IMDEA Food

Adipose tissue retains a ‘memory’ of obesity through cellular transcriptional and epigenetic changes that persist after weight loss, which may increase the likelihood of regaining weight, experiments in human and mouse cells show. The findings, published in Nature, could help explain the problematic ‘yo-yo effect’, the rapid weight rebound often seen with dieting. 

A ketogenic diet improves the results of a pancreatic cancer therapy in mice, according to a study published in Nature. The US research team fed the animals a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet before administering them a new drug, currently in clinical trials; in the absence of glucose, the body converts fat into ketone bodies. The drug blocks the metabolism of fat - the cancer's only source of energy while the mice are on this diet - and slows the growth of pancreatic tumours. 

Eating more ultra-processed foods is linked to a higher risk of health problems, according to an umbrella review of 45 previous meta-analyses, involving almost 10 million people in total. The research, published in The BMJ, finds direct associations between exposure to ultra-processed foods and 32 health parameters. The strongest evidence links this exposure to cardiometabolic health problems, mental disorders and overall mortality.

A US research team has identified several genes that may be associated with a strict vegetarian diet. Some of these genes have "important roles in lipid metabolism and brain function", according to the paper, which suggests that these differences could explain the ability to subsist on a vegetarian diet in those who carry these genes. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, used data from the UK Biobank to compare a group of more than 5,000 vegetarians with a group of more than 320,000 non-vegetarians.

A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association published in the journal Circulation analyzes how several diets (including Mediterranean, Paleo, and ketogenic) fit into the guidelines for a heart-healthy diet. The ketogenic and 'paleo' diets were not classified as heart-healthy.

Research published in Science concludes that mice that feed at night - the active phase of their daily circadian cycle - burn more calories, mitigating the development of obesity.

Caloric restriction (substantially reducing food intake in a controlled way) prolongs longevity in many animal species. A new result in mice, published in Science, finds that this effect is greater if the animals only eat during the body's natural active phase.