Nutrition

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When Food Doesn’t Feel Like Home: Food Access May Be Harder for International College Students

The blog is written by authors Na Zuo, College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona, Angela Jungbluth, Ferguson College of Agriculture, Oklahoma State University, & Katherine Speirs, The Norton School of Human Ecology, University of Arizona, and related to a paper published in Public Health Nutrition – Food Insecurity and Cultural Food Access Among International College Students.…

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Why a whole-population approach to the gut microbiome in the first 1000 days of life can help us tackle nutrition-related non-communicable diseases

The paper “Overcoming barriers to gut microbiome development through nutritional factors in the first 1,000 days of life: strategies and implications for preventing non-communicable diseases“, published in Gut Microbiome, has been chosen as the latest Editorial Highlight and is freely available to download for one month.…

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JNS: Now the official journal of the IUNS-ICN 2025

As of Nutrition Society’s summer meeting in 2025, I am two years into my tenure as the editor in chief of Journal of Nutritional Sciences. My vision for the journal is to place less emphasis on novelty than cutting edge journals, but to support the publication of robust, reinforcing research that advances nutritional science (this particularly includes negative findings and paradigm challenges). As the Nutrition Society has a portfolio of journals, it has also been a priority for me to build to build a distinct identifty, profile and editorial board from our sister journals The British Journal of Nutrition and Public Health Nutrition.

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Can Vitamin D Improve Iron Levels in Older People? A New Study Says No

Vitamin D is often hailed as a ‘wonder’ nutrient, credited with benefits ranging from bone health to immune support. But could it also help with iron absorption, particularly for older people? A recent clinical trial—the BEST-D study—set out to answer this question. The verdict? Vitamin D supplementation is unlikely to make a meaningful difference to iron levels in older people. 

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Public appetite for food policy reform: What are people really hungry for?

Unhealthy diets are a major contributor to poor health worldwide, driving rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In response, many governments have introduced policies to improve the environments in which people make everyday food choices—such as regulating child-directed food marketing, taxing ultra-processed products, or enhancing the nutritional quality of school meals.

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Slashing the Sodium in Fast-foods: A Targeted Approach

Fast-food - it’s quick, convenient, and hyper-palatable. Part of its palatability comes from the generous amounts of added sodium [dietary salt]. For example, a hamburger with fries can easily provide more than a person’s daily upper limit for sodium of 2,000mg. Unfortunately, too much sodium is linked to high blood pressure which is associated with cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of preventable death in Aotearoa, New Zealand (NZ) and globally, and sales data shows our appetite for fast-food is increasing.

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Drinking for Two: Breastfeeding the Developing Baby’s Gut Microbiota

When a mother breastfeeds her baby, she supports both the development of her child and the microbes in the child’s gut. Breast milk contains unique carbohydrates called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) that cannot be digested by the baby. Instead, these HMOs reach the gut to be used by the gut microbes. Bifidobacteria, among other gut microbes, help degrade HMOs and produce beneficial product in the baby’s gut.

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Sexual dimorphism in the context of nutrition and health

The way we respond to the various constituents of our diet may differ depending on whether we are males or females. Given that females have been largely underrepresented in such research to date, aspects of the diet we believe to be beneficial or deleterious may not hold true for half of the population. These so called ‘sex differences’ relating to diet are further complicated by the ageing process. For example, reproductive ageing in females leads to the menopausal transition, altering the hormone profile and key processes such as metabolism. As such it is important as nutritional researchers that we comprehend how components of our diet are influenced by sex across the lifespan.

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Can individuals with obesity be malnourished? Why it’s hard to identify

When we think of malnutrition, we often picture individuals who are underweight or experiencing hunger, struggling with inadequate levels of essential nutrients. However, malnutrition can also exist in individuals with obesity. Many people in this population may have a relatively low intake of essential nutrients, especially during illness, leading to physiological changes often overlooked in clinical assessments. Identifying protein-energy malnutrition in individuals with obesity is challenging due to distinctive physical and physiological characteristics, including increased body weight, adipose tissue dysfunction and metabolic dysregulation presented as systemic inflammation.

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Encouraging the consumption of pulses with cooking suggestions and recipes

Pulses, including dry beans, chickpeas and lentils, are healthy, sustainable, and low cost. Pulses, however, are not currently consumed as frequently or by as many people as is currently recommended for health benefits or for planetary gain. We sought to understand why this was, what could be done to encourage pulse consumption, and whether cooking suggestions and recipes can help.

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Composition of weight gain during infancy catch-up growth in term low birth weight infants: Fat or lean mass?

Catch-up growth, i.e., accelerated gain in weight and length to attain a size in accordance with genetic potential is a common phenomenon in infants who are born at full term with low birth weight (mostly as a consequence of intrauterine growth restriction). Previous studies have indicated that rapid growth during infancy may be associated with greater adiposity and adverse metabolic consequences in later life.

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Can mechanistic research in nutrition contribute to a better understanding of relationships between diet and non-communicable diseases (NCD)?

Most of the evidence linking diet with complex diseases such as heart disease and cancer (non-communicable diseases (NCD)) is based on findings from epidemiological cohort studies which follow large populations of people to determine whether groups of people who have been diagnosed with or died from the disease, have diets that differ from those who are free from the disease. A limiting factor in these studies is their observational nature which limits the certainty about causal relationships between the exposure (diet) and the outcome (NCDs). Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), where a dietary factor is fed under carefully controlled circumstances, have a greater ability to prove the dietary factor is causing the disease and provide confidence for policymaking.

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Introducing Animal Nutriomics

Zhejiang University, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press, is launching the new journal - Animal Nutriomics - that covers all novel research on animal nutrition science from the perspective of genomics, especially in the fields of animal molecular nutrition, nutrition in animal health, nutritional regulation of genetics and epigenetics, nutrition-related omics, phenotype and metabolism.

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Can health-related food taxes green our diets?

In a world increasingly concerned with both health and environmental sustainability, the way we eat plays a critical role. However, in our search for solutions for better health and a sustainable planet, we often find ourselves at a crossroads where the decisions we make can have significant trade-offs. This delicate balance between promoting human health and minimizing environmental impact is a central challenge of our time, one that requires careful consideration and informed choices. In our research we investigated whether policies such as food taxes can help the consumer make more healthy and sustainable food choices.

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Navigating nutrition evidence for individualised care

Diet is key to the maintenance of health and crucial in the prevention and management of many diseases. Modified nutrient intake is sometimes essential to prevent deficiency, optimise development and health, or manage symptoms and disease progression. A new Position Paper (Hickson et al 2024) from the Academy of Nutrition Sciences (ANS) provides a state-of-the-art summary of how evidence-based practice, with a particular emphasis on research evaluation, is used to inform nutrition interventions for individuals.

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Coprococcus in your gut: the secret of happiness?   

Today it is well established that our physical wellbeing partially depends on the trillions of microbes in our gut, the intestinal microbiome. At same time, there is emerging evidence that these unicellular lifeforms can also influence our mental status and cognitive performance.

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Always tired? Read how nutrition can influence fatigue

Fatigue is a symptom resulting from the weakening or depletion of one's physical and/or mental resources, ranging from a general state of lethargy to a specific, work-induced burning sensation within one's muscles. It is a highly prevalent feeling but still remains an often-neglected unmet clinical need.

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From Farm to Mouth: How Food Policy Groups Are Transforming Food Systems in High-Income Countries

Today’s food systems in high-income countries face several challenges, including a lack of resiliency, resulting in an inconsistent food supply and changing food prices, especially during crises. When faced with this type of challenge, high-income countries tend to rely on short term food relief that doesn’t always meet people’s nutritional needs or choices. In addition, limited access to nutrition education and cooking skills programs makes it hard for those most at risk to use what food they do have effectively. To address these challenges, a focus on local or regional food systems is considered one way to boost food system resilience.  

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From Overeating to Brain Aging: How diet and obesity impact the gut-brain interaction

With the ongoing global epidemic of obesity and increasing prevalence of dementia, evaluating the impact of over-eating and different diets on brain structure and function becomes increasingly important. Recent studies suggest that the gut microbiota and metabolic changes can impact with cognitive health. In this paper of the month, we were interested in the impact of obesity and diet on the gut-brain axis.

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The double-edged sword of keeping livestock: balancing nutritional benefits with disease risks in poor nations

In many low- and lower-middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where mixed crop-livestock farming is widely practiced, livestock keeping provides income, food, nutrition and other benefits for the rural poor. The nutritional benefits of livestock keeping are particularly important since malnutrition continues to cause nearly half of annual global child deaths, and can have lasting effects on the physical growth and cognitive development of millions of surviving children.

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‘Everything is connected’

Professor Andrea Azcarate-Peril tells the marathon story of her journey from Argentina, via North Carolina, to becoming Editor-in-Chief of Gut Microbiome, an open access journal co-published by Cambridge University Press and The Nutrition Society

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The health effects of alternative plant-based meats on inflammation

The Paper of the Month for February is 'Assessing the effects of alternative plant-based meats v. animal meats on biomarkers of inflammation: a secondary analysis of the SWAP-MEAT randomized crossover trial' and the blog is written by author Anthony Crimarco, Ph.D. and is published by the Journal of Nutritional Science and is free to access for one month.

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Creating a healthier food environment in Singapore: Analysis

Public Health Nutrition Editorial Highlight: ‘Identifying implementation gaps and priorities for the Singapore government to improve food environment policies:  perspectives from a local expert panel’ In March 2018 we invited a panel of 20 national experts in public health nutrition or chronic disease prevention to evaluate the actions of the Singapore’s governments in creating healthier food environments.…

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Processed supermarket meals gives food for thought

With more people eating at home due to COVID-19, New Curtin research published in Public Health Nutrition has found more than half of Australian supermarket own brand chilled ready-made meals are unhealthy and 94 percent are ‘ultra-processed’ – yet more than 80 percent are labelled with a ‘pass mark’ under the Health Star Rating system.…

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The Eurasian lactase persistence variant LCT-13910 C/T is associated with vitamin D levels in individuals living at high latitude, more so than exposure to sunlight

The Nutrition Society Paper of the Month for March is from the Journal of Nutritional Science and is entitled: The Eurasian lactase persistence variant LCT-13910 C/T is associated with vitamin D levels in individuals living at high latitude, more so than exposure to sunlight by Amir Moghaddam.…

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Strategies to Address Anaemia Among Pregnant and Lactating Women in India

The Nutrition Society Paper of the Month for April is from Public Health Nutrition and is entitled ‘Strategies to address anaemia among pregnant and lactating women in India: a formative research study’ by Pamela A Williams, Jon Poehlman, Katelin Moran, Mariam Siddiqui, Ishu Kataria, Anna Merlyn Rego, Purnima Mehrotra and Neela Saldanha.…

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New journal to explore the “mysterious ecosystem” in our guts

A new open access journal from Cambridge University Press, published in partnership with The Nutrition Society, will explore the vital interaction between people and the complex community of microorganisms that live in our digestive systems The journal, Gut Microbiome, will look at the factors that influence this gut microbiota and how they in turn affect our health and development.…

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