Links: Episode page (with links to studies mentioned) Subscribe to PREMIUM Receive Danny's free weekly email About This Episode: The benefits of consuming a higher fiber diet have been consistently demonstrated in nutrition research. Epidemiology clearly shows that higher intakes, compared to lower intakes, leads to a risk reduction for a range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease and colon cancer. And based on this epidemiological evidence, most dietary guidelines recommend dietary patterns that provide adults with 30-35g of dietary fiber per day. However, what do we know about intakes beyond this? Do we continue to see benefit in a linear fashion? Is there a ceiling to benefit? At what level would we see “optimal” benefit or the greatest magnitude of risk reduction? The ability to answer such questions is hampered by the fact it’s difficult to find cohort studies where the “high” fiber level is high enough to relate to this issue. However, there have been some controlled studies looking specifically at “very high” intakes, i.e. those far above current recommendations. In addition, there are some populations where habitual dietary intake gives a fiber intake far above the typcial intakes in Western cohorts. So in this episode we go through this data to try to see what we can conclude about this fascinating question of ‘what are the health effects at very high fiber intakes?’ New to Sigma Nutrition? Learn more about us here.

Links: Go to episode page (with resources) Subscribe to PREMIUM Receive Danny's weekly email About This Episode: In the last couple of decades, carbohydrates have experienced an increasing amount of negative campaigning. In general, the main argument is that carbohydrates have been viewed as the root cause for obesity, diabetes and several other diseases including heart disease and behavioral disorders. However, there can often be a lack of appreciation that not all carbohydrates are equal in their health effects. Beyond this, now there has even been confusion as to whether high fiber diets with whole grains are good for you or bad. This is mostly a result of strong claims made by people with large online followings and promoting specific diets. What does the best evidence tell us about different carbohydrate types and impacts on health outcomes? Should carbohydrates be viewed as inherently harmful? How solid is the evidence on whole grains, legumes and other high-fiber carbohydrate-rich foods? To help us tease through the science in this area, in this episode we get some answers from nutrition epidemiologist, Dr. Andrew Reynolds. About the Guest: Dr. Andrew Reynolds is a nutrition epidemiologist working with achievable lifestyle and environment change in the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He primarily conducts randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses. Much of his work is to inform evidence-based dietary or clinical guidelines, policy, and food reformulation. Links: Go to episode page (with resources) Subscribe to PREMIUM Receive Danny's weekly email

Links: Go to episode page (with resources) Subscribe to PREMIUM Receive Danny's free weekly email About This Episode: “Personalized nutrition” has been promoted as an approach that will improve people’s health by prescribing them specific dietary recommendations based on their own genetic and phenotypic data. The premise is that given we each respond differently to foods, having general dietary recommendations may be doing many people a disservice. And by using an array of personal data, it is now possible to give unique diets that improve health. The early and interesting findings of research in this area was met with much fanfare, and indeed, many companies are now offering commercial direct-to-consumer services based on genetic and physiological testing, followed by “personalized” dietary prescription. Such testing may include genetic tests, microbiome testing, glucose monitoring data, and more. This data is then fed into machine learning algorithms to prescribe dietary recommendations. However, do the marketing claims match the current evidence? Does the “proof” it works that is often cited, actually back up the claims? Do personalized nutrition diets actually lead to improved health outcomes over generic, conventional dietary recommendations? Do personalized nutrition diets lead to better outcomes than standard dietetic/nutrition practice? To answer these questions, we go through the main studies cited in favor of personalized nutrition being superior to typical dietary advice, and see if they indeed support the claims. So is personalized nutrition superior to standard dietary advice? Let’s find out… Note: This is a Premium-exclusive episode, so in order to listen to the full episode you’ll need to subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium. However, you can listen to a preview here.

Links: Go to episode page (with further resources) Subscribe to PREMIUM Get Danny's weekly email, the Sigma Synopsis About This Episode: While it has long been acknowledged that high intakes of saturated fat can increase risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease due to their impact on blood lipids, there are some who question the association between saturated fat and heart disease. Specifically, they may state that the evidence for this association is weak or non-existent, typically by pointing to some commonly cited studies that show null associations between saturated fat and CVD outcomes. On this basis, they may conclude that there is no basis to aim to limit saturated fat intake to current recommended levels or that reducing saturated fat intake will not actually improve health outcomes. In this episode, Alan and Danny look at the four most commonly cited publications showing a null association, highlighting some key issues. Beyond that, they look at a number of other lines of evidence on saturated fat that allows one to come to a confident answer on this question. So does reducing saturated fat intake to recommended levels actually reduce heart disease risk? Let’s discuss…

Links: Go to episode page (with resources) Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition PREMIUM Receive Danny's free weekly emails About this Episode: The beneficial impact of a high-fiber diet is something that has been promoted in nutrition for a long period of time. But there remain a variety of interesting questions to researchers, practitioners and the general public alike. How much fiber do we actually need? What are current fiber recommendations based on? What outcomes have the strongest evidence for benefit? Should we have targets for fiber sub-types? Are some types of fiber “better” than others? Do functional fibers added to food products still retain the benefits we see with dietary fiber? To help get to some evidence-based answers on these issues, our guest in this episode is one of the researchers at the forefront of dietary fiber research for decades, Professor Joanne Slavin.