This study entitled: “Dairy products and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of cohort studies” takes another look at the evidence on the association between intake of dairy products and the risk of type 2 diabetes.  

This study follows a cohort of around 100,000 people over the course of 20 years.  It looks at the associations between changes in red meat consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). All participants started out as red meat eaters.

This prospective cohort study of more than 70,000 Seventh-Day Adventists finds a 12% reduction in all-cause mortality in vegetarians, vegans and pescatarians as compared with their omivorous counterparts.

Maternal and child undernutrition was the subject of a Series of papers in The Lancet in 2008. Five years after the initial series, the Lancet re-evaluates the problems of maternal and child undernutrition and also examines the growing problems of overweight and obesity for women and children, and their consequences in low-income and middle-income countries.

This network is coordinated by FCRN network member Helena Korjonen, at the National Heart Forum and will be particularly of interest to those involved in public health issues.

A paper published in Nature Climate Change suggests that planting trees for use as a biofuel source, near populated areas, is likely to increase human deaths due to inhalation of ozone. Increased levels of isoprene emitted from such trees, when interacting with other air pollutants can lead to increased levels of ozone in the air which might also lead to lower crop yields.

A study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science reviews the Database on Raising Intelligence to find interventions that increased children’s intelligence. One such intervention involved supplementing infants with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, and the study concludes that this does indeed have a positive impact on children’s IQ. 

New duties on foods known to be unhealthy should be part of a package of public health policies to tackle overweight and obesity and other diet-related diseases, according to the National Heart Forum (NHF).