SHR

Vegetarian? You might have an eating disorder. At least, that’s the takeaway from the latest work of Kelly Zuromski et al. published in Eating Behaviors that examined the prevalence of vegetarianism within three female samples with varying severity of eating disorder symptoms (i.e., nonclinical, subclinical, clinical). All participants came from locations in the southeastern U.S., and were included in the nonclinical group if they denied any lifetime eating pathology and were included in the subclinical group if they endorsed any eating pathology (i.e., fasting, binge eating, self-induced vomiting, laxative use, and excessive exercise) in the past month. The clinical group was women recruited from an eating disorder treatment center. Generally, the nonclinical group ate a wider variety of foods compared to the other groups. The prevalence of self-identified, lifetime vegetarianism was lowest in the nonclinical group (6.80%), and highest in the clinical group (34.80%), with the subclinical group falling in between (17.60%). Additionally,...

Metabolically healthy obese – key protective factors Obesity is commonly accompanied by numerous comorbidities (metabolic syndrome) that involve insulin resistance (IR), type-2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, and a systemic inflammatory state. However, not all obese adults have these conditions and there are in fact obese individuals who have less visceral fat and adverse health complications than would be expected, a condition that has been termed metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). Why are these people different? That is the central question answered by Goncalves et al, who reviewed the protective metabolic, genetic, and etiological factors of MHO that represent between 10% and 45% of the adult obese population. It turns out that everything is traceable to one seminal factor – lower visceral fat, which is what ultimately causes IR and the detrimental inflammatory and hormonal profile that contributes to increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Whether some individuals carry genetic predisposition to MHO,...

Recently, Lawrence Reynolds of North Dakota State University published an editorial in The Journal of Nutrition in which attention was brought to the challenges associated with feeding the world’s rapidly expanding population. Reynolds writing was a response to a viewpoint put forth late last year by Donald Kennedy of Stanford University, who correctly pointed out that only through agricultural innovation and increased efficiency of food production can we hope to feed a population that is expected to reach nine billion by 2050.