Search Results (7,091)

Conventional milling separates the wheat germ and bran from the endosperm to obtain white semolina; although these fractions retain recognized nutritional value, a substantial share is still diverted to feed and other comparatively low-value uses rather than into food for direct human consumption. In this Perspective we ask whether recovering a larger share of these fractions—through a controlled industrial sequence of selection, de-oiling and physical fractionation—can be turned into a functional ingredient, commercialized as “altograno”, that improves the health profile of an ordinary pasta without compromising palatability or shelf stability. To address this objective we proceed in a fixed analytical sequence: what the product is and what a habitual portion actually delivers; a nutrient-by-nutrient appraisal graded by level of evidence; the biological mechanisms from the intestinal lumen to the hepatocyte; and only then the clinical endpoint. The evidence base integrates two complementary studies of one product line from the Casillo Next Gen Food chain: a full nutritional, microbiological and gastrointestinal characterization in healthy volunteers, and a double-blind randomized controlled trial with in vitro hepatocyte evidence in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS), with and without major psychiatric disorders (MPDs). Because the clinically tested product (67% semolina, 27% de-oiled wheat germ, 6% microencapsulated wheat-germ oil) shares the same nominal formulation as the germ-plus-oil pasta (EP3) of the characterization study—although the measured nutritional values reported in the two papers differ, so the two products cannot be regarded as analytically identical—the two datasets can be read together, with due caution, across kernel processing, composition, hepatocellular mechanism and gut-microbiota switching to a clinical endpoint: a ~13.5% fall in non-HDL cholesterol, roughly 2.5-fold greater than with conventional pasta, with no statistically significant interaction with the polygenic risk score detected, and paralleled by normalized hepatocyte lipid loading in vitro. We argue that de-oiling is best understood as a deliberate technological optimization—trading a portion of labile lipids for stability and standardization while recovering the bioactive oil for protected re-addition—and that this evidence, while still preliminary on several fronts, supports dedicated, mechanistically instrumented clinical development of upcycled-kernel staples rather than establishing these products as proven therapeutic tools. Full article

Senotherapeutic agents targeting senescent cell (SnC) accumulation represent a promising frontier in aging research. These agents encompass senolytics that selectively eliminate accumulated SnCs and senomorphics that suppress the pathological persistence of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Concerns regarding off-target effects of synthetic senolytics have intensified interest in plant-derived alternatives that offer multitargeted mechanisms and favorable safety profiles. This scoping review was conducted following Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and PRISMA-ScR, mapped preclinical evidence on plant-derived senotherapeutics published between 2015 and 2025 across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Wiley Library and Google Scholar. Of 1355 identified articles, 111 studies met inclusion criteria. Most characterized compound classes included flavonoids, non-flavonoid polyphenols and stilbenes, terpenoids and alkaloids, and combination and complex plant extracts. Mechanistically, BCL-2/BCL-XL apoptosis, PI3K/AKT/mTOR and p53/p21/p16^INK4a modulation emerged as senolytic mechanisms, while NF-κB-mediated SASP suppression predominated among senomorphic agents. Ginkgetin-mediated cyclic GMP-AMP-synthase–stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) inhibition was identified as a mechanistically novel target within natural senotherapy. Metabolomics demonstrated dual utility in guiding compound discovery from complex plant matrices (e.g., phenolamides from Allium hookeri) and mechanistic validation by characterizing senescence-associated metabolic remodeling, including retinoic acid metabolism restoration, lipotoxic metabolites attenuation, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and choline-betaine-TCA cascade regulation. However, challenges in pharmacokinetic optimization, methodological heterogeneity in senescence induction and biomarker panels persist. Plant-derived senotherapy characterized through metabolomics-guided pipelines provides a compelling foundation for their progression toward clinical validation and functional food applications as accessible interventions for healthy aging and age-related disease management. Full article

Behavioural nudges modify choice architecture to steer food choices without removing alternatives or substantially changing economic incentives. This critical narrative review synthesises 62 sources from behavioural public policy, public health nutrition, food ethics, and sustainable food-system governance. It distinguishes healthy food nudges, sustainable food nudges, green nudges, and responsible food-system interventions, and compares availability, placement, defaults, labels, digital architecture, and mixed policy packages. The evidence shows that nudges influence immediate food selection, but effects are heterogeneous and weaker for sustained environmental outcomes. Price instruments address affordability, nudges address attention and convenience, and boosts strengthen decision competence; none can substitute for the others. Ethical acceptability requires a transparent, calibrated opt-out process, equity monitoring, disclosure of commercial motives, democratic accountability, and integration with structural policy. Public institutions and profit-driven digital platforms therefore require different governance safeguards. Nudges are most defensible as components of coordinated food-system policy rather than stand-alone solutions. Full article

Objective: To synthesise contemporary Australian evidence on how local governments act to support healthier, sustainable and equitable food environments, and to examine the governance arrangements, policy and planning levers, monitoring practices, and implementation conditions shaping local action. Methods: A rapid review of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2015 and February 2026 was performed. Searches were conducted in Medline Complete, CINAHL Complete, Health Policy Reference Centre and Scopus, alongside structured grey literature searches. Included documents addressed Australian LG food environment roles, policies, planning, governance, or monitoring. Findings were narratively synthesised and mapped to national research priorities. Results: Thirty-eight documents were included (23 peer-reviewed studies and 15 grey literature reports). Evidence clustered most strongly around food systems and food security, governance and multisectoral partnerships, and food environment monitoring, particularly food access profiling, affordability monitoring and mapping activities. In contrast, the extent of coverage on statutory planning mechanisms, formal regulatory powers, and consumer behaviour outcomes was limited. Reports of evaluated interventions were concentrated in bounded organisational settings where councils held clearer jurisdiction, such as sport and recreation facilities. Across contexts, LGs were commonly positioned as convenors, brokers and enablers operating within constrained mandates and fragmented multi-level governance settings. Reported enablers included leadership, dedicated resourcing, partnerships and access to local data; common barriers included limited statutory authority, short-term funding and weak vertical policy integration. Conclusions: Australian local governments are active food system actors, but stronger statutory integration, clearer decision pathways, and more consistent monitoring and evaluation are needed to translate local activity into sustained improvements in healthy, sustainable and equitable food environments. Full article

Background/Objectives: Diet is recognized as an important determinant of cardiometabolic health, yet evidence from Middle Eastern populations remains scarce. This cross-sectional study investigated the association between a Prudent dietary pattern and multiple indicators of obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in a metabolically healthy Qatari cohort. Methods: Data were obtained from 6919 Qatari adults from the Qatar Biobank study. Participants with diagnosed metabolic disorders, pregnancy, or non-fasting blood samples were excluded. Anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical measurements were collected using standardized protocols. Dietary intake was assessed using a 102-item food frequency questionnaire, and a Prudent dietary pattern was derived through factor loadings analysis. Participants were categorized into low and high intake groups of the Prudent dietary pattern. Associations between the Prudent dietary pattern and cardiometabolic markers were examined using generalized linear models adjusted for age, sex, adiposity, and physical activity with Bonferroni correction applied for multiple testing. Results: After correction for multiple testing, greater adherence to the Prudent dietary pattern was significantly associated with lower fat mass index (β = −0.02, p = 0.0001), fasting insulin (β = −0.05, p = 0.0021), and higher fat-free mass (β = 0.01, p = 5.7 × 10⁻⁵). Conclusions: Overall, in a metabolically healthy Qatari population, greater compliance to a Prudent dietary pattern was favorably associated with fat and muscle mass, and insulin regulation after adjusting for age, sex, BMI and physical activity. These findings support the role of dietary habits in greater cardiometabolic health in Middle Eastern Arab populations. Full article

Obesity is currently recognized as a global epidemic and contributes to numerous health complications. It is strongly associated with poor dietary habits, including the widespread availability and consumption of high-calorie foods. We conducted a narrative review of publications from major biomedical databases addressing obesity treatment and public-health interventions. One of the strategies for managing obesity is lifestyle modification—balanced diet and regular physical activity—supported by pharmacological and psychological treatment, and, in selected patients, metabolic and bariatric surgery. Beyond patient-level care, public-health-oriented measures should be considered, including taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages, restriction on advertising of unhealthy foods, regulation of the school food environment, front-of-pack nutrition labelling, mandatory food reformulation, subsidies and incentives for healthy foods, urban-planning policies that promote physical activity, and policies that expand access to bariatric surgery. A comprehensive approach integrating clinical care with public-health policy is likely to yield more effective outcomes than either alone. Full article

Identifying plant health conditions is an emerging precision-agriculture and food-security challenge, intensified by deploying deep-learning models on memory- and power-constrained edge devices. We present a TinyMLOps pipeline spanning model design, optimization, quantization, and deployment across diverse edge devices, evaluated under controlled laboratory conditions. Using a dataset derived from the PlantVillage benchmark, 39 fine-grained classes are aggregated into three superclasses: healthy leaf, unhealthy leaf, and no leaves. The resulting system therefore performs plant health-status classification and background filtering rather than diagnosing specific diseases. We train a MobileNet-based convolutional neural network jointly optimized for classification accuracy and computational efficiency, adopting state-of-the-art hyperparameter optimization (HPO) tools. Five models are selected, four from the Pareto Front and one as the biggest evaluated model during HPO, converted to LiteRT and ONNX, and evaluated at float32 and post-training int8 precision on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and an STM32H743ZI microcontroller. At float32, LiteRT is 1.87–2.65× faster than ONNX Runtime on the Raspberry Pi across all five models. Relative to their float32 LiteRT counterparts, the int8 LiteRT models are 2.83–3.67× smaller on disk and 21.3–31.2% faster on the same board, at a cost in F1-score of between 0.0010 and 0.0068. On the microcontroller, only the two smallest models deploy at both precisions; for these, the fully quantized int8 variants are $4.3\times$ faster and 3.85× smaller in MCU flash footprint than the float32 counterparts. The mid-range model fits the 2 MB flash and 1 MB RAM budget only when quantized, while the two largest models exceed it in every configuration tested. Full article

Background: Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption may be associated not only with nutrition knowledge but also with individuals’ practical food-related competencies and overall dietary patterns. Aim: This study investigated how cooking and food skills, dietary literacy, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet were related to UPF consumption among adults in İstanbul, Türkiye. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 293 (85.7% female, mean age of 22.63 ± 4.66 years) adults residing in Istanbul, Türkiye between 1 January 2026 and 30 June 2026. Data were collected through an online questionnaire comprising sociodemographic and food-related characteristics, the Cooking Skills and Food Skills Measure, the e-Healthy Diet Literacy Scale (e-HDL), the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), and the Short Screening Questionnaire of Highly Processed Food Consumption (sQ-HPF). Validated Turkish versions of all instruments were used; no measurement tool was developed specifically for this study. Results: 57.0% of participants were classified as having a high level of UPF consumption. The high level of UPF consumption group was younger, cooked at home less frequently, ordered food more frequently, and had lower cooking skills, food skills, and MEDAS scores compared to the low level of UPF consumption group (all p < 0.05). UPF consumption was negatively correlated with food skills (r: −0.33), MEDAS (r = −0.28), cooking skills (r = −0.27), age (r = −0.21), and home-cooking frequency (r = −0.18) and positively correlated with food-ordering frequency (r = 0.18). In the final regression model, younger age (β = −0.144, p = 0.009), lower food skills (β = −0.325, p < 0.001), and lower MEDAS scores (β = −0.252, p < 0.001) were independently associated with higher UPF consumption. E-HDL was not independently associated with UPF consumption. The final model explained 18.4% of the adjusted variance. Conclusions: Among this predominantly young and female sample of adults residing in Istanbul, lower food skills and lower Mediterranean diet adherence co-occurred with higher UPF consumption. Although the direction of these associations cannot be determined, the findings may inform future strategies that integrate nutrition education with practical food preparation support and the promotion of Mediterranean-style food choices. Full article

Background/Objectives: There is continuing debate regarding the association between added sugars (AS) consumption and overall diet quality, which remains a research gap within the Canadian population. This study aimed to assess the association between intakes of added sugars and the Healthy Eating Food Index (HEFI) 2019 that measures adherence to Canada’s Food Guide as an indicator of diet quality. Methods: The first 24 h dietary recalls of Canadians 2 years and older (n = 19,532) from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey—Nutrition were used. Added sugars intakes were calculated based on a systematic 10-step algorithm. Descriptive statistics were obtained for total HEFI and component scores across different AS intake categories. The association between AS categories and HEFI scores was tested using a generalized linear model adjusted for age, sex, education level, type of smoker, and misreporting status. Results: The association between continuous AS intake and HEFI scores was non-linear. In the categorical model, AS intake categories were inversely associated with HEFI scores among Canadians (R² = 0.32, p < 0.001). Large overlaps in HEFI scores were observed among individuals with similar AS intakes for the whole population and each age group. Among high AS consumers (>15% EI), lower HEFI scores were largely due to higher proportions of sweetened beverages (i.e., low beverage scores) and lower intakes of vegetables and fruit and plant-based proteins. Scores for protein food and whole grains were low across all AS intake categories. Conclusions: Large variations in overall HEFI scores were observed amongst those with similar AS intakes, suggesting that added sugars alone may not fully capture overall diet quality or adherence to Canada’s Food Guide. Full article

Bamboo fibers are increasingly incorporated into food products as sustainable dietary fiber ingredients, yet their gastrointestinal digestion resistance and fermentative behavior by human gut microbiota remain insufficiently characterized. This study combined an INFOGEST-based in vitro digestion protocol with colonic fermentation using fecal microbiota from three healthy donors as an exploratory donor panel. Bamboo fibers were resistant to salivary, gastric, and intestinal enzymatic hydrolysis, as demonstrated by the absence of structural modifications in FTIR spectra, preserved morphology observed by scanning electron microscopy, and negligible release of reducing sugars (<0.1 g/L across all digestive phases), in contrast to extensively hydrolyzed wheat starch used as a positive control. During in vitro colonic fermentation, microbial responses were strongly dependent on substrate availability. In nutrient-limited minimal medium, bamboo fiber supplementation increased gas production, acidification, and SCFA formation compared with control conditions. Concomitantly, SCFA concentrations increased under minimal-medium conditions, although the magnitude of the response varied among donors, with the strongest changes observed for donor 1 (acetate reaching 5.4 vs. 3.3 g/L and propionate 1.48 vs. 0.76 g/L). These effects were markedly attenuated in nutrient-rich medium, indicating competition with readily fermentable substrates. Beta-diversity analyses and metagenomic profiling revealed that microbial community composition clustered primarily according to donor identity rather than experimental conditions. SEM further showed surface erosion and microbial attachment on fermented fibers, supporting partial structural alteration. Overall, bamboo fibers are resistant to upper gastrointestinal digestion but display context-dependent fermentative activity by human gut microbiota under carbohydrate-limited conditions, highlighting the importance of inter-individual variability, dietary context and substrate availability in determining their fermentative potential. Full article

Objectives: This study examined component-level relationships among mindful eating, disordered eating attitudes, and risk of exercise addiction (REA) in recreational exercisers. Using Bayesian Gaussian network analysis, the study aimed to identify conditional associations and central variables across these constructs. Methods: Data were collected from 303 regular exercisers in Türkiye aged 18–57 years (M = 24.42, SD = 7.10; 57.8% male, 42.2% female). Participants completed the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26), the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ), and the Expanded Exercise Addiction Inventory-3 (EAI-3), with all subscales entered as nodes in a 12-node Bayesian Gaussian network. The estimated network contained 22 nonzero edges among 66 possible connections (sparsity = 0.667), indicating a moderately sparse structure. The robustness of the recovered structure was examined against a regularized frequentist counterpart and against models adjusting for age, sex, and exercise frequency/duration. Results: The strongest conditional associations occurred within rather than between instruments: EAT-26 Restriction (Diet/Calorie Control) and EAT-26 Bulimia and Food Preoccupation, EAI-3 Healthy Relevance and EAI-3 Addiction Tendency, MEQ Eating without Thinking and MEQ Emotional Eating, and EAT-26 Bulimia and Food Preoccupation and EAT-26 Social Pressure. Cross-domain associations were present but consistently weaker, with the mindful-eating and exercise-addiction domains bridged principally by MEQ Eating Discipline–EAI-3 Healthy Relevance and MEQ Conscious Eating–EAI-3 Addiction Tendency. Two negative edges emerged, between EAT-26 Social Pressure and EAI-3 Healthy Relevance and between EAT-26 Bulimia and Food Preoccupation and MEQ External Influences. EAT-26 Bulimia and Food Preoccupation showed the highest standardized strength, whereas MEQ Conscious Eating showed the strongest expected influence, and MEQ External Influences showed the highest betweenness. Conclusions: Exercise-addiction risk was selectively and modestly linked to eating-related components rather than to global disordered eating or mindful eating, with each instrument retaining substantial internal cohesion. The findings highlight the value of component-level Bayesian Gaussian network analysis for identifying candidate components associated with REA, with implications for screening and the design of future prospective and intervention studies. Because the EAI-3 subscales differ in valence, the Healthy Relevance dimension is interpreted as reflecting health-oriented exercise involvement rather than pathology. Finally, since the network is cross-sectional and undirected, the associations are non-causal, and generalizability is limited to recreational exerciser populations in Türkiye. Full article

Chronic noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cancer, constitute leading causes of global mortality, with suboptimal diet identified as a primary modifiable risk factor. Plant-based dietary patterns (PBDPs) can be conceptualized along a continuum of quality, with whole-food PBDPs consistently linked to lower risks of CVD, T2D, and all-cause mortality, though much of this evidence derives from studies of vegan or healthy plant-based dietary index patterns rather than whole-plant-food diets directly. Evidence further indicates that minimizing or eliminating added salt, oil, and sugar (SOS) within whole-food PBDPs may provide additional cardiometabolic benefits, primarily by favorably modifying three graded intermediate biomarkers: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), blood pressure (BP), and adiposity. Dietary sodium increases BP in a linear, dose-dependent manner and enhances food palatability, potentially promoting passive overconsumption and increased adiposity. Although added oil is preferable to saturated fat for LDL-C reduction, preliminary evidence suggests that adding olive oil to an already oil-restricted whole-food PBDP may reduce its LDL-C and body-weight benefits; these findings are hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in larger, longer-term trials. Whole-food fat sources such as nuts and seeds may offer cardiovascular benefits at least equivalent to those of oils, without this attenuating effect. Added sugar promotes excess caloric intake, contributing to increased adiposity, and may impair insulin sensitivity; these effects are most clearly and consistently established for sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), whereas the evidence for solid added sugars is weaker and may depend more on excess energy intake and broader dietary context. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from systematic reviews, meta-analyses, Mendelian randomization studies, and key clinical trials to evaluate whether whole-food PBDPs minimizing or eliminating SOS may provide incremental benefit for chronic disease risk reduction and management compared to whole-food PBDPs that include these additives. Direct long-term randomized evidence comparing SOS-restricted to SOS-inclusive whole-food PBDPs remains limited, and the possible incremental benefit of SOS restriction within an already health-promoting dietary pattern warrants further investigation. Complete SOS elimination has not yet been shown to provide incremental benefit beyond a high-quality PBDP, and any benefit is likely greatest in individuals with hypertension, obesity, elevated cardiometabolic risk, or high baseline SOS intake. Full article

This study investigated the effects of dietary protein levels and arginine supplementation on growth performance, nitrogen metabolism, serum biochemical indices, inflammatory markers, gut microbiota, and fecal metabolomic profiles in growing beagles. Sixty healthy beagles were assigned to six dietary treatments in a 2 × 3 factorial design: two crude protein levels (normal, 22%; low, 18%) and three arginine supplementation levels (0%, 0.266%, 0.532%) over 45 days. Growth performance and nutrient digestibility were not significantly affected by diet. Low-protein diets reduced nitrogen intake and excretion while increasing biological value, indicating improved nitrogen utilization. Serum total cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, and creatinine were influenced by protein and arginine levels, and inflammatory markers TNF-α and IL-6 were modulated by their interaction. Gut microbiota composition was altered at the taxonomic level but not at the level of the overall structure; arginine supplementation increased microbial richness under normal protein conditions. Fecal metabolomic analysis showed that arginine mainly affected amino acid metabolism, mineral absorption, and bile acid pathways, whereas protein reduction impacted lipid metabolism, bile secretion, and energy-related pathways. Overall, reducing dietary protein to 18% improved nitrogen utilization without impairing growth. Among the six dietary treatments, the normal-protein diet supplemented with moderate arginine (22% CP + 0.266% L-arginine, 1.10% total arginine) was associated with the most balanced overall physiological response. Metabolomic findings from the four selected dietary groups provided additional evidence that dietary protein and arginine modulated distinct metabolic pathways, although these findings should be interpreted within the scope of the selected-group comparison. These results provide a practical basis for optimizing amino acid balance and nitrogen utilization in growing dogs and may contribute to the development of more precise and sustainable pet food formulations. Full article

Background/Objectives: Vascular endothelial dysfunction is an early marker of cardiovascular disease. Lycopene, a naturally red carotenoid with strong antioxidant activity, may improve vascular endothelial function. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined lycopene’s effects on vascular endothelial function in healthy adults in the context of cardiovascular risk assessment. Methods: In June 2026, we searched four literature databases (Ichushi-Web, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Global Index Medicus), three clinical trial registries (International Clinical Trial Registry Platform, ClinicalTrials.gov, and University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry), and notification information for Foods with Function Claims, using peer-reviewed search strategies. We extracted human intervention studies assessing oral lycopene intake and vascular endothelial function. Two authors independently selected eligible studies and assessed the risk of bias. Data were pooled as mean differences (MDs) and analyzed using a random-effects model. The protocol was registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000058348). Results: Six studies were included in this systematic review. A meta-analysis of four continuous (≥7 days) lycopene-containing product intake studies measuring flow-mediated dilation (FMD) (n = 182) revealed a significant increase in FMD (MD = 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 0.20, 2.51, p = 0.02). The certainty of the evidence across the four studies was limited and moderate. One study not included in the meta-analysis showed that 15 mg of lycopene intake for 8 weeks significantly increased the reactive hyperemia peripheral arterial tonometry index. Conclusions: This systematic review/meta-analysis with limited and moderate certainty evidence suggests that the continuous intake of lycopene-containing products may have beneficial effects on vascular endothelial function in healthy adults. However, the findings were derived from a small-scale meta-analysis in which the result was no longer statistically significant after the exclusion of one study. Full article

Globally, school meals have formed a social safety net for improving children’s nutrition, health, and educational attainment. In Aotearoa New Zealand, government funded lunches for children attending schools in low-income neighbourhoods were introduced in 2020, amidst rising poverty levels and consequent household food insecurity. The aspirations encapsulated within the scheme’s indigenous Māori name, ‘Ka Ora, Ka Ako’ (‘to be well, healthy and safe; to be ready to learn’) have lost focus since reforms to the lunches in 2024 prioritised cost savings, resulting in widely publicised quality issues. This present study draws from a critical multi-level investigation into the issue of hungry children in New Zealand schools, prior to the introduction of ‘Ka Ora, Ka Ako’. Narrative analysis identified how food in schools has been conceptualised within the context of a settler colonial charity model and neoliberal austerity. Applying a critical community psychology lens highlights how burnt and meagre lunches offered to children from food insecure households are a concrete product of historically grounded, unequal relations between groups. A community psychology approach reimagines state-funded food in schools as a public good, arguing for equitable rights to nutrition, including recognition of Māori rights to food sovereignty. Full article