Suzi Gerber, PhD

😭

Do they use gelatin?

Today the RFI for US UPF policy is due. I want to say, by way of example, that if you can’t explain how some brown sugar forms into solid bricks & others remain granular for years—w/ identical ingredient lists—you might not be qualified to shape policy about food processing.

No, your protein powder isn’t poisoning you New testing finds two-thirds of popular protein powders exceed lead limits — especially plant-based brands. What you need to know before your next scoop — and why the reality is different.

You may have read that your protein supplements are giving you lead poisoning. That's not the case. If you want to have protein shakes, that's fine. But whether you need to and whether they're safely regulated is a different story. My latest for @vox.com.

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

The new EAT-Lancet report is out and I wrote about it -- and also what I saw at Climate Week NYC: An environmental movement still cozying up to Big Meat, and still unafraid to confront scientific consensus on food, agriculture, and livestock.

Comment for the World Health Organization on whether and how much animal sourced foods are needed and/or optimal for the diet: www.who.int/news-room/ar...

If you ever want to talk more, I can tell you a story about EDF and fishing interests…

Yeah, funny to re-read that & realize all the things I left out to walk a professional line 😂

He told female delegates from the global south they didn’t represent their country when disagreeing w/ him. MethaneSAThad just received 100M from Bezos & intended to exclude ag, pretending not to be EDF

Reporting * sorry!

I started repeating the concentrated effort to discount cattle Methane when myself and a delegate from Brazil confronted The Methane Moment pavilion organizers from EDF/MethaneSAT at COP26. You can read more about it here: vegnews.com/opinion-cop2...

Big news in research- the Pubmed image has changed!

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions Nature Reviews Psychology - Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this...

🧵 Can you predict whether behavioral interventions will work in new contexts?

… probably not, right?

In our new paper with @dggoldst.bsky.social @dilipsoman.bsky.social @susanmichie.bsky.social, we dive into how to better understand and improve generalizability. rdcu.be/ewD2z

Summary👇

Excited to see major progress in the cultivated meat industry this year- the US has kept its promise to prioritize biotechnology & advance safe, scientifically rigorous new foods.

2 milestones for US today- Mission Barns cultivated pork fat approved, & Believer cultivated chicken FDA NQL

AMPS Congratulates Mission Barns as the World’s First Approved Food Made from Cultivated Pork and Fat – Now Cleared by the USDA - Association For Meat, Poultry And Seafood Innovation The Association for Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Innovation (AMPS) congratulates Mission Barns on this major global milestone. After the very thorough scientific FDA pre-market consultation Mission Barn...

The world’s first cultivated pork has now been cleared for sale by the USDA! @missionbarns.bsky.social pork and fat is the 4th product and 3rd species approved in the US. A banner year for the cultivated meat industry! Read more: ampsinnovation.org/amps-congrat...

“The tool carries significant implications for research and policy…to support the design of new interventions, and to refine predictive models linking diet to chronic disease risk…”
solutions.tufts.edu/pioneering-m...

As i said, i support these drugs. But radical reductions in appetite do more than reduce weight. And a balanced diet may help more than weight loss by any means

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Suicidality Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, such as semaglutide or liraglutide, were first marketed as a second- or third-line treatment for patients with diabetes whose illness was not entirel...

Reducing obesity should positively influence cognitive function. But there is risk of depression & suicide, w/ increased risk for ppl w/ history. Also specific effects of reduced nutrient intake thru all diet ⬇️ & diet diversity ⬇️ are also known risks. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Tomorrow! Massachusetts H539 seeks to redefine crucial foods like infant formula & Glucerna, foods that save lives, as “particularly harmful” UPF. Not just UPF but particularly harmful UPF.

Tell Massachusetts that we need evidence-based standards for nutrition! malegislature.gov/Events/Heari...

I’ma full supporter of medical interventions. But, there are some worrying mental health side effects, and from a biopsychosocial perspective, these drugs do reduce pleasure from food which can have long term consequences from mood to nutrient intake diversity

Then there’s us food science & formulations folk who are like- we understand know this, & it either means less sweet taste, more sugar in grams vs HFCS & either more cost &/or smaller servings. I’d love to see higher cost, lower volume, less sweet beverages. Not sure CC or the customers do…

Frontiers | Peanut hulls, an underutilized nutritious culinary ingredient: valorizing food waste for global food, health, and farm economies—a narrative review Peanut hulls (PHPHs) are an edible food waste that is an underutilized food source for human consumption. While edible and palatable, currently they are main...

Full open access scientific article: www.frontiersin.org/journals/nut...

Peanut Shells Could Be Used To Boost Protein In Meat Alternatives Most peanut shells end up as feed for animals but could be better used as food for humans, according to a new study

plantbasednews.org/news/science...

Always odd when someone writes about your work but doesn't mention you or talk to you directly..... just discovered this @plantbasednews.bsky.social article from 8 months ago about upcycling peanut hulls. (Link below)

@lastweektonight.com surely they deserve an honorary doctorate at this point - the Face(s) of the Evidence Base!

@lastweektonight.com this feels like a you thing really. Anytime you share an article indexed on Pubmed you see these two people. Do your thing John!

I’d like to see a “where are they now” or
Reunion photo for these two

I posted this as a test- i first posted it to Twitter and it is easily among the posts with the most engagement I’ve ever had. I posted here and very little. The incendiary topics are hyped over there.

My favorite carnivore diet argument is the Maasai as an ex. of untouched, non-Western ancestral diet— they’re only 500yo & adapted this diet 300ys ago after migrating away from the Fertile Crescent. Meanwhile Vedic texts (basis of Hindu Ayurveda) go back 4000ys w/ detailed contradictory diet recs.

Well, MN is not particularly focused on those parameters. My aggravation comes from the fact that feeding Legumes & greens to cows to hyper concentrate protein is not so wildly different conceptually to using tech to do it. They each produce a range of tradeoffs nutritionally & in resource use.

My retort to Nestle who should absolutely know this- there are many specific advantages to protein isolates that the ent act legume don’t offer, for example protein bioavailability. While it also loses some others. This is why no food, but rather dietary patterns, should be categorized as healthy.