 |
|
|
|||||
Sam Srisatta, a 20-year-old Florida college student, spent a month living inside a government hospital here last fall, playing video games and allowing scientists to document every morsel of food that went into his mouth. From big bowls of salad to platters of meatballs and spaghetti sauce, Srisatta noshed his way through a nutrition study aimed at understanding the health effects of ultraprocessed foods, the controversial fare that now accounts for more than 70% of the U.S. food supply. He allowed The Associated Press to tag along for a day. Today my lunch was chicken nuggets, some chips, some ketchup, said Srisatta, one of three dozen participants paid $5,000 each to devote 28 days of their lives to science. It was pretty fulfilling. Examining exactly what made those nuggets so satisfying is the goal of the widely anticipated research led by National Institutes of Health nutrition researcher Kevin Hall. What we hope to do is figure out what those mechanisms are so that we can better understand that process, Hall said. Halls study relies on 24/7 measurements of patients, rather than self-reported data, to investigate whether ultraprocessed foods cause people to eat more calories and gain weight, potentially leading to obesity and other well-documented health problems. And, if they do, how? At a time when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made nutrition and chronic disease a key priority, the answers cant come soon enough. Kennedy has repeatedly targeted processed foods as the primary culprit behind a range of diseases that afflict Americans, particularly children. He vowed in a Senate confirmation hearing to focus on removing such foods from school lunches for kids because theyre making them sick. Ultraprocessed foods have exploded in the U.S. and elsewhere in recent decades, just as rates of obesity and other diet-related diseases also rise. The foods, which are often high in fat, sodium and sugar, are typically cheap, mass-produced and contain added colors and chemicals not found in a home kitchen. Think sugary cereals and potato chips, frozen pizzas, sodas and ice cream. Studies have linked ultraprocessed foods to negative health effects, but whether its the actual processing of the foods rather than the nutrients they contain or something else remains uncertain. A small 2019 analysis by Hall and his colleagues found that ultraprocessed foods led participants to eat about 500 calories a day more than when they ate a matched diet of unprocessed foods. The new study aims to replicate and expand that research and to test new theories about the effects of ultraprocessed foods. One is that some of the foods contain irresistible combinations of ingredients fat, sugar, sodium and carbohydrates that trigger people to eat more. The other is that the foods contain more calories per bite, making it possible to consume more without realizing it. Teasing out those answers requires the willingness of volunteers like Srisatta and the know-how of health and diet experts who identify, gather and analyze the data behind the estimated multimillion-dollar study. During his month at NIH, Srisatta sported monitors on his wrist, ankle and waist to track his every movement, and regularly gave up to 14 vials of blood. Once a week, he spent 24 hours inside a metabolic chamber, a tiny room outfitted with sensors to measure how his body was using food, water and air. He was allowed to go outside, but only with supervision to prevent any wayward snacks. It doesn’t really feel that bad, Srisatta said. He could eat as much or as little as he liked. The meals wheeled to his room three times a day were crafted to meet the precise requirements of the study, said Sara Turner, the NIH dietitian who designed the food plan. In the basement of the NIH building, a team carefully measured, weighed, sliced and cooked foods before sending them to Srisatta and other participants. The challenge is getting all the nutrients to work, but it still needs to be appetizing and look good, Turner said. Results from the trial are expected later this year, but preliminary results are intriguing. At a scientific conference in November, Hall reported that the first 18 trial participants ate about 1,000 calories a day more of an ultraprocessed diet that was particularly hyperpalatable and energy dense than those who ate minimally processed foods, leading to weight gain. When those qualities were modified, consumption went down, even if the foods were considered ultraprocessed, Hall said. Data is still being collected from remaining participants and must be completed, analyzed and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Still, the early results suggest that you can almost normalize energy intake, despite the fact that theyre still eating a diet that is more than 80% of calories from ultraprocessed food, Hall told the audience. Not everyone agrees with Halls methods, or the implications of his research. Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Childrens Hospital, criticized Halls 2019 study as fundamentally flawed by its short duration about a month. Scientists have long known that its possible to get people to eat more or less for brief periods of time, but those effects quickly wane, he said. If they were persistent, we would have the answer to obesity, said Ludwig, who has argued for years that consumption of highly processed carbohydrates is the prime dietary culprit” and focusing on the processing of the foods is distracting. He called for larger, better-designed studies lasting a minimum of two months, with washout periods separating the effects of one diet from the next. Otherwise, we waste our energy, we mislead the science, Ludwig said. Concerns about the short length of the studies may be valid, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and food policy expert. To resolve that, Hall needs funding to conduct longer studies with more people, she said in an email. The NIH spends about $2 billion a year, about 5% of its total budget, on nutrition research, according to Senate documents. At the same time, the agency cut the capacity of the metabolic unit where investigators conduct such studies, reducing the number of beds that must be shared among researchers. The two participants enrolled now at the center and the two planned for next month are the most Hall can study at any one time, adding months to the research process. Srisatta, the Florida volunteer who hopes to become an emergency room physician, said participating in the trial left him eager to know more about how processed foods affect human health. I mean, I think everyone knows it’s better to not eat processed foods, right? he said. But having the evidence to back that up in ways that the public can easily digest, is important, he said. HHS officials didn’t respond to questions about Kennedys intentions regarding nutrition research at NIH. The agency, like many others in the federal government, is being buffeted by the wave of cost cuts being directed by President Donald Trump and his bilionaire aide Elon Musk. Jerold Mande, a former federal food policy advisor in three administrations, said he supports Kennedys goals of addressing diet-related diseases. He has pushed a proposal for a 50-bed facility where government nutrition scientists could house and feed enough study volunteers like Srisatta to rigorously determine how specific diets affect human health. If youre going to make America healthy again and youre going to address chronic disease, we need better science to do it, Mande said. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Jonel Aleccia, AP health writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Some “copycat” versions of popular weight-loss drugs will soon be restricted in the U.S. The change comes as a federal judge declined an injunction that would’ve allowed compounding pharmacies to keep making more affordable versions. In a Good Morning America segment, Dr. Tara Narula, ABC News chief medical correspondent, explained how compound-drug creation works to meet demand. “When a drug is in short supply, the FDA allows these compounding pharmacies to essentially create copycat drugs. But when the drug companies say, ‘we are able to meet the demand,’ then those compounding pharmacies can no longer sell those drugs,” Narula said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will now begin restricting the creation of the compound drugs. In 2022, the popularity of weight-loss drugs was rising too quickly for drug companies to keep up with demand. Patients turned to compound versions, which were made by licensed pharmacists but were not FDA approved. Last year, around 200,000 prescriptions for copies of Novo Nordisks weight-loss drug Wegovy alone were being filled each month. But now, the makers of the original versions of the drugs say they are no longer facing shortages and have removed the drugs from the FDA’s shortage list. Three weeks ago, the FDA made that declaration in a press release, and, at the same time, announced that selling copycat versions “with rare exceptions” was now “illegal.”In the release, Dave Moore, president of Novo Nordisk and executive vice president of U.S. operations and global business development, said, “We are pleased the FDA has declared that supply of the only real, FDA-approved semaglutide medicines is resolved, affirming that Novo Nordisk is meeting or exceeding current and projected nationwide demand. No one should have to compromise their health due to misinformation and reach for fake or illegitimate knockoff drugs that pose significant safety risks to patients.”Still, patients who rely on copycat weight-loss drugs pay a fraction of the price tag for the real thing, which averages around $1,000 per month. Narula said that patients’ wallets will certainly be impacted by the FDA’s move. “This is all going to affect people who are getting these drugs, usually at a much lower cost and much easier to find,” Narula said. Telehealth companies, such as Hims & Hers Health, which capitalized on the supply issues by selling compound versions, may also be hard hit. Hims’s shares have already tumbled, dropping 46% since semaglutide was taken off the FDA’s shortage list.To that end, a Change.org petition organized by the GLP-1 Collective, a nonprofit that advocates for access to the drugs, has sprung into action to combat the FDA’s latest moves. The petition has garnered more than 24,700 signatures at the time of publication. The petition not only urges the FDA to allow compounding pharmacies to keep making the drugs, it also asserts the importance of generic versions of the drugs, insurance coverage, and competitive pricing.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration is starting another round of job cuts this one more than 1,000 at the nation’s weather, ocean and fisheries agency, four people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday began plans to lay off 10% of its current workforce, people inside and outside the agency said, with some of them requesting anonymity due to fear of retribution. The numbers were presented to NOAA employees and managers were asked to submit names of positions for layoffs to agency headquarters, which will then go to NOAAs parent agency, the Department of Commerce, on Wednesday, the people said. Three former senior NOAA officials two former political appointees from the Biden administration who speak regularly with managers at their old agency used the same number for upcoming job cuts: 1,029, 10% of the current 10,290. They talked to multiple people still in NOAA and a current agency worker detailed the cuts that a manager explained to employees. While most people know about NOAA and its daily weather forecasts, the agency also monitors and warns about hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and tsunamis, manages the countrys fisheries, runs marine sanctuaries, provides navigation information to ships and observes changes in the climate and oceans. The agency also plays a role in warning about avalanches and space weather that could damage the electrical grid. It helps respond to disasters, including oil spills. The new cuts come after earlier rounds of Trump administration firings and encouraged retirements at NOAA, plus the elimination of nearly all new employees last month. After this upcoming round of cuts, NOAA will have eliminated about one out of four jobs since President Donald Trump took office in January. This is not government efficiency, said former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. It is the first steps toward eradication. There is no way to make these kinds of cuts without removing or strongly compromising mission capabilities. The cuts are being ordered without specific guidance from the Trump administration on how or where, which makes it even worse, Spinrad said. NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said the agency’s policy is not to discuss internal personnel matters, but said NOAA will continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission. NOAA has already stopped releasing some weather balloons that gather crucial observations for forecasts in two locations Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine because of lack of staffing, the agency said last week. This is all happening as a severe storm system is forecast to move through the central and southern parts of the nation late this week in a multi-day outburst with strong tornadoes, hail and damaging winds expected. Weather forecasts will worsen and people are going to start seeing this very quickly, warned former NOAA chief scientist Craig McLean. It will also limit how much commercial fishermen will be able to catch, he said. On top of all the job losses, cuts in research grants to universities will also make it harder for the U.S. to keep improving its weather forecasts and better monitor what’s happening to the planet, McLean said. People are silently watching the United States decline as a technological leader, McLean said. America got to the moon, but our weather forecasts won’t be the greatest. The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Seth Borenstein, AP science writer
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||