Association Between the EAT-Lancet Diet Pattern and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background:The EAT-Lancet Commission has promulgated a sustainable dietary guideline and recommended that it was designed to improve the human health and support environmental sustainability.Objective:This research was designed to explore the association between this healthy diet pattern (EAT-Lancet diet pattern, EAT-LDP) and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D).Methods:Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 59,849 participants from the UK Biobank without diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancers were included at baseline. The EAT-LDP score was constructed on the sum of 14 food components and then categorized into three tertiles. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were conducted to explore the association between EAT-LDP score and the risk of incident T2D. A mediation analysis was also implemented to disentangle the role of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference in the relationship between EAT-LDP score and T2D.Results:During a median follow-up of 10 years, 2,461 incident T2D cases were recorded. In analyses that compared tertile 3 of the EAT-LDP score (highest) with tertile 1 (lowest), the hazard ratio (HR) for T2D was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.72–0.90) after adjusting for sociodemographic status and health-related factors. Participants who reported a one-point increase in the diet score were associated with a 6% decrease in risk of T2D (HR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.91–0.97). A significant indirect association was observed between the EAT-LDP score and T2D (β: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.65–0.67), indicating that 44% of the association of EAT-LDP score with T2D was mediated by BMI. Additionally, 40% of the association of EAT-LDP score with T2D was mediated by waist circumference was also observed.Conclusions:Our findings indicate that a higher adherence to EAT-LDP contributes to lower risk of T2D. Further independent validation is needed to be conducted before applying the EAT-LDP to inform dietary guidelines.

Prescription, Compliance, and Burden Associated with Salt-Restricted Diets in Heart Failure Patients: Results from the French National OFICSel Observatory

(1) Background: There is much debate about the use of salt-restricted diet for managing heart failure (HF). Dietary guidelines are inconsistent and lack evidence. (2) Method: The OFICSel observatory collected data about adults hospitalised for HF. The data, collected using study-specific surveys, were used to describe HF management, including diets, from the cardiologists’ and patients’ perspectives. Cardiologists provided the patients’ clinical, biological, echocardiography, and treatment data, while the patients provided dietary, medical history, sociodemographic, morphometric, quality of life, and burden data (burden scale in restricted diets (BIRD) questionnaire). The differences between the diet recommended by the cardiologist, understood by the patient, and the estimated salt intake (by the patient) and diet burden were assessed. (3) Results: Between March and June 2017, 300 cardiologists enrolled 2822 patients. Most patients (90%) were recommended diets with <6 g of salt/day. Mean daily salt consumption was 4.7 g (standard deviation (SD): 2.4). Only 33% of patients complied with their recommended diet, 34% over-complied, and 19% under-complied (14% unknown). Dietary restrictions in HF patients were associated with increased burden (mean BIRD score of 8.1/48 [SD: 8.8]). (4) Conclusion: Healthcare professionals do not always follow dietary recommendations, and their patients do not always understand and comply with diets recommended. Restrictive diets in HF patients are associated with increased burden. An evidence-based approach to developing and recommending HF-specific diets is required.

Circularity in animal production requires a change in the EAT-Lancet diet in Europe

It is not known whether dietary guidelines proposing a limited intake of animal protein are compatible with the adoption of circular food systems. Using a resource-allocation model, we compared the effects of circularity on the supply of animal-source nutrients in Europe with the nutritional requirements of the EAT-Lancet reference diet. We found the two to be compatible in terms of total animal-source proteins but not specific animal-source foods; in particular, the EAT-Lancet guidelines recommend larger quantities of poultry meat over beef and pork, while a circular food system produces mainly milk, dairy-beef and pork. Compared with the EAT-Lancet reference diet, greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by up to 31% and arable land use reduced by up to 42%. Careful consideration of the feasible substitutability between animal-source foods is needed to define potential roles of animal products in circular human diets.

Virtual Digital Twins

Healthy ageing and disease prevention depends on nutritional and lifestyle changes. Available evidence accentuates the influence of genetic, metabolic, and host gut microbiota characteristics on how individuals respond to each nutrient leading the way for the stratification of dietary guidelines. In recent days, state-of-the-art changes are pursued in therapeutic nutrition services integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and deep learning. Furthermore, we live in the ‘omics' era, where individuals' dietary needs can be tailored according to their gene pattern. Digital twin typifies virtual representation that provides real-time digital technology counterpart of a physical process or object. This chapter discusses how to converge genetic information with other biochemical parameters to conceptualize a digital replica of oneself that may well be a reference tool to guide personalized nutrition.

Iodine Content of Wild and Farmed Seafood and Its Estimated Contribution to UK Dietary Iodine Intake

Iodine is an important nutrient for human health and development, with seafood widely acknowledged as a rich source. Demand from the increasing global population has resulted in the availability of a wider range of wild and farmed seafood. Increased aquaculture production, however, has resulted in changes to feed ingredients that affect the nutritional quality of the final product. The present study assessed the iodine contents of wild and farmed seafood available to UK consumers and evaluated its contribution to current dietary iodine intake. Ninety-five seafood types, encompassing marine and freshwater fish and shellfish, of wild and farmed origins, were purchased from UK retailers and analysed. Iodine contents ranged from 427.4 ± 316.1 to 3.0 ± 1.6 µg·100 g−1 flesh wet weight (mean ± SD) in haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio), respectively, being in the order shellfish > marine fish > freshwater fish, with crustaceans, whitefish (Gadiformes) and bivalves contributing the greatest levels. Overall, wild fish tended to exhibit higher iodine concentrations than farmed fish, with the exception of non-fed aquaculture species (bivalves). However, no significant differences were observed between wild and farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and turbot (Psetta maxima). In contrast, farmed European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and seabream (Sparus aurata) presented lower, and Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) higher, iodine levels than their wild counterparts, most likely due to the type and inclusion level of feed ingredients used. By following UK dietary guidelines for fish consumption, a portion of the highest oily (Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scombrus) and lean (haddock) fish species would provide two-thirds of the weekly recommended iodine intake (980 µg). In contrast, actual iodine intake from seafood consumption is estimated at only 9.4–18.0% of the UK reference nutrient intake (140 µg·day−1) across different age groups and genders, with females obtaining less than their male equivalents.

Chia Seed Oil Intake: Is It Beneficial for Preventing Cardiovascular Risk Factors?

Cold-pressed chia seed oils (ChO) are known for their health-promoting characteristics due to their high content of omega-3 α-linolenic acid (ω-3 ALA). We investigated the influence of ChO supplementation as a functional food on animal models of the cardiovascular risk factors hypercholesterolemia and metabolic syndrome (MS). Dietary intervention with ChO (equivalent to 4.8 g ALA per day) was found to improve vascular dysfunction and mitigate the rise in plasma triglyceride (TG) levels under hypercholesterolemic conditions. However, impaired glucose tolerance was found in control ChO-treated animals. In order to verify whether the effects of chia seed are the same as that of ChO, we replaced ChO with an equivalent amount of seed. Glucose intolerance was found once again. For this reason, we carried out a new study in which ChO intake was reduced to 3 g ALA per day, and no alterations were observed in such conditions. Thus, dietary intervention with ChO equivalent to 3 g ALA intake per day was chosen to analyze the effects on the alterations that characterize high-fat diet-induced MS. ChO supplementation lowered the ω-6/ω-3 ratio, TG, blood pressure and improved endothelial function. Nevertheless, ChO worsened the high-fat diet’s deleterious effects on visceral abdominal fat, fasting glucose and glucose tolerance. Our results support the view that dietary guidelines for treating patients with hypercholesterolemia or MS must be carefully planned in such a way that the incorporation of ChO into the diet should be controlled and nutritional background be considered.

Project LifeLab Food and Health – Innovative Teaching for the Future: Development of Student Active Learning Tasks for Home Economics Education in the 21st Century

Food and Health, previously referred to as Home Economics, is a mandatory school subject in Norway. It has the unique advantage of giving all students, regardless of their social background, practical skills and knowledge, life skills that are important for their future health. In the LifeLab Food and Health project, we have developed a research-based and innovative teaching programme and evaluated how it is perceived in a school setting in Norway. This teaching programme is for use in Food and Health teacher education, but also in the education of primary and lower secondary school students in the same subject. LifeLab Food and Health consists of learning tasks in which students in the sixth and ninth grades in school gain first-hand knowledge and an understanding of life skills that are important to manage everyday life. In this paper, we present the learning activities developed and how the students experienced them. Examples of such learning tasks are tasks revealing the science behind dietary guidelines and the promotion of a healthy diet through student active tasks. Our aim is to establish LifeLab Food and Health as a “best practice” within master’s education in Home Economics at the University of Agder in Norway.

Isi Piringku Dietary Meal Proportion Estimator Applications using SeeFood Image Segmentations

Isi Piringku atau My Meal Dish Content was a program initiated by the Indonesian ministry of health to promote a healthy daily lifestyle consisting of balanced dietary, enough hydration, active lifestyle, cleanliness and body weight control. The balanced diet meal was supposed to consist of ⅓ of carbohydrate intake, ⅓ of vegetable intake, ⅙ of fruit intake and ⅙ of protein intake every time. This introduces some difficulty that every meal must be measured to align with the dietary guidelines. This study targets estimating the meal diet proportion by its visual cues using smartphone application. While the actual meal content dietary division was weight based, for sake of simplicity the proportion in this study was estimated by each food area which roughly correlates to its volume. Using smartphone cameras in Android 9 Operating Systems and Tensorflow Lite Seefoods: Mobile Food Segmentation v1.0 module, an application was built to help users estimate their meal balances proportion. The original segmentation criterion was constructed using USDA dietary guidelines and it was reduced to only 4 food groups related to Isi Piringku criterion. Suggestion will be given regarding the segmentation result. The result was that the application was capable of estimating the meal diet proportion and giving suggestions based on the segmentation result. Although, the volume of the meal food groups estimated was still low on accuracy. This was correlated with the accuracy level of the segmentation module that was used. On average, the time needed to apply the segmentation process was around 2 to 3 seconds on a Snapdragon 835 device.