements .

"The science doesn't back up any of these as definitely working, so people are just wasting their money," he told Business Insider.

The jury is still out on supplements — some studies suggest supplements could be beneficial for healthy aging , among other things. However, some experts, such as supplement researcher Dr. Andrea Myer and writer Michael Pollan , have previously told BI that they get their nutrients from food and don't bother with supplements.

Spector thinks that 99.9% of all supplements are "completely worthless."

"Unless you have a medical condition, you really don't need these supplements," he said. "Evidence shows that we only need tiny amounts of these substances, and getting extra doesn't help."

That being said, Spector has continued to take two supplements (on top of eating a gut-healthy diet ) that he said research supports.

Spector takes vitamin B12 because he mostly eats plant-based

Spector eats a mostly plant-based diet, so he takes a B12 supplement most days. He skips it on the one or two days a month he eats meat and fish.

Related stories

People who don't eat meat can struggle to get enough B12 in their diets because it's mostly found in meat, eggs, and dairy, but we need it to make DNA and to keep blood and nerve cells healthy.

BI previously reported that vegans and vegetarians can also increase the amount of B12 in their diets by eating algae.

He also uses ZOE's food additive as a supplement

Spector also uses a scoop of ZOE's new "Daily 30" mix to supplement his healthy diet.

Daily 30 is a minimally processed mixture of whole foods, including eight types of mushrooms, seven fruits and vegetables, six types of seeds, five herbs, three types of nuts, and two legumes and whole grains. It's meant to be added to meals to increase the diversity of plants people eat each day.

Spector previously told BI that eating 30 plants a week is key for a healthy gut, because the more diverse a person's diet, the better their gut health. The number 30 comes from a 2018 study called The American Gut Project by researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Samples from over 11,000 participants showed that those who ate more than 30 plants a week had much more diverse gut microbiomes than those who ate fewer than 10.

You can also make your own version of the Daily 30. BI previously reported on Spector's " diversity jar ," which is a similar mix of nuts, seeds, and other plants that can be added to meals.

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