Topic
Every study covered on this subject, newest first.
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
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
A new NutriNet-Sante analysis from the Touvier and Srour group looks at food additive glutamate and cardiovascular risk. The digest recorded its existence and provenance; no effect sizes were extracted.
American Journal of Clinical · Hasenbohler et al. · 8 August 2026 · PMID 42570865
A review models obligatory glucose demand across six stages of hominin evolution and argues the roughly fivefold expansion of the brain was underwritten by dietary sugars from fruit and honey rather than by meat. Its headline figures currently trace to press coverage rather than the paper itself.
Science 393(6811):574 to 581 · Brand-Miller et al. · 6 August 2026 · PMID 42561068
A comprehensive review asks whether carrageenan is a food additive or a health concern, and a companion mechanism paper reports Bacteroides desulfating carrageenan and feeding hydrogen sulfide production. Reviews and mechanisms, not new human evidence.
Annals of Nutrition and · Arslan et al. · 6 August 2026 · PMID 42560937
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
FDA filed a white paper proposing a definition of ultra processed food with OIRA on 3 August 2026. As a white paper it carries no legal force, does not preempt state definitions such as California's AB 1264, and its actual criteria are not yet public.
3 August 2026
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
Twelve weeks, food provided, calories matched between arms and set to maintain weight. Ten hours of eating against the sixteen people normally use. Weight fell 2.7 percent and 2.5 percent. Appetite hormones, inflammatory markers and eating behaviour did not separate.
Obesity 34(9):1732 to 1741 · Duan et al. · the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine · 27 July 2026 · PMID 42508996
A narrative review raises dietary microplastic exposure in athletes, flagging packaged foods and bottled drinks as plausible exposure routes. The authors are explicit that mechanisms are plausible while direct studies in athletes do not exist.
Nutrients 18(14):2398 · 22 July 2026 · PMID 42514468
An in vitro screen found around 75% of 39 sweeteners altered the growth of at least one of 25 gut bacterial species. A separate narrative review concluded the evidence supports neither a uniformly harmful nor a uniformly safe verdict on artificial sweeteners.
Molecular Systems Biology (screen); · Xin et al. · 16 July 2026 · PMID 42514471
A narrative review examined four claims circulating on social media about female athlete nutrition. It found limited evidence behind several of them, but not for the rigid sex specific rules built on top of them.
Proceedings of the Nutrition · Matkin-Hussey et al. · 1 July 2026 · PMID 42383324
Two hundred and forty seven Australian adults at raised risk of type 2 diabetes. Half got a nine hour window, half got individualised dietetic guidance, both got the same three hours of telehealth contact. The trial wrote down in advance how much worse the window was allowed to be.
Diabetologia 69(9):2458 to 2471 · Parr et al. · the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research at Australian Catholic University · 6 June 2026 · PMID 42251202
Thirty nine adults with type 2 diabetes did six weeks of twenty hours fasting and six weeks of their usual life, in random order. The weight came off through a large reported calorie deficit. Leptin fell, fasting ghrelin rose, and the gut peptides did not move.
International Journal of Obesity · Kramer et al. · the Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto · 11 March 2026 · PMID 41814085
Three degrees of ordinary calorie cutting and four kinds of fasting, compared at matched absolute energy restriction across 167 trials and nearly twelve thousand people. The ranking came out by how much energy each regimen removed. The authors state the conclusion as a negative.
Nutrition Reviews 84(3):487 to · Wu et al. · the Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases at Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine · undefined March 2026 · PMID 40367516
In a four site randomized crossover using university dining halls, 36 recreational athletes showed no significant difference in a 12 minute run or composite machine strength between a plant based and an omnivorous month, though the strength interval leaned toward the omnivore diet.
Nutrition Journal · Raygoza et al. · 20 February 2026
The first Cochrane review of intermittent fasting split the question in two. Against regular dietary advice the difference in weight was minus 0.33 percent and the interval crossed zero. Against no intervention at all it was minus 3.42 percent. Same review, same trials, two comparators.
Cochrane Database of Systematic · Garegnani et al. · the Research Department at Universidad Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires · 16 February 2026 · PMID 41692034
Ninety seven adults with mild to moderate Crohn's disease. Sixty five did five days a month of a fasting mimicking diet for three months. Seven in ten met the response threshold against four in ten of the control group, and faecal calprotectin fell twenty two percent while it rose in the control arm.
Nature Medicine 32(3):1023 to · Kulkarni et al. · the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Stanford University School of Medicine · 13 January 2026 · PMID 41530382
Four arms for eight weeks: a ten hour eating window, resistance training, both, and neither. The window alone dropped more than two kilograms of body weight, and the fat mass did not move. What came off was lean tissue. Adding the training changed the answer completely.
Journal of the International · Cui et al. · the Institute of Human Movement and Sports Engineering at Zhejiang Normal University · 19 March 2025 · PMID 40108888
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