Last year, the Egg Nutrition Center offered free continuing education credits for dietitians.

This year, I received an e-mailed press release: EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 8:00 a.m. ET, Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fortified Eggs Did Not Raise Cholesterol in Modest-Sized Cardiology Study

Further study needed to investigate secondary findings.

…A study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session and led by researchers at Duke, offers new evidence on fortified eggs, which are eggs enriched with various vitamins or nutrients. In a modest-sized randomized trial, researchers found that fortified eggs did not have a negative impact on bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) or good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) over the course of the four-month study.

The study was sponsored by Eggland’s Best, a company that makes and sells fortified eggs. It also provided the eggs used in the research.

The egg industry funds research in collaboraion with the USDA.

Example: Mott MM, Zhou X, Bradlee ML, Singer MR, Yiannakou I, Moore LL. Egg Intake Is Associated with Lower Risks of Impaired Fasting Glucose and High Blood Pressure in Framingham Offspring Study Adults. Nutrients. 2023 Jan 18;15(3):507. doi: 10.3390/nu15030507.

Conclusion: This study found that regular egg consumption as part of a healthy diet had long-term beneficial effects on blood pressure and glucose metabolism and lowered the long-term risks of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Funding: These data were originally collected with funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Framingham Study contract N01-HC-25195 and HHSN268201500001I). These analyses were also supported by a small grant from the American Egg Board’s Egg Nutrition Center of the U.S.Department of Agriculture.

Comment: Regardless of recommedations about dietary cholesterol, the advice has always been that one egg a day is OK.  That’s 365 a year.  According to the USDA’s per capata availability data, the average is only 275 (in 2021).  The egg industry wants you to eat more eggs and is working hard to get you to do that.

This brand new book—all 498 pages of it—is open access.

As the publisher explains,

• This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access
• Analyzes the connections between agriculture and resource use, commodity trade, food businesses, and retail markets
• Provides diagrams and data visualizations to explain, predict, and assess changes in the food system
• Features rich visualizations and primary source information for updated charts from US and international sources

The authors have gone to a lot of trouble to make basic economic concepts clear.  For example,

We use the term monopoly to describe a market with just one seller and the less common term monopsony when there is just one buyer. The two are symmetrical, so both kinds of market power are sometimes called monopoly power. But distinguishing between monopoly and monopsony is useful because food businesses can potentially exercise both at the same time. For example, a large dairy processor and distributor might become a monopsonist in buying raw milk from farmers and a monopolist in selling dairy products to consumers. Their potential market power is ‘two-sided’, similar to online platforms for food delivery that could potentially become the only intermediary between restaurants and customers.

They also have lots of ifnteresting points to make.

The persistence of family farming is among the most surprising facts about the economics of food. In the U.S. and elsewhere most farms do not sell directly to consumers but operate behind the scenes, selling their produce in bulk to specialists for transport and distribution, often for use as ingredients in packaged and processed foods. Unlike farms, the food companies with whom consumers usually interact are typically owned by investors and run by hired managers. They buy ingredients from various sources, often combining produce from many different farms. Consumers everywhere in the world often seek out opportunities to buy directly from individual farmers, but that is special in part because it is relatively rare.

Take advantage of this offer!

• Download book PDF
• Download book EPU

Much fuss is being made over this study: Loftfield E, O’Connell CP, Abnet CC, Graubard BI, Liao LM, Beane Freeman LE, Hofmann JN, Freedman ND, Sinha R. Multivitamin Use and Mortality Risk in 3 Prospective US Cohorts. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jun 3;7(6):e2418729. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18729.

Key Points

Question  What is the association between long-term, daily multivitamin use and mortality in generally healthy adults?

Findings  In this cohort study of 390 124 generally healthy adults with more than 20 years of follow-up, daily multivitamin use was not associated with a mortality benefit.

Meaning  These findings suggest that multivitamin use to improve longevity is not supported.

Here’s the summary:

The investigators did not find any associated benefit of multivitamins for mortality.  If anything, there is a slight association with increased risk.

In this cohort study of 390 124 generally healthy US adults with more than 20 years of follow-up, daily MV use was not associated with a mortality benefit. In contrast, we found that daily MV use vs nonuse was associated with 4% higher mortality risk.

Comment

Nobody should be surprised by this result.  Lots of other studies also suggest that multivitamin supplements do not make healthy people healthier.  Healthy people are most likely to take such supplements in the belief that they might help and can’t hurt.

This study says they won’t help.  If they do hurt, it won’t be by much.

I doubt the study will make much difference to supplement takers.  Supplements are about belief, not science.

Somehow, I had missed this, but the New York Times’ Kim Severson to the rescue:  When It Comes to Food and Politics, Kamala Harris Is Riffing on the Recipe: From giving turkey-roasting advice to making dosa with Mindy Kaling, Ms. Harris has leaned into cooking in a way no other candidate has.

Ms. Harris has turned cooking videos into campaign assets and has taken a particular interest in food issues like hunger and farm labor. But she also turns to cooking as a meditation…“Everything else can be crazy, I can be on six planes in one week, and what makes me feel normal is making Sunday-night family dinner,” she told The Cut in 2018, when she was a senator. “If I’m cooking, I feel like I’m in control of my life”…In a 90-second video from 2019 that recently resurfaced on social media, she tells a reporter how to prep a Thanksgiving turkey as she’s getting a sound check before a spot on MSNBC.

She had her own cooking show!

She’s cooked with José Andres on Instagram Live.

She collects cookbooks.  KosherSoul’s Michael W. Twitty) was thrilled to find his book displayed in her kitchen.

Esquire did an analysis: An Entirely Serious Investigation into Kamala Harris’s Cookbooks,

Look, let’s levelset a little bit. That we’re even presented with a stack of cookbooks to decode from a presidential candidate feels like a win. It’s good news. Like, finally, we have a real human being—a real cooking human being—who might be the President.

The press is onto this.

The L.A. Times says:  Kamala Harris is a cook — and she knows her L.A. restaurants. Will it help her win?

Eater says Let Her Cook.

Social media users, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle, have resurfaced Cooking With Kamala, a short-lived cooking series that was published to Vice President and now-prospective Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s YouTube channel in 2019. In one episode, Harris visits Iowa, where she cooks her mother’s recipe for bacon-fried apples. In another, she bakes candy-filled “monster cookies.”

In the most popular episode, with 6 million views as of this writing, Harris makes masala dosa with the actress Mindy Kaling and the two bond over their shared South Indian heritage.

What fun!  A breath of fresh air!

Just think about what White House state dinners could be like.

USDA has proclaimed August 4 – 10 as National Farmers Market Week.  I love farmers markets and I’m glad USDA is trying to promote them.

USDA publishes a directory of US farmers markets—7,033 listings.

It also lists

• Agrotourism sites (12,763)
• CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture (1,011)
• Food hubs (230)
• On-farm markets 1,937)

Farmers markets have a long history in the U.S.  The National Agricultural Library has a report on them published in 1948.

Its got all kinds of interesting information.

Here’s the most recent information I can find on growth in numbers.

This is progress.  Farmers markets are well worth support.

The Farmers Market Coalition provides resources and toolkits.

It also makes clear why they deserve support.  Famers markets:

• Preserve farmland
• Stimulate local economies
• Increase access to nutritious food
• Support healthy communtiies
• Promote sustainability

Besides, it’s fun to know your farmer, know your food.

I saw this in DairyReporter, a newsletter I subscribe to.

Multi-nutrient inadequacies in ANZ linked to diet-related disease calls for food-based interventions – a2 Milk-funded study.  A study has found multi-nutrient inadequacies within the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) populations, including nutrients associated with diet-related disease, highlighting the need for public policies and food-based recommendations to promote intake…. Read more

A2-milk again?  The last time I wrote about it, I titled my comments, A2 milk: still making claims based on industry-funded research.

Well, here’s the latest .

Welcome to the online Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies, edited by Darra Goldstein.

The articles submitted to this project so far are here.

I wrote one for it: Nestle M.  Food Politics and Policy.

I looks to me as though these articles are Open Access, meaning you can read them for free.

Enjoy!

I am indebted to NutraIngredients-Europe for this collection of articles on the trendy herbal supplement, ashwagandha.

Ashwaganda is one of those supplements said to do wonders for stress and anxiety (of which we all have lots these days) and sleep (also a common problem).

The Ashwagandha plant is native to India, northern Africa, and the Middle East—but is now grown around the world. While the whole plant is cultivated, the root and leaf are used in extracts. Ashwagandha is a traditional herb long used for its adaptogenic properties to help your body adapt to stressors. Adaptogens are plants that facilitate your body’s ability to adapt to stress.

The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements says

Ashwagandha appears to be well tolerated for up to 3 months of use. However, the efficacy and safety of long-term ashwagandha use over months or years for stress, anxiety, or sleep is not known. In addition, ashwagandha may have potential adverse effects on the liver and thyroid and might not be safe for people with prostate cancer or those who are pregnant or nursing.

What is especially interesting are the contradictory views of this supplement.  Some see benefits.  Others see risks.

The purported benefits

• Study: Ashwagandha effectively relieves chronic stress: Standardized root and leaf aqueous ashwagandha extract safely and effectively reduces stress in chronically stressed people, according to a new study…. Read more
• Ashwagandha intake linked to memory and attention benefits: Acute and repeated supplementation with liposomal ashwagandha may boost select cognitive effects, including memory, attention, vigilance and reaction time in healthy adults, says a new study…. Read more
• Review reveals benefits of ashwagandha on ‘inflammaging’: A new synthetic review on ashwagandha (Withania somnifera, or WS) has underlined the herb’s potential for treating ‘inflammaging’—persistent low-grade inflammation linked to aging…. Read more

The risks

• French agency warns ashwagandha unsafe in specific populations: The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) has warned against the use of ashwagandha in a number of specific populations, making it likely operators will be advised to use label warnings…. Read more
• European food safety report ‘taking pot shots’ at popular botanicals: A working group of 26 member states has published a report suggesting the need to ban or restrict 12 ‘critical’ ingredients such as ashwagandha, curcumin, maca and substances like melatonin…. Read more

The debate

• AHP responds to claims of ashwagandha abortifacient effects: The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) has responded to the growing number of European authorities reporting ashwagandha as an abortificient, arguing they have incorrectly cited the WHO monograph and AHP review…. Read more
• Ashwagandha concerns branded pure ‘horse s**t’: On-trend herb thrives despite authority unease: While ashwagandha investment and innovation is surging, some European authorities are showing signs of safety concern, leading industry experts to criticize a spread of “complete misinformation” across the continent…. Read more
• UK launches ashwagandha safety consultation as Indian experts step up defense:  Ashwagandha suppliers are being urged to invest in defense as the UK Food Safety Agency (FSA) launches a consultation into the herb and Indian experts refute safety concerns…. Read more

Comment

I, as you undoubtedly have guessed, am a supplement skeptic.  If European agencies are warning against it, I vote for avoiding it, especially if you are in one of the risk categories: pregnant or breastfeeding women, people under the age of 18, and those with endocrine disorders (particularly dysthyroidism and hyperandrogenism), liver or heart problems or undergoing treatment with a central nervous system depressant action.

Supplement sellers can fight back all they like; I urge caution.