Health Scoop News – New research on 1-Vegetarian/Vegan nutrition🥗, 2-Probiotics for weight/fat 💊, & 3-Three lifestyle keys to longevity💤

I always have my nose in new health research, so I’m sharing some of the most relevant studies with you in regular editions of “Health Scoop News.”

[This news summary is a bit reminiscent of my old “This week in science for holistic health” newsletters that I used to do circa 2016 (I deleted most, but here’s one post I kept live), as well as the rEATsearch podcast I used to co-host.]

Below are my top three study picks (comment below to tell me what health topics/niches are best for you!). All of these recent studies were done with people (no animal or lab studies here!).

1 – Seven things health pros need to recommend about vegetarian and vegan nutrition

Study title: Vegetarian Dietary Patterns for Adults: A Position Paper of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

This is a summary of several scientific review articles confirming what nutrition pros need to know to help vegetarian and vegan adults get the maximum health benefits and nutrition. “The aim . . . is to inform health care practitioners . . . about the evidence-based benefits and potential concerns of following vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns for different populations of nonpregnant, nonlactating adults.”

Here’s some background info:

• “In adults, appropriately planned vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns can be nutritionally adequate and can offer long-term health benefits such as improving several health outcomes associated with cardiometabolic diseases.”
• “Vegetarian dietary patterns exclude meat, poultry, and seafood.”
• “Vegan dietary patterns exclude all foods of animal origin.”
• “Vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns have been associated with both health benefits and concerns, which can depend on the overall food variety and healthfulness of the specific food choices and dietary approach.”

Some of the research-based health benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets for adults:

• reduced risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease
• improved BMI and weight loss
• improved total and LDL cholesterol measures
• improved HbA1C measures (diabetes)
• possible additional health benefits include the reduction of blood glucose, blood pressure, and incidences of some cancers

Potential nutritional concerns to look out for with vegetarian and vegan diets:

• lower bone mineral density and higher risk of fractures
• reduced iodine and ferritin
• HDL and triglycerides
• low vitamins B12 & D (vegan only)

The 7 principles for healthy vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns:

1. Choose a variety (of unprocessed and minimally processed plant foods)
2. Focus on produce (by including a colourful variety of vegetables and fruits)
3. Consume protein regularly (ensuring protein-rich plant foods at each meal)
4. Focus on fibre (e.g., whole grains)
5. Choose unsaturated fats (e.g., nuts, seeds, avocados, and plant-based oils)
6. Ensure adequate intake of nutrients that might be limited (e.g., vitamin B12, D, calcium, iron, iodine, and choline)
7. Balance energy intake (sufficient calories without excess)

Here’s what the researchers conclude from this study:

• Nutrition and health pros should “emphasize consumption of high-quality plant-based foods rather than solely focusing on the avoidance of animal-sourced foods. In all cases, vegetarian and vegan dietary recommendations should be tailored to client values, preferences, lifestyle, and special circumstances.“

In other words, according to this summary, vegetarian and vegan diets based on high-quality foods can have many long-term health benefits for most adults, provided they incorporate enough of a few key nutrients.

For more information, here’s a link to read the study for yourself:

• https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(25)00042-5/fulltext

*Want to share these 7 principles of plant-based nutrition with your audience, along with examples and tips on how to easily meet this goal? Check out the customizable done-for-you article here.

2 – Yes, probiotic supps can help reduce body weight and visceral fat

Study title: Effects of oral supplementation of probiotics on body weight and visceral fat in obese patients: a meta-analysis and systematic review

This is a high-quality review of seven placebo-controlled randomized control trials that had looked at oral probiotic supplements use by people with obesity. The researchers analyzed these studies to get to the bottom of the controversy of whether or not probiotics can help with weight and visceral fat. “In recent years, it has been reported that probiotics can reduce obesity and visceral fat content, and some studies have put forward the opposite conclusion. In order to guide the practice of nutrition, we use Meta-analysis method to analyze these conclusions.”

Here’s some background info:

• “Current studies have shown that probiotics have potential health benefits, including preventing and treating diarrhea, improving intestinal diseases, reducing the risk of neonatal infections, reducing respiratory infections and cardiac metabolic problems, and significantly reducing total cholesterol and LDL-C in people with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia . . . however, the exact effect of probiotics on these conditions has not yet been determined.”
• “Most studies suggest that probiotics exert their benefits through a variety of mechanisms, such as immune regulation, regulation of microbiota and one of the most important mechanisms of probiotics in obesity and promoting weight loss is to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. . . . However, these studies have limitations.”
• “The purpose of this study is to explore whether oral supplementation of probiotics can significantly improve the body weight and visceral fat level of obese patients.“
• “Visceral fat refers to the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in abdominal organs, which can lead to impaired normal function of organs.”

Here’s what the researchers conclude from this review of seven placebo-controlled clinical trials:

• “This meta-analysis retrieved RCTs on the effect of oral supplementation of probiotics on weight loss and health improvement in overweight people in recent years, and concluded that oral supplementation of probiotics can effectively reduce weight,” (but not reduce BMI!).
• “In this study, we found that oral probiotics have a significant statistical significance in reducing waist circumference, which brings an innovation in nutritional treatment for abdominal obese people.”
• “This study also confirmed that oral probiotics can effectively reduce visceral fat content.”
• “Our study also found that probiotics had no significant effect on BMI, but there were significant differences in waist circumference and visceral fat compared with the control group, which is an interesting phenomenon.”

Overall, “this study suggests that oral probiotics have certain statistical significance for weight loss, waist circumference and visceral fat content in obese patients, and can be used as a potential nutritional treatment for obese patients in the future. However, oral probiotics have no statistical significance in reducing BMI and LDL-C levels in obese patients.”

In other words, people with obesity who regularly took oral probiotics experienced a reduction in weight, waist circumference, and visceral fat, however there was no significant effect for reducing BMI or LDL-C. 

For more information, here’s a link to read the study for yourself:

• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11845779/

For a list of dozens of credible sites to find health information, plus some PubMed tips, download your free guide here:

3 – The three keys to healthy aging (the sum is greater than its parts)

Study title: Minimum and optimal combined variations in sleep, physical activity, and nutrition in relation to all-cause mortality risk

This study followed 59,078 participants from the UK for about 8 years. Instead of looking at sleep, physical activity, and nutrition separately, the researchers of this study gathered participants’ information to see if/how all three of these work together (synergistically) to impact mortality. 

Here’s some background info:

• “Sleep, physical activity, and nutrition (SPAN) are critical behaviours for health, although they have traditionally been studied separately. We examined the combined associations of SPAN and the minimum between-individual variations associated with meaningfully lower all-cause mortality risk.”
• “Adequate . . . SPAN are vital for health and well-being, and each has established links with lower risks of chronic disease and premature mortality.”
  • “Insufficient sleep is associated with impaired metabolic and brain health through . . . insulin resistance, inflammation, and disruption of appetite hormones.”
    
  • “Physical inactivity is a major contributor to . . . multiple chronic diseases; adhering to current physical activity guidelines is linked with approximately 30–61% lower all-cause mortality risk.”
  • “Excessive calorie intake and unhealthy dietary patterns play a key role in . . . some of the most common non-communicable diseases, premature mortality, and the biology of ageing itself.”
• “Sleep, physical activity, and nutrition are behaviourally interlinked,” for example:
  • “Sleep deprivation can lead to lower physical activity due to fatigue, while exercise uptake may lead to improvements in sleep.”
  • “Poor sleep upregulates signaling for hunger hormones and downregulates satiety hormones, directly influencing food intake and food choices.”
  • “Additionally, low-quality diets negatively impact sleep by disrupting the neurotransmitters that regulate normal sleep–wake cycles.”

Here’s what the researchers conclude from this study:

• “In the first study of its kind, we estimated the minimal and optimal . . . sleep, physical activity and nutrition that are associated with meaningful reductions in all-cause mortality risk.”
• When looked at together, optimizing all three SPAN behaviours “corresponded to a 64% lower risk for all-cause mortality compared to the reference group.” This is more than when only one or two SPAN behaviours are optimized.
• “Our findings support the existence of a synergistic association, as higher diet quality was only associated with lower mortality risk in combination with more optimal sleep and physical activity.”
• Healthy lifestyle recommendations from this study to reduce all cause mortality by 64%:
  1. Moderate to vigorous physical activity = 42-103 minutes/day
  2. Sleep = 7.2-8.0 hours/day
  3. Diet quality score = 57.5-72.5
• Even small improvements can reduce all cause mortality by 10%:
  1. Increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity by 2 minutes/day
  2. Increasing sleep by 15 min/day
  3. Increasing daily intake of cooked vegetables by 1/3 cup or fruit by 1.5 servings.

In other words, optimizing sleep, physical activity, and nutrition all at once—even in small amounts—can synergistically work together to improve longevity more than if any one or two are optimized alone.

For more information, here’s a link to read the study for yourself:

• https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-024-03833-x

Signing off and toasting: To keeping up with the latest and greatest scientific research in nutrition, fitness, and health coaching!

Over to you

Do you have a specific question about any of these new studies?

Are you looking for a easy-to-understand study summary that you can share with your audience and clients?

What health topic/niche is most important to you?

Let me know in the comments below!