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• Cross sectional analysis of two population cohorts with independent replication Online publication date confirmed against the PubMed publication date field and the PMC record.

  Ten scores for a healthy diet almost never picked the same people, and still landed on the same biology

  Ten competing definitions of a good diet were applied to the same 6,470 adults. Eighteen people made the top quarter on all ten. Yet every score tracked the same ageing measure, and the methylation marks they left converged on the same biological pathways.

  Nature Communications 17(1) · Tavares et al. · the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases · 29 August 2026 · PMID 42668319

  diet-qualitydietary-patternsgeneral-nutritionepigeneticsresearch-methodscohort
• Cross sectional construct validity analysis of pooled national dietary surveys Online publication date confirmed against the PubMed publication date field.

  A simple count of food groups predicted nutrient adequacy better than the Planetary Health Diet Index

  Across 152,004 people in 26 countries, the sustainability oriented diet index did track nutrient adequacy in the right direction. A plain count of how many food groups someone ate tracked it about twice as strongly.

  The American Journal of · Hanley-Cook et al. · Ghent University · 26 August 2026 · PMID 42648644

  diet-qualitydietary-patternsgeneral-nutritionfood-policyresearch-methodsultra-processed-food
• Prospective cohort study with gene by diet analysis Date verified

  Low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets, genetic susceptibility, and long-term risk of dementia: a prospective cohort study

  Among 5,301 US adults aged 55 and over followed for about nine years, a low-carbohydrate eating pattern tracked with lower dementia risk and a low-fat one did not. But splitting each pattern by food quality reversed the picture within it: plant based and higher quality versions tracked with less dementia, animal based and lower quality versions with more. Inherited risk did not change the pattern.

  The American Journal of · Chen et al. · Zhejiang University School of Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health · 7 August 2026 · PMID 42567320

  diet-qualitydietary-patternscarbohydrateepidemiologycognition
• Natural experiment in a prospective cohort Published online 4 August 2026, print issue 11 August 2026. An earlier medRxiv preprint of the same analysis appeared 22 November 2025. Cite the August 2026 peer reviewed version.

  People whose first thousand days fell under sugar rationing had lower adult cancer rates

  British sugar rationing ended abruptly in September 1953, which splits a UK Biobank birth cohort almost cleanly in two. Those conceived and born under rationing showed lower rates of several cancers decades later, and were still eating less sugar in their fifties.

  Proceedings of the National · Zhu et al. · China Agricultural University · 4 August 2026 · PMID 42550905

  general-nutritioncarbohydratediet-quality
• Conference abstract, not peer reviewed Date verified

  Diet quality predicted disease risk in 200,000 adults and processing level did not

  In a pooled analysis of three long running US cohorts, risk of death, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes tracked overall diet quality strongly, and within each quality tier was reported as almost identical whether the diet was ultra processed or minimally processed.

  NUTRITION 2026, American Society · Xiaowen et al. · 28 July 2026

  general-nutritiondiet-qualityultra-processed-foods