Joe Matthews

Study 1: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Study 2: ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S000...

For more info, I review both studies here: josephmatthewsphd.substack.com/p/monthly-ro...

👉🏽 Optimizing glycemic variability in type 2 diabetes using simple dietary and culinary recommendations to modulate starch digestibility

🔘 17% reduction in mean glycaemic amplitude excursions (MAGE)
🔘 Improved glucose stability (measured via CONGA) across 1, 2, 4, and 8-hour periods

Graph showing the difference in weight loss maintenance between sweetener and sugar groups. The sweetener group regained significantly less body weight over 12-months.

Two interesting metabolic health studies published this month!

👉🏽 Effect of sweeteners on weight management and gut microbiota composition in individuals with overweight or obesity: the SWEET study

🔘 ~1.6 kg improvement in across all participants
🔘 ~3.8 kg improvement in the highest adherence group

Yes @chriskirkasp.bsky.social - point me in the direction of some great people!

Hey - I’m a physiologist and nutritionist working in the U.S. Our lab studies protein metabolism using stable isotopes.

scholar.google.com/citations?us...

a man drinking from a can that says science on it ALT: a man drinking from a can that says science on it

Okay I’m officially done on X/Twitter. In dire need of a healthy science community with people posting interesting takes on research. Where are my nutrition and metabolism people…? 🍎

In my latest Substack, I cover the science of how biology fights back after weight loss:

🔘 Metabolic adaptation (or not…)
🔘 Hunger hormone shifts
🔘 Heightened reward sensitivity to food cues
🔘 A potential “memory” of obesity in fat cells

🔗 josephmatthewsphd.substack.com/p/the-bigges...

We cover:
🔘 Protein quality metrics
🔘EAA composition
🔘 Processing and cooking effects
🔘 EAA bioavailability
🔘 Protein synthesis and turnover
🔘 Special considerations for aging
🔘 Protein quality in whole diets
🔘 EAA density
🔘 Beyond current metrics

What is dietary protein quality?

New paper in the Journal of Nutrition. My first, first-author paper since joining UAMS.

Dietary protein quality is the ability of a protein source to provide bioavailable essential amino acids (EAAs). But what affects this…?👇🏽

🔗 shorturl.at/elQLE

One year in Little Rock, Arkansas! 🇺🇸

It's hard to believe a year has passed already. Looking forward to spending more time in The Natural State!

🚨 New study 🚨

The biggest project of my PhD is out in MSSE journal.

🔑 findings: Strength training improves running economy durability & high-intensity performance following prolonged running.

🙏🏼 R. Blagrove and J. Folland for the SUPERvision on this.

🔗 journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/ab...

🧵 1/10

❓ It is possible that BA may be beneficial in more severe metabolic conditions (although other nutrition interventions will likely be more beneficial).

🏋🏽‍♂️ Keep supplementing BA for exercise performance!

What does this mean?

🤔 There is *some* mechanistic evidence that carnosine can improve metabolic health by increasing glucose uptake and reducing insulin resistance. But human clinical trials do not currently provide high-quality evidence to support this.

🫀 We reassessed biomarkers of cardiometabolic health and cardiovascular function. However, for the dose and duration studied, there was no *clear* benefit for adults with overweight or obesity.

Paper 🔗 t.co/rT5Mj6bIXM

💊 Finally, we performed a well-controlled human clinical trial in 30 people with overweight or obesity (two-thirds had prediabetes). For 3-months, people received either 6.4 grams per day of BA or a matched placebo, then...

🧫 Next, we investigated possible mechanisms using isolated muscle cells from healthy and T2D donors. Treating the T2D muscle cells with carnosine improved their glucose uptake - important for T2D and metabolic health.

Paper 🔗 t.co/LMPEXscC4Q

📊 Analyzing data from 172 people and 291 rodents showed that supplementation reduced fasting glucose and HbA1c - although the overall quality of the evidence was poor.

Analysis 🔗 t.co/YMXF0Es3Ey

❓ Because of this, it is possible that carnosine can help with metabolic health, particularly obesity and type-2 diabetes (T2D).

📈 To assess this, we performed a meta-analysis of all human and rodent data to see if supplementing with carnosine or BA improved glycaemic control.

But carnosine also:
🔘 Shuttles calcium ions (as a H-Ca exchanger)
🔘 Binds reactive species (as a detoxyfing agent)

Review 🔗 t.co/OJQ6QHpxHD

🏃🏽 Many athletes and nutritionists know that supplementing with beta-alanine increases carnosine concentrations in muscle. This improves the muscle's pH buffering capacity and subsequent short-duration, high-intensity performance (maximal efforts ~30s-5mins).

Do carnosine and beta-alanine (BA) offer benefits beyond enhancing exercise performance?

Yes and no 🤔

📰 Thread with summary of research and links to open-access papers 👇🏽

Christopher W. Sundberg et al. investigated the cumulative effects of H+ and Pi on #force and #power of skeletal muscle fibres from young and older adults 💥🔋

📜 Read the #Research here: https://buff.ly/40BBX02

The latest publication from our lab at UAMS 👇🏼

That's a wrap! Comment with any 2024 protein papers that I've missed 📚

Effect of Three Different Daily Protein Intakes in a Two-Meal Eating Pattern on Protein Turnover in Middle Age and Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial Reduced meal frequency patterns have become popular for weight loss, maintenance, and improving cardiometabolic health. The extended fasting windows w…

We fed middle-age and older adults three different protein intakes (0.8, 1.1, and 1.5 g/kg/day) in a two-meal dietary pattern. Only the highest protein intake group had a positive whole-body protein balance--importance for reduced meal eating patterns: tinyurl.com/ms7ekm4a

The effects of whey, pea, and collagen protein supplementation beyond the recommended dietary allowance on integrated myofibrillar protein synthetic rates in older males: a randomized controlled trial Skeletal muscle mass is determined predominantly by feeding-induced and activity-induced fluctuations in muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Older individ…

Whey, pea, or pea-rice (blend) protein drinks led to similar postprandial appetite, gut hormone responses, and ad libitum energy intake (in a buffet-style test meal). Whey protein had the greatest EAA bioavailability, but did not = better appetite control: tinyurl.com/mu6u8539

A well-balanced vegan diet does not compromise daily mixed muscle protein synthesis rates when compared to an omnivorous diet in active older adults: a randomized controlled cross-over trial. Plant-based foods have reduced protein digestibility and frequently display unbalanced amino acid profiles. Plant-based foods are therefore considered…

Older adults consuming a well-balanced vegan diet had comparable MPS rates compared with a calorie and protein-matched omnivorous diet over 10-days (1.23 ± 0.04 vs 1.29 ± 0.04 %/day). This finding contradicts some acute MPS studies: tinyurl.com/2pucbwk2

The effects of whey, pea, and collagen protein supplementation beyond the recommended dietary allowance on integrated myofibrillar protein synthetic rates in older males: a randomized controlled trial Skeletal muscle mass is determined predominantly by feeding-induced and activity-induced fluctuations in muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Older individ…

Older adults consuming 2 x 25g whey or pea protein per day (in addition to RDA 0.8 g/kg/d protein) had greater MPS and anabolic signalling over 7-days. These effects did not occur in a group receiving collagen supplementation: tinyurl.com/mu6u8539

Anabolic Sensitivity in Healthy, Lean, Older Men Is Associated With Higher Expression of Amino Acid Sensors and mTORC1 Activators Compared to Young Background Sarcopenia is thought to be underlined by age-associated anabolic resistance and dysregulation of intracellular signalling pathways. However, it is unclear whether these phenomena are dri...

Lean, healthy older men maintained anabolic sensitivity (a robust MPS response to protein intake) similar to younger men. Age-related anabolic resistance is not inevitable—maintain physical activity, exercise, and high-quality protein for muscle health: tinyurl.com/38j9nc3a