Association between home and school food environments and dietary patterns among 9–11-year-old children in 12 countries
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State-level policies alone are insufficient to meet the federal food waste reduction goal in the United States
The United States Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal seeks to reduce national food waste by 50%, down to 74 kg per capita, by 2030. Here we investigate state policies’ alignment with the federal goal across four policy categories. We develop a policy scoring matrix and apply it to wasted food solutions listed in the non-profit ReFED’s database to derive ranges of food waste diversion potential and projected generation across states. On the basis of state policies alone, no state can meet the federal target. We estimated a diversion potential of 5–14 kg per capita and a food waste generation of 149 kg per capita nationally in 2022, equivalent to the 2016 baseline. Without additional intervention at the state and federal level promoting a shift from food waste recycling towards prevention, rescue and repurposing, food generation in the United States will probably remain high.
Global food retail environments are increasingly dominated by large chains and linked to the rising prevalence of obesity
Retail food environments influence food purchasing and dietary patterns. A global analysis of the food retail landscape allowing comparisons across geographical regions is therefore needed to tackle diet-related non-communicable diseases. Here we examine trends in retail food environments from 2009 to 2023 across 97 countries, exploring associations with changes in obesity prevalence. Increases were observed in the density of chain outlets, grocery sales from chain retailers, unhealthy food sales per capita and digital grocery sales; non-chain outlet density and the ratio of non-chain to chain outlets declined over time. South Asia and low- and middle-income countries overall experienced the most rapid transformation. Changes in retail environments and the prevalence of obesity were found to be positively correlated. As retail environments become increasingly digital and dominated by large chains, important implications for diets and health should be expected, particularly in lower-income countries.
Constructing future behavior in the hippocampal formation through composition and replay
The hippocampus is critical for memory, imagination and constructive reasoning. Recent models have suggested that its neuronal responses can be well explained by state spaces that model the transitions between experiences. Here we use simulations and hippocampal recordings to reconcile these views. We show that if state spaces are constructed compositionally from existing building blocks, or primitives, hippocampal responses can be interpreted as compositional memories, binding these primitives together. Critically, this enables agents to behave optimally in new environments with no new learning, inferring behavior directly from the composition. We predict a role for hippocampal replay in building and consolidating these compositional memories. We test these predictions in two datasets by showing that replay events from newly discovered landmarks induce and strengthen new remote firing fields. When the landmark is moved, replay builds a new firing field at the same vector to the new location. Together, these findings provide a framework for reasoning about compositional memories and demonstrate that such memories are formed in hippocampal replay.
Governance and resilience as entry points for transforming food systems in the countdown to 2030
Due to complex interactions, changes in any one area of food systems are likely to impact—and possibly depend on—changes in other areas. Here we present the first annual monitoring update of the indicator framework proposed by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, with new qualitative analysis elucidating interactions across indicators. Since 2000, we find that 20 of 42 indicators with time series have been trending in a desirable direction, indicating modest positive change. Qualitative expert elicitation assessed governance and resilience indicators to be most connected to other indicators across themes, highlighting entry points for action—particularly governance action. Literature review and country case studies add context to the assessed interactions across diets, environment, livelihoods, governance and resilience indicators, helping different actors understand and navigate food systems towards desirable change.
Predictive equation derived from 6,497 doubly labelled water measurements enables the detection of erroneous self-reported energy intake
Nutritional epidemiology aims to link dietary exposures to chronic disease, but the instruments for evaluating dietary intake are inaccurate. One way to identify unreliable data and the sources of errors is to compare estimated intakes with the total energy expenditure (TEE). In this study, we used the International Atomic Energy Agency Doubly Labeled Water Database to derive a predictive equation for TEE using 6,497 measures of TEE in individuals aged 4 to 96 years. The resultant regression equation predicts expected TEE from easily acquired variables, such as body weight, age and sex, with 95% predictive limits that can be used to screen for misreporting by participants in dietary studies. We applied the equation to two large datasets (National Diet and Nutrition Survey and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) and found that the level of misreporting was >50%. The macronutrient composition from dietary reports in these studies was systematically biased as the level of misreporting increased, leading to potentially spurious associations between diet components and body mass index.
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