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Adopting policies that promote health for the entire biosphere (One Health) requires human societies to transition towards a more sustainable food supply as well as to deepen the understanding of the metabolic and health effects of evolving food habits. At the same time, life sciences are experiencing rapid and groundbreaking technological developments, in particular in laboratory analytics and biocomputing, placing nutrition research in an unprecedented position to produce knowledge that can be translated into practice in line with One Health policies. In this dynamic context, nutrition research needs to be strategically organised to respond to these societal expectations. One key element of this strategy is to integrate precision nutrition into epidemiological research. This position article therefore reviews the recent developments in nutrition research and proposes how they could be integrated into cohort studies, with a focus on the Swiss research landscape specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Phosphorus requirements of reproducing sows were estimated using 24-h urinary P excretion. Thirty-six multiparous sows were fed one of six maize-soybean meal-based diets with total P ranging from 0·40 to 0·80 % in 0·08 % increments with a constant Ca:total P ratio (1·25:1). Diets were fed from day 7·5 ± 1 after breeding until the end of lactation (day 26 ± 1).

The nutritional acid load hypothesis of osteoporosis is reviewed from its historical origin to most recent studies with particular attention to the essential but overlooked role of the kidney in acid–base homeostasis. This hypothesis posits that foods associated with an increased urinary acid excretion are deleterious for the skeleton, leading to osteoporosis and enhanced fragility fracture risk. Conversely, foods generating neutral or alkaline urine would favour bone growth and Ca balance, prevent bone loss and reduce osteoporotic fracture risk. This theory currently influences nutrition research, dietary recommendations and the marketing of alkaline salt products or medications meant to optimise bone health and prevent osteoporosis. It stemmed from classic investigations in patients suffering from chronic kidney diseases (CKD) conducted in the 1960s. Accordingly, in CKD, bone mineral mobilisation would serve as a buffer system to acid accumulation. This interpretation was later questioned on both theoretical and experimental grounds. Notwithstanding this questionable role of bone mineral in systemic acid–base equilibrium, not only in CKD but even more in the absence of renal impairment, it is postulated that, in healthy individuals, foods, particularly those containing animal protein, would induce ‘latent’ acidosis and result, in the long run, in osteoporosis. Thus, a questionable interpretation of data from patients with CKD and the subsequent extrapolation to healthy subjects converted a hypothesis into nutritional recommendations for the prevention of osteoporosis. In a historical perspective, the present review dissects out speculation from experimental facts and emphasises the essential role of the renal tubule in systemic acid–base and Ca homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lactation is known to be associated with a transient loss of bone mineral density (BMD) during 3–6 months post-partum. Bone changes during lactation in women consuming low dietary calcium are not sufficiently studied. The present longitudinal study examined the BMD changes during lactation in undernourished women and the relationship of bone changes to the nutritional status. Whole-body bone mineral content and BMD at hip, lumbar spine and forearm were assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in thirty-six lactating women from the low socio-economic group at four time points – within 1 month after delivery (baseline), and at 6, 12 and 18 months after delivery. Maternal body composition and biochemical parameters of bone metabolism were estimated at the same time. It was observed that femoral neck BMD reduced by 4·6 % at 6 months, but recovery to the baseline was incomplete at 18 months with a deficit of 2 %. Hip BMD reduction at 6 months was transient. Lumbar spine BMD did not show significant loss at 6 months and BMD increased by 3·6 and 6·3 % at 12 and 18 months, respectively. Regression analyses indicated that baseline lean mass was the most important determinant of bone preservation at femoral neck, hip as well as whole body, whereas baseline body weight was the most important determinant of per cent gain in lumbar spine. Maternal nutritional status as indicated by body weight and lean mass appears to influence the lactation-related BMD changes in undernourished women from the low socio-economic group in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dietary proteins are found in animal products, plant products and single-cell organisms. Proteins are present in variable proportions in these different food sources and the different proteins also differ in their amino acid composition, dietary indispensable amino acid content and physico-chemical properties. Different criteria can be used to define dietary protein requirements and different markers can be used to assess nutritional protein quality according to the criteria used for protein requirement estimation. The current approach to determining protein requirements is related to nitrogen balance and the dietary indispensable amino acid score approach relates protein quality to the capacity of protein to allow reaching nitrogen balance by providing nitrogen and indispensable amino acids. A second approach considers more directly protein nitrogen utilization by the body and includes measurement of protein digestibility and of the efficiency of dietary nitrogen retention at maintenance or for protein deposition at the whole body level or in more specific body areas. Another approach is related to protein turnover and protein synthesis in relation to maintenance and/or efficiency for deposition or development (growth) at the whole body level or for different and more specific target tissues such as muscle or bone. Lastly, protein quality can also be evaluated from different markers used as risk factors for metabolic dysfunction and disorders related for instance to insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity or cardio-vascular disease. The accuracy and relevance of these different approaches is discussed regarding the capacity of the different protein sources (i.e. animal as meat, milk or eggs, legume as soya or pea, or cereal as wheat or rice) to satisfy protein requirements according to these different criteria and markers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]