research on nutrition and health

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Nutrition articles from across Nature Portfolio

Nutrition is the organic process of nourishing or being nourished, including the processes by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance.

The dance of gut microbes on the keto diet

Li, Yang, Zhou et al. delve into the impact of a ketogenic diet on mice and humans, highlighting microbial contributions to taurine-conjugated bile acids as crucial catalysts for the metabolic benefits of this diet.

Food fortification programmes and zinc deficiency

The complex realities of most countries grappling with zinc deficiency pose challenges to the implementation of highly compliant, mandatory, large-scale food fortification programmes.

• Nicola M. Lowe
• Swarnim Gupta

Latest Research and Reviews

Burden and determinants of anemia among lactating women in Ethiopia: evidence from demographic health survey

• Selamawit Girma
• Neil Abdureshid

Nutritional load in post-prandial oxidative stress and the pathogeneses of diabetes mellitus

• Fangzhou He
• Weng Kung Peng

Effects of basic carbohydrate counting versus standard dietary care for glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes (The BCC Study): a randomised, controlled trial

• Bettina Ewers
• Martin B. Blond
• Tina Vilsbøll

Exploring the impact of maternal factors and dietary habits on human milk oligosaccharide composition in early breastfeeding among Mexican women

• Víctor H. Urrutia-Baca
• Janet A. Gutiérrez-Uribe
• Cristina Chuck-Hernández

AI nutrition recommendation using a deep generative model and ChatGPT

• Ilias Papastratis
• Dimitrios Konstantinidis
• Kosmas Dimitropoulos

Prediction the changes of anthropometric indices following a weight-loss diet in overweight and obese women by mathematical models

• Vahideh Ebrahimzadeh Attari
• Mahdieh Nourmohammadi
• Parya Esmaeili

News and Comment

Optimizing the design of time-restricted eating human trials

Time-restricted eating has become a popular diet for weight management and has spurred tremendous interest in the scientific community. The translation of results from TRE trials heavily depends on trial design. In this Comment, we provide general guidelines on optimizing the design and performance of time-restricted eating trials in human participants.

• Krista A. Varady
• Lisa S. Chow

Debunking the myths of intermittent fasting

Despite the mounting evidence supporting the use of intermittent fasting as a safe and effective weight loss intervention, many myths about fasting persist in popular culture. Here, we review some common beliefs about intermittent fasting that are not supported by scientific evidence.

• Sofia Cienfuegos

A dad’s diet affects his sperm — and his sons’ health

Mouse fathers who ate high-fat foods and human fathers with high body-mass index have male offspring with metabolic disorders.

• Julian Nowogrodzki

Hunger on campus: why US PhD students are fighting over food

Graduate students are relying on donated and discounted food in the struggle to make ends meet.

• Laurie Udesky

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Nutrition is a critical part of health and development. Better nutrition is related to improved infant, child and maternal health, stronger immune systems, safer pregnancy and childbirth, lower risk of non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease), and longevity.

Healthy children learn better. People with adequate nutrition are more productive and can create opportunities to gradually break the cycles of poverty and hunger.

Malnutrition, in every form, presents significant threats to human health. Today the world faces a double burden of malnutrition that includes both undernutrition and overweight, especially in low- and middle-income countries. There are multiple forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition (wasting or stunting), inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, obesity, and resulting diet-related noncommunicable diseases.

The developmental, economic, social, and medical impacts of the global burden of malnutrition are serious and lasting for individuals and their families, for communities and for countries.

Most recent estimates show that globally, 149.2 million children under the age of 5 years of age are stunted (too short for their age) and 45.4 million are wasted (underweight for their height).  The number of children with stunting is declining in all regions except Africa. Over three-quarters of all children suffering from severe wasting live in Asia.

Around 45% of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition. These mostly occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Anaemia is a serious global public health problem that particularly affects young children and pregnant women. WHO estimates that 40% of children less than 5 years of age and 37% of pregnant women worldwide are anaemic. Thirty percent of women of reproductive age have anaemia.

Globally, 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese and 38.9 million children under 5 years of age are overweight. Rates of childhood overweight and obesity are rising, particularly in high-income and upper-middle-income countries.

Although breastfeeding protects against undernutrition and overweight, only 44% of infants under 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed.

High sodium consumption (>5 g salt/day) contributes to high blood pressure and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Most people consume too much salt – on average 9–12 grams per day, or around twice the recommended maximum level of intake.

According to the 2016–2025 nutrition strategy, WHO uses its convening power to help set, align and advocate for priorities and policies that move nutrition forward globally; develops evidence-informed guidance based on robust scientific and ethical frameworks; supports the adoption of guidance and implementation of effective nutrition actions; and monitors and evaluates policy and programme implementation and nutrition outcomes.

This work is framed by the Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, adopted by Member States through a World Health Assembly resolution in 2012. Actions to end malnutrition are also vital for achieving the diet-related targets of the Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020, the Global strategy for women’s, children’s, and adolescent’s health 2016–2030, the report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (2016), and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

In May 2018, the Health Assembly approved the 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13), which guides the work of WHO in 2019–2023. Reduction of salt/sodium intake and elimination of industrially produced trans-fats from the food supply are identified in GPW13 as part of WHO’s priority actions to achieve the aims of ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Healthy diet

Malnutrition

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• A72/58 Outcome of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (2019)
• WHA71.9 Infant and young child feeding (2018)
• A71/22 Maternal, infant and young child nutrition: comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition (2018)
• A71/23 Maternal, infant and young child nutrition: Safeguarding against possible conflicts of interest in nutrition programmes (2018)
• Nutrition and Food Safety

WHO 5-year milestone report on global trans fat elimination illustrates latest progress up to 2023

WHO launches new guideline on fiscal policies to promote healthy diets

New report maps efforts to improve adolescent health and well-being

Spain's Secretary of State for Health discusses health priorities with WHO

Addressing nutrition in emergencies

Measuring child growth through data

Promoting safe food handling

Reducing population sodium/salt intake

10th Meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE) for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (MNCAHN)

Annual WHO/Cochrane/Cornell Summer Institute for systematic reviews in nutrition for global policy-making

Launch of the WHO guideline on fiscal policies to promote healthy diets

Report on the second meeting of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Gestational Weight Gain (TAG-GWG)

In 2023, WHO established a multidisciplinary Technical Advisory Group on Gestational Weight Gain (TAG-GWG) to advise on the process of developing GWG standards...

One Health High-Level Expert Panel Annual Report 2023

The third One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) Annual Report outlines the accomplishments of the panel during its activity in 2023 according to...

Latest publications

Countdown to 2023: WHO 5-year milestone report on global trans fat elimination 2023

This fifth milestone report summarizes the progress from 2018-2023 towards the global elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA), highlighting...

Guidance for monitoring healthy diets globally

Monitoring of dietary intake at national and global levels is becoming increasingly important with the changing food systems and diets. Better measurement...

Fiscal policies to promote healthy diets: WHO guideline

In current food environments, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods are readily available, heavily marketed and relatively cheap. Consumers are challenged...

The adolescent health indicators recommended by the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health

About 1.3 billion of the world’s population are adolescents, defined as those aged 10-19 years. Adolescents bear long periods of exposure to, and...

Donors making a difference: building stronger health systems

Infographics

WHO SIDS Summit for Health

WHO Supports Small Island Developing States

Food Security is a Challenge in Small Island Developing States

Nutrition ferritin - iron from your food

Global sodium benchmarks for reducing sodium content in food products - WHO Webinar

WHO's department of nutrition and food safety: key achievements 2023

Trans fat elimination validation award ceremony - 29 January 2024

Healthier food and healthier food environments at sports events

Episode #101 - Do sweeteners help with weight loss?

Do non-sugar sweeteners help with weight loss? Do they pose a risk to your health? What about so called “natural” sweetness like Stevia? Jason Montez explains the findings from the new WHO report in Science in 5.

Episode #91 - Everything you need to know about trans fat

WHO is urging action by Governments and the food industry to remove industrial trans fat from our food chain. Which foods contain trans fat? How do they harm us? WHO’s Dr Francesco Branca explains in Science in 5.

Related health topics

Infant nutrition

Food fortification

Food safety

Micronutrients

BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health

is an open access, peer-reviewed nutrition journal publishing the latest evidence-based research on the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on the health of individuals and populations

Impact Factor: 3.3 Citescore: 5.8 All metrics >>

Editor-in-Chief: Martin Kohlmeier, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Editorial team The journal publishes robust research on the key determinants of health including the social, economic, and physical environment, as well as lifestyle and behaviour. It provides physicians and other frontline health professionals with key information they can apply in daily practice.

BMJ NPH is an open access journal published by BMJ in association with NNEdPro Global Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health .

Article collections Our collections highlight some of the most innovative work published in the field of nutrition and lifestyle factors and are of significant relevance to everyone involved in nutrition research and clinical practice. All collections are open for submissions. Find out more at BMJ NPH Collections

BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health accepts submissions of a wide range of article types, including original research, reviews and brief reports.

The Author Information section provides specific article requirements to help you turn your research into an article suitable for BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.

Information is also provided on editorial policies and open access .

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28 June 2023

29 December 2023

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International Academy of Nutrition Educators

IANE is a global membership academy for professionals interested in developing and delivering high quality nutrition education and evaluating its impact, particularly on healthcare practices. Please visit us here

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Nutrition and Health

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• Description
• Aims and Scope
• Editorial Board
• Abstracting / Indexing
• Submission Guidelines

Nutrition and Health is an online international peer-reviewed journal that focusses on the relationship between nutrition and health. The journal welcomes original investigations, short communications, reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, protocols, commentaries, hypotheses and case studies on current topics relating to the full spectrum of the effects of diet and nutrition on health and disease. Whilst the focus of the journal will be soundly based in human nutrition, animal, cellular and molecular based studies will be accepted where they can shed light on a particular mechanism or treatment modality pertinent to the human condition. Nutrition and Health will consider the publication of studies showing negative and non-findings on an equal basis with those studies showing positive findings

The journal also seeks to raise awareness of the interrelationship between nutrition, exercise, physical activity and lifestyle for improving health across the lifespan and to demonstrate how healthcare outcomes and policies can be improved with the adoption of a more nutrition-oriented approach. In this way it aspires to provide an invaluable resource to nutrition and healthcare practitioners, as well as researchers and academics of nutrition studies. Nutrition and Health: Call for Papers

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) .

Nutrition and Health is an online international peer-reviewed journal that focusses on the relationship between nutrition and health. The journal welcomes original investigations, short communications, reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, protocols, commentaries, hypotheses, and case studies on current topics related to the full spectrum of the effects of food ingredients and nutrition, health, and disease. Whilst the major focus of the journal will be on food science, and human nutrition, animal, cellular and molecular-based studies will be accepted where they can shed light on a particular mechanism or treatment modality pertinent to the human condition. Nutrition and Health will consider the publication of studies showing negative and non-findings on an equal basis with those studies showing positive findings.

The journal also seeks to raise awareness of the interrelationship between nutrition, exercise, physical activity and lifestyle for improving health across the lifespan and to demonstrate how healthcare outcomes and policies can be improved with the adoption of a more nutrition-oriented approach. In this way it aspires to provide an invaluable resource to nutrition and healthcare practitioners, as well as researchers and academics of nutrition studies.

Nutrition and Health provides an initial rapid review of all submissions to determine suitability for external peer review. Authors can, if they wish, contact a member of the editorial board with potential submission ideas if they are in doubt as to whether or not they fit the scope or interests of the journal.

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Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Nutrition and Health

This Journal is a member of the  Committee on Publication Ethics .

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals  formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nah  to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned .

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Nutrition and Health will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Nutrition and Health  may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.

• What do we publish? 1.1 Aims & Scope 1.2 Article types 1.3 Writing your paper
• Editorial policies 2.1 Peer review policy 2.2 Authorship 2.3 Acknowledgements 2.4 Funding 2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests 2.6 Research ethics and patient consent 2.7 Clinical trials 2.8 Reporting guidelines 2.9 Research Data
• Publishing policies 3.1 Publication ethics 3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement 3.3 Open access and author archiving
• Preparing your manuscript 4.1 Formatting 4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics 4.3 Supplemental material 4.4 Reference style 4.5 English language editing services
• Submitting your manuscript 5.1 ORCID 5.2 Information required for completing your submission 5.3 Permissions
• On acceptance and publication 6.1 Sage Production 6.2 Online First publication 6.3 Access to your published article 6.4 Promoting your article
• Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Nutrition and Health , please ensure you have read the  Aims & Scope .

1.2 Article Types

Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they have not been published previously and are not under consideration by another publication.  Nutrition and Health  accepts the following article types for publication:

Original Article

Reports of established current research.

It is recommended that the appropriate tool from the  EQUATOR network  is included. The appropriate checklist e.g.,  CONSORT  should be submitted as supplementary information with your manuscript.

Structure: Title Page, Structured abstract  (including Background, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion),  Introduction  (including statement of aims and hypotheses),  Methods  (usually including participants, experimental design, experimental protocol, statistical methods),  Results, Discussion  (including conclusion),  Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References .

Statements to be included: Acknowledgements, Funding, Availability of data and materials, Authors’ contributions, Conflict of interest, Consent for publication, Ethical approval

Word limit:  Abstract: 250 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 4,000 words maximum.

Tables/Figures/Diagrams:  Up to 6 in total.

Short-Communication

Reports of novel preliminary or exploratory current research.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title Page, Structured abstract  (including Background, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion),  Introduction  (including statement of aims and hypothesis),  Methods  (usually including participants, experimental design, experimental protocol, statistical methods),  Results, Discussion  (including conclusion),  Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References  (20 maximum).

Word limit:  Abstract: 150 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 2,000 words maximum.

Tables/Figures/Diagrams:  Up to 3 in total.

Review Article

These will typically be invited, but non-commissioned reviews will be considered. Please contact a member of the Editorial Board to discuss the title and purpose of the review ahead of submission. A comprehensive summary of the current knowledge base in a given area.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title page, Structured abstract, Introduction  (including statement of the research question), sub-sectioned  Main Body  of the article (including a summary and directions for future research),  Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References .

Word limit:  Abstract: 250 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 6,000 words maximum.

Tables/Figures/Diagrams:  Up to 8 in total.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A comprehensive summary of the current knowledge base in a given area.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title Page, Structured abstract  (including Background, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion),  Introduction, Method  (usually outlining the scope, search criteria and inclusion/exclusion criteria), PLEASE NOTE that this section should also contain reference to the systematic review registration (e.g., PROSPERO or similar) and/or a published manuscript of the protocol for the systematic review,   Results  (including statement of the research question), Discussion (including a summary and directions for future research),  Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References .

An outline of a proposed assessment tool or study protocol (protocols currently in use are acceptable but protocols from completed studies will not be accepted). These submissions should follow the  SPIRIT guidelines  where appropriate.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title Page, Structured abstract  (including Background, Aim, Methods, Summary),  Introduction  (including statement of aims and hypothesis),  Methods  (usually including participants, experimental design and experimental protocol),  Summary, Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References .

Word limit:   Abstract: 250 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 4,000 words maximum.

Tables/Figures/Diagrams:  Up to 4 in total.

A short, narrowly focussed, opinion piece providing a current perspective on a topic on interest.

Structure:  Usually containing a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, sub-sectioned Main Body of the article (including a summary and directions for future research) and References.

Word limit:  Abstract: 150 words maximum, Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 2,000 words maximum.

A short, narrowly focussed, manuscript presenting a novel hypothesis or theory of interest.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title Page, Structured abstract, Introduction, Statement of the Hypothesis  (that should be framed in the context of the underpinning theory), Evaluation (provided by existing literature and pilot data if available),  Implications, Ethical statements  (see below for details) and  References .

These will typically be published where there is likely to be exceptional interest in classical or unusual issues facing the practitioner. It must be clearly justified why the report is needed rather than an alternative research methodology. Please contact a member of the Editorial Board to discuss the case study ahead of submission. These will be accepted both as short communications and full papers.

These submissions should follow the  CARE guidelines  and include the  CARE checklist  as supplementary information where appropriate.

Structure:  Usually containing a  Title Page, Structured abstract  (including background/theoretical basis, case presentation, outcomes and implications, recommendations),  Background  (including a review of the theoretical and research basis for treatment),  Case Presentation  (including case introduction, presenting complaints, history, assessment, rationale for treatment),  Outcomes and Implications  (including course of intervention, complicating factors, potential confounders and barriers),  Ethical statements  (see below for details),  Recommendations  and  References .

Word limits:

Short communications:  Structured abstract: 150 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 1,500 words maximum

Full papers:  Structured abstract: 250 words maximum. Article (not including abstract, references and tables/figures/diagrams): 2,500 words maximum.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on  how to get published , plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway:  How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online .

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Nutrition and Health  adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Two independent reviews are required for a manuscript to reach a Revise or Accept decision, with the exception of the following manuscript types: Commentary  (1 review required) and Hypothesis (1 review required).

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g., Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department, and institution). 

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the editor, and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review. As part of the review process, reviewers provide comments and feedback to the author as well as recommendations to the Editor who will make the final decision.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

• Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
• Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
• Approved the version to be published,
• Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines  for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools .

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves .

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.4 Funding

Nutrition and Health requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements  page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Nutrition and Health to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations  here .

Please include any declaration at the end of your manuscript after any acknowledgements and prior to the references, under a heading ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’. If no declaration is made the following will be printed under this heading in your article: ‘None Declared’. Alternatively, you may wish to state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

When making a declaration the disclosure information must be specific and include any financial relationship that all authors of the article has with any sponsoring organization and the for-profit interests the organization represents, and with any for-profit product discussed or implied in the text of the article.

Any commercial or financial involvements that might represent an appearance of a conflict of interest need to be additionally disclosed in the covering letter accompanying your article to assist the Editor in evaluating whether sufficient disclosure has been made within the Declaration of Conflicting Interests provided in the article.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations  here .

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the  World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki .

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals , and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.

Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the  ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants .

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

2.7 Clinical trials

Nutrition and Health conforms to the ICMJE requirement  that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication.  However, consistent with the  AllTrials campaign , retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable.The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network  reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT   flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA   flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard  can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at  NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives .

2.9 Research Data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages .

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors  and view the Publication Ethics page on the  Sage Author Gateway .

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Nutrition and Health and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway  or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the  Sage Author Gateway .

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Nutrition and Health  offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage . For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access . For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies .

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines  page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines .   

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. 

Illustrations, pictures and graphs, should be supplied in the highest quality and in an electronic format that helps us to publish your article in the best way possible. Please follow the guidelines below to enable us to prepare your artwork for the printed issue as well as the online version.

• Format: TIFF, JPEG: Common format for pictures (containing no text or graphs). EPS: Preferred format for graphs and line art (retains quality when enlarging/zooming in).
• Placement: Figures/charts and tables created in MS Word should be included in the main text rather than at the end of the document. Figures and other files created outside Word (i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, TIFF and EPS) should be submitted separately. Please add a placeholder note in the running text (i.e. “[insert Figure 1.]")
• Resolution: Rasterized based files (i.e. with .tiff or .jpeg extension) require a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Line art should be supplied with a minimum resolution of 800 dpi .
• Colour: Please note that images supplied in colour will be published in colour online and black and white in print (unless otherwise arranged). Therefore, it is important that you supply images that are comprehensible in black and white as well (i.e. by using colour with a distinctive pattern or dotted lines). The captions should reflect this by not using words indicating colour.
• Dimension: Check that the artworks supplied match or exceed the dimensions of the journal. Images cannot be scaled up after origination
• Fonts: The lettering used in the artwork should not vary too much in size and type (usually sans serif font as a default).

4.3 Supplemental material

Nutrition and Health  is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files .

4.4 Reference style

Nutrition and Health adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard  guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote   to manage references, you can download the  Sage Harvard EndNote output file .

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services  on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

5. Submitting your manuscript

Nutrition and Health is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nah to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help .

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID . ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized. 

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the  Sage Author Gateway .

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page  for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article  page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Nutrition and Health editorial office as follows:

[email protected]

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The Nutrition Source

Healthy Living Guide 2023/2024

Mindful eating

Plate and the Planet

Elevate your plate

Spotlight on artificial sweeteners

The Healthy Eating Plate

Create healthy, balanced meals using this visual guide as a blueprint.

Carbohydrates

The type of carbohydrate you eat is more important than the amount.

Diet Reviews

A look at some popular diets—and the research behind them.

Take Our Survey

Share your experience using the website, and offer any suggestions that may help us improve The Nutrition Source!

Protein is an essential macronutrient, but not all protein food sources are created equal.

Healthy eating begins in the kitchen, whether at home or another venue.

The Nutrition Source Update

A monthly e-newsletter with practical strategies for healthy living.

Fats and Cholesterol

When it comes to dietary fat, what matters most is the type of fat you eat.

Disease Prevention

Type 2 diabetes and heart disease is striking people at younger ages – but prevention is in our power.

Kid's Healthy Eating Plate

A visual guide to encourage children to eat well and keep moving.

Salt and Sodium

The human body needs some sodium but too much can lead to health problems.

Sustainability

Explore this multifaceted issue, in which food production and our diets play a major role.

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Your environment. your health., nutrition, health, and your environment, what is niehs doing, further reading, introduction.

What we eat is considered an environmental factor that influences health, in positive and negative ways. Healthy diets with an optimal balance of nutrients help people accomplish daily physical activities and mental processes. Within your diet, a deficiency or excess of certain nutrients can affect health.

The term diet refers to foods and beverages consumed over time in all settings, such as worksites, schools, restaurants, and the home. Diet also often means a specific nutritional plan or eating pattern.

Nutrition is the process of consuming, absorbing, and using nutrients from food that are necessary for growth, development, and maintenance of life.

What Are Nutrients?

Nutrients give your body energy and enable bodily functions. They are usually classified in two major groups:

• Macronutrients , in the form of protein, carbohydrate, or fat, primarily provide energy to your body. The different macronutrients serve different energy pathways and functions in the body. Energy from macronutrients in food is measured in units called calories.
• Micronutrients , known as vitamins and minerals, are required by the body in minute amounts. They protect and promote various bodily functions, including processing energy from macronutrients. Although critical to health, micronutrients do not supply energy.

What Should People Eat?

As reflected in the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans , scientific evidence shows that healthful eating patterns can help people achieve and maintain well-being and reduce their chance of chronic disease. The guidelines also say that people can enjoy foods that meet their personal needs and cultural preferences while eating healthfully.

By translating science into succinct, food-based guidance, the guidelines are intended to help the U.S. population at large choose a better diet. Specific nutritional recommendations for individuals suffering from diet-related conditions are not provided.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are jointly developed and issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Updated every five years, they are the cornerstone for many federal nutrition programs and policies.

Why Study Nutrition and Health?

More than half of U.S. adults – 129 million people – have one or more preventable chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers, which are often related to diet and physical inactivity.

Beyond health effects, nutrition-related diseases create strains on productivity, health care spending, health disparities, and military readiness . Addressing such issues requires understanding interrelated biological and social environmental determinants, and corresponding solutions.

As a scientific field, nutrition is integral to health promotion and disease prevention. Information from many disciplines, including anthropology, biology, biochemistry, economics, epidemiology, food science and technology, genetics, physiology, psychology, and sociology, are applied in nutritional studies. Scientists consider what people eat and drink, and take as dietary supplements, during different life stages and over time. They focus on interconnections to build evidence for public policy, health system, and environmental improvement strategies.

Nutrition Research at the National Institutes of Health

The Precision Medicine Initiative is a long-term research project at NIH. This initiative aims to understand how a person's genetics, environment, and lifestyle can determine the best approaches to prevent or treat disease.

As part of the Precision Medicine Initiative, NIH has a plan to accelerate nutrition research. While dietary guidelines and related public health approaches can help improve nutritional status across a population, researchers have growing appreciation for how different factors may affect people differently.

NIH nutrition research will help answer: what should I eat to stay healthy ?

The 2020 – 2030 Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research focuses on how nutrition and dietary patterns affect all health conditions and emphasizes the importance of understanding variation among people. NIEHS assists with the coordination and implementation of this nutrition research plan.

With funding and support from NIEHS, scientists are looking at whether certain nutritional components may protect people’s health when they are exposed to harmful chemicals and other environmental hazards. Scientists are also studying whether environmental factors can worsen health conditions related to nutrition or dietary patterns.

Nutrition May Reduce Harmful Health Effects From Environmental Factors

The concept of reducing risk from harmful exposures tends to mean removing or decreasing exposure to environmental contaminants. But that form of prevention can be difficult to achieve. An alternative concept is to focus on nutrients with potential to be protective or reduce the risk of harmful health effects from environmental factors.

Researchers at the NIEHS-funded University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center have an innovative, long-running program that studies if and how nutrition can reduce the risk of harmful health effects from environmental pollutants. Their research is based on the premise that nutrition should be considered a necessary variable in the study of human diseases associated with exposure to environmental contaminants.

Based on years of study, there is evidence that certain aspects of nutrition are protective and should be integral in efforts to intervene or prevent toxic health effects of some environmental factors.

For example, the researchers uncovered how a person’s diet can protect against the harmful health effects of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Now banned from production, PCBs were once commonly used in making products such as heat transfer fluids and coolant in electric transformers. They discovered that certain nutrients, vitamin E and omega 3-fatty acids , can reduce cell damage from PCB exposure and that a type of fiber found in vegetables can potentially protect against cardiovascular problems related to PCB exposure. Conversely, they also found that dietary fat that is high in linoleic acid can worsen the cardiovascular effects of PCBs.

Other Findings From NIEHS-supported Research Include the Following:

ADHD – Researchers demonstrated that low vitamin D during pregnancy was related to an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a finding that could lead to new prevention measures.

Asthma – Much of the research on nutrition and autism concerns periods before and during conception.

Asthma is a common childhood disease that disproportionately affects urban minority populations. Researchers discovered that vitamin D has a protective effect among children with asthma who live in urban environments with poor indoor air quality. In other words, obese children with blood levels low in vitamin D had worse asthma than children with higher vitamin D levels.

A diet deficient in antioxidants--micronutrients that help defend cells in the body--has been suggested as one reason for the asthma epidemic. The traditional Mediterranean diet typically includes foods rich in antioxidants such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, and olive oil, with a low intake of meat. This diet pattern has been shown to be protective of asthma and allergic disease in multiple studies. A study funded by NIEHS found that following this type of diet reduced the chance of asthma development among children in Lima, Peru.

Autism Spectrum Disorder – Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a broad range of conditions that affect communication and behavior. Environmental factors and genetics are thought to contribute to ASD, which affects 1 in 36 children in the U.S.

While more research is needed on the potential role nutrition may play in the development of ASD, studies reveal promising findings.

• Taking a prenatal vitamin during early pregnancy was associated with a lower rate of ASD in a 2021 study. This finding indicates that prenatal vitamins or supplemental folic acid could be preventative for ASD.
• The younger siblings of children with ASD have a greater chance of developing the disorder due to shared genetics and similar environment. A NIEHS-funded researcher reported, in 2019, that when mothers of these children took prenatal vitamins with folic acid in the first month of pregnancy, the recurrence of autism was reduced by about half . Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate, also known as vitamin B-9, which is found in many foods, such as dark-green leafy vegetables, beans, peas, broccoli, and oranges.

Autoimmune Diseases – Lupus, an autoimmune disease, occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs, affecting many different body systems. Lupus can flare up when genetically predisposed people encounter certain environmental agents, such as air pollutants, pesticides, or other chemicals. A study funded by NIEHS found that dietary micronutrients could either improve or worsen lupus symptoms . Study results suggest that dietary modification, such as more vitamin B-12, zinc, and folic acid, might be a therapeutic approach warranting further investigation in lupus patients.

Other NIEHS-funded research indicates that adequate vitamin D levels may be important for preventing immune dysfunction in older people.

Brain Health – Consuming omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and flaxseed oil, may protect against brain shrinkage in older women who live in areas with high levels of air pollution called fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

Women living in locations with higher PM2.5 had significantly less white matter in their brains, a sign of shrinkage. But in those locations, women with high blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had white matter that appeared healthier.

Cancer – More than 20 years ago, NIEHS researchers demonstrated a gene-diet interaction in a study that found isothiocyanates, a compound in cruciferous vegetables (e.g., broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage), was protective against lung cancer.

In-house researchers at NIEHS found that vitamin D supplementation may be useful in breast cancer prevention . The study looked a group of women with a higher risk of developing breast cancer. The women who had high blood levels of vitamin D and regularly took vitamin D supplements had lower rates of postmenopausal breast cancer over a 5-year follow-up period.

Cardiometabolic disorders – These conditions include cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Dietary fiber may protect against metabolic and fatty liver diseases related to perfluorooctoane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure, according to a NIEHS-funded study  in mice. Study results may be useful for designing intervention strategies to reduce disease risk in PFOS-exposed populations.

A NIEHS-funded study found that triclosan , an antimicrobial found in medical soaps and household products, accelerated development of fatty liver, fibrosis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease  in mice that ate a high-fat diet. Understanding the molecular mechanisms by which triclosan disrupts metabolism and the gut microbiome, while also stripping away liver cells’ natural protections, may provide a basis on which to develop therapies.

Obesity is a chronic health condition that increases the chance of developing cardiometabolic disorders.

High lead levels during pregnancy were linked to child obesity in a large study, partially funded by NIEHS . Children born to women who have high blood lead levels are more likely be overweight or obese, compared to children whose mothers have low levels of lead in their blood. But women who take folic acid supplements during pregnancy may reduce the chance that their children are obese.

Inflammation – Many epidemiological studies provide evidence that cardiovascular diseases are linked to environmental pollution . NIEHS-funded researchers found that a mix of B vitamins (folic acid, B-6, and B-12) may protect DNA in immune cells from harmful effects of PM2.5 air pollution. They found that this pollution caused changes in DNA related to inflammation and metabolism, which may be tied to cardiovascular or respiratory conditions. According to the researchers, dietary supplementation with B vitamins almost completely prevented the changes to DNA that may lead to adverse health effects.

Reproductive Health – There is growing acceptance that nutrition may be related to fertility, and specifically the success of infertility treatment in women. NIEHS-funded research found that women consuming a “pro-fertility” diet that included supplemental folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin D, low-pesticide fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seafood, dairy, and soy foods have a greater chance of live birth following assisted reproductive technologies.

The same researcher found folic acid could counter the adverse effects of air pollution on reproductive success in women using assisted reproductive technology. Air pollution can harm reproduction through a variety of biological mechanisms, including oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, DNA methylation, an altered immune response, and inflammation. Given exposure to traffic-related air pollution, pregnant women who took folic acid had a greater chance of their pregnancy resulting in a live birth .

Environmental Factors Affect Nutrition

Food Environments – A systematic review published in 2020, partially funded by NIEHS, suggests that the health of some children may be affected by food environments near schools . Researchers examined the presence of fast-food outlets, convenience stores, supermarkets, and grocery stores near schools along with measures of overweight/obesity by race/ethnicity, gender, grade, and income level.

This review found that when fast food outlets were located near schools, obesity rates were generally higher among children in all grade levels. Additional research is needed to better understand this finding, especially for children at higher risk of obesity, such as those from socio‐economically disadvantaged populations.

Food Packaging – PFAS are a group of more than 15,000 perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances , a class of chemicals associated with harmful health effects, including liver damage, cancer, and impaired immunity . Due to wide-spread usage, PFAS are in the blood of nearly every American , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Some PFAS have grease-repellent properties and were added to food packaging. A National Science Foundation study, in 2017, found PFAS coatings on 46% of food-wrap papers and 20% of paperboard containers collected from fast-food restaurants across the U.S. In a subsequent, related NIEHS-funded study, consumption of meals from fast food, and pizza and other restaurants, was generally associated with higher serum PFAS concentrations in people . In the same study, consumption of microwave popcorn was associated with significantly higher serum levels of certain PFAS chemicals. A 2024 study by the international Food Packaging Forum identified 68 PFAS in various food contact materials, including paper, plastic, and coated metal.
• In February 2024, FDA announced that grease-proofing materials containing certain PFAS are no longer being sold for use in food packaging in the U.S.

Food Safety – Food safety studies funded by NIEHS include contaminants in common foods. In particular, arsenic, a metal-like element that can harm many human organs, presents a global food contamination problem.

Researchers measured arsenic concentrations in several rice-based products. They found high levels of arsenic in brown rice syrup , a substitute for corn syrup in many foods including toddler formula. This discovery informed the Food and Drug Administration’s Inorganic Arsenic in Rice Cereals for Infants: Action Level Draft Guidance for Industry and other federal actions and reports.

The problem of contaminants in food led researchers funded by the Superfund Research Program to develop approaches for addressing soils used to grow crops. Some are working on phytoremediation approaches that are cost-effective and ecologically friendly. Phytoremediation is a process that uses fast-growing plants in engineered systems to degrade, extract, contain, or immobilize contaminants from soil or groundwater .

One team is testing a species of a non-food crop plant called oilseed to absorb and concentrate arsenic in its stems and leaves. Once harvested, these plants could be safely destroyed through incineration. Then, the plan is for farmers to plant food crops in the soil remediated from arsenic. This project is ongoing through 2025.

Eating Fish – Eating fish can provide many health benefits, but consumers should be cautious. Some types of fish caught in certain areas are lower in mercury, PFAS, and other contaminants than other fish. Fish consumption advisories help people understand what fish are safe to eat, for whom, and in what quantities.

Researchers supported by NIEHS, for example, developed the Eat Fish, Choose Wisely guide for North Carolina residents, which includes a color-coded map for people to identify areas where they can catch fish that are safer to eat.

A 2024 study found that people who frequently eat seafood may have an increased risk of exposure to PFAS, and this source of exposure may be underestimated. Among all types of seafood sampled in the study, the highest PFAS concentrations were found in shrimp and lobster. The New Hampshire-based researchers said that because PFAS are in many aspects of the environment, it is unclear where and how these chemicals enter the marine food chain. More research is needed.

Food Gardening – The need for affordable, healthy foods has increased public interest in home, school, and community gardens. While urban gardens provide numerous benefits, soil contamination may be an issue. Some NIEHS-funded researchers have taken on safe urban gardening in their community engagement projects. Examples include:

• Producing videos about safely gardening in areas where soil may have contaminants.
• Testing soil for lead and other contaminants and raising awareness of children’s health risks associated with exposure.
• Reducing exposures of urban gardeners to soil contaminants by empowering communities to implement effective, community-based exposure mitigation strategies.
• Evaluating arsenic in vegetables commonly home grown and the potential risk from consumption.
• Transforming former brownfield sites into community gardens with safe soil .

Food Security – Diet is widely recognized as a key contributor to human gut microbiome composition and function. A healthy gut microbiome can help the immune system develop, protect against pathogens, and enable proper food digestion. Researchers found the gut microbiome of adults with food insecurity , a lack of access to healthy food, differed from those who were food secure. This study is significant because it focused on a social factor rather than dietary components.

Intramural Research

The following large projects, conducted in-house at NIEHS, have research components that concern dietary patterns or nutrition.

Agricultural Heath Study – More than 89,000 farmers and their spouses in Iowa and North Carolina have been involved in this study since 1993. The collaborative research effort involves investigators from NIEHS, National Cancer Institute, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. This research project includes a dietary survey. A list of published papers is organized by year.

The Sister Study – From 2003 to 2009, more than 50,000 women across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, who were 35-74 years old and whose sister had breast cancer, joined this landmark research effort to find causes of breast cancer. Because of their shared environment, genes, and experiences, studying sisters provides a way to identify risk factors for breast cancer, which may lead to prevention. Participants complete health updates each year, which include dietary surveys. A list of published papers is organized by year.

Infant Feeding & Early Development Puberty Study (IFED-2) – This research study is looking at what babies eat and how they grow, including hormonal changes, into adolescence. It will improve understanding of why some kids go through puberty earlier or later than others. The age when puberty starts may be linked to a person’s future health.

NIEHS Clinical Research Unit

CaREFREE Study: Calorie Restriction, Environment, and Fitness: Reproductive Effects Evaluation – Women who develop irregular menstrual cycles may find it difficult to become pregnant. Researchers want to learn more about functional hypothalamic amenorrhea, an improperly performing hypothalamus in the brain, and how it can cause a woman’s period to stop temporarily. Dietary patterns and exercise may affect this function and change menstrual cycles. The CaREFREE study will look at how these factors may affect some women.

Stories from the Environmental Factor (NIEHS Newsletter)

• Diet and Exposures in Pregnancy: Grantee Tackles Research, Messaging (September 2023)
• Chemicals Formed in Well-done Cooked Meats May Be Risk Factors for Parkinson’s (September 2023)
• Anticancer Effects of Dietary Methionine Depend on Immune Status (September 2023)
• Folate’s Protective Effects May Now Extend to PFAS (July 2023)
• Baking Industry Food Additive Raises Red Flag, Expert Says (June 2023)
• Eating Fish While Pregnant: Benefits Outweigh Harms (June 2023)
• High-Fiber Diet May Protect Against Exposure to PFOS (April 2023)
• Precision Nutrition Improves Health at Individual Level, Expert Says (February 2023)
• Path to Food Safety Requires Multidisciplinary Approach, Experts Say (January 2023)
• Autism Researcher Focuses on Maternal Diet, Prenatal Exposures (October 2022)
• Effects of Flame Retardants, Maternal Diet on Children Focus of Talks (September 2022)
• Links Between Nutrition, Exposures, and Autism Focus of NIEHS Event (July 2022)
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Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing?

Read our food for thought 2020 collection.

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• Food and mood: how do diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing? - November 09, 2020
• Joseph Firth , research fellow 1 2 ,
• James E Gangwisch , assistant professor 3 4 ,
• Alessandra Borsini , researcher 5 ,
• Robyn E Wootton , researcher 6 7 8 ,
• Emeran A Mayer , professor 9 10
• 1 Division of Psychology and Mental Health, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Oxford Road, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
• 2 NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Westmead, Australia
• 3 Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, USA
• 4 New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
• 5 Section of Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Laboratory, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK
• 6 School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
• 7 MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Oakfield House, Bristol, UK
• 8 NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
• 9 G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• 10 UCLA Microbiome Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Correspondence to: J Firth joseph.firth{at}manchester.ac.uk

Poor nutrition may be a causal factor in the experience of low mood, and improving diet may help to protect not only the physical health but also the mental health of the population, say Joseph Firth and colleagues

Key messages

Healthy eating patterns, such as the Mediterranean diet, are associated with better mental health than “unhealthy” eating patterns, such as the Western diet

The effects of certain foods or dietary patterns on glycaemia, immune activation, and the gut microbiome may play a role in the relationships between food and mood

More research is needed to understand the mechanisms that link food and mental wellbeing and determine how and when nutrition can be used to improve mental health

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health conditions worldwide, making them a leading cause of disability. 1 Even beyond diagnosed conditions, subclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety affect the wellbeing and functioning of a large proportion of the population. 2 Therefore, new approaches to managing both clinically diagnosed and subclinical depression and anxiety are needed.

In recent years, the relationships between nutrition and mental health have gained considerable interest. Indeed, epidemiological research has observed that adherence to healthy or Mediterranean dietary patterns—high consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes; moderate consumption of poultry, eggs, and dairy products; and only occasional consumption of red meat—is associated with a reduced risk of depression. 3 However, the nature of these relations is complicated by the clear potential for reverse causality between diet and mental health ( fig 1 ). For example, alterations in food choices or preferences in response to our temporary psychological state—such as “comfort foods” in times of low mood, or changes in appetite from stress—are common human experiences. In addition, relationships between nutrition and longstanding mental illness are compounded by barriers to maintaining a healthy diet. These barriers disproportionality affect people with mental illness and include the financial and environmental determinants of health, and even the appetite inducing effects of psychiatric medications. 4

Hypothesised relationship between diet, physical health, and mental health. The dashed line is the focus of this article.

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While acknowledging the complex, multidirectional nature of the relationships between diet and mental health ( fig 1 ), in this article we focus on the ways in which certain foods and dietary patterns could affect mental health.

Mood and carbohydrates

Consumption of highly refined carbohydrates can increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. 5 Glycaemic index is a relative ranking of carbohydrate in foods according to the speed at which they are digested, absorbed, metabolised, and ultimately affect blood glucose and insulin levels. As well as the physical health risks, diets with a high glycaemic index and load (eg, diets containing high amounts of refined carbohydrates and sugars) may also have a detrimental effect on psychological wellbeing; data from longitudinal research show an association between progressively higher dietary glycaemic index and the incidence of depressive symptoms. 6 Clinical studies have also shown potential causal effects of refined carbohydrates on mood; experimental exposure to diets with a high glycaemic load in controlled settings increases depressive symptoms in healthy volunteers, with a moderately large effect. 7

Although mood itself can affect our food choices, plausible mechanisms exist by which high consumption of processed carbohydrates could increase the risk of depression and anxiety—for example, through repeated and rapid increases and decreases in blood glucose. Measures of glycaemic index and glycaemic load can be used to estimate glycaemia and insulin demand in healthy individuals after eating. 8 Thus, high dietary glycaemic load, and the resultant compensatory responses, could lower plasma glucose to concentrations that trigger the secretion of autonomic counter-regulatory hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, growth hormone, and glucagon. 5 9 The potential effects of this response on mood have been examined in experimental human research of stepped reductions in plasma glucose concentrations conducted under laboratory conditions through glucose perfusion. These findings showed that such counter-regulatory hormones may cause changes in anxiety, irritability, and hunger. 10 In addition, observational research has found that recurrent hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) is associated with mood disorders. 9

The hypothesis that repeated and rapid increases and decreases in blood glucose explain how consumption of refined carbohydrate could affect psychological state appears to be a good fit given the relatively fast effect of diets with a high glycaemic index or load on depressive symptoms observed in human studies. 7 However, other processes may explain the observed relationships. For instance, diets with a high glycaemic index are a risk factor for diabetes, 5 which is often a comorbid condition with depression. 4 11 While the main models of disease pathophysiology in diabetes and mental illness are separate, common abnormalities in insulin resistance, brain volume, and neurocognitive performance in both conditions support the hypothesis that these conditions have overlapping pathophysiology. 12 Furthermore, the inflammatory response to foods with a high glycaemic index 13 raises the possibility that diets with a high glycaemic index are associated with symptoms of depression through the broader connections between mental health and immune activation.

Diet, immune activation, and depression

Studies have found that sustained adherence to Mediterranean dietary patterns can reduce markers of inflammation in humans. 14 On the other hand, high calorie meals rich in saturated fat appear to stimulate immune activation. 13 15 Indeed, the inflammatory effects of a diet high in calories and saturated fat have been proposed as one mechanism through which the Western diet may have detrimental effects on brain health, including cognitive decline, hippocampal dysfunction, and damage to the blood-brain barrier. 15 Since various mental health conditions, including mood disorders, have been linked to heightened inflammation, 16 this mechanism also presents a pathway through which poor diet could increase the risk of depression. This hypothesis is supported by observational studies which have shown that people with depression score significantly higher on measures of “dietary inflammation,” 3 17 characterised by a greater consumption of foods that are associated with inflammation (eg, trans fats and refined carbohydrates) and lower intakes of nutritional foods, which are thought to have anti-inflammatory properties (eg, omega-3 fats). However, the causal roles of dietary inflammation in mental health have not yet been established.

Nonetheless, randomised controlled trials of anti-inflammatory agents (eg, cytokine inhibitors and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) have found that these agents can significantly reduce depressive symptoms. 18 Specific nutritional components (eg, polyphenols and polyunsaturated fats) and general dietary patterns (eg, consumption of a Mediterranean diet) may also have anti-inflammatory effects, 14 19 20 which raises the possibility that certain foods could relieve or prevent depressive symptoms associated with heightened inflammatory status. 21 A recent study provides preliminary support for this possibility. 20 The study shows that medications that stimulate inflammation typically induce depressive states in people treated, and that giving omega-3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties, before the medication seems to prevent the onset of cytokine induced depression. 20

However, the complexity of the hypothesised three way relation between diet, inflammation, and depression is compounded by several important modifiers. For example, recent clinical research has observed that stressors experienced the previous day, or a personal history of major depressive disorders, may cancel out the beneficial effects of healthy food choices on inflammation and mood. 22 Furthermore, as heightened inflammation occurs in only some clinically depressed individuals, anti-inflammatory interventions may only benefit certain people characterised by an “inflammatory phenotype,” or those with comorbid inflammatory conditions. 18 Further interventional research is needed to establish if improvements in immune regulation, induced by diet, can reduce depressive symptoms in those affected by inflammatory conditions.

Brain, gut microbiome, and mood

A more recent explanation for the way in which our food may affect our mental wellbeing is the effect of dietary patterns on the gut microbiome—a broad term that refers to the trillions of microbial organisms, including bacteria, viruses, and archaea, living in the human gut. The gut microbiome interacts with the brain in bidirectional ways using neural, inflammatory, and hormonal signalling pathways. 23 The role of altered interactions between the brain and gut microbiome on mental health has been proposed on the basis of the following evidence: emotion-like behaviour in rodents changes with changes in the gut microbiome, 24 major depressive disorder in humans is associated with alterations of the gut microbiome, 25 and transfer of faecal gut microbiota from humans with depression into rodents appears to induce animal behaviours that are hypothesised to indicate depression-like states. 25 26 Such findings suggest a role of altered neuroactive microbial metabolites in depressive symptoms.

In addition to genetic factors and exposure to antibiotics, diet is a potentially modifiable determinant of the diversity, relative abundance, and functionality of the gut microbiome throughout life. For instance, the neurocognitive effects of the Western diet, and the possible mediating role of low grade systemic immune activation (as discussed above) may result from a compromised mucus layer with or without increased epithelial permeability. Such a decrease in the function of the gut barrier is sometimes referred to as a “leaky gut” and has been linked to an “unhealthy” gut microbiome resulting from a diet low in fibre and high in saturated fats, refined sugars, and artificial sweeteners. 15 23 27 Conversely, the consumption of a diet high in fibres, polyphenols, and unsaturated fatty acids (as found in a Mediterranean diet) can promote gut microbial taxa which can metabolise these food sources into anti-inflammatory metabolites, 15 28 such as short chain fatty acids, while lowering the production of secondary bile acids and p-cresol. Moreover, a recent study found that the ingestion of probiotics by healthy individuals, which theoretically target the gut microbiome, can alter the brain’s response to a task that requires emotional attention 29 and may even reduce symptoms of depression. 30 When viewed together, these studies provide promising evidence supporting a role of the gut microbiome in modulating processes that regulate emotion in the human brain. However, no causal relationship between specific microbes, or their metabolites, and complex human emotions has been established so far. Furthermore, whether changes to the gut microbiome induced by diet can affect depressive symptoms or clinical depressive disorders, and the time in which this could feasibly occur, remains to be shown.

Priorities and next steps

In moving forward within this active field of research, it is firstly important not to lose sight of the wood for the trees—that is, become too focused on the details and not pay attention to the bigger questions. Whereas discovering the anti-inflammatory properties of a single nutrient or uncovering the subtleties of interactions between the gut and the brain may shed new light on how food may influence mood, it is important not to neglect the existing knowledge on other ways diet may affect mental health. For example, the later consequences of a poor diet include obesity and diabetes, which have already been shown to be associated with poorer mental health. 11 31 32 33 A full discussion of the effect of these comorbidities is beyond the scope of our article (see fig 1 ), but it is important to acknowledge that developing public health initiatives that effectively tackle the established risk factors of physical and mental comorbidities is a priority for improving population health.

Further work is needed to improve our understanding of the complex pathways through which diet and nutrition can influence the brain. Such knowledge could lead to investigations of targeted, even personalised, interventions to improve mood, anxiety, or other symptoms through nutritional approaches. However, these possibilities are speculative at the moment, and more interventional research is needed to establish if, how, and when dietary interventions can be used to prevent mental illness or reduce symptoms in those living with such conditions. Of note, a recent large clinical trial found no significant benefits of a behavioural intervention promoting a Mediterranean diet for adults with subclinical depressive symptoms. 34 On the other hand, several recent smaller trials in individuals with current depression observed moderately large improvements from interventions based on the Mediterranean diet. 35 36 37 Such results, however, must be considered within the context of the effect of people’s expectations, particularly given that individuals’ beliefs about the quality of their food or diet may also have a marked effect on their sense of overall health and wellbeing. 38 Nonetheless, even aside from psychological effects, consideration of dietary factors within mental healthcare may help improve physical health outcomes, given the higher rates of cardiometabolic diseases observed in people with mental illness. 33

At the same time, it is important to be remember that the causes of mental illness are many and varied, and they will often present and persist independently of nutrition and diet. Thus, the increased understanding of potential connections between food and mental wellbeing should never be used to support automatic assumptions, or stigmatisation, about an individual’s dietary choices and their mental health. Indeed, such stigmatisation could be itself be a casual pathway to increasing the risk of poorer mental health. Nonetheless, a promising message for public health and clinical settings is emerging from the ongoing research. This message supports the idea that creating environments and developing measures that promote healthy, nutritious diets, while decreasing the consumption of highly processed and refined “junk” foods may provide benefits even beyond the well known effects on physical health, including improved psychological wellbeing.

Contributors and sources: JF has expertise in the interaction between physical and mental health, particularly the role of lifestyle and behavioural health factors in mental health promotion. JEG’s area of expertise is the study of the relationship between sleep duration, nutrition, psychiatric disorders, and cardiometabolic diseases. AB leads research investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of stress and inflammation on human hippocampal neurogenesis, and how nutritional components and their metabolites can prevent changes induced by those conditions. REW has expertise in genetic epidemiology approaches to examining casual relations between health behaviours and mental illness. EAM has expertise in brain and gut interactions and microbiome interactions. All authors contributed to, read, and approved the paper, and all the information was sourced from articles published in peer reviewed research journals. JF is the guarantor.

Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare the following: JF is supported by a University of Manchester Presidential Fellowship and a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship and has received support from a NICM-Blackmores Institute Fellowship. JEG served on the medical advisory board on insomnia in the cardiovascular patient population for the drug company Eisai. AB has received research funding from Johnson & Johnson for research on depression and inflammation, the UK Medical Research Council, the European Commission Horizon 2020, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London. REW receives funding from the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. EAM has served on the external advisory boards of Danone, Viome, Amare, Axial Biotherapeutics, Pendulum, Ubiome, Bloom Science, Mahana Therapeutics, and APC Microbiome Ireland, and he receives royalties from Harper & Collins for his book The Mind Gut Connection. He is supported by grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the US Department of Defense. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the organisations above.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

This article is part of series commissioned by The BMJ. Open access fees are paid by Swiss Re, which had no input into the commissioning or peer review of the articles. T he BMJ thanks the series advisers, Nita Forouhi, Dariush Mozaffarian, and Anna Lartey for valuable advice and guiding selection of topics in the series.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ .

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Masks Strongly Recommended but Not Required in Maryland, Starting Immediately

Due to the downward trend in respiratory viruses in Maryland, masking is no longer required but remains strongly recommended in Johns Hopkins Medicine clinical locations in Maryland. Read more .

• Vaccines  
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Pilot Study Provides ‘Blueprint’ for Evaluating Diet’s Effect on Brain Health

A new study of 40 older adults with #obesity and insulin resistance randomly assigned to either an #IntermittentFasting diet or a standard healthy diet offers important clues about the potential benefits of both eating plans on #brain health. ›

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging say their study of 40 older adults with obesity and insulin resistance who were randomly assigned to either an intermittent fasting diet or a standard healthy diet approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers important clues about the potential benefits of both eating plans on brain health.

Insulin resistance is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes and is common in people with obesity. Studies suggest that people with insulin resistance are at higher risk than usual for Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairment. As a result, various weight loss regimens figure widely as ways to reduce risk of these metabolic and brain disorders.

Previous Johns Hopkins research on animal models of diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease showed that intermittent fasting can improve cognition and insulin sensitivity. The new study, published June 19 in Cell Metabolism , tested the effects of intermittent fasting on women and men at risk for cognitive impairment, and it offers a “blueprint,” the authors write, for using a wide panel of biomarkers to assess dietary impact, including analysis of extracellular vesicles — tiny packets of materials shed from neurons, which are types of brain cells that send messages. Such neuron-derived extracellular vesicles are shed into circulating blood and were collected from the new study’s participants during an eight-week period while each person followed one of the two diets.

The results revealed that both types of diet plans had benefits regarding decreasing insulin resistance and improving cognition, with improvements in memory and executive function with both diets, but more strongly with the intermittent fasting diet, according to Mark Mattson, Ph.D. , adjunct professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and former chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore. “Other scientists may want to incorporate the (brain) markers (we used) into additional, larger studies of diet and brain health,” Mattson says.

Because people with obesity and insulin resistance may be more at risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease than people with normal metabolism and body mass index (BMI), Dimitrios Kapogiannis, M.D. , chief of the human neuroscience section at the National Institute on Aging and adjunct associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, developed a method to isolate neuron-derived extracellular vesicles from blood. His laboratory found molecular evidence of insulin resistance in extracellular vesicles shed from neurons of people with diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, and because blood samples are relatively easy to collect, they were considered good candidates for widespread use.

To test the effects of the two diets on brain function biomarkers, participants in the new study were recruited from June 2015 and December 2022, and four in-person assessments were completed at facilities run by the National Institute on Aging at MedStar Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. Among the participants, 40 completed their eight-week study. Also, 20 were assigned to an intermittent fasting diet that restricted calories to one-quarter of the recommended daily intake for two consecutive days per week, and they followed the USDA’s healthy living diet — which consists of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, low-fat dairy products and limited added sugars, saturated fats and sodium — for the remaining five days. The USDA’s healthy living diet was assigned to 20 other study participants each day of the week.

The average age of participants in both groups was 63, and 25 were white, 14 were Black and one was Hispanic. There were 24 men and 16 women. All were obese and had insulin resistance.

The researchers found that both diets had equally positive effects on reducing insulin resistance markers in extracellular vesicles, improving BrainAGE (a measurement of the brain’s biological age using structural MRI data) and lowering glucose concentration in the brain. Reduced glucose concentration is a corollary of higher glucose use.

Both diets also improved customary measurements of metabolic health, including weight, BMI, measurement of waist circumference, blood lipids such as cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Executive function and memory (which are a set of mental skills that helps with planning and achieving goals) improved approximately 20% more in the intermittent fasting group than in the healthy living diet group.

A few study participants reported modest side effects including constipation and loose stools, and occasional headaches.

The researchers also saw increased levels of a neurofilament protein (a structural protein in neurons) in both diet groups, but mainly in the intermittent fasting group. What that means regarding brain health is unclear.

“This is a marker to continue to evaluate in further studies,” says Mattson. “Neurons release a lot of proteins, and one idea is that intermittent fasting may be causing some kind of neuroplasticity (a change in structure) in neurons, causing the release of neurofilament proteins.”

The Johns Hopkins researchers and others caution that people interested in intermittent fasting should plan carefully with a health care practitioner because it could be harmful to some people, including those with type 1 diabetes and eating disorders.

The research reported in Cell Metabolism was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (ZIAAG000966, ZIAAG000975).

Other researchers who contributed to the study are Apostolos Manolopoulos, Francheska Delgado-Peraza, Maja Mustapic, Carlos Nogueras-Ortiz, Pamela Yao, Krishna Pucha, Janet Brooks, Qinghua Chen, Lisa Hartnell, Mark Cookson and Josephine Egan from the National Institute on Aging, Roger Mullins from Morgan State University, Konstantinos Avgerinos from Wayne State University, Shalaila Haas and Sophia Frangou from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Ruiyang Ge from the University of British Columbia.

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Is Fish Oil Helpful or Harmful for the Heart?

Despite decades of research, the evidence for omega-3 supplements is murky.

By Alice Callahan

In 1970, two Danish researchers traveled to Greenland to investigate a nutritional paradox: The Inuit people living in the region consumed foods very high in fat, yet reportedly had very low rates of heart attacks.

That observation flew in the face of nutrition dogma at the time, which held that eating fatty foods — like whale and seal meat and oily fish — would clog your arteries and cause heart disease.

The Inuit on Greenland, a Danish territory, had lower levels of blood cholesterol and triglycerides than people back in Denmark, the researchers reported . The reason, they hypothesized, was that the Inuit diet was rich in omega-3 fatty acids — particularly EPA and DHA, which are concentrated in fish and the animals that eat them.

These findings sparked decades of scientific and commercial interest in the role omega-3 fatty acids play in heart health, even after later studies suggested that, in fact, the Inuit had rates of heart disease similar to those found in Europe, the United States and Canada. Today, omega-3 supplements are among the most popular in the United States, surpassed only by multivitamins and vitamin D. Among U.S. adults 60 and older, about 22 percent reported taking omega-3s in a 2017-2018 survey.

Unlike most other supplements , fish oil has been rigorously studied, said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. But the results of those studies have been mixed, leaving researchers and doctors still debating whether fish oil is beneficial for heart health. They have also revealed that taking fish oil is linked to a slightly greater risk of developing atrial fibrillation , a type of irregular heartbeat.

Here’s where the evidence for both the benefits and risks of fish oil stands today.

A boatload of studies, but unclear benefits

After reading the dispatches from Greenland, researchers began looking at people elsewhere in the world and finding, in study after study , that those who consumed fish at least once per week were less likely to die from coronary heart disease than those who rarely ate fish. In animal experiments , they found that fish oil helped keep electrical signaling in heart cells functioning properly, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.

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Myths about intermittent fasting, debunked

Emily Stone

Thursday, June 27, 2024

In a new article, AHS researchers debunk four common myths about the safety of intermittent fasting.  

Intermittent fasting has become an increasingly popular way to lose weight without counting calories. And a large body of research has shown it’s safe. Still, several myths about fasting have gained traction among clinicians, journalists and the general public: that fasting can lead to a poor diet or loss of lean muscle mass, cause eating disorders, or decrease sex hormones.  

In a new commentary in Nature Reviews Endocrinology , the researchers debunk each of these. They base their conclusions on clinical studies, some of which they conducted and some done by others.  

“I’ve been studying intermittent fasting for 20 years, and I’m constantly asked if the diets are safe,” said lead author Krista Varady , KN professor. “ There is a lot of misinformation out there. However, those ideas are not based on science ; they’re just based on personal opinion.”   

There are two main types of intermittent fasting. With alternate-day eating, people alternate between days of eating a very small number of calories and days of eating what they want. With time-restricted eating, people eat what they want during a four- to 10-hour window each day, then don’t eat during the rest of the day. The researchers conclude both types are safe despite the popular myths.

Here’s a look at their conclusions:  

Intermittent fasting does not lead to a poor diet: The researchers point to studies showing the intake of sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber, sodium and caffeine do not change during fasting compared with before a fast. And the percentage of energy consumed in carbohydrates, protein and fat doesn’t change, either.  

Intermittent fasting does not cause eating disorders: None of the studies show that fasting caused participants to develop an eating disorder. However, all the studies screened out participants who had a history of eating disorders, and the researchers say that those with a history of eating disorders should not try intermittent fasting. They also urge pediatricians to be cautious when monitoring obese adolescents if they start fasting, because this group has a high risk of developing eating disorders.  

Intermittent fasting does not cause excessive loss of lean muscle mass: The s tudies show that people lose the same amount of lean muscle mass whether they’re losing weight by fasting or with a different diet. In both cases, resistance training and increased protein intake can counteract th e loss of lean muscle.

Intermittent fasting does not affect sex hormones: Despite concerns about fertility and libido, neither estrogen, testosterone nor other related hormones are affected by fasting, the researchers said.  

Co-authors of the article are Vanessa Oddo and Sofia Cienfuegos and Shuhao Lin , formerly at UIC and now at the Mayo Clinic.  

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Nutrition and mental health: A review of current knowledge about the impact of diet on mental health

Mateusz grajek.

1 Department of Public Health, Department of Public Health Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Karolina Krupa-Kotara

2 Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Agnieszka Białek-Dratwa

3 Department of Human Nutrition, Department of Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Karolina Sobczyk

4 Department of Economics and Health Care Management, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Martina Grot

Oskar kowalski, wiktoria staśkiewicz.

5 Department of Technology and Food Quality Evaluation, Department of Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

Applied psychopharmacotherapy and psychotherapy do not always bring the expected results in the treatment of mental disorders. As a result, other interventions are receiving increasing attention. In recent years, there has been a surge in research on the effects of nutrition on mental status, which may be an important aspect of the prevention of many mental disorders and, at the same time, may lead to a reduction in the proportion of people with mental disorders. This review aims to answer whether and to what extent lifestyle and related nutrition affect mental health and whether there is scientific evidence supporting a link between diet and mental health. A review of the scientific evidence was conducted based on the available literature by typing in phrases related to nutrition and mental health using the methodological tool of the PubMed database. The literature search yielded 3,473 records, from which 356 sources directly related to the topic of the study were selected, and then those with the highest scientific value were selected according to bibliometric impact factors. In the context of current changes, urbanization, globalization, including the food industry, and changes in people’s lifestyles and eating habits, the correlations between these phenomena and their impact on mental state become important. Knowledge of these correlations creates potential opportunities to implement new effective dietary, pharmacological, therapeutic, and above all preventive interventions. The highest therapeutic potential is seen in the rational diet, physical activity, use of psychobiotics, and consumption of antioxidants. Research also shows that there are nutritional interventions that have psychoprotective potential.

Inherent in urbanization and the accompanying technological and cultural development, the rush of life, the pursuit of self-actualization, and the resulting overstimulation and lack of time, affect the change in eating habits and the consumption of high-calorie and processed foods ( 1 ). We can consider them as factors influencing the development of civilization diseases, important from the point of view of public health. Among them, we cannot forget about depressive and anxiety disorders that are becoming a global epidemic ( 2 ). The number of people requiring assistance from a mental health professional is steadily increasing in Poland and worldwide. According to the International Health Metrics Evaluation (IHME), at the end of 2017, 13% of the world population suffered from mental disorders ( 3 ). The Wittchen et al. study shows that mental disorders affect 38% of the European population ( 4 ). By the end of 2019, about 1.6 million people in Poland had received psychiatric treatment ( 5 ). The situation was not improved by the COVID-19 pandemic and related sanitary restrictions, which led to the isolation of many people, with feelings of insecurity, sadness, anxiety, and misinformation ( 6 ). All this has made psychological and psychiatric help the most sought-after form of health support today. There are only about 4,300 practicing psychiatrists in Poland ( 7 ). Even fewer, only 455, are practicing child psychiatry specialists ( 8 ). Statistics are believed to be better in the psychological and psychotherapeutic support sector, although public opinion is still divided about this form of support. Moreover, registers of psychologists and psychotherapists are not common. The described phenomena lead to a transformation of the psychiatric care model and mental health support. The number of people receiving psychiatric treatment is expected to increase over the next decades. The applied psychopharmacotherapy and psychotherapy do not always bring the expected treatment result ( 9 ). As a result, other interventions are receiving increasing attention. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in research on the effects of nutrition on mental status, which may be an important aspect of the prevention of many mental disorders, and at the same time may lead to a reduction in the proportion of people with mental disorders.

Thus, this review aims to answer the question of whether and to what extent lifestyle and related nutrition affect mental health and whether there is scientific evidence supporting the diet and mental health relationship.

The question posed in the objective can be divided into specific questions according to which this review was divided.

Q1: Are there correlations between nutrition and mental health?

Q2: are there psychoprotective food ingredients, q3: are there nutritional interventions with proven preventive potential for mental disorders, review methodology, methodology background.

The main aspect that guided the review works conducted was to look for nutritional recommendations in the cited works regarding nutrition as psychoprophylaxis and dietary management of psychiatric disorders. Unfortunately, the current state of knowledge on this topic, despite many studies, is still poor, so the authors decided to conduct a broad review of the most current knowledge in this area to identify those sources that address the described topic and gather in one place the available knowledge.

Review procedure

The review was conducted following good practices associated with conducting similar reviews. Literature items were searched by a team of researchers (authors) along with a library staff member trained in literature searching and EBM (evidence-based medicine) and HTA (health technology assessment). A preliminary search for items consistent with the topic and purpose of the review was conducted to identify the research field. After reviewing existing data, a keyword package was selected that seemed most relevant and consistent with the review topic.

Eligibility criteria

The primary eligibility criteria were the language of publication, years of research or review, publication status, and whether the authors were specialists in their field (or had other publications in a similar field). Regarding language, English-language articles were selected because this language seems to be universal in the scientific community. In addition, articles that were published after 2005 were included to make sure that the topic addressed was not a completely new field of research, but also to avoid very old data, because as is known from common practice, dietetics, as well as mental health expertise, are two of the most rapidly developing scientific fields. Additionally, articles were selected that were available in full-text on an open-access basis and had impact factor values.

Search strategy

A review of the scientific evidence was conducted based on the available literature by entering sample phrases (consistent with the MeSh dictionary) with Boole operators, logical operators (and, or, not), and special characters,: “psychodietetics,” “nutripsychiatry,” “diet,” “mental health,” “lifestyle,” “body weight,” “obesity,” “depression,” “mental disorders” (and various combinations thereof) using the methodological tool of the PubMed database. The PubMed database in this regard seems most appropriate because it is a methodological tool that allows searching for articles available in multiple scientific databases (such as Medline or Embase). Its use provides the opportunity to meet all expectations from the review (transparency, clarity, comprehensiveness, focus, uniformity, accessibility, coverage of the entire topic).

Sources selection

The literature search yielded 3,473 records, from which 356 sources directly related to the topic of the study were selected, and then those with the highest scientific value were selected according to eligibility criteria.

The accuracy, objectivity, validity, and relevance of the evidence were tested using questions consistent with the GRADE scale: Is the information reliable? Is the information free of mistakes? Has the information been properly substantiated? Is it possible to verify the information against other reliable sources? Who are the authors? Are they qualified to present information on the topic? Are they affiliated with reputable institutions working on the issue? Is the data source peer-reviewed? For what purpose was the information? Is the information an evidenced-based fact or constitutes an opinion? Is the information subject to risk? Can this risk be estimated? When was the information published? Is the information current or outdated? Is the timeliness relevant to the issue at hand? Does the information cover the entire issue? Does the information contain background data or does it explore the issue in depth? The final literature review was based on 110 sources, representing mainly scientific output after 2005 and important multicenter studies performed after 2015. The data obtained from the review are presented in descriptive and tabular form. In addition, 11 additional sources were used in preparing the background of the research problem and the theoretical introduction.

Critical appraisal

In critically evaluating the sources, attention was paid to whether the articles appeared in peer-reviewed journals (by at least two reviewers) and whether they had an impact factor. As described above, 110 sources were eligible for final review. A limitation of the method adopted was primarily the exclusion of sources written in a language other than English. In addition, IF has many well-documented drawbacks as a research assessment tool and therefore is not the best way to evaluate the quality of individual research articles. Nevertheless, it was chosen because it is a synthetic indicator of a source’s impact on the field of science, and a journal that has it can more likely claim to be publishing credible scientific evidence. The review did not include so-called “grey literature”, i.e., literature that has not gone through the review process or that is internal to the university (theses, conference reports, government leaflets, newsletters, etc.). Despite their multiple values, these sources are characterized by a high risk of containing outdated knowledge ( Figure 1 ).

A flowchart of how to proceed in selecting bibliographic sources.

Excess body weight is certainly an important social problem today. More than 0.7 billion people worldwide are obese, this is about 30% of the total population, and the number of obesity-related deaths is constantly increasing ( 10 ). We consume more and more processed, high-energy, and nutrient-poor foods. Consequently, we face problems of overweight and obesity with concomitant nutrient deficiencies (quantitative malnutrition) ( 11 ). Although the level of calories consumed is increasing, we are not taking in the recommended values of micro- and macroelements that play a significant role in the proper functioning of our nervous system – B vitamins, zinc, and magnesium. Additionally, we consume less fiber- and nutrient-rich vegetables and cereal products than recommended ( 10 , 11 ). Superimposing smoking, limited physical activity, and harmful alcohol consumption to the above dietary patterns, adversely affect health and development of mental disorders, including depression ( 10 ). Whose nutritional prevention is well documented in the literature ( 12 ).

The antioxidant system, which has been implicated in the development of psychiatric disorders, is relevant here ( 13 ) and its proper functioning depends on the presence of nutrients in food. In addition, the concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is involved in plasticity and neurodegenerative processes, depends on nutrients ( 14 ). Findings indicate a reduction in the incidence of depression and suicide with a healthy eating pattern ( 15 , 16 ). Randomized trials are emerging that evaluate the efficacy of dietary change as a form of treatment for depression ( 15 – 17 ). Selective food supplementation can be beneficial in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Among them, compounds such as S-adenosylmethionine, N -acetylcysteine, zinc, and B vitamins including folic acid, and vitamin D are mentioned. Also, omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids have a wide range of effects. They participate in synaptogenesis by influencing receptor degradation and synthesis. They have an anti-inflammatory effect and inhibit apoptosis. They affect cell membrane function, BDNF action, and neurotransmitter reuptake ( 18 ). S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) is a compound formed from adenosine and methionine, which plays a key role in methylation processes. The results of studies show its antidepressant effects ( 19 ). The use of N -acetylcysteine influenced the effectiveness of therapy in schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, or trichotillomania. It has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects ( 20 ). Zinc deficiency, in turn, has been linked to the severity of depressive symptoms, and its supplementation included with antidepressants plays a role in mood stabilization. Zinc modulates cytokine activity and influences neurogenesis by affecting brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels ( 21 ). B vitamins play a role in the proper functioning of the nervous tissue. Folic acid (vitamin B9) deficiency has been associated with depressive symptoms and determined in subjects with mediocre responses to antidepressants ( 22 ). Low vitamin D levels were associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia and depression ( 23 ). It has been proven that vitamin D supplementation for a period of 3 months (4,000 IU/day for 1 month and 2,000 IU/day for 2 months) significantly reduced the severity of depression, irritability, fatigue, mood swings, sleep difficulties, weakness, and ability to concentrate in adolescents diagnosed with depression. This effect is supported by studies on animal models – vitamin D contributes to the plasticity of synapses, has a neuroprotective effect, supports the production of neurotrophic factors such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and regulates the function of the dopaminergic system. ( 24 ).

For the review, the results of the most important studies on the psychoprotective effects of bioactive components contained in foods (vitamins, minerals, omega-3, and more). have been collected in tabular form ( Table 1 ).

Review of selected studies on the psychoprotective effect of probiotics.

Source: Own compilation based on literature review.

The gut microbiota is estimated to form a complex ecosystem containing 1,014 microorganisms. It contains 3.3 million genes and outnumbers the human genome by about 150-fold. At the same time, it is built by more than a thousand different species of microorganisms ( 25 ). The gut-brain axis describing the bidirectional relationship between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system uses several communication mechanisms. Mutual exchange of information can occur via the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve ( 26 ). Many of the effects of probiotics on mental status are associated with information transmission via the vagus nerve ( 27 ). Results from germ-free (GF) mice cultured under sterile conditions, devoid of detectable microorganisms, demonstrate the involvement of the gut microbiota in the proper formation and function of the endocrine system by influencing the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The response to a stress stimulus as measured by glucocorticosteroid and adrenocorticotropin levels was significantly elevated in GF mice. It was normalized after gastrointestinal colonization with the Bifidobacterium infantis strain ( 28 ). Additionally, stress affects the formation and diversity of intestinal microflora ( 29 ). Another link of communication is the immune system. The microbiota is involved in the proper development of the gastrointestinal mucosal immune system ( 30 ). Bacterial antigens such as polysaccharide A, lipopolysaccharides, and thymic acids shape its proper functioning ( 31 ). The microbiota also produces neurotransmitters: gamma-aminobutyric acid, butyric acid, serotonin, dopamine, and short-chain fatty acids, which can directly affect the nervous system ( 32 ).

So, can the psychoprotective effect of strains be used in nutritional intervention? It seems reasonable here to consider the possibility of implementing treatment with probiotic preparations containing selected bacterial strains that show positive effects on the human psyche. In this approach, “probiotic” is defined as living organisms that, when consumed in adequate amounts, have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the body ( 33 ). Ilya Metchnikov was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908 for his research on probiotics. Among them, lactic acid bacteria are the most popular. Probiotics are mainly found in fermented dairy products, or pickled products ( 34 ). Prebiotics are non-digested food components whose fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract stimulates either bacterial growth or activity or affects both, leading to the development of beneficial intestinal microflora ( 35 ). Prebiotics can include ingredients such as inulin or fructooligosaccharides. Prebiotics may also have a beneficial effect by inhibiting the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, some research results show that prebiotics can reduce inflammation by modifying the composition of the microbiota ( 36 ). Synbiotics are ingredients that contain both prebiotics and probiotics. Such a constellation allows the use of synergistic effects of these preparations. In turn, psychobiotics are defined as microorganisms that are probiotics, that show positive effects in patients treated for mental disorders ( 37 ). They can often achieve their effect through the production of neurotransmitters such as gamma-aminobutyric acid, serotonin, or other substances with an effect on the cells of the nervous system such as short-chain organic acids: acetic, propionic, or butyric ( 36 ). Oral substitution of such probiotics as Lactobacillus helveticus and Bifidobacterium longum over a period of 1 month was associated with a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders and a reduction in stress levels as measured by the determination of cortisol levels in animal models ( 38 ). Currently, the most effective treatment of psychiatric disorders is achieved through the use of antidepressants, or antipsychotics. However, the additional use of psychobiotics to treat anxiety or depressive disorders may prove effective in the future. It is also worth noting that popular antidepressants and antipsychotics can affect the quality of gut flora and change the composition of the microbiome to a disadvantage by killing the cultures of bacteria living in the gastrointestinal tract ( 39 ).

For the review, the results of the most important studies on the psychoprotective effect of probiotics were collected in tabular form – Table 2 .

Review of selected studies on the psychoprotective effects of substances contained in food.

Factors such as genotype, intrauterine infections, developmental disorders, later traumatizing events, use of harmful psychoactive substances, and many others will influence the onset of psychiatric disorders. These factors influence not only the onset of the disorder but also its progression. Treating early conditions in psychiatry can result in a much better response to the treatment given and better functioning of patients. This fact can be particularly observed in studies on the early detection of psychotic disorders ( 40 ). Prevention in medicine, including psychiatry, requires knowledge of appropriate and useful tools that would allow detection of increased risk of mental illness and monitoring of the developing psychopathology of the disorder. McGorry et al. ( 41 ) proposed a four-stage model of the development of mental disorders. According to this model, serious mental disorders develop from high-risk states: grade 0 means the development of undifferentiated, general symptoms, such as slight anxiety, restlessness, depressive symptoms, or somatic symptoms lead to grade 1, in which types 1A and 1B can be distinguished according to their severity. Further progression of the disease results in the development of a first episode of the disorder and here we speak of stage 2, which is accompanied by persistent 7ncludims and frequent relapses. Grade 3 includes incomplete remission and regular and repeated relapses. Grade 4 in this context means treatment-resistant disorder. The worsening of a psychiatric disorder is determined by genetic and environmental factors, and it is the latter that seems to be the main target for preventive interventions in psychiatry. Some biomarkers in psychiatry are directly related to nutrition. The first of these is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). Reduced ability to cope with stress plays a role in the development of psychiatric disorders ( 42 ). It is known that traumatizing experiences in early childhood shape vulnerability to stress in later life ( 43 ). The normal functioning of the HPA axis is often altered in psychiatric disorders, and increased cortisol secretion is observed in affective and psychotic disorders. Additionally, antipsychotic drugs appear to decrease HPA axis activity ( 44 – 47 ). Furthermore, healthy individuals who were first-degree relatives of individuals with psychotic disorders were found to have HPA axis dysfunction with elevated cortisol levels ( 48 ). These studies show that the HPA axis appears to be an important biological marker of susceptibility to developing psychiatric disorders. In this context, its association with gut microbiota is not insignificant. Other potential biomarkers involved in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders are inflammation and oxidative stress ( 49 ). The inflammatory theory of depression development is gaining increasing attention, and elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines are observed in depressive, psychotic, and manic states ( 50 , 51 ). Elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines occur before the onset of de novo disorders, suggesting their role in the genesis of these disorders ( 52 ). An increase in oxidative stress in psychotic disorders with a decrease in glutathione and antioxidant enzymes has also been observed ( 53 ). The potential effectiveness of selective cyclooxygenase-2 antagonists in the treatment of bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia has been demonstrated ( 51 , 54 ). The use of statins, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, reduced the risk of depressive disorders ( 55 ). Polyunsaturated fatty acids are further potential biomarkers that may have applications in psychiatry. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may play a role in the pathogenesis of affective and psychotic disorders ( 56 , 57 ). Their deficiency may be present in the early stages of psychotic disorders – stage 1b. Supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids reduced the risk of psychotic disorders among individuals at high risk of developing them ( 58 ).

The intestinal barrier is composed of several layers, including the intestinal microflora, mucus layer, intestinal epithelium, and elements of the circulatory, immune, nervous, and lymphatic systems. The layer of epithelial cells, mainly enterocytes connected by tight junctions, is the most important for the intestinal barrier ( 59 ). Its main function is to regulate the absorption of nutrients, electrolytes, and water from the gastrointestinal lumen into the blood or lymphatic system and prevent the penetration of pathogens from the gastrointestinal lumen. Factors such as stress, pro-inflammatory factors, dysbacteriosis of the intestinal microflora, alcohol, or antibiotics may cause excessive permeability of the intestinal barrier ( 60 – 62 ). Currently, the microbiota and its diversity as a trigger for generalized inflammation are gaining great importance ( 61 ) Under the influence of the impaired functioning of the barrier, the migration of bacteria from the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract occurs, which activates the cells of the immune system affecting the functioning of the immune, endocrine and nervous systems ( 62 ). It has been observed that patients with depression have elevated IgA and IgM immunoglobulins against lipopolysaccharides of the bacterial microbiome ( 63 ). The current study indicates the use of a dietary inflammatory index, which assesses the effect of the entire diet or individual dietary components on the concentration of inflammatory markers. The results of a systematic review by Chen et al. ( 64 ) indicate that a higher dietary inflammatory index is associated with an increased risk of common psychiatric disorders, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, distress, and schizophrenia. Of particular importance is the novel finding from the dose-response analysis that a 1 unit increase in the dietary inflammatory index was associated with a 6% higher risk of depressive symptoms. Similar relationships have been observed by Firth et al. ( 63 ), particularly in schizophrenia – individuals who consume more pro-inflammatory foods and less anti-inflammatory foods are more predisposed to psychiatric disorders. At this point, it is important to look at the relationship between diet and the proper functioning of the intestinal barrier. It turns out that it is not without significance in maintaining homeostasis. A diet consisting of fast food and highly processed foods is associated with increased intestinal barrier permeability ( 65 , 66 ).

Epidemiological studies have shown that diet impacts mental health, and intervention studies confirm this relationship ( 17 ). The challenge for “nutritional psychiatry” is to produce comprehensive, consistent, and scientifically rigorous evidence-based studies that define the role of diet and nutrients in different aspects of mental health ( 67 – 70 ). Overall, few randomized trials investigate the effectiveness of dietary change in mental health treatment. One intervention study to date involved a 12-week Mediterranean diet. This study reported significant improvements in mood and reduced anxiety in adults with major depression ( 71 ) More recent RCTs – HELFIMED ( 72 ) and PREDI_DEP ( 73 ) have confirmed the benefits of a Mediterranean-style diet for mental health in depression. In contrast to these studies, in the MooDFOOD RCT, multiple nutrient supplementation did not reduce episodes of major depression in overweight or obese adults with subsyndromal depressive symptoms. This study found that multinutrient supplements containing omega-3 PUFAs, vitamin D, folic acid, and selenium neither reduced depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms nor improved health utility indices ( 74 ). Similar results regarding the lack of effect on mental state improvement were obtained in a review of the literature in the context of vitamin D ( 75 ). For omega-3 PACs, one RCT including people with mild to moderate depression found no beneficial effect of omega-3 PACs on depressive symptoms ( 76 ). No effect of folic acid supplementation in combination with vitamin B 6 and B 12 on the onset of depression was found in older men ( 77 ) and older women ( 78 ). Furthermore, Rayman et al. ( 79 ) found no effect of selenium supplementation on mood in older people. Overall, the studies available to date, do not support the use of nutritional supplementation to prevent depression.

However, many studies confirm that higher dietary quality in adulthood is associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline ( 17 ). Additionally, the intake of antioxidant polyphenols in older adults is associated with improved cognitive ability ( 80 – 82 ). Another study showed that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil and nuts was associated with improved cognitive function in an older population ( 83 ).

Therefore, we undertook an analysis of diets that could potentially affect mental health such as the MIND diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the ketogenic diet.

The MIND diet is a dietary recommendation to counteract neurodegenerative brain changes and improve nervous system function. This diet is beneficial for cognitive decline in the aging process, as well as for the prevention and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease ( 84 ). The MIND diet combines the principles of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which are based on a high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grain cereal products, olive oil, fish, and seafood, and moderate consumption of dry red wine with meals ( 85 ). Studies prove the positive effects of the DASH and Mediterranean diets on other diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and obesity ( 86 – 89 ).

Long-term observations confirm that adherence to the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of developing neurological disorders by up to 28% compared to the use of other diets ( 83 ). Adherence to the MIND diet was significantly associated with a lower chance of depression and psychological distress, but not anxiety, in the entire study population ( 90 ). Like the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, the MIND diet emphasizes natural plant-based foods and limited intake of animal and high-fat foods, especially of animal origin. However, there are some differences between the MIND diet and the DASH diet, and the Mediterranean diet. For example, leafy green vegetables and especially berries are unique components of the MIND diet that are not included in the Mediterranean and DASH diets ( 90 ). The MIND diet does not focus on a high intake of fruit, dairy products, and potatoes. Another difference between MIND and the DASH and Mediterranean diets concerns fish consumption. In MIND, individuals consuming as little as 1 portion of fish per week receive a positive result, whereas, in the Mediterranean and DASH diets, larger amounts of fish would need to be consumed to achieve a result ( 91 ). The MIND diet significantly slows cognitive decline with age ( 92 ). The Mediterranean diet has also been shown to have a protective effect on anxiety and mental stress ( 93 ).

Mental illnesses are associated with numerous metabolic disorders in the brain and co-occur with many other metabolic disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and CVD. The ketogenic diet is an evidence-based treatment for epilepsy that has been shown to have profound effects on brain metabolism and neurotransmitter function. In a ketogenic diet, as much as 80 percent of energy can come from fat. This proportion sounds like a deal-breaker for healthy eating, but it turns out that ketones formed from fats can alleviate epileptic seizures unresponsive to anticonvulsant drug therapy ( 83 ). In the case of mitochondrial epilepsy, reports on the effects of the ketogenic diet are conflicting. In a study by El Sabbagh et al. ( 94 ), no patients on a ketogenic diet achieved no significant reduction in seizure frequency epileptic seizures. In contrast, a study by Kang et al. ( 95 ) involving 14 patients showed that the use of a ketogenic diet in 10 of them reduced the frequency of epileptic seizures by more than 50%, and in 7 patients, epileptic seizures ceased. In the analysis, there were improvements in symptoms including mood, cognitive function, communication skills, energy, anxiety, and auditory and visual hallucinations ( 90 ). Other reported benefits included positive biometric changes such as improvements in lipid profile, weight reduction, positive change in blood glucose, and reduction in HbA1c. These benefits may facilitate the management of comorbidities and improve overall health and well-being ( 93 ). This highlights that advances in nutritional psychiatry are important and it will be important to replicate, refine and scale up dietary intervention studies targeting the prevention and treatment of common mental health disorders. In addition, there is an unmet need for more randomized, controlled clinical trials ( 118 – 121 ).

Strengths and limitations

There is still little work in the scientific space that summarizes the major findings related to the impact of nutrition on mental health, especially, as this review does, highlighting the importance of nutrition in psychoprevention and pointing to the psychoprotective effects of nutrients. The primary limitation of the presented review of research on the relationship between diet and mental health is the plethora of studies on the topic. The plethora of studies here does not mean that they all address the issue presented in this manuscript. Much of the work that was searched and queried assumes a relationship between nutrition and the psyche, but these tend to be very superficial opinions that are not scientifically grounded. The authors are aware that in the face of such a large body of research, important reports may have been overlooked, but it should be noted that every effort was made to ensure that this review was conducted fairly, taking into account large, multi-center research projects and highlighting the major research streams in psychodietetics and nutripsychiatry.

Additionally, it was observed that in the current state of scientific knowledge, few large meta-analyses are treating the effects of food and diet on mental health. Therefore, it is difficult to discuss the effectiveness of introducing nutritional interventions among people with mental disorders or treating nutrition as the only means of prevention. Furthermore, the primary threat to interventions of this type is the difficulty in monitoring dietary patterns or intake of specific components. In addition, their absorption and metabolism are also dependent on many factors that rarely have a consistent course. Therefore, it is postulated that further research should be directed toward the creation of unambiguous dietary recommendations for mental health problems.

In recent decades, the relationship between nutrition and patients’ mental status has been underappreciated, as evidenced by the lack of research conducted before the 21st century in this area of knowledge – cited in this review. In recent years, this trend has been reversed, with research in psychodietetics and nutripsychiatry gaining popularity. In the context of current changes, urbanization, globalization, including the food industry, and changes in people’s lifestyles and eating habits, correlations between these phenomena and their impact on psychological status are becoming important. Exploring these correlations creates potential opportunities to implement new effective dietary, pharmacological, therapeutic, and above all preventive interventions ( Figure 2 ).

Links between nutrition and mental health.

Author contributions

MATG: conceptualization. MATG and KK-K: investigation and methodology. KS and AB-D: data curation. MATG: writing – original draft preparation. MATG, KK-K, MARG, and AB-D: writing – review and editing. KS and AB-D: supervision. KK-K: project administration. WS: conducting an additional literature review, creating tables summarizing current knowledge of psychobiotics and psychoprotective food ingredients, and revising the work. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Nih research matters.

June 25, 2024

Xylitol may affect cardiovascular health

At a glance.

• Higher blood levels of the artificial sweetener xylitol were associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke in people.
• Xylitol enhanced blood clotting in mice and isolated human blood.
• The results highlight the need for further study of long-term cardiovascular health risks from sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners that were thought to be safe.

Many people use artificial, low-calorie sweeteners to reduce their sugar intake. Dietary guidelines recommend them for people with cardiometabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. But their long-term effects on heart health have not been well studied.

A recent NIH-funded study by a team of researchers, led by Dr. Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic, suggested that an artificial sweetener called erythritol might exacerbate heart disease . Erythritol belongs to a class of compounds called sugar alcohols. Another sugar alcohol, xylitol, is also commonly used as a low-calorie sweetener and sugar substitute. Like erythritol, small amounts of xylitol occur naturally in fruits and vegetables. It is also produced in our bodies as part of normal metabolism. But levels of xylitol in artificially sweetened foods can be more than 1,000-fold greater than those found naturally in foods.

In their earlier study, the team found that blood erythritol levels were associated with future risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke. They also found that other sugar alcohols in the blood were associated with this risk, one of which they tentatively identified as xylitol. For the new study, the team examined a group of more than 2,000 people using a method to better distinguish xylitol from related compounds. Results appeared in the European Heart Journal on June 6, 2024.

The team found that people with the highest xylitol levels (top third) were about 50% more likely to have cardiovascular events over the next three years as those with the lowest (bottom third).

Blood components called platelets help blood to clot. In the group’s earlier research, erythritol made platelets more sensitive to blood clotting signals. In this study, the researchers exposed human platelets to xylitol to see if it had the same effect. Doing so increased the platelets’ sensitivity to blood clotting signals, much like erythritol did. Increasing blood xylitol levels also sped up blood clot formation and artery blockage in mice.

The team next tested how xylitol consumption affects blood xylitol levels and platelet function in people. To find out, they took blood samples from 10 healthy people before and after drinking a xylitol-sweetened beverage. Blood xylitol levels increased 1,000-fold within 30 minutes of drinking and returned to baseline after 4 to 6 hours. The platelets became more sensitive to blood clotting signals when xylitol blood levels were high.

These results suggest that xylitol, like erythritol, could have long-term cardiovascular health risks. Both xylitol and erythritol were associated with increase blood clot formation. This, in turn, could increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. Given these findings, further safety studies of sugar alcohol as artificial sweeteners are warranted.

“This study again shows the immediate need for investigating sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners, especially as they continue to be recommended in combating conditions like obesity or diabetes,” Hazen says. “It does not mean throw out your toothpaste if it has xylitol in it, but we should be aware that consumption of a product containing high levels could increase the risk of blood clot-related events.”

—by Brian Doctrow, Ph.D.

Related Links

• Erythritol and Cardiovascular Events
• How Excess Niacin May Promote Cardiovascular Disease
• Eating Red Meat Daily Triples Heart Disease-Related Chemical
• Gut Cells Distinguish Between Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
• Sweet Stuff: How Sugars and Sweeteners Affect Your Health
• Healthy Body, Happy Heart: Improve Your Heart Health
• Coronary Heart Disease

References:  Xylitol is prothrombotic and associated with cardiovascular risk. Witkowski M, Nemet I, Li XS, Wilcox J, Ferrell M, Alamri H, Gupta N, Wang Z, Tang WHW, Hazen SL. Eur Heart J. 2024 Jun 6:ehae244. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae244. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38842092.

Funding:  NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.

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June 25, 2024

$1.5M USDA NIFA grant will help Purdue researcher identify community-based food waste solutions

The Purdue University College of Agriculture’s Department of Agricultural Economics has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The new funding will create the Purdue Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction. (Photo/Adobe Stock)

Development of new center aims to increase nutrition security and mitigate climate change 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University College of Agriculture’s Department of Agricultural Economics has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The grant will fund a research and Extension project titled “Designing Co-Created Solutions to Improve Nutrition Security, Health Equity, and Environmental Sustainability.”

Brenna Ellison , professor of agribusiness management and undergraduate program coordinator in the Department of Agricultural Economics, is the project’s principal investigator. The new funding will create the Purdue Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction, a vital research vehicle for Ellison and her longtime collaborator, Melissa Pflugh Prescott, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve University.

Ellison and Prescott have expertise in the interrelated topics of improving diet and health outcomes while also reducing food waste. Their main goal will be to accelerate meeting national food loss and waste reduction targets by engaging underrepresented young adults, private and public sectors, and households in improving nutrition security and health equity.

“Many efforts to reduce food waste in the U.S. are top-down in nature and sometimes provide ‘one-size-fits-all’ guidance,” explains Ellison. “We’re interested in a bottom-up approach, working with different types of households to see how their food management behaviors differ. Our hope is to collect data and observe patterns, eventually co-creating behavioral strategies to reduce food waste that are tailored to households’ needs.”

Ellison and Prescott want to build an online hub for households to access educational resources on adopting practical strategies for food management activities such as food planning, preparation and storage.  

In the fall, the center will start recruiting student food equity specialists in five to six communities across the U.S. to establish a baseline for household food literacy and food waste. Food equity specialists will be recruited on college campuses and trained on the food system, food waste and citizen science. This work to collect household food literacy and waste data will provide a service-learning opportunity and prepare the next generation to better understand how to achieve a more sustainable food system.

Student food equity specialists will work with the project team to codesign equity summits in their local communities to share their baseline findings and engage with public and private stakeholders to discuss how they can empower food conservation and waste reduction. 

Ellison and Prescott will also offer a mini-grant program available to student food equity specialists. Based on their observations during the baseline assessment period, students will be able to apply for small grants to improve food literacy and promote nutrition security and health equity in their respective communities.

The center will also develop a National Extension Food Loss and Waste strategy, aligning with the Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being .

Ellison says, “ W e want to meet households where they are and hear about their unique barriers and challenges in managing food waste . By utilizing citizen science, our desire is to actively engage U.S. households in the conversation to cocreate a shared understanding of feasible, culturally appropriate strategies to improve food literacy and household food waste. We also hope to empower households to be more resilient and nutrition-secure.”

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Writer/Media Contact: Ashvini Malshe, 765-496-7480, [email protected]

Source: Brenna Ellison, [email protected]

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, [email protected]

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Nutrition program accredited

Published June 20, 2024

The Clinical Nutrition MS program in the School of Public Health and Health Professions has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics, ACEND, for the next seven years, the longest term possible.

The accreditors made their site visit to the school in October 2023 and conducted a thorough evaluation. No additional follow-ups were required, highlighting the strength and quality of the program.

“The achievement of a full seven-year accreditation term from ACEND for our Clinical Nutrition MS graduate program signifies a seal of excellence and rigor, affirming the dedication of our faculty to uphold the highest standards in dietetics education,” says Nicole Becklem, the program’s director.

“For students and prospective students, it offers assurance of a comprehensive curriculum that not only imparts foundational knowledge but also has embedded advanced competencies essential for future dietetics practice. Being the sole, fully accredited, in-person graduate program in dietetics in Buffalo underscores the prestige and leadership of our department within the School of Public Health and Health Professions at UB, positioning graduates for success in diverse roles, including management, interprofessional collaboration and high-level practice.”

The factors ACEND mentioned in its evaluation of the program included:

• Collegiality and support of faculty and administrators.
• Interprofessional education among health care professions.
• Diverse on-site experiences and dedication of preceptors.
• Competency assessment methods.
• Curriculum innovation and program directors’ leadership.

“The Clinical Nutrition program at UB has been training exceptional clinicians for more than 20 years,” adds David Hostler, chair of the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, where the program is housed. “This excellent result from the accreditation visit is the result of the dedication of our nutrition faculty to the students and the program.”

Nutrition and dietetics programs voluntarily apply to ACEND, part of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, for accreditation to demonstrate their compliance with accreditation standards. Among other factors, the accreditation process looks at whether schools and programs provide value to educational institutions and programs while protecting students and the public interest. 

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Research, Scholarly Activities and Laboratories

Student Research Opportunities                      Open PRAIRIE Collection

The mission of the School of Health and Consumer Sciences is to focus on improving the quality of life regionally, nationally and globally by fostering life-long learners, conducting innovative research and teaching and delivering effective education and outreach. Our faculty work collaboratively to improve individuals’ health and translate scientific discoveries into practice through translational research, discovering through basic research and progress to the clinical level and application. 

Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Laboratory

Kendra Kattelmann  (nutrition education) and  Jessica Meendering  (physical activity) collaborate to direct the Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Laboratory at SDSU. Together, these researchers contribute to our understanding of how environments and education impact diet and physical activity behaviors of individuals throughout the lifespan, especially among rural populations. Graduate research assistants that work in the Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Laboratory gain valuable experience in all aspects of the research process and work toward publication of their thesis work. Past projects have included examining associations between school wellness policies and school environments in elementary schools and exploring the associations between the home food environment and preschool child diet, physical activity and weight status. For more information and to see current research projects, visit Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Laboratory .

Biomechanics and Human Movement Science Laboratory

The Biomechanics and Human Movement Science Laboratory is equipped with 3D motion capture (Qualisys; 6 Oqus 300 series cameras), ground reaction force plates (AMTI; BP400600HF, BP600900 and AccuPower) and Visual 3D software for post processing. The lab equipment is used for the study of the application of mechanical principles to human movement. Although the equipment is suited for the analysis of a variety of movements, the focus of the lab is lower extremity biomechanics. Current and future projects include; Biomechanics of functional activities for people with multiple sclerosis, Mechanical asymmetries in people with multiple sclerosis, Running mechanics of obese children and the relationship between running mechanics, diet and bone mineral density. 

Health and Human Performance Laboratory

The Health and Human Performance Laboratory is equipped for exercise and performance testing, personal fitness evaluation assessment, physical activity assessment and vascular function testing. The HHP Laboratory has an extensive list of equipment including, but not limited to: 150 Actigraph Accelerometers, 150 New Lifestyles Pedometers, Siemens Sequoia Ultrasound and Vascular Imaging Transducer, Medical Imaging Applications Vascular Tools 5 Software, Hokanson Rapid Cuff Inflation System, BIOPAC Data Acquisition System, BIOPAC Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitor, Woodway Treadmill, Trackmaster Treadmill, Cybex Isokinetic Dynamometer, Quinton Cardiac Science EKG Cart, 8 Monark Cycle Ergometers, Lode Cycle Ergometer, Vertec Vertical Jump System, COSMED Bod Pod, Parvo Medics Metabolic Cart, Two Velotron Cycle Ergometers, Cholestech LDX System, Fisher Scientific Marathon Centrifuge, Bio-Rad Microplate Reader and washer and Genesys Spectrophotometer. An additional space is dedicated to a training facility, which includes strength training equipment and a Multi-rider CompuTrainer system. 

For more information, you can e-mail Jessica Meendering .

Molecular Nutrition Laboratory

The Molecular Nutrition Laboratory is located on the fourth floor of Wagner Hall in Brookings's main campus of SDSU. The laboratory houses modern equipment used to achieve a comprehensive understanding of how differential responses to dietary factors link across levels of human systems biology i.e. physical, biochemical, physiological and novel omics-based (metagenomics, gene expression, metabolomics) endpoints during adult life. As a modern fast-paced society, we prioritize short-term quick fixes through symptom management (e.g. using pharmaceuticals) over promoting natural holistic well-being. However, population health data (source: CDC, WHO) suggest that this approach to health solutions did not alleviate the chronic disease burden. The next-generation of robust lifestyle-oriented research can help validate or discard many existing weakly-held nutritional-health concepts to potentially inform long-term public health improvement.  

If you would like more information regarding the Nutrigenomics Laboratory or you'd like to learn more about Dey’s research, you can email Moul Dey .

Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Laboratory

Lee Weidauer is the director of the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Laboratory at SDSU.  The primary focus areas of this lab are the prevention and treatment of orthopedic injuries and conditions through dietary and physical activity interventions. Research Focus includes:

• Identifying risk factors for post-traumatic osteoarthritis following anterior cruciate ligament injuries.
• Dietary interventions aimed at improving recovery following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. 
• Dietary interventions to improve outcomes following joint replacement surgery.
• A remote intervention aimed at the treatment of sarcopenia in older adults.
• Bone health throughout the lifespan.
• Repetitive use injuries.

If you would like more information regarding the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Laboratory or you'd like to learn more about Weidauer's research, you can email Lee Weidauer . 

For information about each faculty's research and scholarly focus areas and activities, you can visit their profiles pages below.

Geb Bastian

Assistant Professor, Extension Nutrition and Health State Specialist

SDSU Extension

Elizabeth Droke

Associate Professor, Ph.D., R.D.N.

Kendra Kattelmann

Distinguished Professor Emerita of Nutrition and Dietetics

School of Health and Consumer Sciences

College of Education and Human Sciences

September Kirby

Volunteer Faculty

Associate Professor

Jessica Meendering

Academic Director/Professor

Kathryn Morrison

Assistant Professor

Tracy Nelson

Senior Lecturer

Trevor Roiger

Clinical Assistant Professor

Bryan Romsa

Marni Shoemaker

Matt Vukovich

College of Education and Human Sciences Professor and Associate Dean of Research

Roman Waldera

Lee Weidauer

Mary Beth Zwart

Clinical Nutrition

Clinical Nutrition Resources: Online Tools & Resources | Nutrition Services & Appointments | FAQs | Publications |

Drs. Freeman and Linder of the Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animal’s Clinical Nutrition Service help pet owners and their veterinarians incorporate nutrition into their pet’s wellness and treatment plans. The Clinical Nutrition Service has extensive experience in nutritional management of dogs and cats, from healthy animals to those with very complex health concerns.

Board-Certified Veterinary Nutritionists

What does it mean to be a board-certified veterinary nutritionis and why can you trust us to provide accurate, unbiased nutrition information for your pet?

All About Pet Food

Learn about pet food, how to read labels, about supplements, treats and much more.

Pet Nutrition Basics

All animals have basic nutritional needs that must be met for them to live long, healthy lives.

Best Food for Your Pet

Determine the quality of pet foods by learning how to read and understand labels and nutritional information.

Pets with Health Problems

If your pet has heart or kidney disease, is overweight or has other conditions, learn how the right pet food can help.

Tools & Resources

We take the guesswork out of identifying evidence-based websites and tools that you can feel confident using.

Trending Topics

Visit the petfoodology blog, meet our founders.

Lisa Freeman – D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVIM (Nutrition)

Dr. Freeman is a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist ® and a professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She is on the cutting-edge of science, with hundreds of articles in prestigious journals, speaking engagements at national and international conferences, and awards for her scientific achievements. However, she also is passionate about providing objective and accurate information on pet nutrition to veterinarians, pet owners, and other animal enthusiasts.

Cailin Heinze – V.M.D., M.S., DACVIM (Nutrition)

Dr. Cailin Heinze is a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist ® and the Chief Academic Officer of the Mark Morris Institute, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote optimal companion animal health by providing educational opportunities for veterinary students and veterinarians in clinical nutrition. She also does some part-time consulting work for Balance IT, a company that makes software and supplements for home-cooked pet diets. Dr. Heinze has been featured in The Washington Post, Eating Well, WebMD, Prevention magazine, and Dog Fancy and she regularly speaks at national and international veterinary conferences.

Deborah Linder – D.V.M., M.S., DACVIM (Nutrition)

Dr. Deborah Linder , a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist ® , is the head of the Tufts Obesity Clinic for Animals and has had articles appear in Eating Well, the Boston Globe, AARP, SHAPE, and XM Sirius Radio Doctor Channel. She has spoken at national and international conferences and a Capitol Hill briefing, and is an expert in pet obesity, nutrition communication, and in the human-animal bond.

See Nutrition Team Recent Publications

Clinical Nutrition Service 55 Willard Street North Grafton, MA 01536

Phone : 508-839-5395 Ask for the Clinical Nutrition Service liaison