Healthy habits are here to stay
Feb 06, 2022
Are you back into the swing of things yet? I can definitely feel a difference as my inbox is heating up as the days fly by.
Conference season is also fast approaching starting with Vitafoods, so I hope you have your schedules ready to go.
In this week’s newsletter: Latest research, Lifesum partners with Amazon Halo, Lifenome is selected as innovator in precision health, Gennev caters for menopausal women, healthy eating habits are here to stay and the latest events.
Stay healthy and stay safe!
Mariette
Research update
Regulating metabolic inflammation by nutritional modulation
“Metaflammation refers to a chronic, low-grade systemic inflammation, compared to classical transient and acute inflammatory responses of the innate immune system. Metaflammation is driven by a range of adverse dietary factors, including saturated fatty acids and some sugars, suggesting that certain dietary triggers may be particularly relevant beyond simple excessive dietary intake presenting as obesity. Importantly, obese diabetic patients have a higher risk of infection and display gut microbiota profiles characteristic of dysfunctional immunity”. This review approaches “how different nutrition interventions may re-configure disrupted metabolic-inflammation in T2D and NAFLD, by re-establishing a conventional pro-inflammatory program in innate immune cells and/or correcting dysbiosis to dampen systemic inflammation”.
Recent Advances in the Application of Metabolomics for Nutrition and Health
This review provides an overview of the current applications of metabolomics in nutrition and identifies key challenges for the development of the field. “The successful development of metabolomics for nutrition research has the potential to improve dietary assessment, help deliver personalized nutrition, and enhance our understanding of the link between diet and health”.
Effectiveness of a web-based real-life weight management program: Study design, methods, and participants’ baseline characteristics
This article presents the Healthy Weight Coaching (HWC), a 12-month web-based intervention for the management of obesity. “The program is based on the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and includes themes important for weight loss, including diet, physical activity, psychological factors, and sleep. In addition to the automated, interactive program, a personal coach is allocated to each participant. The participants are nationally enrolled through referrals from primary care, occupational health, hospitals, and private health care units. Adult individuals with a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 without severe complications are included. On a weekly basis, participants submit their weight logs, training sessions, and lifestyle targets to the internet portal and are scheduled to have online discussions with their coaches 26 times over the course of a year. Questionnaires on lifestyle, diet, physical activity, psychological factors, sleep, and quality of life are completed at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, and thereafter yearly until 5 years. Additionally, log data on the use of the service, and discussions with the coach are collected. The main outcome is weight change from baseline to 12 months”. The recruitment for the HWC is ongoing, and “this research will bring insight into how internet-based technologies can be implemented in the virtual management of obesity”.
Can the FUT 2 Gene Variant Have an Effect on the Body Weight of Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery?-Preliminary, Exploratory Study
“The FUT2 gene (Se gene) encoding the enzyme α-1,2-L-fucosyltransferase 2 seems to have a significant effect on the number and type of bacteria colonizing the intestines”. This study was conducted on a group of 19 patients after bariatric surgery, and the polymorphism (rs601338) of FUT2 gene was analyzed in combination with body mass reduction, intestinal microbiome (16S RNA sequencing), and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). The results suggest that “among the secretors (Se/Se polymorphism of the FUT2 gene rs601338, carriers of GG variant), correlations between the waist-hip ratio (WHR) and propionate content and an increase in Prevotella, Escherichia, Shigella, and Bacteroides were observed. On the other hand-in non-secretors (carriers of GA and AA variants)-higher abundance of Enterobacteriaceae, Ruminococcaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Clostridiales was recorded”. The conclusions showed that “the increased concentrations of propionate observed among the GG variants of FUT 2 may be used as an additional source of energy for the patient and may have a higher risk of increasing the WHR than carriers of the other variants (GA and AA)”.
Gut microbiome diversity in acute severe colitis is distinct from mild to moderate ulcerative colitis
This study’s objective is to characterize the gut microbiome of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), acute severe colitis (ASC), and healthy controls (HC). In a sample with patients with mild to moderate UC (n=24), ASC (n=19 with 21 episodes), and healthy controls (n=50), “a 16SrDNA amplicon approach was used to explore gut microbial diversity and taxonomic repertoires”. The results showed that “The normalized alpha diversity was significantly lower in ASC than mild-moderately active UC (p<0.05), or HC (p<0.001). The gut microbiome in ASC was highly unstable, as characterized by high intra-cohort variation (analyzed using J-divergence measure) which was significantly greater than in UC or HC. On principal coordinate analysis, the microbiome of HC and UC were similar, with the ASC cohort being distinct from both. Comparison of ranked abundances identified four distinct clusters of genera (G1, G2, G3, G4), with specific trends in their abundance across 3 groups: G1/G2A clusters had the least, whereas G3 had the highest abundance in the ASC cohort”.
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These are the questions we answer in this brief
- What are digital trials?
- What are the current drivers?
- What are the aims of a digital trial?
- What are the benefits of a digital trial?
- Recent Industry examples
- 6 critical steps companies need to consider when planning a digital trial with a focus on Personalized nutrition and wellness.
- Who should consider conducting a digital trial?
- Which difficult questions to ask sponsors and your leadership team?
Technology News
Amazon releases wearable health tracker with app called Amazon Halo
- Physical Activity: “Instead of using steps as a measurement of activity, Amazon Halo awards points based on the intensity and duration of the movement”;
- Sleep quality: “Amazon Halo tracks the duration and quality of users sleep with sensors that detect motion, heart rate, temperature, and sleep phase. Every morning, the app generates a sleep score out of 100 and offers tips to improve the quality of sleep”;
- Body Fat Percentage (BFP): “Based on recent studies that say using body mass index as an indicator of obesity has limitations, Amazon Halo uses body fat percentage (BFP) as an overall measure of health”. Also, “the app allows users to measure their BFP from their home through guided instructions for taking scan images. After taking photos from the front, back, and each side, the app creates a 3D image of the body with a BFP score”;
- Voice Analysis: ” (…) analyzes users’ voices with machine learning to help them understand how they sound to others, which could help improve communication and relationships, according to Amazon”;
- Labs: ” (…) challenges, experiments and workouts that allow customers to discover what works best for them”.
Lifestyle company Lifesum has teamed up with Amazon Halo to provide access to their platform to test how certain foods can personally impact body composition and sleep. Is Amazon sliding into personalized nutrition ya think?
Smartphone App And Deep Learning Help Detect Diabetes
Researchers at UC San Francisco are studying a new digital biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of Diabetes. “The UCSF researchers found that the heart rate data, along with heart rate variability and certain features of the (photoplethysmography) PPG waveform morphology, correlate with many physiological mechanisms affected by diabetes, such as endothelial aging and microvascular atherosclerosis”. The researchers are also creating an app that will detect diabetes by using a smartphone camera and the publicly available Instant Heart Rate app from Azumio to capture photoplethysmography (PPG) measurements. “When a user places his or her fingertip over the phone’s flashlight and camera, the app measures PPG’s by capturing color changes in the fingertip corresponding to each heartbeat. This data is reported back to the user as the instantaneous heart rate. (…) While more research is needed on how to best incorporate this new digital biomarker, the results could establish PPG as a new modality in diabetes care and smartphones as an even more useful tool for our health”, they said.
Gennev Creates New Menopause Systems to Help Women 40+ with Sleep, Energy, Mood, and Sexual Wellness
Gennev it is the first online clinic for women in menopause, and the company has announced the launching of the new menopause system that includes a CBD Sleep System, the AM/PM Daily Menopause Pack, and the Menopause Dryness Care, to personalized counseling symptoms of menopause such as insomnia or fatigue. Each package is purchased in 30-day supplies individually or as a monthly subscription. More concretely, the systems help with several symptoms:
Genetics and wellness company Lifenome was recently selected by the World economics forum as one of the innovators of precision health.
Lifenome together with other household names such as Facebook and IBM to address global challenges in health. Lifenome was founded in 2016 and has since become a science-based platform to large organizations including the Global wellness institute.
I am participating in the Nutraingredients Sports and Active summit (Europe). Click on the image below to register for the event.
The event will take the format of a virtual broadcast series. I will be joining the live panel discussion on the 7th October as part of the gut microbiome category.
Healthy eating takes lockdown hit: IGD
The annual Appetite for Change report, by IGD, shows that more than “57% of consumers are either considering changing or already adapting their diets, to be “healthier and more sustainable”. Also with the COVID-19 pandemic, the motivations of the consumers changed with 63% of 1000 UK consumers saying that health is the primary motivator for a healthier diet, a rise compared to 2019. The survey also compared the environmental concerns of the responders, showing that 13% are motivated by the environment. But interestingly, however, the number of people who say they are – or are considering – making healthy changes to their diet is actually down on 2019 levels, when 66% identified themselves as part of this group compared to the 57% of 2020. To overcome this, to eat healthier and more sustainably it is important that people feel the tasting pleasure of a healthy diet. According to IGD, some strategies should be adopted by the food industry to help consumers meet their organoleptic expectations.
Probiotics usage surged mid-May, levels in the US expected to stay high
According to a new survey of DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences, the intake of probiotics by Americans has increased 66%, comparing 15% six months prior to the time of the study to 25% in May. The “data also showed that the number of Americans taking probiotics supplements every day or more increased from 37% to 61%” and “the average times per week they took probiotics increased, from 3,57 to 5,35”. This tendency also has been seen in Italy and China, both of which experienced huge increases in the usage of probiotic dietary supplements. The reason for that? The COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between probiotics and the immune support system.
Upcoming Events
Vitafoods Europe 15-17th September (online)
TNO Foodvalley summit, 13th -14th October (Online)
Nutraingredients Sports nutrition summit 7-9 October 2020 (Online)
Chairing the Foodmatterslive seminar on Personalised nutrition 14th October 16.30pm (Virtual event)
ANA Personalized nutrition virtual event 2020 12 -13th November (Online)
Panellist at the Foodtech matters Personalised nutrition 14th October 9am (Online)
Qina is the hub for data and insights in Personalised nutrition. Qina offers the world´s first comprehensive and curated database of Personalised nutrition companies in the industry. Qina has a library of expert content and offers consultancy services for innovation projects.
