A recent opinion piece published in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism has suggested that artificial sweetener consumption increases the risk of certain health outcomes, including “excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.” Susan Swithers, “Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements,” Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, July 2013. Authored by Purdue University Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience Susan Swithers, the article hypothesizes that “consuming sweet-tasting but noncaloric or reduced-calorie food and beverages interferes with learned responses that normally contribute to glucose and energy homeostasis.” To this end, Swithers points to several prospective cohort and interventional studies linking artificially-sweetened beverages to “a variety of negative health outcomes,” as well as research examining physiological responses to high-intensity sweeteners, which are “largely inert with regard to effects on glucose homeostasis because they do not reliably elicit post-ingestive responses similar to caloric sugars.” Based on these findings, she argues…
Category Archives Scientific/Technical Items
A recent study examining the prevalence of methicillin and multidrug resistant Staphyloccocus aureus (MRSA and MDRSA) among farm workers has reported that livestock-associated strains of both bacteria were present only in individuals employed at “industrial livestock operations” (ILOs) and not those employed at “antibiotic-free livestock operations” (AFLOs). Jessica Rinsky, et al., “Livestock-Associated Methicillin and Multidrug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Is Present among Industrial, Not Antibiotic-Free Livestock Operation Workers in North Carolina,” PLoS One, July 2013. Researchers with the University of North Carolina, George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health reportedly examined nasal swab samples from 99 ILO and 105 AFLO workers, finding that of the 41 ILO and 42 AFLO workers carrying S. aureus bacteria, 7 percent of each group tested positive for MRSA. In addition, the study’s authors identified MDRSA in 37 percent of ILO S. aureus carriers and 19 percent of AFLO S. aureus carriers, noting…
A recent study examining the effects of low- and high-carbohydrate foods on brain activity has purportedly concluded that meals with a high glycemic index (GI) “decreased plasma glucose, increased hunger, and selectively stimulated brain regions associated with reward and craving in the last postprandial period, which is a time with special significance to eating behavior at the next meal.” Belinda Lennerz, et al., “Effects of dietary glycemic index on brain regions related to reward and craving in men,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2013. Led by New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Director David Ludwig, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to analyze the brain activity of 12 overweight or obese men during the four-hour period following consumption of either a low-GI or high-GI milkshake. The results evidently showed that “cerebral blood flow was greater [four hours] after the high- than low-GI meal in the right nucleus accumbens,” a…
A new study examining the effect of diet on Alzheimer disease (AD) development has reportedly linked diets high in saturated fat to increased levels of lipid-depleted β-amyloid peptides (LD Aβ) in the brain. Angela Hanson, et al., “Effect of Apolipoprotein E Genotype and Diet on Apolipoprotein E Lipidation and Amyloid Peptides,” JAMA Neurology, June 2013. According to the study, which notes that the Aβ peptides partly responsible for AD “can be bound to lipids or to lipid carrier proteins, such as apolipoprotein E (ApoE), or be free in solution,” “levels of LD Aβ are higher in the plasma of adults with AD, but less is known about these peptides in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).” The researchers thus measured the levels of LD Aβ42, LD Aβ40 and ApoE in the CSF of 20 older adults with normal cognition and 27 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), with randomized members of…
A recent study has allegedly linked higher urinary bisphenol A (BPA) levels to a greater risk of obesity in adolescent girls, raising questions about whether BPA “could be a potential new environmental obesogen.” De-Kun Li, et al., “Urine Bisphenol-A Level in Relation to Obesity and Overweight in School-Age Children,” PLoS One, June 2012. Researchers with Kaiser Permanente apparently analyzed data from 1,325 students enrolled in grades four through 12 in Shanghai, China, to conclude that among girls ages 9-12, a urinary BPA level in excess of 2 µg/L “was associated with more than two-fold increased risk of having weight” greater than the 90th percentile of the underlying population. In addition, the study noted that the association “showed a dose-response relationship with increasing urine BPA level associated with further increased risk of overweight.” “This finding is consistent with findings in experimental animal studies where exposure to high BPA level led to…
A recent study has purportedly found that mice fed a high-fat diet supplemented with cocoa powder exhibited fewer indicators of obesity related inflammation and insulin resistance than mice raised on the high-fat diet alone. Yeyi Gu, et al., “Dietary cocoa ameliorates obesity related inflammation in high fat-fed mice,” European Journal of Nutrition, June 2013. According to a June 13, 2013, Penn State press release, the results evidently showed that for mice eating “the human equivalent of 10 tablespoons of cocoa powder—about four or five cups of hot cocoa—during a 10-week period,” cocoa supplementation (i) “significantly reduced the rate of body weight gain,” (ii) “attenuated insulin resistance,” (iii) “reduced the severity of obesity-related fatty liver disease,” (iv) “significantly decreased plasma levels of the pro inflammatory mediators interleukin-6 [and] monocyte chemoattractant protein-1,” and (vi) reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory genes “in the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of the epididymal white adipose tissue.”…
A recent study has allegedly linked di-2-ethyhexylphthalate (DEHP) exposure to elevated blood pressure (BP) in children, raising concerns about the effect of phthalates and other plastic additives on long-term heart health. Leonardo Trasande, et al., “Urinary Phthalates Are Associated with Higher Blood Pressure in Childhood,” The Journal of Pediatrics, May 2013. Researchers with the New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center, University of Washington, University of Cincinnati, and Penn State University apparently used urinary metabolite data from 3,000 children enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2008 to quantify exposure to three phthalate families, including DEHP. Although the results evidently found no association between the phthalates used in cosmetics and personal care products and increased BP, dietary exposure to DEHP was reportedly associated “with higher systolic BP in children and adolescents.” “Phthalates can inhibit the function of cardiac cells and cause oxidative stress that compromises the health of…
A recent study purportedly concluded that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a higher risk of kidney stone formation while consumption of other beverages such as coffee, tea, beer, and wine, is associated with a lower risk. Pietro Manuel Ferraro, et al., “Soda and Other Beverages and the Risk of Kidney Stones,” Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, May 2013. Conducted by a team of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the study analyzed the data of 194,095 participants from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) and the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II. Those who consumed one or more sugar-sweetened cola servings per day reportedly had a 23 percent higher risk of developing kidney stones compared to those who consumed less than one serving per week. The researchers observed that this was also true for consumption of sugar-sweetened non-cola beverages, such as punch. A lower risk of…
Three recent studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine have analyzed the nutritional content of restaurant and processed foods, raising questions about consumer, industry and government efforts to curb calorie, sodium and fat consumption. Authored by Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Executive Director Michael Jacobson and colleagues at George Washington University and Northwestern University, the first study examined changes in the sodium levels of identical processed and restaurant foods from 2005 to 2011. Michael Jacobson, et al., “Changes in Sodium Levels in Processed and Restaurant Foods, 2005 to 2011,” JAMA Internal Medicine, May 2013. Using data collected by CSPI, researchers reportedly found that “sodium content in 402 processed foods declined by approximately 3.5%, while the sodium content in 78 fast-food restaurant products increased by 2.6%.” Although the study also noted that salt content decreased by 30 percent in some products and increased by 30 percent in others, “the…
A recent study has reportedly concluded that while fewer food advertisements overall are shown during U.S. Spanish-language children’s TV programs than during similar English-language programs, “the nutritional quality of food products on Spanish-language channels was substantially poorer than on English channels.” Dale Kunkel, et al., “Food Marketing to Children on U.S. Spanish-Language Television,” Journal of Health Communications, May 2013. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the study analyzed 158 Spanish language children’s programs “for [their] advertising content and compared them with an equivalent sample of English-language advertising.” Researchers also evaluated the nutritional quality of the advertised products using a rating system developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that divides foods into three categories: Go (foods that are “rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories”), Slow (foods that are “higher in fat, added sugar and calories than Go foods”) and Whoa (foods that are…
