Obituaries: Three Great Scholars, Leaders, and Friends

• Leann Birch, Who Knew How to Get a Child to Eat Peas, Dies at 72.
• Judith Schneider Stern, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at UC Davis, Died on May 8, 2019.
• Mario DiGirolamo - Born in Rome, Italy on March 31, 1934 Departed on February 5, 2019.

Featured

• Extreme Events Reveal an Alimentary Limit on Sustained Maximal Human Energy Expenditure.
• Maternal Overnutrition Programs Hedonic and Metabolic Phenotypes Across Generations Through Sperm TsRNAs.
• Metabolic Inflexibility Detected in Overweight Labradors.
• Best (but Oft Forgotten) Practices: Sample Size Planning for Powerful Studies.

Headline vs Study

• Headline: Up to 25 Cups of Coffee a Day Still Safe for Heart Health, Study Says.
• Press-release: Coffee Not as Bad for Heart and Circulatory System as Previously Thought.
• Meeting abstract: No Statistically Significant Cross-sectional Correlation in Arterial Stiffness for Individuals Who Drink >3 Cups of Coffee/day Group (>25 Excluded). No Causation Established; 25-cup Drinkers Not Specifically Studied.

Contrary or Null Findings

• "Despite intensive, state-of-the-art, and often creative interventions conducted by seasoned investigators, all 5 of the studies considered below failed to alter the trajectory of weight gain in their participants compared with controls."
• RCT: "In this low-income, adolescent population, neither of the family-based interventions improved BMI or health-related secondary outcomes."
• RCT: No Effect of a School-Based Comprehensive Intervention for Childhood Obesity in China on BMI.
• RCT: "the intervention did not demonstrate a significant increase in nurse visits for obesity care..."
• RCT: "There seems to be no differential effect of weight loss or its interaction with macronutrient composition on measures of satiety."
• RCT: "A smartphone based attentive eating intervention and standard dietary advice did not result in reduced energy intake or greater weight loss at 4 or 8 week follow-up than standard dietary advice alone."
• RCT: "The use of AKTIDIET® [app] to support health advice for weight loss cannot be recommended."
• "There was no difference in adjusted hospital mortality across BMI strata in subjects with moderate to severe ARDS."
• "Our [mendelian randomization] findings support that T2DM and kidney disease increase TMAO levels and observational evidence for cardiovascular diseases may be due to confounding or reverse causality."

Basic

• Impact of Dietary Sucrose on Adiposity and Glucose Homeostasis in C57BL/6J Mice Depends on Mode of Ingestion: Liquid or Solid.
• Adipose HuR Protects Against Diet-Induced Obesity and Insulin Resistance.
• Hypothalamic Endocannabinoids Inversely Correlate with the Development of Diet-Induced Obesity in Male and Female Mice.
• Obesity-Induced Immune Dysfunction and Immunosuppression: TEM Observation of Lymph Node Microarchitecture and Immune Cell Interactions.
• Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase is a Metabolic Checkpoint for Polarization of Macrophages to the M1 Phenotype.

Scientific Rigor & Scholarly Dialogue

• When Poorly Conducted Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Can Mislead: A Critical Appraisal and Update of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Examining the Effects of Probiotics in the Treatment of Functional Constipation in Children.
• The Science Behind the Headlines.
• Make Reports of Research Misconduct Public.
• Three RCTs Evaluating the Impact of “spin” in Health News Stories Reporting Studies of Pharmacologic Treatments on Patients’/caregivers’ Interpretation of Treatment Benefit.

Clinical

• RCT: Impact of High Volume Energy Drink Consumption on Electrocardiographic and Blood Pressure Parameters.
• Low-fat Dietary Pattern and Breast Cancer Mortality By Metabolic Syndrome Degree: Secondary Analyses of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Randomized Trial.
• RCT: The Effects of Six‐week Resistance, Aerobic and Combined Exercises on the Pro‐inflammatory and Anti‐inflammatory Markers in Overweight Patients with Moderate Haemophilia A.
• RCT: Effects of Red Meat, White Meat, and Nonmeat Protein Sources on Atherogenic Lipoprotein Measures in the Context of Low Compared with High Saturated Fat Intake.

Children and Adolescents

• Young Children Have Higher Variability of Insulin Requirements: Observations During Hybrid Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery.
• Outcomes, Care Utilization, and Expenditures in Adolescent Pregnancy Complicated By Diabetes.
• Changes in Visceral and Subcutaneous Fat in Youth with Type 2 Diabetes in the TODAY Study.

Surgery

• Gastric Bypass Surgery in Lean Adolescent Mice Prevents Diet-induced Obesity Later in Life.
• Bariatric/Metabolic Surgery Induces Noticeable Changes of Microbiota and Their Secreting Extracellular Vesicle Composition in the Gut.

Drugs

• RCT: Effect of Liraglutide on Body Weight and Pain in the Treatment of Overweight and Knee Osteoarthritis.
• RCT: Timing of Postpartum Etonogestrel-releasing Implant Insertion and Bleeding Patterns, Weight Change, 12-month Continuation and Satisfaction Rates.
• The Contribution of Obesity to Prescription Opioid Use in the United States.
• Metformin and DPP-4 Inhibitor Differentially Modulate the Intestinal Microbiota and Plasma Metabolome of Metabolically Dysfunctional Mice.

Food & Diet

• RCT: Yogurt Improves Insulin Resistance and Liver Fat in Obese Women with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Metabolic Syndrome.
• RCT: Blueberries Improve Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Function in Participants with Metabolic Syndrome.
• RCT: Role of Calcium and Low-Fat Dairy Foods in Weight-Loss Outcomes Revisited in Overweight/Obese Postmenopausal Women.
• Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.
• RCT: Skipping Breakfast Before Exercise Creates a More Negative 24-hour Energy Balance in Healthy Physically Active Young Men.

Caloric Restriction

• Aging and Nutrition: Theories, Consequences, and Impact of Nutrients.
• Metabolic Disequilibrium and Aging: Modifying Favorably with Calorie Restriction and Calorie Restriction Mimetics. (pdf)
• Energy Metabolism and Intermittent Fasting: The Ramadan Perspective.

Exercise & Physical Activity

• PART 1: Cycling is Associated with a Lower Incidence of Cardiovascular Diseases and Death.
• PART 2: Cycling and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Including Body Composition, Blood Lipids and Cardiorespiratory Fitness Analysed as Continuous Variables.
• RCT: Effects of Interval Training on Visceral Adipose Tissue in Centrally Obese 70‐Year‐Old Individuals.
• Physical Activity Moderates the Effects of Daily Psychosocial Stressors on Ambulatory Blood Pressure.

Economics & Sociology

• Systematic Review: Children of Single-parent Households are at a Higher Risk of Obesity.
• Socioeconomically Distressed Communities Associated with Long-term Mortality After Bariatric Surgery.
• Early Life Socioeconomic Status Moderates Associations Between Objective Sleep and Weight-related Indicators in Middle Childhood.
• Diet Quality Trends Among Adults with Diabetes By Socioeconomic Status in the U.S.: 1999–2014.

Epidemiology

• Night‐time Eating and Body Weight Status Among US Adults, 2007–2016.
• Combined Effect of Central Obesity and Urinary PAH Metabolites on Lung Function: A Cross-sectional Study in Urban Adults.
• Identifying Determinants of Obesity in Athens, Greece Through Global and Local Statistical Models.
• Significant Increase in Risk of Fibrosis or Cirrhosis at Time of HCV Diagnosis for Hispanics with Diabetes and Obesity Compared with Other Ethnic Groups.
• Lifestyle Risk Factors, Obesity and Infectious Disease Mortality in the General Population: Linkage Study of 97,844 Adults From England and Scotland.
• Psychosocial Factors Associated with Treatment Outcomes in Women with Obesity and Major Depressive Disorder Who Received Behavioral Activation for Depression.

Psychology & Neuroscience

• Food Addiction in Adolescents: Exploration of Psychological Symptoms and Executive Functioning Difficulties in a Non-clinical Sample.
• Deconstructing Weight Management Interventions for Young Adults: Looking Inside the Black Box of the EARLY Consortium Trials.
• Ambivalence Toward Healthy and Unhealthy Food and Moderation By Individual Differences in Restrained Eating.
• Self‐regulation Foci and Mood Affect Healthy and Unhealthy Eating Behaviours Differently in Successful Weight‐loss Treatment Participants.
• Effect of Dose of Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment on Glycemic Control in Adults with Prediabetes.

Equity and Disparities

• Prepregnancy Diabetes and Breastfeeding Cessation Among Black Women in the United States.
• Weight-based Victimization Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents: Implications for Substance Use and Mental Health.
• Ethnic Disparities in Adiposity: Focus on Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Visceral, and Generalized Obesity.

Ethics

• Commercial Interests, Agenda Setting, and the Epistemic Trustworthiness of Nutrition Science.
• Obesity, Political Responsibility, and the Politics of Needs.

Stigma

• Weight Stigma and Physical Health: An Unconsidered ‘obesity’ Cost.
• Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors and Substance Use Among Adolescent Girls: The Harms of Weight Stigma.
• Weight‐based Teasing is Associated with Gain in BMI and Fat Mass Among Children and Adolescents At‐risk for Obesity: A Longitudinal Study.

Policy Related

• UK Sugar Tax: Historic Sales Shift to Sugar-free.
• Adolescent Obesity in the Past Decade a Systematic Review of Genetics and Determinants of Food Choice.

Intergenerational Effects

• Maternal Nutritional Restriction During Gestation Impacts Differently on Offspring Muscular and Elastic Arteries and is Associated with Increased Carotid Resistance and Ventricular Afterload in Maturity.
• The Influence of Protein Restriction During Mid- to Late Gestation on Beef Offspring Growth, Carcass Characteristic and Meat Quality.
• Association of Preterm Birth with Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease in Adulthood.
• Hyperglycemia During Pregnancy May Raise Child's Obesity Risk.

Ecology, Evolution, & Energetics

• Thermal Regime Effects on the Resting Metabolic Rate of Rattlesnakes Depend on Temperature Range.
• Predatory Behavior Changes with Satiety or Increased Insulin Levels in the Praying Mantis (Tenodera Sinensis).

Methods

• Meta-analysis: Intra-Abdominal Adipose Tissue Quantification By Alternative Versus Reference Methods.
• Development and Validation of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Equations in Adolescents with Severe Obesity.
• Development and Validation of a Tool to Assess the Rural Neighborhood Environment for Obesity in Korean Adults.
• Accuracy of a Mixed Effects Model Interpolation Technique for the Estimation of Pregnancy Weight Values.
• Evaluation of Measurement Error in 24-hour Dietary Recall for Assessing Sodium and Potassium Intake Among US Adults — National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2014.

Commentary

• How Fasting May Prevent Obesity-related Insulin Resistance.
• Preventing Weight Gain More Important than Weight Loss and More Realistic to Study in Cohorts than in RCTs.
• Polyagonists for the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes.
• Fast Relief From Excess Weight!
• The Elusive Magic of 10,000 Steps Per Day.
• Good Question: Why is Diabetes Incidence Going Down?

General

• Of Chaos, Storms and Forking Paths: The Principles of Uncertainty.
• Metamorphic Robustness Testing: Exposing Hidden Defects in Citation Statistics and Journal Impact Factors.
• The Role of Prosocial Behaviors in Mate Choice: A Critical Review of the Literature.
• Jumping Gene Gave Fish a Freshwater Start.
• Nutrients in the US Diet: Naturally Occurring or Enriched/fortified Food and Beverage Sources, Plus Dietary Supplements: NHANES 2009–2012.

Announcements

• EASO New Investigators United Autumn School: September 2019.
• WEBINAR: Feasibility of Online Nutrition Education in the Workplace: Working Toward Healthy Lifestyles.
• Study Spotlight: Results and Comparisons From the RISE Clinical Trial—Adult Medication Study.
• Workshop to Focus on MRI of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders.
• Training Program: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Obesity Research.
• Training Program: AHA Strategically Focused Research Center– Obesity Network: Intergenerational Transmission of Obesity.
• Short Course: Causal Inference in Behavioral Obesity Research, Indiana University Bloomington (July 29-August 2, 2019).