Personalized nutrition (PN) has been proposed as a strategy to increase the effectiveness of dietary recommendations and ultimately improve health status.
We aimed to assess whether including omics-based PN in an e-commerce tool improves dietary behavior and metabolic profile in general population.
A 21-wk parallel, single-blinded, randomized intervention involved 193 adults assigned to a control group following Mediterranean diet recommendations (n = 57, completers = 36), PN (n = 70, completers = 45), or personalized plan (PP, n = 68, completers = 53) integrating a behavioral change program with PN recommendations. The intervention used metabolomics, proteomics, and genetic data to assist participants in creating personalized shopping lists in a simulated e-commerce retailer portal. The primary outcome was the Mediterranean diet adherence screener (MEDAS) score; secondary outcomes included biometric and metabolic markers and dietary habits.
Volunteers were categorized with a scoring system based on biomarkers of lipid, carbohydrate metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, and microbiota, and dietary recommendations delivered accordingly in the PN and PP groups. The intervention significantly increased MEDAS scores in all volunteers (control-3 points; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2, 3.8; PN-2.7 points; 95% CI: 2.0, 3.3; and PP-2.8 points; 95% CI: 2.1, 3.4; q < 0.001). No significant differences were observed in dietary habits or health parameters between PN and control groups after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Nevertheless, personalized recommendations significantly (false discovery rate < 0.05) and selectively enhanced the scores calculated with biomarkers of carbohydrate metabolism (β: -0.37; 95% CI: -0.56, -0.18), oxidative stress (β: -0.37; 95% CI: -0.60, -0.15), microbiota (β: -0.38; 95% CI: -0.63, -0.15), and inflammation (β: -0.78; 95% CI: -1.24, -0.31) compared with control diet.
Integration of personalized strategies within an e-commerce-like tool did not enhance adherence to Mediterranean diet or improved health markers compared with general recommendations. The metabotyping approach showed promising results and more research is guaranteed to further promote its application in PN. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT04641559 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04641559?cond=NCT04641559&rank=1).

OBJECTIVE: Legume and pulse consumption is currently recommended for health and sustainability purposes, but barriers to consumption can include low enjoyment and poor sensory properties. This work aimed to investigate the relative importance of a number of barriers and facilitators towards legume, including pulse, consumption with a specific focus on enjoyment, sensory properties and a possible role for perceived cooking abilities in these relationships.
METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire study assessed legume and pulse consumption, agreement and disagreement with statements relating to enjoyment, sensory properties, cooking abilities, practical aspects, healthiness, upbringing, social influences and quality issues, and four demographic characteristics. Complete responses were gained from 633 respondents with a mix of genders, ages, usual cooking responsibilities and usual eating habits.
METHODS: UK, March 2021 - September 2022.
METHODS: General UK adult population.
RESULTS: Using multiple regression analyses, enjoyment and cooking abilities were found to be important for both legume and pulse consumption (smallest beta = 0·165, P < 0·01), and the sensory properties of these foods were also important for the consumption of pulses (beta = 0·099, P = 0·04). Perceived cooking abilities also reduced the importance of enjoyment and sensory properties for consumption, mitigated effects due to upbringing and practical aspects and increased the value of perceived health benefits (smallest beta = 0·094, P = 0·04).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate a clear role for enjoyment, sensory properties and perceived cooking abilities in legume and pulse consumption and suggest benefits for increasing cooking abilities for improved legume and pulse consumption, as result of both direct and indirect effects.

We investigated whether long-term consumption of two healthy diets (low-fat (LF) or Mediterranean (Med)) interacts with SIRT1 genotypes to modulate aging-related processes such as leucocyte telomere length (LTL), oxidative stress (OxS) and inflammation in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). LTL, inflammation, OxS markers (at baseline and after 4 years of follow-up) and SIRT1-Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs7069102 and rs1885472) were determined in patients from the CORDIOPREV study. We analyzed the genotype-marker interactions and the effect of diet on these interactions. Regardless of the diet, we observed LTL maintenance in GG-carriers for the rs7069102, in contrast to carriers of the minor C allele, where it decreased after follow-up (p = 0.001). The GG-carriers showed an increase in reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) ratio (p = 0.003), lower lipid peroxidation products (LPO) levels (p < 0.001) and a greater decrease in tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels (p < 0.001) after follow-up. After the LF diet intervention, the GG-carriers showed stabilization in LTL which was significant compared to the C allele subjects (p = 0.037), although the protective effects found for inflammation and OxS markers remained significant after follow-up with the two diets. Patients who are homozygous for the SIRT1-SNP rs7069102 (the most common genotype) may benefit from healthy diets, as suggested by improvements in OxS and inflammation in patients with CHD, which may indicate the slowing-down of the aging process and its related diseases.

Research has shown that vegetarian diets have a low environmental impact, but few studies have examined the environmental impacts and nutritional adequacy of these diets together, even though vegetarian diets can lead to nutritional issues.
Our objective was to optimize and compare 6 types of diets with varying degrees of plant foods (lacto-, ovolacto-, and pescovegetarian diets and diets with low, medium, and high meat content) under nutritional constraints.
Consumption data in 30,000 participants were derived from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort using an FFQ. Diets were optimized by a nonlinear algorithm minimizing the diet deviation while meeting multiple constraints at both the individual and population levels: nonincrease of the cost and environmental impacts (as partial ReCiPe accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand, and land occupation, distinguishing production methods: organic and conventional), under epidemiologic, nutritional (based on nutrient reference values), and acceptability (according to the diet type) constraints.
Optimized diets were successfully identified for each diet type, except that it was impossible to meet the EPA (20:5n-3) + DHA (22:6n-3) requirements in lacto- and ovolactovegetarians. In all cases, meat consumption was redistributed or reduced and the consumption of legumes (including soy-based products), whole grains, and vegetables were increased, whereas some food groups, such as potatoes, fruit juices, and alcoholic beverages, were entirely removed from the diets. The lower environmental impacts (as well as individual indicators) observed for vegetarians could be attained even when nutritional references were reached except for long-chain n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids.
A low-meat diet could be considered as a target for the general population in the context of sustainable transitions, although all diets tested can be overall nutritionally adequate (except for n-3 fatty acids) when planned appropriately.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03335644.

This study explores interconnections between food consumption and production of animal (by-)products in different food system scenarios within the scope of Dutch Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG). For this scenario study, a Microsoft Excel model was created that include seven scenarios with different quantities of eggs, milk, cheese, beef cattle, broilers, and pigs as input. Number of animals, intake of energy, animal protein, saturated fatty acids (SFAs), trans-fatty acids (TFAs), salt, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), and land use (LU) were calculated and compared with current consumption and reference values. Based on the concept of eating the whole animal, every recommended lean, unprocessed portion of beef comes along with a non-recommended portion of beef (two portions for pork, 0.5 portion for broilers). The reference values for SFAs, TFAs, and salt were not exceeded if the intake of meat is limited to 410 g/week. The scenarios with recommended 450 mL semi-skimmed milk and 40 g/day low-fat cheese results in 36 g/day of butter as by-product, exceeding its acceptable intake three times. The near-vegetarian scenario with recommended amounts of eggs, milk, and cheese, includes only a portion of beef/calf per 6 days and a portion of chicken per 9 weeks as by-products. This scenario more than halves the GHGE and LU. Finally, the scenario that included the maximum recommended amounts of animal products is reachable with half the current size of Dutch livestock. This conceptual framework may be useful in the discussion on how future sustainable FBDG can incorporate a more food system-based approach.

In Italy, the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) required lifestyle changes that have affected food choices and people\'s health condition. We explore people\'s perception of the role of food consumption as a preventive measure and how it reconfigures consumption habits.
We conducted an online survey of a representative sample of 1004 Italian citizens. Around 40% of the population perceive that strengthening the immune defences through nutrition is not important to reduce the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. People with lower levels of perceived importance are slightly younger and have a less healthy lifestyle. They are less worried about the emergency. During the last months, they have bought less food supplements and also intend to decrease their purchase in the next 6 months.
In COVID-19 pandemic, scholars underline the importance of having a strong immune system. However, the Italians who attribute less importance to food that helps the immune system seem to differ negatively in their psychological attitude towards the emergency and food consumption. Today, Italians are asked to engage in preventive food practices to protect against possible chronic diseases; exploring their perceptions is important to orient them towards this change.

Evidence on whether healthy diets are more expensive than current diets is mixed due to lack of robust methodology. The aim of this study was to develop a novel methodology to model the cost differential between healthy and current diets and apply it in New Zealand.
Prices of common foods were collected from 15 supermarkets, 15 fruit/vegetable stores and from the Food Price Index. The distribution of the cost of two-weekly healthy and current household diets was modelled using a list of commonly consumed foods, a set of min and max quantity/serves constraints for each, and food group and nutrient intakes based on dietary guidelines (healthy diets) or nutrition survey data (current diets). The cost differential between healthy and current diets was modelled for several diet, prices and policy scenarios. Acceptability of resulting meal plans was validated.
The average cost of healthy household diets was $27 more expensive than the average cost of current diets, but 25.8% of healthy diets were cheaper than the average cost of current diets. This cost differential could be reduced if fruits and vegetables became exempt from Goods and Services Tax. Healthy diets were cheaper with an allowance for discretionary foods and more expensive when including takeaway meals. For Māori and Pacific households, healthy diets were on average $40 and $60 cheaper than current diets due to large energy intakes. Discretionary foods and takeaway meals contributed 30-40% to the average cost of current diets.
Healthy New Zealand diets were on average more expensive than current diets, but one-quarter of healthy diets were cheaper than the average cost of current diets. The impact of diet composition, types of prices and policies on the cost differential was substantial. The methodology can be used in other countries to monitor the cost differential between healthy and current household diets.