Good glycemic control, which is vital for patients with type 2 diabetes, can be achieved via dietary intervention. Resistant starch (RS) is a type of carbohydrate that largely resists digestion in the small intestine. Instead, it is fermented by the gut microbiota that resides in the large intestine into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are found to have beneficial effects on human glucose metabolism. Here, an overview is provided of the classification of different types of RS, as well as the fermentation process of RS by the gut microbiota. The effects of RS consumption that contribute to glycemic control are then discussed with reference to animal and human studies. Although beneficial effects of RS consumption have been observed, results from animal and human studies are inconclusive regarding the mechanisms behind them. Additional research effort is necessary in order to have a better understanding of the effects of habitual RS consumption on glycemic control.

Background To summarize modifiable factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) suggested by Mendelian randomization studies. Methods In this systematic review, we searched PubMed, EMBASE and MEDLINE, from inception to 15 November 2021, for Mendelian randomization studies in English. We selected studies that assessed associations of genetically predicted exposures with COVID-19-related outcomes (severity, hospitalization and susceptibility). Risk of bias of the included studies was evaluated based on the consideration of the three main assumptions for instrumental variable analyses. Results We identified 700 studies through systematic search, of which 50 Mendelian randomization studies were included. Included studies have explored a wide range of socio-demographic factors, lifestyle attributes, anthropometrics and biomarkers, predisposition to diseases and druggable targets in COVID-19 risk. Mendelian randomization studies suggested that increases in smoking, obesity and inflammatory factors were associated with higher risk of COVID-19. Predisposition to ischaemic stroke, combined bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, chronic kidney disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was potentially associated with higher COVID-19 risk. Druggable targets, such as higher protein expression of histo-blood group ABO system transferase (ABO), interleukin (IL)-6 and lower protein expression of 2′-5′ oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) were associated with higher risk of COVID-19. There was no strong genetic evidence supporting the role of vitamin D, glycaemic traits and predisposition to cardiometabolic diseases in COVID-19 risk. Conclusion This review summarizes modifiable factors for intervention (e.g. smoking, obesity and inflammatory factors) and proteomic signatures (e.g. OAS1 and IL-6) that could help identify drugs for treating COVID-19.

The dilution effect in micronutrient intake with increasing free sugar intake was evident in Australian children and adolescents. However, meeting the WHO cut-off was associated with limited improvement in micronutrient adequacy.

The health benefits of nuts reported throughout the literature are extensive and well established for reducing the risk of, and managing several chronic conditions including, but not limited to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and cognition. Despite their comparable nutritional profile, seeds are often not assessed in clinical and epidemiological studies. Interestingly dietary guidelines and recommendations often refer to ‘nuts and seeds’ collectively, even though they are not consistently examined together in nutrition research when determining associated health benefits. The purpose of this review is to call for future nutrition research to consider combining nuts and seeds. This review provides the justification for this proposal by summarising current definitions for nuts and seeds and highlighting the similarities or dissimilarities in their nutrient compositions. Following this, we summarise current evidence on the health benefits of nuts and seeds, research gaps that should be addressed, and considerations for future research using both epidemiological and interventional study designs.

Coffee consumers' different preferences towards coffee type and additive usages reflected significant variations in their diet quality, even after adjustment of SES. Therefore, future epidemiological studies should consider separating coffee drinkers according to their habitual consumption of different types of coffee.

Background Whether non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) causes cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unclear and possible differences between ethnicities have not been thoroughly explored. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess the role of NAFLD in CVD and T2D risk in Europeans and East Asians. Methods We conducted a MR study using genetic predictors of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), liability to NAFLD, aspartate transaminase (AST), liver magnetic resonance imaging corrected T1 and proton density fat fraction and combined them with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics of CVD, T2D and glycaemic traits (sample size ranging from 14 400 to 977 320). Inverse-variance weighted analysis was used to assess the effect of NAFLD in these outcomes, with sensitivity analyses and replication in FinnGen. We conducted analyses in East Asians using ethnicity-specific genetic predictors of ALT and AST, and the respective outcome GWAS summary statistics. Results In Europeans, higher ALT was associated with higher T2D risk (odds ratio: 1.77 per standard deviation, 95% CI 1.5 to 2.08), with similar results for other exposures, across sensitivity analyses and in FinnGen. Although NAFLD proxies were related to higher coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke risk, sensitivity analyses suggested possible bias by horizontal pleiotropy. In East Asians, higher ALT was possibly associated with higher T2D risk, and ALT and AST were inversely associated with CAD. Conclusions NAFLD likely increases the risk of T2D in Europeans and East Asians. Potential differential effects on CAD between Europeans and East Asians require further investigation.

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Previous meta-analyses that found an inverse association between coffee consumption and metabolic syndrome pooled data from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, which could lead to potentially misleading conclusions. Hence, this work aimed to reassess this association by analyzing data from the 2 types of studies separately and including recent studies. Online databases including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus, and Science Direct were searched for relevant studies published up to July 2020. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were included if published after 1999, reported both effect estimates and CIs, and presented results adjusted for confounding variables. Data of the highest coffee consumption level in each study, as well as those of medium consumption levels in studies with ≥3 consumption categories, were pooled using random-effect models, with sex-stratified and sex-adjusted results being analyzed separately. Results were obtained based on data from 13 cross-sectional studies involving 280,803 participants and 2 longitudinal studies involving 17,014 participants. The overall sex-adjusted association of the highest consumption level was not significant (n = 9 studies; OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.70, 1.10; I2: 91.5%) and the 2 longitudinal studies both yielded no association. Subgroup analysis revealed inverse associations in both males and females, as well as in Caucasians with medium coffee consumption (n = 4 studies, OR: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.84, 0.93; I2: 0%). Although residual confounding could affect the results of this meta-analysis, our findings suggested with a low certainty that coffee consumption may not be associated with metabolic syndrome, a finding that is different from those of previous meta-analyses and could be due to variation in characteristics of study participants. More longitudinal studies are also needed to further assess the temporal association between coffee consumption and metabolic syndrome. This meta-analysis was registered at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero as CRD42018110650.