Newsletter #86: Food Reward, Zinc, and Man’s Best Friend 🐶
Hello Friends!
Welcome to the post-Christmas edition of the humanOS newsletter! 🎅🏽🎁 Happy holidays to all of our friends out there. Below is our work, plus the assorted studies and media that captured our attention this week. 🤓
This Week’s Research Highlights
📈 Nearly half of Americans will be obese within a decade, according to new projections.
Self-reported body mass is often underestimated, especially in higher BMI categories, which may lead to inaccurate assessments of obesity prevalence and in turn distort future projections. To account for this problem, researchers obtained BMI data reported by 6264226 adults who participated in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (1993–1994 and 1999–2016), and then corrected for self-reporting bias with the use of measured data from 57131 adults. This approach suggested, with high predictive accuracy, that 48.9% of adults will have obesity by 2030, and prevalence will be higher than 50% in 29 states. Additionally, nearly one in four adults is projected to have severe obesity (BMI ≥35) by that time.
😓 Office workers who work long hours are at substantially higher risk of high blood pressure, and many may not know it.
Canadian researchers recruited 3547 white-collar employees at public institutions in Quebec. In three different waves of testing over the course of five years, blood pressure was assessed both in a clinical setting and throughout the day using a wearable blood pressure monitor. Office workers with long hours were found to be at much higher risk of both sustained and masked hypertension (the latter of which refers to blood pressure readings that are normal in a clinical setting but elevated when measured in other contexts). Specifically, working 49 or more hours each week was linked to 70% greater likelihood of masked hypertension and 66% greater likelihood of sustained hypertension. Working 41-48 hours each week was associated with 54% greater likelihood of masked hypertension and 42% greater likelihood of sustained hypertension.
🧠 Exposure to dogs early in life may reduce risk of developing schizophrenia.
Researchers examined data from a population of 1371 adults, some with schizophrenia and some without any current or past psychiatric disorders (controls). Subjects were asked about whether they had a household dog or cat during childhood. Statistical analyses revealed that people who were exposed to a pet dog before their thirteenth birthday were significantly less likely — as much as 24% — to be diagnosed with schizophrenia later in life. The largest protective effect was found for those who had a dog at birth or before the age of three. It is thought that exposure to animals in formative years may modulate the immune system, potentially influencing brain development and the manifestation of psychiatric disorders.
🍟 Ultra-processed food intake is linked to greater risk of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers analyzed records of nearly 105000 French adults between 2009 and 2019. Participants completed about six 24-hour food diaries over six years. The research team determined that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was linked to a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes — every 10% increase in ultra-processed food intake translated to a 15% increase in risk. Ultra-processed foods are generally high in fat, sugar, and salt, and often contain compounds that may disrupt the endocrine system and gut microbiome.
💊 Zinc supplementation may enhance weight loss in obese adults on a restricted calorie diet.
Researchers recruited 40 adults with obesity, and randomly assigned them to take either zinc (30 mg / day) or placebo. Both groups were placed on a restricted calorie diet (~300 kcal lower than their estimated energy requirement). After fifteen weeks, both groups experienced weight loss, but the zinc group showed an average weight loss of 4.6 kg (about ten pounds), compared to 1.5 kg in the placebo group (around 3.3 pounds). Compared to the placebo group, those taking zinc experienced improved body weight management, inflammatory biomarkers, appetite scores, and insulin resistance. Subclinical zinc deficiency is surprisingly prevalent in obese individuals, and this group was a pretty good example of this phenomenon - mean serum zinc levels in the experimental group were below the normal range at baseline (65.2 ± 5.9 µg/dL), and rose significantly after the supplement regimen.
The humanOS Bookshelf
- Iñigo San Millán: Mitochondria, exercise, and metabolic health. Via The Drive with Peter Attia.
- Allison Brager: Sleep architecture, chronotypes, and rescuing performance. Via Sigma Nutrition Radio.
Products We Are Enjoying
The End of Overeating by David Kessler.
Why do so many of us eat beyond our physical needs? In this book, former FDA commissioner David Kessler documents how lifestyle changes and constant exposure to hyperpalatable foods combined to fuel one of the largest-ever public health crises of the modern era. This book is eight years old, but the content holds up remarkably well, and it is a very accessible introduction to the science of food reward and the background behind the obesity epidemic.
humanOS Catalog Feature of the Week
Want to watch this course with us this week? First lesson is just 42 seconds, and is basically a quick overview of what is covered in the course. If you are not yet a Pro user of humanOS, this initial module is available for everyone, so go ahead and check it out!