Dietetics News

According to new research, an early-pregnancy diet enriched in fruits, vegetables, seafood, dairy products, eggs, and grains might reduce the risk of miscarriage.

The University of Birmingham examined 20 studies that looked at women’s and birthing people’s eating habits in the months before and shortly after conceiving a baby to see if there was evidence of an association with a lower or higher risk of miscarriage. Powered By The findings published in the journal Fertility and Sterility the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research team conclude that there is evidence to suggest a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, seafood, dairy products, eggs and grain reduces miscarriage risk.

These are foods which typically make up ‘healthy’ well-balanced diets, with previous evidence showing that eating a well-rounded diet which is rich in vitamins and minerals during pregnancy is important.

The research review found that, when compared to low consumption, high intake of fruit may be associated with a 61% reduction in miscarriage risk. High vegetable intake may be associated with a 41% reduction in miscarriage risk. For dairy products it is a 37% reduction, 33% for grains, 19% for seafood and eggs.

Led by Dr Yealin Chung, researchers also looked at whether pre-defined dietary types, such as the Mediterranean Diet or Fertility Diet could also be linked to miscarriage risk. They could not find evidence that following any of these diets lowered or raised risk.

However, a whole diet containing healthy foods overall, or foods rich in antioxidant sources, and low in pro-inflammatory foods or unhealthy food groups may be associated with a reduction in miscarriage risk for women.

A diet high in processed food was shown to be associated with doubling of miscarriage risk.
The studies included in the analysis focused on the peri-conception period – a period before and during the first 3 months of pregnancy. Data collected from a total of 63,838 healthy women of reproductive age was included, with information on their diets typically collected through food frequency questionnaires for each study.

Dr Chung explained, “Miscarriage is common, with estimates suggesting 1 in 6 pregnancies end in miscarriage, and there are many known causes, from problems with the baby’s chromosomes to infections in the womb.

“Yet nearly 50% of early pregnancy losses remain unexplained and in the absence of a cause, parents often turn to their healthcare providers for guidance on the best ways to be as healthy as possible and reduce the risk of future miscarriages.

“There’s a growing body of evidence to show that lifestyle changes – including changes to diet, stopping smoking and not drinking alcohol – before conceiving and in your pregnancy’s early stages – may have an impact.

“We strongly encourage couples to consider the importance of making positive lifestyle choices when planning for a family, and to continue with these healthy choices throughout their pregnancy and beyond. By knowing that positive lifestyle choices can make a significant difference in reducing the risk of miscarriage, couples can feel empowered to take charge of their health and the health of their baby.”

Tommy’s midwife Juliette Ward said, “Advice on diet is one of the most-discussed subjects for us when talking with pregnant women and birthing people. We know that baby loss is very rarely the result of someone’s lifestyle choices, but many people want to know how to be as healthy as possible in pregnancy. Following a healthy diet, taking supplements like Vitamin D and folic acid, exercise and trying to lower stress are all things people can try to do, but there’s been a lack of clear evidence on the links between diet choices and miscarriage.

“Given this lack of evidence, there aren’t any evidence-based guidelines outlining dietary advice for women and birthing people or their partners – something the findings of this review suggest could make a real impact in helping people reduce their risk.”

Many people who want to cut back on meat are turning to legumes, which are high in protein, vitamins, and fiber. Allergies to legumes, such as soy and peanuts, are common and fatal. Are meat-free proteins made of legumes dangerous to patients who are allergic to specific legumes, even if the legumes are different? Dr. Mark Smits and his colleagues at Utrecht University Medical Center set out to investigate.

“Both protein consumption and the world’s population are increasing which leads to an urgent demand for sustainable protein sources,” said Dr. Thuy-My Le, senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Allergy. “An increase in the consumption of legumes may increase the number of allergies to these foods. Furthermore, these new legumes may elicit allergic complaints in already legume-allergic patients. Therefore, we investigated how often sensitization and allergy to different legumes occur in these patients.”

Any other name for an allergy, Food allergies occur when the immune system misidentifies food proteins as a threat and produces Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. Individuals who have been sensitised to food may develop allergy symptoms if exposed to it again. Patients who are allergic to one food may also be allergic to another: this is known as co-allergy. Co-allergies are often accompanied by co-sensitization, which occurs when patients produce IgE antibodies against multiple foods. Cross-reactivity, in which IgE antibodies bind to proteins from different foods because their structures are similar, may cause co-sensitization.

Co-sensitization can lead to a diagnosed co-allergy, but it does not always: it is possible to be co-sensitized to a food and not have a reaction when eating it. So, do patients who are allergic to specific legumes react to other legumes?

Smits and colleagues recruited legume-allergic patients from the University Medical Center Utrecht’s Allergology Clinic and divided them into six groups based on allergies: peanuts, soybeans, green peas, lupines, lentils, and beans. Allergies were validated in all patients through an oral food challenge or a positive IgE test combined with a history of reactions. IgE antibodies against the other legumes were tested in each group separately.

“We showed that a large number of patients produced antibodies against more than one legume,” said Dr. Kitty Verhoeckx, second author of the study. “However, clinical data showed that only a small part of these patients had actual symptoms.”

Co-sensitization is common among legumes, but not always co-allergy.
Co-sensitization to additional legumes was observed in all six patient groups, with nearly a quarter of patients sensitised to all legumes. Almost all of the patients in the bean allergy group developed sensitivities to other legumes. Patients who were allergic to green peas, lupines, or lentils were more likely to be sensitised to other legumes, whereas patients who had peanut or soybean allergies were not.

The researchers also investigated which of these patients had documented co-allergies to various legumes. Only a small number of patients had clinical symptoms as a result of the high co-sensitization rate. Co-allergies to green peas, lupine, lentil, and bean were uncommon in peanut and soybean-allergic patients, but patients who were allergic to this second group of legumes were more likely to be allergic to peanuts or soybeans.

Patients who were allergic to peanuts were frequently also allergic to soybeans, and vice versa. Peanut sensitization was linked to clinically significant co-allergy in almost all other legume groups. However, the researchers cautioned that the study should be expanded to a larger group and co-allergies confirmed with oral food challenges before determining how clinically relevant this co-sensitization is in practise.

“Legumes are an attractive sustainable protein source, but allergic reactions in the already legume-allergic population cannot be excluded as antibodies in the blood of legume-allergic patients frequently react to different legumes,” said Le.

“However, this reaction does not always lead to a clinically relevant food allergy. Introduction of novel foods into the market should be accompanied by an appropriate assessment of the risk of developing (new) food allergies.”

Is there a risk from meat-free proteins derived from legumes, even if the legumes are different? Dr. Mark Smits and his colleagues at Utrecht University Medical Center set out to investigate.

A diet high in vitamin A or its analogues may help adolescents and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) reduce their risk of painful pancreatic inflammation during chemotherapy, according to a study.
Details about this potential dietary solution to prevent a potentially fatal adverse event were published in Science Translational Medicine on March 15, 2023.

Sohail Husain, MD, chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Stanford University, and Anil Goud Jegga, DVM, MRes, a computational biologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, led the research team. Treatment with the enzyme asparaginase helps starve cancer cells by lowering the amount of asparagine circulating in the blood, which cancer cells require but cannot produce.

The medication, which is frequently used in conjunction with other chemotherapies, is administered by injection into a vein, muscle, or under the skin. However, an estimated 2% to 10% of asparaginase users develop pancreatic inflammation as a result of asparaginase treatment. The symptoms can be severe for one-third of these people.

Jegga and colleagues used over 100 million data points from gene expression data, small-molecule data, and electronic health records to better understand the mechanisms underlying asparaginase-associated pancreatitis (AAP) and to identify potential interventions to prevent or mitigate AAP.

First, they analysed massive amounts of gene expression data to discover that retinoids could reverse gene activity associated with asparaginase or pancreatitis (vitamin A and its analogs). More evidence was discovered by “mining” millions of electronic health records from the TriNetX database and the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System.

The AERSMine software developed at Cincinnati Children’s by Mayur Sarangdhar, PhD, MRes, and colleagues was used in this number crunching and predictive analytics work. The researchers also analysed data from mouse experiments and compared plasma samples from ALL patients who developed pancreatitis to those who did not.

Finally, the team came up with two sets of human “real-world” experiences. They discovered that when asparaginase was combined with vitamin A, only 1.4% of patients developed pancreatitis, compared to 3.4% of patients who did not. Concurrent vitamin A use was associated with a 60% reduction in the risk of AAP. Lower dietary vitamin A levels were linked to an increased risk and severity of AAP.

“This study demonstrates the potential of mining ‘real-world’ data to identify therapy modifiers for improving patient outcomes. In cases where a primary drug induces toxicity but is critical to therapy, such as asparaginase, therapy modifiers, such as vitamin A and its analogs, may be of immediate relevance to patients on asparaginase and ‘at-risk’ for AAP,” says Sarangdhar, a co-first author of the study.

Says Jegga: “Our study highlights the power of heterogeneous data integration and analysis in translational research. By leveraging existing ‘omics and patient-centric data and a systems approach, we were able to identify new insights into the development of AAP and potential interventions to prevent or mitigate this side effect.”

Next steps

In some ways, the findings of this study could be immediately applied to patient care. More clinical research is needed, however, to determine how much vitamin A is required to protect ALL patients from pancreatitis, and whether a protective level can be achieved through diet or supplements. In fact, target vitamin levels may need to vary based on individual metabolic differences.

Fasting, according to a recent study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, may make it more difficult to fight infections and increase your risk of developing heart disease. The study, which used mouse models, is one of the first to show that skipping meals causes the brain to react in a way that damages immune cells. The findings, which focus on breakfast, were published in the journal Immunity and may help researchers better understand how long-term fasting affects the body.

“There is a growing awareness that fasting is healthy, and there is indeed abundant evidence for the benefits of fasting. Our study provides a word of caution as it suggests that there may also be a cost to fasting that carries a health risk,” said lead author Filip Swirski, PhD, Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Icahn Mount Sinai, adding, “This is a mechanistic study delving into some of the fundamental biology relevant to fasting. The study shows that there is a conversation between the nervous and immune systems.”

Researchers wanted to learn more about how fasting affects the immune system, from a short fast of a few hours to a longer fast of 24 hours. They looked at two groups of mice. The first group ate breakfast immediately after waking up (breakfast is their largest meal of the day), while the second group did not. Blood samples were taken from both groups of mice when they awoke (baseline), four hours later, and eight hours later.

When researchers examined the blood work, they noticed a distinct difference in the fasting group. The researchers noticed a difference in the number of monocytes, which are white blood cells that are produced in the bone marrow and travel throughout the body, where they play a variety of important roles ranging from fighting infections to heart disease to cancer.

All mice had the same number of monocytes at the start. Monocytes in mice from the fasting group, on the other hand, were significantly affected after four hours. Researchers discovered that 90% of these cells vanished from the bloodstream after eight hours, and the number continued to decline. Monocytes in the non-fasting group, on the other hand, were unaffected.

Researchers discovered that in fasting mice, monocytes returned to the bone marrow to hibernate. Concurrently, the bone marrow’s ability to produce new cells decreased. Monocytes in the bone marrow, which have a short lifespan, changed dramatically. They lived longer because they remained in the bone marrow and aged differently than monocytes that remained in the blood.

The researchers fasted the mice for up to 24 hours before reintroducing food. Within a few hours, the cells that had been hiding in the bone marrow were released into the bloodstream. This surge resulted in increased inflammation. Instead of protecting the body from infection, these altered monocytes were more inflammatory, making it less resistant to infection.

This is one of the first studies to establish a link between the brain and these immune cells while fasting. The researchers discovered that specific brain regions controlled the monocyte response during fasting. Fasting causes a stress response in the brain, which is what causes people to feel “hangry” (hungry and angry), and this immediately causes a large-scale migration of these white blood cells from the blood to the bone marrow, and then back to the bloodstream shortly after food is reintroduced.

While there is evidence of the metabolic benefits of fasting, Dr. Swirski emphasises that this new study is a useful advance in the full understanding of the body’s mechanisms.

“The study shows that, on the one hand, fasting reduces the number of circulating monocytes, which one might think is a good thing, as these cells are important components of inflammation. On the other hand, the reintroduction of food creates a surge of monocytes flooding back into the blood, which can be problematic. Fasting, therefore regulates this pool in ways that are not always beneficial to the body’s capacity to respond to a challenge such as an infection,” said Dr. Swirski, adding, “Because these cells are so important to other diseases like heart disease or cancer, understanding how their function is controlled is critical.”

Researchers discovered that eating a variety of tree nuts, including almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts, enhanced tryptophan metabolism in overweight and obese persons in a study published online this week in the journal Nutrients. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, and cardioprotective tryptophan metabolites increased in particular.

In a recent study, UCLA researchers found that eating 1.5 ounces of tree nuts per day (rather than pretzels) for 24 weeks of weight loss and maintenance resulted in weight loss, higher satiety, lower diastolic blood pressure, and lower heart rate. Tryptophan (present in tree nuts) has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

It is metabolised in the gut, producing a variety of bioactive metabolites that are crucial in immunological control and the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The current study investigated whether tree nut snacks, when consumed as part of a hypocaloric diet, may alter the gut microbiome, leading in higher amounts of cardio-protective tryptophan microbial metabolites.

Plasma and stool samples were obtained from 95 overweight or obese patients and analysed for tryptophan metabolites and gut flora in the current investigation.  “We’ve known for a long time that tree nuts can help decrease CVD risk, and these findings provide some possible explanations,”

Lead researcher, Zhaoping Li, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition at UCLA said, “We discovered some new associations between tryptophan metabolites and blood pressure, heart rate, and satiety in overweight/obese subjects, suggesting a broader impact of tryptophan metabolism in overall health, including cardiovascular health.”

Another intriguing finding was a considerable increase in blood serotonin levels (60.9 percent and 82.2 percent increase from baseline at weeks 12 and 24, respectively) in individuals who fed mixed tree nuts during both the weight loss and weight maintenance periods.”This is the first time we’ve seen mixed tree nut consumption associated with an increase in serotonin levels in the body,” explained Dr Li.

“While more research is needed, this is exciting since serotonin can have an important impact on mood and overall mental health.” According to studies, people acquire roughly 25% of their calories from snacks each day, with a major share coming from desserts, sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, and salty nibbles.

“Replacing just one of those snacks with 1.5 ounces of tree nuts may help improve overall health and reduce the risk for various chronic diseases,” according to Maureen Ternus, M.S., R.D.N, Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation.

Diet appears to have an effect on an organism’s physiological condition at all stages of life. Although the metabolic needs of brain development, particularly dendritic and axon growth, are generally recognised, little is known about how different foods impact this process.

The Graduate School of Biostudies at Kyoto University showed that by employing the correct models, researchers may explore the molecular basis of the regulatory systems driving nutrient-dependent neuronal growth.

“One such model is the Drosophila C4da — or class IV dendritic arborization — neuron located in the fruit flies’ larvae,” says lead author Yukako Hattori.

The dendrites of C4da neurons — located between the epidermis and body wall muscles — sense noxious thermal, mechanical, and light stimuli, subsequently transmitting information to the central nervous system to trigger avoidance behaviours.

“The growth of these dendrites is controlled by the environment in unexpected ways and becomes more complex. That is, a poor, low-yeast diet causes hyperarborization of dendrites,” adds first author Yasutetsu Kanaoka.

The scientists discovered that the hyperarborization phenotype was induced by a combined shortage in vitamins, metal ions, and cholesterol, rather than by low quantities of amino acids (typical yeast nutrition).

This deficit causes the body wall muscle to produce more Wingless signalling molecules. Wingless stimulates a protein called Akt, which increases the complex branching of dendrites once it is absorbed by C4da neurons.

“While this excess growth of C4da neurons despite a nutrient-poor environment is counterintuitive, we were further intrigued by those neurons becoming less responsive to the noxious light stimuli,” reflects Tadashi Uemura.

“Our study raises the possibility that nutrient-dependent development of somatosensory neurons plays a role in optimizing a trade-off between searching for high-nutrient foods and escaping from noxious environmental threats.”

Using cell type-specific knockdown systems — an established method to inhibit specific gene functions in a cell-specific manner — the team identified the inter-organ signalling that regulates the hyperarborization phenotype.

“By focusing on the mechanism by which nutritional information is transmitted from the intestine to the muscle, we may unravel the molecular mystery linking food and health.”

Choline is an important component found in foods such as eggs, broccoli, beans, pork, and chicken, and is synthesised in small amounts in the liver. A new research investigates how a lack of dietary choline harms the body and might be a missing piece in the jigsaw of Alzheimer’s disease.

It is estimated that more than 90% of Americans do not reach the recommended daily choline consumption. Current study in mice reveals that a lack of dietary choline can have serious consequences for the heart, liver, and other organs. A lack of choline has also been related to severe brain alterations associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Pathologies involved in the formation of two typical markers of the illness, amyloid plaques, which gather in the intercellular spaces between neurons, and tau tangles, which condense inside the bodies of neurons, are among them.
The current study, conducted by Arizona State University scientists, identifies diseases in normal mice lacking in dietary choline as well as choline deficient transgenic mice, which already display indications of the illness. In both cases, dietary choline deprivation causes liver damage, heart enlargement, and neurologic abnormalities in Alzheimer’s disease mice, including elevated levels of plaque-forming amyloid-beta protein and illness-linked modifications in tau protein.

Further, the study illustrates that choline deficiency in mice causes significant weight gain, and alterations in glucose metabolism, (which are tied to conditions such as diabetes), and deficits in motor skills.

In the case of humans, “it’s a twofold problem,” according to Ramon Velazquez, senior author of the study and Assistant professor with the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center. “First, people don’t reach the adequate daily intake of choline established by the Institute of Medicine in 1998. And secondly, there is vast literature showing that the recommended daily intake amounts are not optimal for brain-related functions.”

Ramon Velazquez led the new study on the importance of dietary choline for the brain and other organs. He is a researcher in the ASU-Banner Neurodegereative Disease Research Center.

The research highlights a constellation of physical and neurological changes linked to choline deficiency. Sufficient choline in the diet reduces levels of the amino acid homocysteine, which has been recognized as a neurotoxin contributing to neurodegeneration and is important for mediating functions such as learning and memory, through the production of acetylcholine.

The growing awareness of choline’s importance should encourage all adults to ensure proper choline intake. This is particularly true for those on plant-based diets, which may be low in naturally occurring choline, given that foods high in choline are eggs, meats, and poultry.

Choline-rich plant meals such as soybeans, Brussels sprouts, and toast can aid in these circumstances. Furthermore, low-cost, over-the-counter choline supplements are recommended to maintain overall health and protect the brain from the consequences of neurodegeneration.

Adolescents and young adults are stereotypically connected with eating problems. However, growing data shows that these problems can arise at any stage during a woman’s life, including midlife.

According to a new study, body dissatisfaction is a significant cause of eating disorders, particularly during perimenopause. The findings of the study were published today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Eating disorders are significant mental health diseases marked by changes in eating behaviour and body image that affect roughly 13.1% of women during their lives.

The prevalence of any eating disorder specifically for women aged older than 40 years is roughly 3.5 per cent, with specific symptoms such as dissatisfaction with eating patterns being documented as high as 29.3 per cent.
Serious complications such as high mortality and morbidity are associated with eating disorders. These adverse health events are likely to be magnified when present at older ages. However, few studies on eating disorders have included participants at midlife, including premenopause, perimenopause, and postmenopause.

There is some evidence to suggest that perimenopausal women have the highest rates of dysregulated eating behaviours (eg, weight-control behaviours such as regular calorie counting or diet food consumption) of any reproductive stage at midlife and are significantly different from premenopausal women in terms of body dissatisfaction and feelings of fatness. Although such studies are few, the link between eating disorders and perimenopausal symptoms (e.g., negative mood, melancholy, and exhaustion) confirms that perimenopause may be a particularly vulnerable phase for eating pathology.

The researchers used network analysis statistical models to compare the structure and importance of specific eating disorder symptoms across reproductive stages in this new small study, which sought to investigate the structure of eating disorder symptoms specifically during perimenopause and early postmenopause. Although the researchers concede that bigger studies with this underrepresented female demographic are needed, they feel that the data demonstrates that body image dissatisfaction is a critical risk factor for eating disorders across the lifetime, particularly in midlife.

Study results are published in the article “Network analysis of eating disorder symptoms in women in perimenopause and early postmenopause.”

This study shows that similar to studies in young adults, dissatisfaction with body image remains a core feature of eating disorder pathology in midlife women. Specifically, fear of gaining weight and fear of losing control over eating habits are central symptoms of eating disorders in perimenopause and early postmenopause. These findings may help direct more targeted treatment strategies in women during midlife,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

Scientists have described the physical process that occurs in the mouth when a piece of chocolate is ingested, transforming it from a solid to a smooth emulsion that many people find utterly seductive. The multidisciplinary research team at the University of Leeds hopes that by analyzing each stage, they will be able to design a new generation of premium chocolates that have the same feel and taste but are healthier to ingest. The chocolate feeling emerges during the times it is in the mouth due to the way the chocolate is lubricated, either by chemicals in the chocolate itself or by saliva or a mix of the two.

The study, which was published in the scientific journal ACS Applied Materials and Interface, did not look at how chocolate tasted. The inquiry instead concentrated on its feel and texture. The tests were carried out on an artificial 3D tongue-like surface built by the University of Leeds, using a quality brand of dark chocolate. The investigation was carried out using analytical approaches from the engineering discipline of tribology, which included in situ imaging.

Tribology is the study of how surfaces and fluids interact, the degrees of friction between them, and the impact of lubrication: in this example, saliva or chocolate liquids. When we eat chocolate, all of these systems are activated.

When chocolate comes into touch with the tongue, it produces a fatty film that coats the tongue and other surfaces in the mouth. This fatty layer is what makes the chocolate feel smooth in the tongue.

Dr Siavash Soltanahmadi, from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds and the lead researcher in the study, said: “With the understanding of the physical mechanisms that happen as people eat chocolate, we believe that a next generation of chocolate can be developed that offers the feel and sensation of high-fat chocolate yet is a healthier choice.

“Our research opens the possibility that manufacturers can intelligently design dark chocolate to reduce the overall fat content. “We believe dark chocolate can be produced in a gradient-layered architecture with fat covering the surface of chocolates and particles to offer the sought after self-indulging experience without adding too much fat inside the body of the chocolate.”

According to MINTEL study, revenue from chocolate sales in the UK is expected to rise over the next five years. Sales are predicted to increase 13% between 2022 and 2027, reaching £6.6 billion. The researchers believe the physical approaches employed in the study might be used to the exploration of other foods that undergo a phase shift, in which a material is converted from a solid to a liquid, such as ice cream, margarine, or cheese.

The European Research Council funded this study as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation initiative