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Grant-funded feeding trials assess potential methane mitigates and use of additive nitrates and bismuth subsalicylate in high-sulfur cattle feeds, says researcher.

Funding for the multi-year grant project was announced by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its National Institute of Food and Agriculture program. The $467,500 award was one of 40 grants presented totaling more than $15.7m in funding.

The project includes a series of related feeding trials looking at ways to improve high-forage cattle diets, use of nutrients and to reduce the amount of methane cows produce, said Nicolas DiLorenzo, assistant professor in animal sciences at the University of Floridas North Florida Research and Education Center.

The overall idea of the project is to search for alternatives for high-forage diets, he told FeedNavigator. Sulfur and nitrates are both interventions that seems to have potential and then the bismuth comes into play to mitigate the effect of high sulfur [and] nitrates may be a potential replacement of urea in diets that are low in protein.

Adding sulfur may offer a way to reduce the methane produced by a cow, he said. Limiting production of gas is the goal because it has been identified as a greenhouse gas, he added in the grant proposal.

A diet that has high sulfates may lead to a reduction in methane, and that happens because the reduction of sulfate to hydrogen sulfide is more favorable than the production of methane, said DiLorenzo. Its an alternative route to reduce the hydrogen in the rumen and maybe reroute that toward other compounds and then mitigate the negative effects of high-forage diets so [we are] supplementing the high forage diet to see if has an influence on methane and then bismuth subsalicylate should mitigate the effects of high sulfur.

The project also examines the use of added nitrates in the diet to offer an alternative protein source and potentially limit the production of methane while improving performance, he said.

Were combining the two and looking at the option of one or the other and seeing if makes any difference, and if we can reduce methane, and enhance cattle growth and alleviate the negative effects of high sulfur, he said.

The feed ingredient examination includes a series of feeding trials, said DiLorenzo. The work is building off in vitro studies looking at methane reduction.

Initial steps in the project involved doing gas capture work to check cows for methane production, which was followed by a digestibility study, he said.

The current feeding trial involves use of diets that include warm season grass hay and supplemental bismuth subsalicylate (BSS) and nitrates, he said. Were trying to mimic producer strategy in Florida and some of those hay samples can be quite high in sulfur, he added.

The cattle involved get an experimental diet and may see an increase in BSS, nitrates or both in their diet and a negative control group received a feed with no added nitrogen, he said. The feeding trial runs for 70 days and involves 100 cattle.

The researchers are also tracking liver development to see if the present amounts of sulfur in the diet are altering how minerals bind, said DiLorenzo.

The final step of the project will be a feedlot-based feeding trial, he said. Similar doses of the feed additives are expected to be used in all the feeding trials so results can be compared across the trials.

In completing the feeding trials there are a number of objectives the project is looking to address, said DiLorenzo in the grant proposal.

These include assessing the interaction of BSS with nitrates on ruminal fermentation, metabolism, the microbial ecosystem and methane production when cows are fed a low-quality forage diet, he said. And understanding the role of BSS when fed with nitrates on the performance of cattle.

The group hypothesized that cattle getting the feed additives along with the high-sulfur, low-quality forage diet will demonstrate improved performance and mineral use, he said in the proposal.

The final object was to understand the use of BSS and nitrates in diets for feedlot cattle getting a grain-based diet with high-sulfur byproducts, he said.

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USDA awards $467k for work to cut cow GHG emissions, improve ... - FeedNavigator.com

The Hazda is a small group of hunter-gatherers living in the central Rift Valley of Tanzania, one of the few remaining groups of people left in the world who still collect the majority of their diet through foraged foods. Modernity has still managed to touch their lives, of course, but far less than it has for those of us in the post-industrialized West. For this reason, scientists have long been interested in studying their biology, in hopes of gleaning something about humanitys evolutionary path.

A new study out of Stanford looks to the Hazda people to understand specifically the evolution of our diet and the bacteria in our gut. The study, published Thursday in Science, confirmed the results of several smaller studies in finding that the gut bacteria in the Hazda people was significantly different and more diverse than those of us in the industrialized world. They also found something new: That the makeup of that gut bacteria changes significantly from season-to-season.

All of the traditional populations have a certain set of gut microbes. We can look at them to infer the microbiome we should have evolved with, Justin Sonnenburg, a Stanford microbiologist and the studys lead author, told Gizmodo. In the industrialized world, we now may have lost many of those bacteria.

The microbiome has garnered much attention from both scientists and popular culture because we are beginning to understand that the trillions of microorganisms that inhabit our bodyparticularly those in our gutplay an important role in our overall health. There is compelling evidence to suggest that those gut bacteria can affect disease, mental health and even athletic ability. In one incredible study earlier this year, researchers traced the origin of a head-scratching brain disorder to a particular type of bacteria living in the gut. Another new study out Thursday found a link between anxiety and all that bacteria in our gut.

The most important thing for people to understand is that we are composite organisms. Were not just human cells, said Sonnenburg. It leads to this question of what microbes are the best for our health. We dont have a good answer yet.

Which leads to the Hazda people. Over the past 100 years, some aspects of modernity have begun to affect themtheir population has become a tourist attraction, and groups such as missionaries often donate money and food. But before that, their way of life was virtually unchanged for thousands of years, and they still live similarly to how our distant ancestors would. This could offer some clues into how we once ate, and perhaps even how we should.

To better understand patterns between diet and the microbiome, researchers collected 350 fecal samples from 188 Hadza people across different seasons. As hunter-gatherers, their diet varies drastically by season. In the wet season, they eat lots of foraged berries and honey. The dry season is optimal for the hunt.

They found that 70 percent of gut bacteria disappeared between the end of the dry season and beginning of the wet season, only to reappear later. This suggests not only that what we eat and the microorganisms that live inside us are intimately linked, but that it is possible to change the makeup of our gut bacteria very rapidly based on diet.

They also compared the Hazda peoples microbiome to that of 18 other populations of hunter-gatherers in 16 countries around the world. While the Hazda peoples microbiome varies significantly from people in the industrial world, they found striking similarities to other traditional populations. Two prevalent bacterial families within the Hadza and other traditional groups were either rare or completely undetected in people following non-traditional diets. The Hadza also had more enzymes to process plant carbohydrates than people eating a Western diet.

One thing I feel pretty confident in is that our microbiome has definitely changed, and it looks like a deterioration, said Sonnenburg. It really looks like an ecosystem in disrepair.

Alyssa Crittenden, a nutritional anthropologist who has studied the Hazda people for 13 years, said that the work is important in confirming many previous studies about traditional microbiomes, and in discovering the seasonality of gut bacteria.

But she said it also poses more questions than answersfurther study is needed to know what sorts of dietary choices and behaviors caused those seasonal changes.

Crittenden also warned against adopting the hunter-gatherer diet for yourself. While dozens of startups have launched claiming to be able to sequence your microbiome and tell you what sort of bacterial supplements you might need, this science is still in its early days.

We need to be very careful about adopting any diet that portends to be mimicking our evolutionary past, she said. The microbiome is influenced by our whole world, not just what we eat. Its not just what the Hazda are eating, but where and how they are eating it, too.

Crittenden noted that its an important time to study the Hazda people, since their way of life is at the moment changing rapidly.

Last year alone, 14 tons of corn was dropped into Hazda camps by missionaries, she said. The Hazda gut is right now undergoing industrialization.

Sonnenburg, who co-authored a book called The Good Gut, a wellness book about the microbiome, said the only sure-fire takeaway from studying the Hazda people is that a high-fiber diet is probably ideal. (Crittenden, who has also studied the Hazda microbiome, agreed.)

Thats about the extent of what we can tell people, he said. All the rest of what you might hear is a bunch of hooey.

As the science progresses, though, he said insights from traditional groups like the Hazda people may help lead to discoveries about how to fight disease and mental health problems like depression.

Its going to be very powerful, he said.

[Science]

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What Present-Day Hunter-Gatherers Can Tell Us About the Bacteria in Our Gut - Gizmodo

Thursday, 24th August 2017 at 6:29 pm

BBC1 is to examine recent research into whether crash diets work as part of a new season of programmes examining Britains obesity epidemic.

Crash Diet Revolution will see Britains top nutrition scientists put crash dieting to the test andwill examine current research that suggests they are actually effective.

Could they offer an answer to the obesity crisis and save billions for the NHS?

Another show in the season will see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall challenge the people of Newcastle to lose 100,000lbs in a year.

The three-part series, which doesnt yet gave a name, will see the presenter launching the social experiment which has the co-operation of Newcastle city council.

He will encourage people to make changes to their diet and get involved in physical activities to achieve the target.

Fearnley-Whittingstall said: The fact is that as a nation we need to do something about our increasing weight its doing too many of us too much harm. I think that galvanising a whole city to take responsibility for their collective health, by coming together to lose weight, could be an amazing way to make progress in the fight against obesity. Its not going to be easy but I am confident that the people of Newcastle are up to my challenge.

Also featured is The Truth About Obesity, in which presenter Chris Bavin will seek out the latest scientific research on why the problem exists.

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BBC obesity season will examine evidence that crash diets actually work - Radio Times

It started with loosely-defined "junk food." Then it was refined sugar. Next, alcohol was banished, followed by carbs. Before long, I had whittled my once-diverse diet down to a tiny number of foods. Any unexpected divergencea glass of champagne or bite of cake at a party, a failure to double-check the ingredients listed on the wrapper of a protein barwould send me spiraling into a total panic, followed by a compulsive workout-and-cleanse routine to rid my body of the intruders. My rigid adherence to diet and exercise had become an all-consuming obsession.

Yet, I (and my friends and family) considered my lifestyle to be healthy. I received constant praise for my discipline.

Whats trendier, after all, than an elimination diet or "eating clean?" It's easy to find ourselves seduced by alluring pseudo-scientific theories and the moralizing of our eating choices: bad food will harm you, good food will heal you.

For Americans, and especially for women, healthy eating has become practically synonymous with deprivation. Maybe that's why the red flagsdistressing and compulsive thoughts or behaviors, self-created rules around foodoften go unnoticed or even praised, despite the fact that restrictive diets can be precursors to clinical eating disorders, Kamryn T. Eddy, Ph.D, an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells SELF. In a culture that's already hyper-fixated on our bodies, we're also constantly reminded that there are ways to improve and "purify" it every time we see a celebrity hawking cleanses and detox teas on Instagram (spoiler: they're mostly laxatives).

Too much or too little of any one thing is generally problematic, and strict food rules in any form can set the stage for eating disorders, says Eddy. She emphasizes that when we are as inflexible around food as I had become, physical and mental health is greatly compromised. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), food inflexibility can lead to guilt or self-loathing if a "bad" food is consumed, as well as anxiety about food planning and isolation from social events with food and drinks. It can also cause nutritional deficiencies when entire food groups are removed from a person's diet.

This type of ultra-controlled healthy eating, known as orthorexia, can take many forms. According to NEDA, orthorexia signs and symptoms include compulsively checking nutrition labels, an inability to eat any food that isn't designated "pure," obsessively following "healthy lifestyle" bloggers or social media figures, and showing an "unusual interest" in what others are eating. Of course, you can check nutrition labels and follow fitness experts on Instagram without being orthorexic. It's the compulsivity and obsession (reading labels every time, even multiple times, that you eat something and feeling anxious if you don't, for example) that define orthorexia.

Orthorexia can often lead to anorexia, registered dietitian Christy Harrison, certified eating counselor and host of the popular podcast Food Psych, tells SELF. I've seen many clients who get so afraid of foods they see as processed and unclean that they end up eating hardly anything. Then, even if the orthorexia didn't have anything to do with weight at the beginning, they end up extremely fearful of, and resistant to, gaining weight.

By restricting my diet in an attempt to make it pure, all I ended up doing was imposing nutritional deficits on my body (a body which, by the way, is already full of organs meant to filter what I eat, and which is perfectly capable of digesting pretty much any kind of food I could throw at it).

I opted out of so many celebrations and social gatherings in fear of the food that Id be expected to eat or the cocktails Id be expected to drink. I missed out on friends birthdays and fun nights out, and on the rare occasions when I would show up, my obvious discomfort (and my transparent lies about having already eaten or just wanting water) made everyone else uncomfortable, too. Friends and dates gradually drifted away, preferring the company of someone who could share a beer after work or go for tacos and margaritas without obsessing over the "unhealthiness" of what I was eating or drinking. My family walked on eggshells around me, buying my separate, special groceries from the health food store when I was home and watching me agonize over our holiday meals. I lived in the prison that orthorexia had built around me, isolated in a life devoid of joy and connection with others.

Eventually, deprived of adequate nutrition and rest over the course of a year, my body and brain suffered. I experienced heart irregularities, dizziness and exhaustion, an inability to focus, and the loss of my period, all symptoms of anorexia, according to the Mayo Clinic. My best friend, deeply worried by all of these symptoms (and tired of watching me self-destruct in the pursuit of the perfect, "healthy" body) stepped in. With my approval, she made a consultation appointment for me at a local treatment center. The admitting counselor confirmed it: my orthorexia had morphed into anorexia nervosa. If I didnt learn how to find balance, my restrictive diet could end up killing me.

Eating disorders are rooted in compulsivity and obsession surrounding food, though they may present in different ways. According to NEDA, orthorexia is characterized by being consumed with "good vs. bad" or "healthy vs. unhealthy" food, while anorexia is characterized by obsessive caloric restriction and weight loss.

Thankfully, doctors and therapists who specialize in nutrition, such as those at the Cambridge Eating Disorder Center (CEDC) in Massachusetts, are growing more aware of orthorexias prevalence, risks, and why it so often goes ignored, untreated, or even rewarded. This is especially true in patients who do not lose a large amount of weight, who continue to function normally in their day-to-day lives, or whose symptoms may not yet be apparent.

Since individuals with orthorexia may maintain an outwardly healthy appearance, they may be reluctant to see (it) as a problem, Seda Ebrahimi, Ph.D., director of the CEDC, tells SELF. Still, she says, the consequences of such restrictive eating may lead to significant nutritional deficiencies and health problems.

Orthorexia is not yet recognized by the DSM-5 and thus, not medically diagnosable. However, practitioners skilled at recognizing eating disorders will know what orthorexia is and can connect patients with the appropriate therapists, nutritionists, and medical doctors.

"For anyone reading this who has had disturbing symptoms arise since they started 'eating clean,' like bingeing or emotional eating, constant thoughts about food, low energy, dry skin, abnormal blood work, or stress fractures, consider that overly restrictive eating," Harrison says. "Orthorexia may be at the root of these symptoms. Don't take them as a sign that you need to 'eat cleaner,' because that could just make the problems worse." She says that treatment will vary by individual and depend on how far the orthorexia has progressed (or if it overlaps with any other clinical disorders).

I didn't see my orthorexia for what it was until it had transformed into anorexiawhich is what I was officially treated for. But my therapist and nutritionist both helped me to deal with those orthorexic thought patterns and habits. They also helped me to reject elimination diets, which I am still doing in my recovery. Through talk therapy and learned coping mechanisms, I was able to walk back my rigid thinking around what I'm "allowed" to eat, eating and exercising on a certain schedule, and defining healthy as being thin, toned, and free of "bad" food in my body.

Eating mindfully is good for you, and changing your diet to focus on minimally processed foods is generally recommended across the board. But if you find yourself with an ever-shrinking list of permissible foods, if deviating from that list makes you feel anxious and guilty, if you control your food choices so strictly that it interferes with other plans and activities, and if your relationship with food takes up a large amount of space in your life, it might be time to ask what your devotion to that diet is costing you.

Socially, I've had to step away from friends who engage in orthorexic lifestyles or restrictive diets, both on social media and in real life. Many people don't understand that I had a real disorder; they just think I "took my diet and exercise too far." I've accepted this, and while I try to clarify widespread misconceptions about the bad science of detoxes, cleanses, and elimination diets, I try not to preach at my loved ones.

With weekly therapy appointments, weigh-ins, and nutrition appointments, along with a meal plan designed to help me regain weight and relearn unstructured eating, my treatment team helped me find my way back to a balanced lifewhich, for me, includes regular doses of ice cream, pizza, and pinot noir.

The social messaging around what healthy looks like and the aggressive promotion of virtuous eating still creep in and create the occasional urge to diet. They probably will for the rest of my life. But now I know first-hand that banning certain foods won't always solve your problemsfor some of us, it can cause them.

Related:

You May Also Like: This Mom's Eating Disorder Nearly Killed HerNow She Wants to Change How We Talk About Bodies and Fitness

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Orthorexia: How My 'Clean Eating' Turned Into Anorexia - SELF

Space-filling model of the Cholesterol molecule. Credit: RedAndr/Wikipedia

A new dietary review of 49 observational and controlled studies finds plant-based vegetarian diets, especially vegan diets, are associated with lower levels of total cholesterol, including lower levels of HDL and LDL cholesterol, compared to omnivorous diets. The meta-analysis appears as an online advance in Nutrition Reviews.

The study authorsYoko Yokoyama, Ph.D., M.P.H., Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D., and Neal Barnard, M.D., F.A.C.C.reviewed 30 observational studies and 19 clinical trials, which met their inclusion criteria. They find:

A plant-based vegetarian diet is associated with total cholesterol that's 29.2 mg/dL lower in observational studies. In clinical trials, a plant-based diet lowers total cholesterol by 12.5 mg/dL.

The authors predict the strong correlation between vegetarian diets and lower cholesterol levels may be due to the association a plant-based diet has with a lower body weight, a reduced intake of saturated fat, and an increased intake of plant foods, like vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and whole grains, which are naturally rich in components such as soluble fiber, soy protein, and plant sterols.

The study authors hypothesize that the greater risk reduction for total, HDL, and LDL cholesterol levels observed in the longitudinal studies is likely due to long-term adherence to plant-based eating patterns and changes in body composition.

"The immediate health benefits of a plant-based diet, like weight loss, lower blood pressure, and improved cholesterol, are well documented in controlled studies," says study author Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D. "Our goal with studying plasma lipids throughout the lifespan is to capture the net risk reduction of using a vegetarian diet to control lipid levels. We hope to empower patients with new research about the long-term cardiovascular health benefits of a vegetarian diet, which include a reduced risk of a heart attack, stroke, and premature death."

Charles Ross, D.O., a member of the nonprofit Physicians Committee and a former emergency department physician, has firsthand experience with putting a plant-based diet into practice.

Dr. Ross is in his late 60s, takes no medications, and lowered his previously high total cholesterol from 230 mg/dL to a healthy 135 mg/dL after adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet in 2012. Within the first month of making the dietary change, he effortlessly lost 10 pounds. Within a year, Dr. Ross traded a 34-year career of practicing emergency medicine for a new career path: lifestyle medicine. After 5.5 years of making the career switch, he continues to host free biweekly nutrition classes for his primary care patients and the community. More than 700 people have enrolled to learn how to lose weight, eliminate the need for medications to treat type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol, and to simply feel better. His former hometown of Roseburg, Ore., is now a Blue Zones community. He is a part-time instructor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest and hopes to set an example for future physicians.

"I no longer work for a living," notes Dr. Ross, who now resides in Westfir, Ore. "I wake up every day eager to hear about how a plant-based diet and a healthful lifestyle is changing and saving lives in our community. What I've found is that if you want your patients to make significant health changes, you have to make them yourself. The prescription started to spread soon after my family, co-workers, neighbors, and friends heard about my experience."

For clinicians concerned about spending extra time in and outside of the exam room, the study authors encourage time-strapped health care providers to refer patients to registered dietitians who can help with the transition to a plant-based vegetarian diet. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans highlights a healthy vegetarian diet as one of three healthful eating plans to follow.

The study authors also note hyperlipidemia, or elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, is often underdiagnosed and undertreated. A 10 percent increase in the prevalence of treatment for hyperlipidemia can prevent 8,000 deaths each year. Taking small steps, like those proposed by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel 3, which include assessing heart disease risk, making lifestyle and dietary recommendations, and assessing the need for future follow-up appointments and pharmaceutical interventions, could prevent approximately 20,000 heart attacks, 10,000 cases of coronary heart disease, and save almost $3 billion in medical costs each year.

"To make any form of health care work and to truly power economic mobility, we have to get healthy," says Levin. "The first place to start is by building meals around nutrient-packed, plant-based foods, which fit into nearly every cultural template, taste preference, and budget."

Explore further: Not all plant-based diets are created equal

More information: Yoko Yokoyama et al, Association between plant-based diets and plasma lipids: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Nutrition Reviews (2017). DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nux030

Provided by: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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New meta-analysis finds a plant-based vegetarian diet is associated with lower cholesterol - Medical Xpress