It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Scientists call for targeted fibre diets to boost health
Australian food scientists have reclassified dietary fibres – beyond just soluble and insoluble – to better guide nutritional decisions and drive targeted health food products.
Australian food scientists have reclassified dietary fibres – beyond just soluble and insoluble – to better guide nutritional decisions and drive targeted health food products.
Dietary fibres in fruit, vegetables, beans and whole grains are some of the most important food components for human health. They help digestion, weight management, blood sugar control, heart health, cancer prevention and more.
But RMIT University food scientist Professor Raj Eri said consumer advice on how best to use them for these various benefits is sorely lacking.
“Quite like how different medicines target different conditions, so too do different types of fibres,” he said.
“For example, apples and bananas are both rich in dietary fibre but the fibre in each works very differently.
“Our research is helping to understand which type of fibres we should eat to help address certain ailments.”
A new model for more tailored diets
In a new study published in Food Research International, the RMIT University team propose a more nuanced fibre classification based on five key features: backbone structure, water-holding-capacity, structural charge, fibre matrix and fermentation rate.
Study lead author and RMIT PhD candidate Christo Opperman said by starting with the key active features of fibre, this ‘bottom-up approach’more accurately described each fibre’s health impacts.
“For example, suppose you want to promote colonic health. In that case, you identify a fibre’s properties as defined by the bottom-up approach, which align with your desired outcome – in this case fermentation rate,” Opperman said.
“Applying this framework can assure consumers, dieticians, clinicians and food technologists that they are receiving their desired health effect, which previously was a vague guessing game.”
Opperman said the RMIT team have now taken 20 different types of fibres and studied how they interact specifically with microbiome in the gut.
“Until now, these types of specific interactions have been understudied, but with this framework as a beginning, we are on the verge of a much more helpful and detailed understanding,” he said.
A global fibre gap
Eri said there was already strong interest among dieticians, clinicians and food technologists – and of course consumers – on how to better integrate fibre into diets.
“In the countries surveyed, including Europe and the USA, every single population had a deficiency of fibre,” Eri said.
“Considering fibre is one of the most important nutrients, this is extremely worrying.”
While recommended dietary fibre intake is 28–42 grams per day, Americans on average get only 12–14 grams per day and Europeans 18–24 grams per day.
Beyond soluble and insoluble
The current classification of dietary fibres has them grouped into soluble and insoluble fibres, which is based on whether they dissolve in water.
Insoluble fibres are seldom fermented in the large intestine and help keep us regular.
Soluble fibres are more readily fermented and can reduce cholesterol, glucose absorption and food craving.
But it’s not always so straightforward. For example, often insoluble fibres can also rapidly ferment and reduce glucose absorption.
“Despite our evolving understanding of how central different types of fibre are to nurturing a healthy gut biome, our dietary fibre classifications remain simplistic between broad categories of soluble and insoluble types,” Eri said.
“This binary classification of soluble and insoluble insufficiently captures the diverse structures and complex mechanisms through which dietary fibres influence human physiology.”
“Our framework is an essential step in addressing this gap,” he said.
The researchers are now planning to investigate how a specific type of fibre (based on our new classification) modulates the microbiota and how we can utilise such knowledge for specific health applications.
‘Beyond soluble and insoluble: A comprehensive framework for classifying dietary fibre’s health effects’ is published in Food Research International (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2025.115843)
Graphical abstract of the new dietry fibre classification.
People with cardiometabolic disorders—such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease—could increase their chances of living longer by adopting a healthy plant-based diet, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25).
While previous studies have assessed the benefits of plant-based diets in a general population, this new study is the first to focus on their benefits in people with cardiometabolic disorders, which are rising in prevalence worldwide and bring an increased risk of premature death.
“Among populations with cardiometabolic disorders, higher adherence to a healthful plant-based diet was significantly associated with a lower risk of total, cardiovascular and cancer mortality,” said Zhangling Chen, MD, PhD, of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, China, and the study’s lead author. “More intake of healthy plant-based foods, less intake of unhealthy plant-based foods and less intake of animal-based foods are all important.”
Cardiometabolic disorders stem from a variety of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors and affect the health of the cardiovascular system and how the body processes food. While some medications can help manage these disorders, diet and other lifestyle factors are key in preventing the progression to serious forms of heart disease and cancer that are associated with cardiometabolic disorders.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 78,000 people with cardiometabolic disorders who participated in large prospective studies in the United Kingdom, United States and China. The pooled datasets included 55,000 adults from the U.K. Biobank (UKB) between 2006-2022, 18,000 U.S. adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) between 1999-2018 and almost 4,500 Chinese adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study (CLHLS) between 2006-2018.
Based on their responses to 24-hour dietary recall interviews or dietary questionnaires at baseline, researchers assigned each participant a score on two indexes. People who reported a diet high in healthy plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, tea and coffee scored higher on the healthful plant-based diet index, while those who reported a diet higher in refined grains, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages and animal-based foods scored higher on the unhealthful.
Overall, closer adherence to a healthful plant-based diet was associated with a 17% to 24% lower risk of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease or cancer, while closer adherence to an unhealthful plant-based diet brought a 28% to 36% increased risk of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease or cancer.
For the analysis, researchers adjusted for confounding factors such as demographics, dietary and lifestyle factors. Results were consistent across subgroups by age, race, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index and physical activity. They were also consistent in people with different types of cardiometabolic disorders and in people from the U.K., U.S. and Chinese cohorts when these groups were analyzed separately, even though the U.K. and U.S. groups were significantly younger, with an average age of 57 years and 59 years, respectively, compared with the Chinese group, which had an average age of 84 years.
In a separate study that only used NHANES data and did not focus on people with cardiometabolic disorders, the same research group found that a greater adherence to a healthy beverage pattern was associated with a lower risk of premature death. They defined a healthy beverage pattern as one high in tea, coffee and low-fat milk and low in alcohol, whole-fat milk, fruit juice and sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages.
“These findings may help individuals with cardiometabolic disorders make heathier lifestyle choices,” Chen said. “It is important to identify and develop cost-effective strategies to promote health among individuals with cardiometabolic disorders.”
For both studies, the researchers said that dietary data were self-reported by study participants at baseline and not assessed again, so the studies were not able to reflect any dietary changes participants may have made. They added that some potentially confounding factors were difficult to eliminate and suggested that additional prospective studies in diverse global populations would help to strengthen the evidence and confirm the importance of healthy food and beverage consumption patterns in broader populations.
Chen will present the studies, “Associations Between Plant-Based Diets and Total Mortality Among Participants with Cardiometabolic Disorders” and “Associations of a Healthy Beverage Score with All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among U.S. Adults: A Nationwide Cohort Study,” on Saturday, March 29, 2025, at 3:30 p.m. CT / 20:30 UTC in South Hall.
ACC.25 will take place March 29-31, 2025, in Chicago, bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCinTouch, @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC25 for the latest news from the meeting.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is the global leader in transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health for all. As the preeminent source of professional medical education for the entire cardiovascular care team since 1949, ACC credentials cardiovascular professionals in over 140 countries who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. Through its world-renowned family of JACC Journals, NCDR registries, ACC Accreditation Services, global network of Member Sections, CardioSmart patient resources and more, the College is committed to ensuring a world where science, knowledge and innovation optimize patient care and outcomes. Learn more at ACC.org.
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Popular cooking cheese made with peas yields same taste and texture
Creamy, crumbly, mild, or sharp — cheese is a true crowd-pleaser. From everyday meals to gourmet delights, it’s a staple across the Western world. In 2023, the average European enjoyed 20.5 kilograms of cheese.
But it is no secret that, as a dairy product, heavy cheese consumption comes with a significant environmental impact. As such, extensive research is being conducted on how to produce plant-based cheeses. Unfortunately, finding an entirely plant-based cheese that satisfies cheese lovers in terms of both texture and taste has been difficult. And texture in particular has been challenging to get just right.
So, food researchers at the University of Copenhagen opted for a different approach – hybrid cheese. They see cheese produced from a combination of milk and plant proteins as the way forward.
"It’s really difficult to create a texture that matches regular cheese if you only use plant proteins. Therefore, our strategy is to get the best of both worlds by replacing as much milk protein as possible with plant protein, without compromising on taste and texture," says Professor Lilia Ahrné from the Department of Food Science. She continues:
"Because, consumers who don't like the taste experience won't buy a product just because you tell them it's sustainable."
She and her team have now successfully developed a recipe for a hybrid cheese similar to paneer, a widely-used South Asian cooking cheese. Their hybrid paneer consists partly of casein, the milk protein that is the main component of paneer, and partly of pea protein. And as peas are grown in Europe they are a more sustainable choice than, for example, soy-based protein.
25% peas
"We’ve investigated what happens to a cheese's texture as we add more pea protein. How much can we add before it falls apart or loses its original paneer shape? Our experiments show that at least 25% of the milk proteins can be replaced with pea protein while still producing a cheese with a texture, shape, and taste similar to the original product," says postdoc Wenjie Xia, first author of the study published in Food Research International.
When making paneer and most other cheeses, part of the process involves pressing it. In their experiments, the researchers applied higher pressure than usual to the hybrid cheese because pea proteins retain more water than milk proteins. This increased pressure helped the cheese maintain a solid shape despite its relatively high plant-based content.
"Hybrid cheeses like this are a solid step towards more sustainable dairy products. We demonstrate that it is possible to replace a significant portion of the milk in cheese with plant protein. With further research, we believe that it will be possible to reduce the milk content even more while still creating a product that people want to eat. In this way, there is great potential to reduce the climate footprint of a popular food category," says Wenjie Xia.
Not only do hybrid cheeses lower the climate footprint, they can also have nutritional advantages, Lilia Ahrné points out:
“While dairy ingredients contribute with better protein quality (essential amino acids) and calcium, plant ingredients can bring dietary fibers to the product. So also nutrionally hybrid cheese has the potential to bring together qualities from both worlds.”
Grilled, baked or fried
The researchers decided to focus on paneer because they see great potential in this type of cheese. Cooking cheeses such as paneer, halloumi and feta are all characterized by the fact that they don’t melt when baked or fried.
"Because of paneer's properties – that allow it to be both grilled and baked without melting – it has been a popular meat alternative in India for many years, where there are many vegans and vegetarians. That’s why we see this type of cooking cheese as a potential meat substitute in the West, where we enjoy grilling and frying our food," says Lilia Ahrné.
The researchers emphasize that, despite the promising start that shows we get right the texture, further studies could help refine the taste experience before the cheese goes into production.
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