• cool work, nice post on it: Evolving Health: One Tomato at a Time: Feeding the World with Controlled Environment Agriculture
• a potential mechanism on why PUFAs are consistently found positive to cardiovascular health PUFAs acutely affect triacylglycerol-derived skeletal muscle fatty acid uptake and increase postprandial insulin sensitivity
• a meta-analysis finds a 20% crop yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture: GMO Pundit
• Good post by Mike Gibney on risk perceptions gibneyonfood: Snakes, astronauts and consumer risk perception
• theobromine is why chocolate is toxic to some pets, interesting article: The Curious (Toxic) Chemistry of Chocolate | Speakeasy Science
• great post filled with references Chiropractic: An Indefensible Profession – Skeptical Health : Skeptical Health
• I like this summary by Yoni Freedhoff and Scott Kahan (I’ve blogged on both Cochrane reviews) 2011 – Review: Interventions to reduce dietary salt do not reduce mortality or morbidity

• Larry Parnell, Jose Ordovas et al have a new paper on SIRT1 & CLOCK variants on resistance to weight loss: SIRT1 and CLOCK 3111T>C combined genotype … [Int J Obes (Lond). 2012] – PubMed – NCBI
• policy worked: Blood Levels of Trans Fats Are Declining in Americans – NYTimes.com
• space-nutrition? Vision Changes after Spaceflight Are Related to Alterations in Folate– and Vitamin B-12–Dependent One-Carbon Metabolism
• very interesting work but a lot still needed to get to an appropriate confidence in humans: Fasting might boost chem’s cancer-busting properties
• important editorial on the (lack of) solid evidence for some practices: Nutrition for Critically Ill Patients – — JAMA
• interesting pilot study on seasonal micro-nutrition: Periconceptional maternal micronutrient supplementation leads to widespread changes in the epigenome: a study of a unique resource in the Gambia
• Yoni commented on the (diet) soda/vascular event paper that I blogged on: Weighty Matters: Why that Diet Soda/Stroke Paper is Worthless and a Failure of Peer Review
• Excellent post by Scott Gavura: Science-Based Medicine » IgG Food Intolerance Tests: What does the science say?

• hope to do a long post on the PCRM eventually, but this was annoying. NPR consulted an embassy for an alternative perspective to the PCRM claims about cheese on their billboards instead of the science. Poor journalism in my opinion Billboards Slather On The Guilt With Anti-Cheese Campaign : The Salt : NPR
• PLoS ONE: Mimicry of Food Intake: The Dynamic Interplay between Eating Companions
• Interesting about treating to cardiovascular risk (multiple risk factors) instead of to target LDL levels Hayward and Krumholz: Open Letter to the Adult Treatment Panel IV of the National Institutes of Health « Marilyn Mann’s Blog

• people are irrational, part eleventy million There Are No Fetal Cells In Soda, But Fear Is A Real Threat To Biotech – Forbes
• Huge Study Finds Risk Factors Do In Fact Predict Risk
• more evidence in humans Brown Fat Burns Ordinary Fat, Study Finds
• PLoS ONE: Modulation of miRNA Expression by Dietary Polyphenols in apoE Deficient Mice: A New Mechanism of the Action of Polyphenols
• the 1500mg/day sodium goal set for a subpopulation of Americans is not compatible with the 2010 dietary guidelines for nutrient-adequate diets, concludes this study A conflict between nutritionally adequate diet and meeting the 2010 dietary guidelines for sodium [Am J Prev Med. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI

The prospective study consisted of 2,564 subjects who went through interviews, physical examinations, and some measurements between 1993 and 2001 (average follow-up was 9.8 years). A food frequency questionnaire estimated their consumption of regular or diet soda consumption as well as other dietary factors. They were screened annually after this- but not for soda intake, which was only collected at baseline and correlated with future events, which is a major weakness of studies like these. Vascular events included stroke, heart attacks, or vascular death.

They performed multivariate analyses to adjust for a number of possible confounders, but it is always possible there are habits associated with diet soda consumption that aren’t controlled for. For example, before adjustment, the authors found that frequent diet soda consumption was associated with former smoking, hypertension, elevated blood sugar, lower HDL, elevated triglycerides, increased waist circumference, BMI, peripheral vascular disease, previous cardiac disease, and the metabolic syndrome. So right there we know that 1 or few studies on this topic is not going to be enough for strong conclusions because of so many potential confounders. Importantly, different study designs and potential mechanisms (of which are lacking, which also should weaken conclusions of a link) should build an evidence-base that collectively suggests that there might be a risk of diet soda and vascular disease. This one study is fine by itself- but the conclusions being drawn in the press are not.

They found no association between regular sugary soda consumption and risk of vascular events at any dose of consumption, which is surprising given previous research that has demonstrated consistent associations, and should raise the question about why fact went relatively unnoticed. In fact, light regular soda consumption was associated with a reduced risk. Diet soda was positive for vascular events at all but 1 dose (the lightest consumers) in all of the statistical models they did. Of note, however, the number of subjects and events in the group consuming the most diet drinks was quite small (163 subjects, 51 events).

As the authors point out, their study is the first to specifically examine the relationship between vascular events and diet soda consumption. But one with coronary heart disease has been studied in the nurses health cohort, with neutral results after similar statistical adjustments. In other words, there was no relationship between diet soda and heart disease. The authors note:

“Beyond the inherent differences between our NOMAS cohort and the NHS in terms of age, sex, race-ethnic composition, and sample size, reasons for the discrepant results for the association between diet soft drinks and cardiovascular disease are not immediately obvious, underscoring the need for further study in other cohorts.”

On the other hand, several other studies have found positive associations between diet soda consumption and risk of metabolic syndrome in the Framingham cohort, the MESA cohort (also increased diabetes risk), and the ARIC study. However, they all caution on interpretation- it could simply be that diet soda consumption is a marker of poor diet/lifestyle habits and residual confounding by unknown variables (there may be many) that aren’t statistically controlled for could explain the results. This is why we need more research before drawing conclusions.

An important thing to note is the weak mechanistic explanations. The relationship could be real, but it also could be an artifact; some strong mechanisms could strengthen the theory, but there aren’t any. They cite the fact that research suggests artificial sweeteners increase (or at least don’t decrease) body weight (good review here), but they controlled for that. They suggest the caramel coloring could influence but through glycation but I am skeptical and this should be apparent in the regular group as well (they didn’t analyze for it either). Overall it is not convincing.

Reference

Gardener, H., Rundek, T., Markert, M., Wright, C., Elkind, M., & Sacco, R. (2012). Diet Soft Drink Consumption is Associated with an Increased Risk of Vascular Events in the Northern Manhattan Study Journal of General Internal Medicine DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1968-2

• A large position paper: Pesticides and Health, myths vs. realities
• EDIT: See comments about the group who wrote this paper
• Another lab shows beetroot juice (dietary nitrate) benefits on endurance (cycling) performance Nitrate Supplementation’s Impro… [Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI
• Emily Willingham published a great piece about the shoddy Atlantic article mentioned last week Genetically modified foods: Ari Laux’s alarmism in the Atlantic – Slate Magazine
• Another study finds microRNA in breast milk Immune-related MicroRNAs are Abundant in Breast Milk Exosomes [Int J Biol Sci. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI (older one here)
• More information on the resveratrol research fraud Red Wine and Lies – Percolator – The Chronicle of Higher Education
• 13.8% of Americans (NHANES sample) had antinuclear antibodies and they are lower in overweight/obese- wonder what that means Prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of antinuclear antibodies in the United States – Satoh – Arthritis & Rheumatism – Wiley Online Library
• Yoni has a rational take on Paula Deen: Paula Deen has diabetes and takes Victoza, so what?

It uses NCBI E-Utilities, javascript, and Google Spreadsheets to automate tracking of paper count in the pubmed database for a number of search terms. Right now I have embedded on the page 4 spreadsheets, which show the following:

1. Number of papers so far in 2012 for 50 random terms compared to 2011 on the same day (uses the current date). With this we can see the change in % difference between the two years each day (it refreshes daily).
2. This one is a publicly editable spreadsheet that is the same setup as (1) but anyone can enter their own search terms.
3. The same idea as (2) but searchable by author.
4. The last uses the same 50 random terms as (1) and calculates the slope and R^2 values of the linear regression of the paper counts over 6 years (2005-2011).

This is very much in the early stages, but hopefully it will become more useful in the future. Let me know if you have any requests/ideas in the comments here or on that page.

• This nonsensical story caused a huge backlash last week- I linked to some telling comments after the article The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods – Ari LeVaux – Health – The Atlantic
• This was a great response The Biology Files: Why did The Atlantic publish this piece trying to link miRNAs and GMOs?
• I have read the paper too and agree with Emily’s post.
• Monsanto even put out a comment: Paper on miRNA danger from food – Monsanto
• A big news story of last week, still developing: UConn resveratrol researcher Dipak Das fingered in sweeping misconduct case « Retraction Watch Lots more at Retraction Watch if you’re interested.
• The Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum
• Is animal cruelty illegal but ethical? The Business Ethics Blog
• Programming of adipose tissue miR-483-3p and GDF-3 expression by maternal diet in type 2 diabetes. [Cell Death Differ. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI
• A smack-down on bad reporting Red wine research DOESN’T show it can ‘reduce breast cancer risk’ : Cancer Research UK – Cancer Research UK – Science Update blog
• This long report contains some good nutrition related research summaries AHA update “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2012 Update

• n3 PUFA suppresses TH17 cells in a mouse model of colitis, by the mechanism maybe it would benefit in celiac too? Th17 Cell Accumulation Is Decreased during Chronic Ex… [J Nutr. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI
• a 6-month RCT of several beverages showed that 1 liter of soda per day increased ectopic but not total fat mass increased Sucrose-sweetened beverages increase fat stor… [Am J Clin Nutr. 2011] – PubMed – NCBI
• Was wondering what was next after the initial RCT showed no metabolic benefits Can Brown Rice Slow the Spread of Type 2 Diabetes? – January 03, 2012 -Features – News at HSPH – Harvard School of Public Health
• Don’t ice before exercise, at least: Why Ice May Be Bad For Sore Muscles
• A nice post by Orac that could be said within nutritional practices too: Revisiting the question of “individualization” of treatments in “alternative” medicine : Respectful Insolence
• new analysis of the EPIC data shows that baseline fruit/veg intake not associated with self-reported weight change Fruit and vegetable consumption and prospective weight change in participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition–Physical Activity, Nutrition, Alcohol, Cessation of Smoking, Eating Out of Home, and Obesity study haven’t had a chance to read it yet, wondering if measuring only baseline intake is reliable enough.

  
  

This year I changed the blog domain to nutsci.org and hope to continue highlighting interesting research as I have time.

Favorite Post Topics

I didn’t write as many posts this year, choosing to transition to more in depth posts instead of on single studies. Here are my favorites:

• Evidence that paternal diet can influence offspring through epigenetic mechanisms: A low-protein paternal diet alters hepatic gene expressions in progeny
• Also in epigenetics: Generational increases in stochastic epigenetic variability to sustained methyl donor supplementation in mice
• A little food science: Why chocolate pudding can turn green
• Distraction during eating reduces fullness & increases subsequent consumption
• This study seemed to go under most people’s radars: Energy expenditure and physical activity level are not higher in developing countries compared to industrialized
• And semi-related: Increase in number of eating occasions, more than increases in food portion sizes or energy density per meal responsible for increased energy intake at the population level?
• A couple related posts on “antioxidants”
• Uric acid, not flavonoids increases antioxidant capacity from (apple) juice
• “Antioxidants” in chocolate (and fruit): don’t buy the hype (a good example of corporate influence in research)
• Larry Parnell’s group published a: Gene-environment interaction database related to nutritional phenotypes
• They also published a paper about: PLIN4 allele-specific influence on microRNA binding has subtle effects on obesity phenotypes
• This will be important for nutritional research: Human serum metabolome (better) quantified
• Athletes: obey your thirst
• Evidence-based nutrition: is proof of efficacy for nutrients too high?
• This got the most traffic; fats are still a hotly contested subject: A consensus paper on dietary fats and cardiovascular disease
• There was also the: Latest Cochrane review on dietary fats and cardiovascular disease
• And: The Great Fat Debate
• Travis Saunders of Obesity Panacea and I ripped into a nonsensical article by the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health: Why the “chocolate milk diet” won’t work
• I critiqued a poor article at Scientific American: Shaky science journalism at SciAm on salt
• Related: Latest salt Cochrane review including non-blood pressure surrogates
• Some literature reviews:
• Hedonic hunger is increased with obesity and normalized with gastric bypass surgery
• Dietary sulforaphane reduces oxidative stress in diabetes
• Dairy/calcium may reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in metabolic syndrome
• For all of 2011′s posts, click here.

Favorite Bloggers of 2011:

Here are some new additions to my favorite bloggers list related to nutrition/health (in no particular order):

• Travis and Peter at Obesity Panacea have an awesome blog on obesity topics.
• Yoni at Weighty Matters unfortunately (but not really) has to blog daily because there is so much nonsense to tackle.
• Larry Parnell’s Variable Genome is a resource for some nutrigenomics-related research.
• Keith Grimaldi’s Eurogene has some excellent information on the intersection of genetic testing and nutrition and I hope he shares more this year.
• Marion Nestle’s Food Politics, essential for keeping up with political issues.
• SweatScience by Alex Hutchinson, who seems to be well-read in all areas of exercise research (and occasionally blogs on nutrition).
• Biofortified, a group blog started by Karl Haro von Mogel and Anastasia Bodnar which has really grown in the last year.
• Tidbits on Health by David Despain- easy to read science journalism.
• CarbSanity- Evelyn has some impressive knowledge and guts to take on faulty logic of some internet communities
• James at Weightology is worth paying for for fitness/nutrition research dissection.

Favorite Twitter-ers of 2011:

I maintain a list of my favorite nutrition/health related scientists, researchers, and professionals here. But i’ll list some here:

New this year:

@KLomangino, @PharmacistScott, @gmopundit, @mem_somerville, @jillyparns, @PaulBoisvert, @DrDavidKatz, @MarkHaub_KSU, @MegPopHealth, @pennydeck, @jordovas56, @food_ethics

And from last year’s list:

@TravisSaunders, @sweatscience, @geneticmaize, @YoniFreedhoff, @DrSharma, @daviddespain, @pvanbaarlen, @larry_parnell, @marionnestle, @nutrigenomics, @eurogene, @PMJaniszewski, @stevemagness, @k_hettinga, @Weightology

Like I said last year, I can’t thank all of these people (and those who I inevitably forgot to list) enough for using social media and sharing all the important information that they do! They all give important insight into science and health and have impacted me greatly in my learning. Here is to another great year!

-Colby