Sunday, July 26, 2026

Long-term study finds widespread lithium in drinking water across communities in the western U.S.

Decade-long research strengthens the evidence linking drinking water to lithium exposure; establishes urinary lithium as a reliable measure of long-term environmental exposure

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

July 24, 2026-- Lithium in drinking water is a widespread and persistent source of human exposure across Tribal communities in the Western United States, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The findings document substantial regional variation in exposure and provide some of the strongest evidence to date that household drinking water is a major contributor to lithium levels measured in the body.
The results are published in Nature: Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.

The researchers measured lithium in household tap water collected between 2022 and 2024 and compared those findings with urinary lithium levels collected from the same participants over a 15-year period. They found that: drinking water lithium frequently exceeded the U.S. Geological Survey's non-enforceable health-based screening level in Arizona and North Dakota/South Dakota, urinary lithium levels remained remarkably stable over time, and household drinking water explained a substantial proportion of the variation in urinary lithium concentrations.

"Our findings improve lithium exposure estimates among the Strong Heart Family Study communities and highlight the need for continued environmental monitoring and risk evaluation, particularly as lithium extraction and processing accelerate to meet growing energy demands," said Ellen Bannon, MPH, PhD student of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and first author.

Lithium demand is projected to increase more than six-fold by 2050 because it is an essential component of rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. At the same time, lithium production and processing are rapidly expanding across the United States, including in regions on or near Tribal lands.

While lithium occurs naturally in groundwater and surface water, environmental releases associated with mining and industrial activities have raised new questions about potential human exposure. In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added lithium to its Fifth Contaminant Candidate List to evaluate whether a national drinking water standard should be developed. Despite growing concern, population-level exposure to lithium has remained poorly illustrated.

To address this gap, researchers analyzed household tap water samples from 673 homes and paired urine samples from 613 Strong Heart Family Study participants living in Tribal communities in Arizona, Oklahoma, and North Dakota/South Dakota. The team examined changes in urinary lithium over time, evaluated the relationship between household water and urinary lithium levels, and assessed whether urinary lithium could serve as a biomarker of environmental exposure.

The study found a median lithium concentration of 35.6 micrograms per liter in household drinking water. Every household water sample collected in Arizona exceeded the U.S. Geological Survey health-based screening level of 10 micrograms per liter, as did 93 percent of samples in the Dakotas and 35 percent of samples in Oklahoma. Overall, nearly three-quarters of household water samples exceeded the screening level.

Urinary lithium levels were highly consistent over the 15-year study period. Median urinary lithium concentrations measured in 2006–2009 were nearly identical to those measured in 2022–2024, indicating long-term, persistent exposure among study participants.

Researchers found a strong relationship between lithium in household drinking water and lithium measured in urine. Water lithium was strongly correlated with urinary lithium at both study visits, and household drinking water accounted for approximately 29 percent of the variation in urinary lithium levels. Participants living in areas with higher drinking water lithium consistently had higher urinary lithium concentrations, supporting urinary lithium as a reliable biomarker of environmental exposure.

“We also uncovered that although bottled water use was associated with lower urinary lithium levels before accounting for geographic differences, study location remained one of the strongest predictors of exposure,” noted Bannon. Participants in Arizona and North Dakota/South Dakota consistently had higher lithium concentrations in both drinking water and urine than participants in Oklahoma, suggesting that regional geology and other environmental factors continue to influence exposure patterns.

“The health effects of long-term, low-level lithium exposure remain uncertain,” according to senior author Kathrin Schilling, PhD, MSc, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. “While lithium has been used safely for decades as a medication to treat bipolar disorder at doses far higher than environmental exposure levels, less is known about the potential health implications of chronic exposure through drinking water.” Lithium is not currently regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and few water treatment technologies effectively remove it once it is present in drinking water.

“By linking individually matched household drinking water measurements with biomonitoring data collected over more than a decade, our study establishes an important baseline for understanding environmental lithium exposure in U.S. communities,” said Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School and a co-author. “The findings underscore the value of combining environmental sampling with biomonitoring to characterize long-term exposure patterns and provide evidence supporting the use of urinary lithium as a biomarker of environmental exposure.”

A full list of co-authors can be found in the paper.

The study was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 75N92019D00027, 75N92019D00028, 75N92019D00029, and 75N92019D00030; R01HL090863, R01HL109315, R01HL109301, R01HL109284, R01HL109282, and R01HL109319; cooperative agreements U01HL41642, U01HL41652, U01HL41654, U01HL65520, and U01HL65521; by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grants R01ES021367, R01ES025216, R01ES032638, R01ES035219, P42ES033719, and P30ES009089; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease R01DK138542; and by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, U19MD020537.

The authors have no competing financial interests.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.

Journal

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology

DOI

10.1038/s41370-026-00947-7

Article Title

Lithium exposure in areas of the Western United States: Water and urinary levels in the Strong Heart Family Study

Article Publication Date

23-Jul-2026

New open-access database maps pathogens and antibiotic resistance risks in coastal waters

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals

image:
Coastal Water Pathogen Database profiles pathogenic microorganisms in coastal environments
view more
Credit: Shangheng Song, Zelin Lei, Yuan Feng, Wenxiu Wang, Fang Huang, Yanmei Zhao, Jiping Jiang, Mengqi Sun, Ai-Jie Wang, Shu-Hong Gao, Marwan Majzoub & Lu Fan

A new global database brings together information on disease-causing microorganisms, antibiotic resistance genes, and virulence factors in coastal waters, giving researchers and public health professionals a practical tool for assessing biological risks in estuaries and other nearshore environments.

“Coastal waters connect human communities, wildlife, wastewater systems, and marine ecosystems, but information about their microbial hazards has often been scattered across separate studies,” said corresponding author Lu Fan of the Southern University of Science and Technology. “The Coastal Water Pathogen Database was developed to make these complex data easier to explore, compare, and use for environmental and public health decision-making.”

Coastal regions are home to a large proportion of the global population and support fisheries, aquaculture, recreation, transportation, and tourism. However, these waters can also receive pathogens from domestic sewage, livestock wastewater, aquaculture operations, and other human activities. Rising water temperatures and changing rainfall patterns may further increase the movement and growth of some microorganisms, making effective surveillance increasingly important.

To address this challenge, the research team developed the Coastal Water Pathogen Database, or CWPD, an open-access platform that integrates shotgun metagenomic sequencing data from coastal environments. Unlike databases that focus mainly on individual bacterial species or aquaculture pathogens, CWPD covers pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi, together with antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors.

The current version includes data from 158 samples collected across six coastal regions on three continents, including the Pearl River Estuary, Cochin Estuary, Columbia River Estuary, Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and Baltic Sea. The samples span coastal conditions ranging from low-salinity estuarine waters to seawater and cover collection periods between 2010 and 2019.

Across these samples, the researchers detected 361 pathogenic bacterial species, 42 pathogenic viral species, 287 antibiotic resistance gene subtypes from 30 classes, and 10 virulence factors. The platform’s underlying knowledge dictionary is even broader, containing 1,904 pathogen entries, 2,373 antibiotic resistance genes, and 541 virulence factors.

CWPD presents the information through interactive maps, word clouds, heat maps, and bar charts. Users can explore the geographic distribution and abundance of specific pathogens or search by location, year, and biological risk category. This visual approach allows complex metagenomic information to be interpreted without requiring users to work directly with large raw sequencing datasets.

The platform also provides an online analysis service for newly generated metagenomic data. Registered users can upload raw Illumina paired-end sequencing files, after which the system performs quality control, sequence assembly, and annotation of microbial communities, pathogens, antibiotic resistance genes, and virulence factors. For a typical 10-gigabyte environmental metagenomic sample, the full analysis takes approximately 12 hours, and users receive an email when the results are ready.

The researchers designed CWPD with a modular architecture and standardized application programming interfaces, allowing it to be connected with ecological, clinical, and public health databases in the future. The platform is also intended to support the One Health approach, which recognizes that human health, animal health, and environmental conditions are closely linked.

The authors caution that the current database represents an initial version and does not yet provide complete global coverage. The available samples are concentrated in several well-studied coastal systems, so comparisons between regions or time periods should be interpreted carefully. The team plans to update the database every six months and expand coverage to densely populated deltas, industrialized coastlines, and underrepresented regions in Africa and South America.

By combining pathogen detection, antibiotic resistance information, geographic visualization, and online data analysis, CWPD provides a foundation for coastal ecosystem management, biological risk assessment, and future pandemic preparedness.

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Journal reference: Song S, Lei Z, Feng Y, Wang W, Huang F, et al. 2026. Coastal Water Pathogen Database profiles pathogenic microorganisms in coastal environments. Biocontaminant 2: e009 doi: 10.48130/biocontam-0026-0006

https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/biocontam-0026-0006

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About Biocontaminant:
Biocontaminant (e-ISSN: 3070-359X) is a multidisciplinary platform dedicated to advancing fundamental and applied research on biological contaminants across diverse environments and systems. The journal serves as an innovative, efficient, and professional forum for global researchers to disseminate findings in this rapidly evolving field.

Journal

Biocontaminant

DOI

10.48130/biocontam-0026-0006

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Coastal Water Pathogen Database profiles pathogenic microorganisms in coastal environments

Biochar should be evaluated by how it performs in soil, not only by what it looks like in the laboratory, according to a new perspective published in Biochar X

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals

image:
Understanding feedstock-dependent biochar performance beyond static material descriptors
view more
Credit: Behrouz Gholamahmadi

Biochar is widely used to improve soils, remove contaminants, recycle nutrients, and store carbon. Its quality and long-term stability are often assessed using static chemical indicators, particularly the molar hydrogen-to-organic-carbon ratio, known as H/Corg. Lower values generally indicate a more aromatic and potentially persistent carbon structure.

However, the new article argues that biochars with similar chemical indicators may behave very differently after they are added to soil.

“Biochar is not a single, uniform material,” said author Behrouz Gholamahmadi of the University of Aveiro. “Its feedstock, production conditions, interactions with soil microorganisms, and changes during aging can all determine whether it preserves soil carbon, stimulates carbon loss, or provides nutrients. We therefore need to evaluate biochar as a functional material operating within a living soil system.”

Biochar made from woody and other lignocellulosic materials commonly contains highly condensed carbon and relatively little easily degradable carbon. These properties may limit microbial stimulation and help preserve native soil organic matter. By contrast, biochar produced from manure, sewage sludge, or nutrient-rich organic residues may contain more nutrients and labile carbon, potentially stimulating microbial activity and accelerating the decomposition of existing soil organic matter.

This process, known as the priming effect, can influence whether biochar delivers a net carbon-storage benefit.

Biochar also changes after application. Surface oxidation, new oxygen-containing functional groups, and changes in pore structure can alter its interactions with water, nutrients, minerals, and microorganisms over months or years.

The article recommends combining conventional indicators with practical measurements such as water-extractable carbon, microbial respiration, short-term soil incubation tests, and basic information about soil conditions.

A performance-oriented framework could help scientists, land managers, certification bodies, and biochar producers select materials for specific goals, including long-term carbon retention, soil fertility improvement, and environmental remediation.

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Journal reference: Gholamahmadi B. 2026. Understanding feedstock-dependent biochar performance beyond static material descriptors. Biochar X 2: e016 doi: 10.48130/bchax-0026-0014

https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/bchax-0026-0014

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About the Journal:

Biochar X (e-ISSN: 3070-1686) is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.

Journal

Biochar X

DOI

10.48130/bchax-0026-0014

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Understanding feedstock-dependent biochar performance beyond static material descriptors

FDA-issued sodium targets yield no apparent impact

Study finds no evidence of sodium reduction in new packaged foods after non-binding, voluntary guidance was issued in 2021

American Society for Nutrition

National Harbor, Md. (July 25, 2026) — In 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued Phase I voluntary sodium reduction targets to encourage manufacturers to lower the amount of sodium in packaged food products by 2024. The targets appear to have had minimal impact, according to a study comparing the sodium content of new products introduced before and after the guidance was issued.

“Our findings suggest that sodium content in newly introduced products did not decrease across nine packaged food categories contributing to most dietary sodium in the U.S., and even increased in four categories, despite the voluntary targets issued by the FDA,” said Kenny Kusnadi, MSPH, a graduate student researcher in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the study’s first author. “These findings suggest that the food industry is not incorporating the sodium targets into new product development and innovation.”

Kusnadi will present the findings at NUTRITION 2026, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held July 25-28 in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

Excess sodium consumption is among the leading drivers of hypertension and raises the risk of stroke, heart attacks and heart failure. Studies have shown that most Americans consume far more than the recommended upper limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, equivalent to about a teaspoon of table salt.

Since most of the sodium we consume comes from packaged and restaurant foods—rather than salt added at the table or while cooking at home—health officials issued the voluntary guidance as a way to reduce the population’s sodium consumption by encouraging reformulation that manufacturers would implement in their packaged foods.

Researchers analyzed the sodium content listed on the Nutrition Facts Label of packaged food products introduced in the United States from 2015-2025 (six years before and four years after the voluntary guidance was issued in 2021). They examined the sodium content of foods across nine major sodium-contributing categories: breads and bread products, pizzas, sandwiches/wraps, meat products, corn-based snacks, potato snacks, popcorn, dry soups, and wet soups. Across all nine categories combined, sodium content did not differ between products introduced before and after 2021. In fact, sodium levels were higher in products introduced after 2021 in four categories: dry soups, popcorn, bread and bread products, and corn-based snacks.

“These findings add to a substantial body of evidence that voluntary, non-binding targets are a less effective approach to meaningfully reduce the sodium content of the food supply,” said Matti Marklund, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the study’s senior author. “The available evidence, including our analysis, suggests that future efforts need stronger accountability mechanisms, such as mandatory sodium targets with financial consequences for non-compliance.”

The study focused on products that were newly introduced to the U.S. market based on data from the Mintel Global New Product Database, which includes packaged food products sold in supermarkets and top retail channels that are newly introduced or have had changes to formulation or packaging. While the study methodology is well-suited for evaluating industry trends, it does not capture the totality of all products on shelves and does not assess the sodium intake of individuals, which may help to show a more complete picture regarding the success of sodium reduction efforts.

Consumers can reduce their sodium intake by cooking at home, relying less on prepared and packaged foods, and reading nutrition labels to choose products that are lower in sodium. While such measures can help individuals reduce their sodium intake, the researchers said that strong policies are needed to lower population sodium consumption and meaningfully reduce the related burden of hypertension, stroke and heart disease in the United States. The FDA introduced Phase II sodium reduction targets in August 2024 and is expected to issue a formal evaluation of the Phase I targets later this year.

Kusnadi will present this research at 9:18–9:30 a.m. EDT on Saturday, July 25, during the Global Perspectives on Micronutrient Status, Nutritional Deficiencies, and Health Outcomes Oral Session in the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center (abstract; presentation details).

Please note that abstracts presented at NUTRITION 2026 were evaluated and selected by a committee of experts but have not generally undergone the same peer review process required for publication in a scientific journal. As such, the findings presented should be considered preliminary until a peer-reviewed publication is available.

About NUTRITION 2026

NUTRITION 2026 is the flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition and the premier educational event for nutritional professionals around the globe. NUTRITION brings together lab scientists, practicing clinicians, population health researchers and community intervention investigators to identify solutions to today’s greatest nutrition challenges. The meeting also attracts rising leaders in the field, including undergraduate, graduate, and medical students. NUTRITION 2026 will be held July 25–28 in Washington, D.C. https://nutrition.org/meeting #Nutrition2026

About the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)

ASN is the preeminent professional organization for nutrition research scientists and clinicians around the world. Founded in 1928, the society brings together the top nutrition researchers, medical practitioners, policy makers, and industry leaders to advance knowledge and application of nutrition. ASN publishes four peer-reviewed journals and provides education and professional development opportunities to advance nutrition research, practice, and education. Since 2018, the American Society for Nutrition has presented NUTRITION, the leading global annual meeting for nutrition professionals. http://www.nutrition.org

Find more news briefs from NUTRITION 2026 at: https://www.eurekalert.org/newsroom/nutrition2026.

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Prebiotic sodas typically contain as much sugar as fiber

While healthier than regular sodas and fruit drinks, prebiotic sodas do not necessarily compare favorably with other alternatives

American Society for Nutrition

National Harbor, Md. (July 25, 2026) — Prebiotic sodas have become more popular in recent years, with a wave of new products promising gut health benefits and low-calorie enjoyment. According to a new analysis, however, many of these beverages contain relatively little prebiotic fiber content and more sugar than marketing claims might imply.

“Many products include nutrition and functional claims that may overstate their nutritional quality. For example, some labels claim ‘no added sugar,’ yet the product may still contain around 10 grams of total sugars from sources like juice,” said Carlos R. Soto Díaz, MPH, a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “This raises concerns that such claims may create a ‘health halo,’ leading consumers to believe the product is healthier than its overall nutritional profile suggests.”

Soto Díaz will present the findings at NUTRITION 2026, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held July 25–28 in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Soto Díaz conducted the research with Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Prebiotic sodas represent one of the fastest growing beverage segments in the U.S. market, with estimated sales of $777 million in 2025. Using data from the Mintel Global New Products Database, researchers analyzed 108 prebiotic sodas launched in the U.S. between 2021-2025. These were defined as carbonated beverages that contain fiber and use the term “prebiotic” in the product name, package claims or ingredient lists. They compared prebiotic sodas’ nutritional contents to regular sodas, diet sodas, fruit drinks and flavored sparkling waters introduced during the same time period.

On average, prebiotic sodas contained about 35 calories, 5 grams of sugar and 5 grams of fiber per 12-ounce can. In terms of calories and sugar, they ranked lower than regular sodas and fruit drinks but higher than diet sodas and flavored sparkling waters. In addition, nearly two-thirds of prebiotic sodas contained non-nutritive sweeteners such as stevia. By comparison, over 90% of diet sodas contained non-nutritive sweeteners, while less than 28% of fruit drinks, 16% of flavored sparkling waters and 12% of regular sodas contained them.

Prebiotic sodas consistently contained more fiber than other beverages, ranging from about 2 to 9 grams of fiber per can. In the U.S. market, the term “prebiotic” is not tied to a specific amount of fiber, so researchers cautioned that consumers should not assume a product contains a meaningful amount simply because it is labeled as prebiotic, and sodas should not be relied upon as a primary source of dietary fiber.

“I would encourage consumers not to be swayed by marketing claims and to carefully review the Nutrition Facts label,” said Soto Díaz. “While certain types of prebiotic fibers have been shown to support gut health, the extent to which the amounts found in these beverages provide meaningful benefits is still unclear. Any potential benefits should be considered alongside the product’s overall nutritional profile, including calories, sugars and non-nutritive sweeteners.”

When considering the healthfulness of prebiotic sodas, the researchers say it is important to consider what they are replacing. For people who regularly consume sugary beverages, switching to prebiotic sodas could help to reduce overall calorie and sugar intake. On the other hand, switching to prebiotic sodas might not be as beneficial for people who typically choose low- or no-calorie beverages.

Soto Díaz will present this research at 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 25, during the Community and Public Health Nutrition (I) Poster Session in the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center (abstract; presentation details).

Carlos R. Soto Díaz was supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship from NIH Training Grant T32 HL129969.

About NUTRITION 2026

About the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)

Find more news briefs from NUTRITION 2026 at: https://www.eurekalert.org/newsroom/nutrition2026.

Plant-forward planetary health diet linked to lower heart disease risk

Large study of postmenopausal women suggests that even moderate diet improvements may benefit heart health

American Society for Nutrition

National Harbor, Md. (July 25, 2026) — A 20-year study of more than 65,000 postmenopausal women found that higher adherence to the Planetary Health Diet was associated with a lower risk of overall cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure.

The findings showed that women whose diet most closely followed the Planetary Health Diet had about a 28% lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with women in the group scoring the lowest for adherence. However, even moderate adherence to the diet was linked with lower risk.

The Planetary Health Diet emphasizes foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and unsaturated fats while limiting foods such as red and processed meats, added sugars, refined grains and saturated fats.

“Our results suggest that people may not need to follow a perfect or very restrictive diet to see potential heart-health benefits,” said Donya Shahamati, a doctoral student in public health at the University of California, Irvine. “This is especially important for postmenopausal women, because cardiovascular risk increases with age and tends to rise after menopause.”

Shahamati will present the findings at NUTRITION 2026, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held July 25–28 in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

“Moving toward a more plant-forward, higher-quality diet can be accomplished through small, realistic changes,” said Shahamati. “These changes might include filling half the plate with vegetables more often; using avocado or olive oil in place of butter; choosing oatmeal or whole-grain cereal for breakfast; or trying a meatless meal once per week.”

For the new research, the investigators followed 66,892 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a long-term national health study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. All the women included in the analysis were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study (1994-1998) and had complete information on diet and other important health and lifestyle factors.

Using information collected through a food frequency questionnaire administered at the beginning of the study, the researchers calculated a Planetary Health Diet Index score for each study participant, with higher scores indicating a diet was more aligned with the Planetary Health Diet. The researchers then divided the women into five groups based on how closely their diets aligned with the Planetary Health Diet.

The women, who were around 63 years old at the start of the study, were followed for about 20 years to see who developed cardiovascular disease. When analyzing the data, the researchers adjusted for several factors that could affect cardiovascular risk, including age, race and ethnicity, education, income, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, body mass index and total calorie intake.

“We did not only look at overall cardiovascular disease,” said Shahamati. “We also looked separately at coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure. This helped us see whether the pattern was similar across different types of cardiovascular outcomes.”

Overall, the results showed that women in the group whose diets were more closely aligned with the Planetary Health Diet had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease. These women also showed a decreased risk of heart disease, heart failure and stroke risk compared to the women in the lowest-adherence group.

However, even moderate adherence to the diet was associated with a decrease in risk, with each 10-point increase in Planetary Health Diet Index score linked to further risk reduction.

The researchers caution that an observational study like this cannot show that diet directly caused the lower risk in women.

The research team is now exploring other aspects of diet and health in older adult populations. For example, they are examining how diet quality changes over time in this population, information that could help support healthy aging and prevent chronic diseases.

Shahamati will present this research at 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 25, during the Climate, Food Systems, Diet, Nutrition and Health Poster Session in the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center (abstract; presentation details).

About NUTRITION 2026

NUTRITION 2026 is the flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition and the premier educational event for nutritional professionals around the globe. NUTRITION brings together lab scientists, practicing clinicians, population health researchers and community intervention investigators to identify solutions to today’s greatest nutrition challenges. The meeting also attracts rising leaders in the field, including undergraduate, graduate and medical students. NUTRITION 2026 will be held July 25–28 in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. https://nutrition.org/meeting/ #Nutrition2026

About the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)

ASN is the preeminent professional organization for nutrition research scientists and clinicians around the world. Founded in 1928, the society brings together the top nutrition researchers, medical practitioners, policy makers and industry leaders to advance knowledge and application of nutrition. ASN publishes four peer-reviewed journals and provides education and professional development opportunities to advance nutrition research, practice, and education. Since 2018, the American Society for Nutrition has presented NUTRITION, the leading global annual meeting for nutrition professionals. http://www.nutrition.org

Find more news briefs from NUTRITION 2026 at: https://www.eurekalert.org/newsroom/nutrition2026.

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Sunday, July 26, 2026

Long-term study finds widespread lithium in drinking water across communities in the western U.S.

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

New open-access database maps pathogens and antibiotic resistance risks in coastal waters

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Article Title

Biochar should be evaluated by how it performs in soil, not only by what it looks like in the laboratory, according to a new perspective published in Biochar X

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Article Title

Prebiotic sodas typically contain as much sugar as fiber

Plant-forward planetary health diet linked to lower heart disease risk

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