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 registered, powered twelve week trial of a heat killed bacterial preparation missed its primary outcome in 120 overweight adults. Weight, BMI and leptin moved only in the half of participants whose gut community was least diverse to begin with, a split the authors did not plan.
Gut Microbes 18(1):2722835 · Lim et al. · the LOTTE R and D Center · 25 August 2026 · PMID 42640624
Stool from 63 adults was measured twice, once gently and once after rupturing the bacterial cells. An active form of vitamin B12 was undetectable until the cells were broken open, while roughly two fifths of the biotin was already free outside them. The single total that fecal metabolomics normally reports is two different quantities added together.
Gut Microbes 18(1):2719062 · Hirayama et al. · Chubu University · 24 August 2026 · PMID 42635406
Sixteen advanced resistance trained men lifted and jumped under capsaicin, placebo and no supplement at all. All three conditions came out the same. The third arm was there to catch a belief effect, and it did not find one.
Nutrition and Health · de et al. · Paulista University · 20 August 2026 · PMID 42623016
A critical review of exercise, redox balance and ageing finds the popular idea of pairing compounds such as astaxanthin, curcumin or sulforaphane with training is not supported by current clinical evidence. Almost all the encouraging work sits in cell culture and rodent models, with very little human data in older populations.
Free Radical Biology and · Traustadottir et al. · Northern Arizona University · 19 August 2026 · PMID 42617706
A meta-analysis pooled 11 cross sectional studies covering 1006 athletes, about half of them classified as having low energy availability. The classified group differed on body composition, bone density Z score and cortisol. Leptin showed no significant difference, and because every study measured everything at one moment, none of it establishes cause.
European Journal of Clinical · Han et al. · Yongin University · 19 August 2026 · PMID 42618779
Machine learning guided design of synthetic gut communities identified a butyrogenic motif involving inulin, Bacteroides uniformis and Anaerostipes caccae, validated in human fecal communities ex vivo.
Nature Chemical Biology 22(8):1286 · Connors et al. · 27 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 systematic evaluation of the carbohydrate loading performance literature found that only two of fourteen studies were double blind and placebo controlled. Both of those also fuelled athletes during exercise, and neither found a performance benefit.
International Journal of Sport · Jones et al. · Liverpool John Moores University · 24 June 2026 · PMID 42342234
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
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
In a human gut cell monolayer, two commercial yogurt starter strains reduced how much polystyrene nanoplastic was taken into the cells and how much passed through to the other side. The team tested whether the particles were sticking to the bacteria, found they were not, and reported it.
Scientific Reports 16(1) · Kobayashi et al. · Meiji Holdings · 14 February 2026 · PMID 41691046
The only quantitative meta analysis of carbohydrate loading protocols pooled 30 studies and then tested which parts of the protocol predicted the size of the glycogen overshoot. Two variables mattered and four did not, and one of the four was maximal oxygen uptake.
Frontiers in Physiology 16:1620943 · Solem et al. · the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences · 18 August 2025 · PMID 40901614
Lactic acid bacteria isolated from infant stool were mixed with nanoscale polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride. Between two thirds and four fifths of the particles ended up on the bacterial surface. Simulations pointed at ordinary surface forces rather than anything biological.
Chemosphere 320:138038 · Zhao et al. · Henan Normal University · 1 February 2023 · PMID 36736839
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