Health

A new study from Loma Linda University School of Public Health, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, suggests that regularly incorporating walnuts into the diet may shift the overall diet pattern toward lower inflammatory potential.

People preparing for metabolic-bariatric surgery may eat quite differently from one another, but those differences do not necessarily translate into different measures of cardiometabolic health, according to a new Concordia study. The researchers say the findings could help health professionals and patients make informed choices about lifestyle and eating habits in the lead-up to surgery—and earlier.

Although a plant-based diet is recommended, notably for its environmental benefits, the health consequences of such a diet—in which protein intake is exclusively plant-based—are not yet fully understood. Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have studied, in mice, the effects of switching from a diet containing both animal and plant proteins to one containing only plant proteins. Within just a few days, liver metabolism changes and the willingness to engage in physical exercise decreases significantly. At the heart of these changes lies a liver enzyme, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH). The findings are published in Molecular Metabolism.

Your brain influences your appetite, how you respond to food and whether you feel full. And the relationship also works the other way around: What you eat can directly influence how your brain works.

While U.S. adults report a high level of awareness of the term “ultraprocessed foods,” most do not fully understand what the term refers to, according to recent public opinion research commissioned by the American Heart Association. The findings reinforce the need for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to release the long-awaited federal definition of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs).

Infants born to mothers who ate a healthy, Mediterranean-style diet during pregnancy were at lower risk for colic and eczema, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. The researchers also found that regularly consuming seafood during pregnancy helped lower an infant’s risk for these conditions.

Choosing healthy fats is an important part of healthy eating. And that’s good news for a lot of reasons. Fats can add flavor and great texture to foods, boosting our enjoyment. They can help us feel fuller longer, so we don’t get too hungry between meals. And, if we choose certain types of fats, they can do all that—plus be really good for us.

A study from the Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM) at Maastricht University Medical Center in Maastricht, the Netherlands, has found that longer-term consumption of unsalted, skin-roasted peanuts can benefit insulin responsiveness in the brains of older adults. The findings are published in Food & Function.

In general, people who eat a healthy diet give themselves a significantly better chance of avoiding some major diseases than those who don’t. The Nordic diet, also known as a northern version of the Mediterranean diet, is a healthy, sustainable way of eating based on traditional foods of countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. It includes plant foods and berries, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and fatty fish.

Vaccination is one of the most important tools for preventing infectious diseases and protecting public health. However, immune responses after vaccination vary dramatically from person to person: If you give many people the exact same vaccine, some will experience side effects such as fever and flulike symptoms while others feel fine.