Planetary boundaries are an important sustainability concept, defining absolute limits for resource use and emissions that need to be respected to avoid major and potentially irreversible earth ...system change. To remain within the safe operating space for humanity, there is a need for urgent adoption of climate-neutral diets, which make no additional contribution to warming. In the first study of its kind, a new climate metric, the Global Warming Potential Star (GWP*), was used to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with 9341 Australian adult diets obtained from the Australian Health Survey. Dietary climate footprints averaged 3.4 kg CO
-equivelent per person per day, with total energy intake explaining around one quarter of the variation. Energy-dense and nutrient-poor discretionary foods contributed around one third. With lower climate footprint food choices, a diet consistent with current Australian dietary guidelines had a 42% lower climate footprint. Currently, it is not possible to define a climate-neutral dietary strategy in Australia because there are very few climate-neutral foods in the Australian food system. To bring Australian diets into line with the climate stabilization goals of the Paris Agreement, the most important need is for innovation across the agricultural and food processing industries to expand the range of climate-neutral foods available.
This study aims to tease out why the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have largely failed to support positive attitudinal and behavioral dietary change in the U.S. over the past decade. ...Dervin’s sense-making methodology (SMM) is employed as a theoretical framework to postulate why DGA has not been more successful with its past communication approaches. A brief history of DGA is shared along with criticisms and literature discussing its potentially politicized nature. Thirteen semi-structured qualitative interviews with individual people and various experts (government, dietitians, communicators, and school-lunch administrators) reveal successes and failures and, ultimately, gaps in the communication process. Key themes emerged indicating the importance of mothers, coaches, and significant others, but rarely DGA, in American’s nutritional upbringing. Industry expert interviews exposed areas where competing systems may cancel out efforts and how too many people are looking at narrowly focused details without seeing the big picture. Systems thinking embedded in social change theories may be advantageous over traditional, less coordinated linear-thinking approaches to improve awareness and attitudes. A systems map is proposed to guide the process and bring key parties together to move beyond the contentious, only one winner mentality that has dominated in the past. In conclusion, this article adds qualitative insights to this area of inquiry and makes suggestions to improve organizational communication and policy.
This study examined adherence to dietary guidelines and symptoms of sleep problems (e.g. taking a long time to fall sleep or waking up early) and their associations in a sample of older Australian ...women (68-73 years of age).
This was a population-based cross-sectional study. Adherence to the dietary guidelines was measured using a validated FFQ and reported as a diet quality score. Symptoms of sleep problems were measured using five questions and a total score was derived. Multivariate linear regression was used to investigate the association between these outcomes, adjusted for the potential confounding influence of demographic (i.e. age and marital status) and lifestyle (i.e. physical activity, stress, alcohol intake, sleep medication use) variables.
Respondents from the 1946-1951 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health who completed Survey 9 were included.
Data from
7956 older women (mean age ± sd: 70·8 ± 1·5) were included.
70·2 % reported having at least one symptom and 20·5 % had between 3 and 5 symptoms of sleep problems (mean score ± sd: 1·4 ± 1·4, range 0-5). Adherence to dietary guidelines was poor with an average diet quality score of 56·9 ± 10·7 (range 0-100). Better adherence to dietary guidelines was associated with fewer sleep problem symptoms (
: -0·065, 95 % CI: -0·012, -0·005) and remained significant after adjusting for confounding influences.
These findings support the evidence that adherence to dietary guidelines is associated with symptoms of sleep problems in older women.
Modifiable lifestyle factors, such as following a healthy dietary pattern may delay or prevent prostate cancer (PCa) progression. However, few studies have evaluated whether following specific ...dietary patterns after PCa diagnosis impacts risk of disease progression among men with localized PCa managed by active surveillance (AS). 564 men enrolled in the Canary Prostate Active Surveillance Study, a protocol-driven AS study utilizing a pre-specified prostate-specific antigen monitoring and surveillance biopsy regimen, completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at enrollment and had ≥ 1 surveillance biopsy during follow-up. FFQs were used to evaluate adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (Healthy Eating index (HEI))-2015, alternative Mediterranean Diet (aMED), and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary patterns. Multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. During a median follow-up of 7.8 years, 237 men experienced an increase in Gleason score on subsequent biopsy (grade reclassification). Higher HEI-2015, aMED or DASH diet scores after diagnosis were not associated with significant reductions in the risk of grade reclassification during AS. However, these dietary patterns have well-established protective effects on chronic diseases and mortality and remain a prudent choice for men with prostate cancer managed by AS.
Potatoes comprise a common staple food in the Nordic and Baltic countries and contribute to the diet with vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and phytochemicals. However, potatoes may also be consumed ...in processed forms with added fat and salt, which raises concerns about possible adverse health effects. The aim of this scoping review is to describe the overall evidence for the role of potatoes as a basis for setting and updating food-based dietary guidelines in the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023. PubMed was searched for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and evidence was extracted on relevant health outcomes. Current available evidence indicates that moderate consumption of potatoes is not associated with a substantial risk of chronic diseases, and that they may be part of a healthy diet. However, the health effects vary greatly depending on cooking methods, and studies indicate that the intake of French fries/fried potatoes should be limited. Overall, the evidence regarding health effects of potatoes is very limited, and possible associations need to be further investigated.
A variety of different dietary patterns can achieve the nutrient goals for a given population and therefore be considered as healthful. This means that guidelines for a healthy diet can be tailored ...to suit different cultures and food preferences. Although food‐based dietary guidelines are used worldwide, there is also authoritative dietary advice in relation to single nutrients, especially those of public health relevance. This includes recommendations to eat less salt, free sugars and ‘saturates’ as well as more fibre. However, it can be difficult for consumers to make simultaneous reductions in salt, sugars and saturated fatty acids as well as increases in dietary fibre, given that food choices are made according to a variety of considerations, including taste preferences, culture, convenience and cost, as well as health. In addition, media coverage of new scientific findings, especially those that challenge current dietary guidelines, can confuse consumers and hamper efforts to eat healthfully. Both food‐based dietary guidelines and recommended nutrient intakes can help consumers eat healthfully, providing they are supported by sound nutrition science, communicated well and delivered in a way that promotes beneficial changes in behaviour.
Discussing plant-based diets and substitutions for animal-based foods in food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) can be a key step in making dietary recommendations more sustainable and healthy as well ...as more inclusive. The existing large-scale evaluations of FBDGs do not assess whether and to what extent countries cover the broad spectrum of plant-based diets and have policy positions on vegetarian diets, including vegan diets, and whether they mention specific plant-based alternatives to milk, dairy products, and meat. The main aim of this state-of-the-art review was to determine whether and how FBDGs provide such information. An overall 95 guidelines and 100 corresponding countries were assessed via an exploratory sequential mixed method. This involved qualitative explorative content analysis of the guidelines, followed by hierarchical cluster analysis. Furthermore, the Balanced Food Choice Index (BFCI) was constructed, which measures the extent to which FBDGs provide recommendations that cover the broad spectrum of plant-based diets, with some or no animal-based products. To explore the correlations between FBDGs’ recommendations and ecological and economic country characteristics, ordinary least squares regression was used. It was found that most countries do not provide information to their citizens that cover the broad spectrum of plant-based diets, as indicated by the mean score of the BFCI (33.58 of 100 points). A total of 38 guidelines (40%) contain a position on vegetarian diets. Nearly half (45%) of all FBDGs already mention plant-based alternatives to meat or animal milk. The regressions showed that the BFCI correlates positively with countries’ ecological efforts and negatively with the importance of animal-based products in their economies. This study demonstrates considerable information insufficiency in current FBDGs worldwide. FBDGs should provide recommendations for the broad spectrum of plant-based diets and balance the ethical, ecological, religious, and economic aspects that play a role in people's food choice.
To develop and pilot a tool to evaluate Australian dietitians' and student dietitians' ethical and professional practice using social media.
A Social Media Evaluation Checklist was developed based on ...checklist development literature with a four-staged process. Stage one included a literature review and input from an expert panel to ensure content validity. Stages two and three were to ensure face validity by categorising the checklist and pilot testing the tool. Instagram profiles and posts were audited by two authors using the checklist in the final stage to analyse ethical and professional use. An account purposely created for this study was used, and the first 25 dietitian and first 25 student dietitian profiles identified using the key words 'dietitian', 'student dietitian' and 'dietitian student' and the hashtag '#australiandietitian' were reviewed.
A total of 50 Instagram profiles and 250 posts were audited based on seven categories; (1) financial disclosure, (2) cultural awareness, (3) evidence-based information, (4) transparency, (5) privacy/confidentiality, (6) professionalism and (7) justifiability. Areas for improvement included advertising transparency which was met in only 12% of dietitian posts, and the provision of evidence-based information, which was met in 56% of dietitian posts and 72% of student dietitian posts.
This study provides insight into the ethical and professional use of social media by Australian dietitians and dietetics students. With the evolving nature of social media, guidance is required. This will ensure dietitians remain, now and in the future, the credible source of nutrition information for the public.
To investigate how often review authors encounter multiple results from included studies that are eligible for inclusion in a particular meta-analysis, and how often methods to select results are ...specified.
MEDLINE and Epistemonikos were searched (January 2018–June 2019) to identify systematic reviews with meta-analysis of the association between food/diet and health-related outcomes. A random sample of these reviews was selected, and for the first presented (index) meta-analysis, rules used to select effect estimates to include in this meta-analysis were extracted from the reviews and their protocols. All effect estimates from the primary studies that were eligible for inclusion in the index meta-analyses were extracted (e.g., when a study report presented effect estimates for blood pressure at 3 weeks and 6 weeks, both unadjusted and adjusted for covariates, and all were eligible for inclusion in a meta-analysis of the effect of red meat consumption on blood pressure, we extracted all estimates, and classified the study as having “multiplicity of results”).
Forty-two systematic reviews with 325 studies (104 randomized, 221 non-randomized) were included; 14 reviews had a protocol. In 29% of review protocols and 69% of reviews, authors specified at least one decision rule to select effect estimates when multiple were available. In 68% of studies included in the index meta-analyses, there was at least one type of multiplicity of results.
Authors of systematic reviews of nutrition studies should anticipate encountering multiplicity of results in the included primary studies. Specification of methods to handle multiplicity when designing reviews is therefore recommended.
The strong spread of COVID-19 and the significant number of deaths associated with it could be related to improper lifestyles, which lead to a low-grade inflammation (LGI) that not only increases the ...risk of chronic diseases, but also the risk of facing complications relating to infections and a greater susceptibility to infections themselves. Recently, scientific research has widely demonstrated that the microbiota plays a fundamental role in modulating metabolic responses in the immune system. There is, in fact, a two-way interaction between lifestyle, infection, and immunity. The immune response is compromised if nutrition is unbalanced or insufficient, because diet affects the intestinal flora predisposing people to infections and, at the same time, the nutritional state can be aggravated by the immune response itself to the infection. We evaluate the link between balanced diet, the efficiency of the immune system, and microbiota with the aim of providing some practical advice for individuals, with special attention to the elderly. A correct lifestyle that follows the Mediterranean model, which is especially rich in plant-based foods along with the use of extra-virgin olive oil, are the basis of preventing LGI and other chronic pathologies, directly influencing the intestinal microbiota and consequently the immune response.
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