How ultra-processed foods are made could explain health risks

A new observational study suggests processing itself could partly the links between ultra-processed foods and diabetes, heart disease, and early death.

Concerns about the health effects of ultra-processed foods are growing, as studies increasingly link them to conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and even early death. But scientists are still debating what’s driving those risks: the nutritional quality of these foods—which are often high in refined grains, sodium, and added sugars—or the industrial processing and additives used to make them.

A new study from researchers at the Food is Medicine Institute at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, published in American Journal of Public Health, suggests the processing itself may play an independent role.

The researchers found that people who ate more ultra-processed foods had worse health outcomes, even after accounting for the overall nutritional quality of the foods.

“The findings suggest ultra-processed-food factors beyond nutrients—such as changes to foods’ cellular structure, loss of beneficial chemical compounds, additives, and chemicals from packaging—may create health risks not addressed by traditional nutrition metrics or policies,” says the study’s senior author, Dariush Mozaffarian, cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute.

For the observational study, the researchers analyzed data from 10 consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2018, linked to National Death Index through 2018. Study participants had completed one or two 24-hour dietary recalls.

Using a standard classification system, the team grouped foods based on how they were made—from minimally processed food-based ingredients like fruits and vegetables to ultra-processed products made with industrial ingredients and additives not typically used in cooking. The researchers also rated the nutritional quality of foods using a system that scores foods based on their overall healthfulness. Each participant received an overall diet-quality score based on the foods they reported eating. The team then examined how ultra-processed food consumption was linked to current health measures—such as weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol—as well as long-term risk of death.

For every 10% increase in calories from ultra-processed foods, the researchers found worse health markers. People who ate more of these foods tended to have higher body weight, worse blood sugar control, higher blood pressure, and less favorable cholesterol levels. They were also more likely to have conditions such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cancer and had a slightly higher risk of dying during the study period.

These links remained even after researchers accounted for reported foods’ nutrient quality and the amounts of saturated fat, added sugar, or sodium present in the ultra-processed foods. The patterns were largely the same across different subgroups of people.

“Ultra-processed foods make up a substantial portion of the American diet, accounting for more than 50% of adults’ and about 60% of children’s caloric intake,” says Juna Hatta-Langedyk, first author and an undergraduate biology student at Tufts.

“Understanding how these foods affect health is a critical public health priority, given the large proportion of the population affected.”

“Addressing structural and policy-related barriers to accessing fresh and minimally processed foods remains critical for promoting dietary changes that improve the health and life span for all Americans,” says Mozaffarian.

“Our findings can help inform many current policy efforts, such as a national definition of ultra-processed foods, and multiple states’ endeavors to propose and pass laws addressing ultra-processed foods, including warning labels, bans on certain additives, and limits in school meals.”

Research reported in this article was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, as well as by an American Diabetes Association’s Pathway to Stop Diabetes award and the Laidlaw Foundation’s Laidlaw Scholars Leadership & Research Programme. Complete information on methodology, limitations, and conflicts of interest is available in the published paper.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.

Source: Tufts University

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You’re probably not carrying the right safety gear when you hike

A researcher asked hundreds of hikers and trail runners what they were carrying on their wilderness treks. Many were less prepared than they should be.

With the arrival of warmer weather across the United States, outdoor enthusiasts are returning to America’s parks and forests to hike and run on the country’s beautiful, often remote, networks of trails. But along with the influx of visitors comes a rise in wilderness emergencies, some of them requiring complex and expensive search and rescue operations.

In a single week in April in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, seven hikers were rescued and another was found dead on a trail after he didn’t return from a solo backpacking trip.

A new paper from a Boston University researcher seeks to curb such incidents with first-of-its-kind data on the preparedness of day hikers and trail runners; the results could help educate adventurers on what to pack and know before they venture into the wilderness.

In a survey of more than 600 visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Boston University School of Public Health’s John Lambert asked those returning from a day hike or a trail run about their wilderness experience and the gear they had with them.

Survey participants were categorized as wilderness prepared if they were carrying at least one liter of water, seven emergency items from the National Park Service’s “Ten Essentials” list, a map or equivalent wayfinding device, and either two rescue devices or eight of 15 recommended first aid items.

His study, published in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, found most hikers and trail runners—especially those with less previous wilderness experience—were not carrying the necessary emergency gear and were not adequately prepared for higher altitudes. He concluded these were problems parks could alleviate with more targeted educational outreach, known as preventative search and rescue (PSAR).

“From a public health perspective, honestly, anytime outside is great,” says Lambert, a BU Center for Climate & Health researcher. “That being said, you still have to be smart about it, and being prepared can save your life or someone else’s.”

Here, Lambert digs into his research and how hikers can better prepare for the wilderness:

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Sleep deprivation shows in your spit

Researchers have discovered signs of sleep loss in saliva.

Acute sleep deprivation can be detected using just a single saliva sample, the researchers report.

This method could help improve road safety and safety in high-risk professions in the future.

Good sleep is essential for our physical and mental health. And yet, sleep problems are widespread. According to the latest Swiss Health Survey, around one-third of the population report suffering from sleep disorders. Women and young people aged 15 to 39 are particularly affected.

Although sleep loss is widespread, it has not previously been possible to measure it directly and objectively in bodily fluids. A research team from the Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Zurich (UZH) has now investigated whether sleep deprivation can be detected through metabolic changes in saliva.

“Our study provides the first direct biomarkers of sleep deprivation in saliva under realistic conditions—a milestone for forensic research,” says Thomas Krämer, professor of forensic pharmacology and toxicology at the UZH Institute of Forensic Medicine.

For the study, the researchers examined 20 healthy young men who normally sleep seven to nine hours. The participants completed three experimental conditions in random order: one night without any sleep, four consecutive nights of six hours’ sleep, and a control condition with the usual eight hours of sleep. The team then analyzed participants’ saliva using high-resolution mass spectrometry and employed machine-learning methods to identify molecular patterns associated with acute sleep deprivation.

“We found that acute sleep deprivation affects about 10% of all biomolecules in saliva. The challenge was to identify, among tens of thousands of molecules, those that reliably indicate fatigue. Using state-of-the-art technology, we succeeded in identifying 10 biomarkers that do exactly that,” says first author Michael Scholz. As part of his doctoral research, he investigated in depth how fatigue can be measured in the body.

The project is now entering its next phase. In a large-scale international field study, the patented biomarker set will be validated under realistic conditions. The researchers will investigate whether the method can reliably detect sleep deprivation in a range of everyday situations involving shift work, alcohol, medications and other factors.

In the long term, this research could lead to the development of a rapid test that can be used on-site to objectively detect fatigue.

“Such a test could improve road safety and enhance safety in work environments where attention and concentration are critical,” says Scholz.

The study appears in the Journal of Proteome Research.

Source: University of Zurich

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Hiding who you are can have real effects on your mental health

The decision to reveal or conceal a core part of one’s identity may seem like a small, everyday choice, but new research suggests those moments can have meaningful consequences for emotional well-being.

The study found that sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults who felt compelled to hide their identities were more likely to experience emotional distress and uncertainty about themselves. In contrast, participants who felt able to be open about who they are reported greater confidence, self-understanding, and positivity.

The findings offer a rare glimpse into the day-to-day experiences that shape mental health among sexual and gender minority individuals—a population that experiences higher rates of depression than their non-SGM peers.

The research adds to growing empirical evidence for something many of us intuitively understand: Social norms and institutional policies that limit identity expression have a very real negative mental health impact, not just in the long term but in each moment that someone feels pressure to hide an important piece of themselves, says Sienna Nielsen, a University of Michigan psychology graduate student and study lead author.

According to Nielsen and colleagues, building a strong queer community to resist this effect is crucial in a period of intense anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and legislation. Many studies have documented mental health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations, but we know much less about how those challenges unfold in everyday life.

“Our findings suggest that daily experiences related to identity visibility may play an important role in emotional well-being,” Nielsen says.

The researchers followed 252 SGM young adults over eight days, collecting more than 4,300 real-time reports about participants’ emotions, identity experiences and social interactions. The study primarily included bi+ cisgender women and nonbinary individuals assigned female at birth.

The researchers examined how participants felt when they concealed or openly expressed their sexual or gender identities. They found that moments of concealment were associated with greater emotional strain and lower confidence in one’s sense of self. Conversely, being open about one’s identity was linked to stronger feelings of self-clarity and identity positivity.

While the researchers did not find a direct link between these day-to-day experiences and depression symptoms during the study period, negative emotions appeared to play an important indirect role, particularly when participants felt pressure to hide aspects of who they were.

The findings highlight how seemingly ordinary interactions can accumulate over time and influence emotional health.

“Being able to live authentically may help reinforce a stronger sense of self, while concealing important aspects of identity can create emotional challenges that affect daily well-being,” Nielsen says.

The researchers say the study provides an important foundation for future work aimed at understanding and reducing mental health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations.

The study appears in Clinical Psychological Science.

Additional coauthors are from UM and the University of Pittsburgh.

The research was supported by the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Source: University of Michigan

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‘Peach fuzz’ could hold clues to new chronic itch treatments

Working with mouse models, research has revealed previously hidden biology of how touch-sensitive hairs create itching sensations.

This fundamental discovery opens new avenues to better understand and potentially address human health conditions characterized by persistent itchiness.

“Itch is one of the major symptoms in most chronic skin inflammation patients,” says Bo Duan, associate professor in the molecular, cellular, and developmental biology department at the University of Michigan.

“What we’ve discovered is a pathway that we believe plays a very important role for both acute and chronic itch sensation.”

The team discovered a previously unrecognized class of hairs in mice, known as vellus-like hairs, and a specialized population of touch-sensitive neurons that connect to them. As their name suggests, these hairs are similar to the fine, short, light-colored vellus hairs found on humans, though we more commonly refer to them as peach fuzz.

The work, supported in part by funding from the National Institutes of Health, appears in the journal Neuron.

For one set of experiments, the team worked with mice that had chronic skin inflammation, which is known as eczema in humans. Mice that expressed these neurons scratched normally, as one would expect. But, for mice that lacked those neurons or in which the neurons were inactive, the itching response was greatly reduced.

While there are a number of ways to help soothe chemical itch caused by things like mosquito bites and poison ivy, those treatments are ineffective against itch caused by skin inflammation, Duan says. This study suggests treatments that target the “mechanical itch” pathway could be more successful.

“We need a new pathway to target if we want to treat chronic itch,” Duan says. “And our research suggests that this population of neurons could be a target in the future. We have ongoing projects looking at this.”

Although the team can’t run experiments to directly identify the same or related pathways in humans, the researchers are already building the case with other forms of evidence. For starters, humans do possess genes required to make these touch-sensitive neurons.

The team also discovered proteins in mice that help transmit the itch signal from hairs to the spinal cord via the specialized neurons. Human neurons grown in cultures respond to the same proteins, the team found.

“Our study indicates that humans may have this same kind of mechanism to transmit mechanical itch,” Duan says. “It also reveals that the body has a dedicated system for this type of sensation.”

It’s one of Duan’s favorite science demonstrations, one that he gave while interviewing for his job and one that he still shows to students joining his lab.

First, you take a tissue and roll one of its corners into a long, fine point. Then take that point and, ever so gently, stroke at the hairs around your lips. Not the thicker, darker hairs, which are called terminal hairs, but the thin, light vellus hairs. If you graze one just right, that peach fuzz will make you itch.

“Humans and animals experience this kind of itch, but no one knew the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind it,” Duan says. The new study identifies the sensory pathway that links specialized hairs to itch and, together with earlier research from Duan and his teammates, helps explain how these signals are transmitted through the nervous system.

It was more than a century ago that scientists first noted that the vellus-like hairs of mice, which are especially concentrated behind their ears, beneath their lips and at the base of their paws, were “special.” Yet these hairs have remained largely understudied in sensory science, Duan says.

Because of that, there really weren’t any standard procedures to test whether and how mice responded to mechanical itch. That meant Duan and his colleagues had to develop their own methods.

“A mouse can’t say that it’s itchy,” Duan says. “But it will scratch.”

For the new study, the team mechanically stimulated itch in mice using a small loop of thread and stroking the animal’s vellus-like hairs. Once they identified the neurons that gave rise to the itching response, the researchers could then make those neurons sensitive to blue light. Shining light on a mouse’s skin and observing it scratch in the same way it did with mechanical stimulation helped confirm the specific neurons’ role in itch.

Peach fuzz and peach fuzz-like hairs grow in higher numbers near human and mice mouths and ears, Duan says. This suggests they may have evolved as a warning system for mammals to alert them when pests or parasites are trying to get in.

But human bodies are covered in vellus hair (with some notable exceptions like the palms of our hands) and you may wonder why we’re not constantly scratching if we’re coated with such sensitive touch receptors. Another one of Duan’s earlier projects studying itch in mice could also explain that: Within the spinal cord, there are “gating” circuits at work that essentially block the mechanical itch signal unless it’s activated in a particular way.

Source: University of Michigan

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This GLP-1 drug may be best for weight loss

GLP-1 medications are marketed to help you lose weight, but one may be better at it than the rest, according to a new meta-analysis.

Tirzepatide, better known as Zepbound for weight loss and Mounjaro for treatment of type 2 diabetes, helped patients lose more than 20% of their starting body weight across the reviewed studies.

Semaglutide (marketed under the brand name Wegovy) and liraglutide (Saxenda) did lead to weight loss, but it was significantly less at 15% and 8%, respectively.

The review is the first to compare efficacy of the three FDA-approved GLP-1 medications in nondiabetic patients using the drugs for weight loss.

“We were interested in finding which drug gives the most weight loss and doesn’t have higher rates of side effects like nausea and gastrointestinal problems. Tirzepatide seems to be the better option,” says Pooja Gokhale, corresponding author of the review and a doctoral student in the Unversity of Georgia College of Pharmacy.

Chances are someone you know is taking a GLP-1 medication.

Short for glucagon-like peptide-1, GLP-1s are highly effective FDA-approved medications that treat type 2 diabetes. Increasingly, they’re being used by more people to lose weight.

About one in every eight Americans is currently taking a GLP-1, according to a recent poll from KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. And one in five have taken the medication in the past.

“Some people call these ‘miracle drugs’ because the weight loss effect is real,” says Lorenzo Villa-Zapata, coauthor of the paper and an assistant professor in the UGA College of Pharmacy.

“But what some people don’t understand is that when they stop taking the medication, they may gain all that weight back.” (The current study did not evaluate weight gain after the discontinuation of GLP-1 medications.)

GLP-1 medications act as a pharmaceutical version of a natural hormone in the gut, lowering blood sugar, keeping you feeling fuller longer, and slowing down digestion.

But where brand names like Wegovy and Saxenda are solely focused on mimicking GLP-1 receptors, tirzepatide targets both GLP-1 receptors and another gut hormone known as GIP.

That may make all the difference for people looking to maximize weight loss, the researchers say.

The researchers analyzed the results of 15 randomized controlled Phase 3 clinical trials, comprising more than 14,000 patients.

Participants saw the largest weight reduction when prescribed the maximum dose of tirzepatide (between 10 and 15 milligrams).

Liraglutide proved the least effective of the three drugs. It also requires daily injections compared to the weekly dosing schedule of tirzepatide and semaglutide medications.

At the time of the review, the FDA had not yet approved the Wegovy pill, an oral version of the GLP-1 medication that is now available in 25 mg pills.

However, the researchers did a sensitivity analysis of a 50 mg version and found that it was not as effective as tirzepatide in nondiabetic patients looking to lose weight. It was “almost as good as the injectable semaglutide,” though, Gokhale says.

The research appears in Obesity.

Source: University of Georgia

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Listen: How websites trick you with ‘dark patterns’

In a new podcast episode, a computer scientist explores tactics used in apps and online to deceive users—from subscription traps to collecting data.

Why does it seem so difficult to cancel a subscription, delete an account, or opt-out of data tracking?

You might think it’s just bad luck or a confusing user interface, but more often than not, it’s by design.

Marshini Chetty is a professor at the University of Chicago’s computer science department.

In this episode of Big Brains, Professor Chetty reveals the science behind “dark patterns”—the subtle, manipulative design choices woven into the apps and websites you use every day. Chetty digs into how these deceptive interfaces weaponize human psychology to keep us clicking, spending, and sharing our data:

Read the transcript of this episode.

Source: University of Chicago

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