Featured
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Nature Careers Podcast |
‘Blue foods’ to tackle hidden hunger and improve nutrition
Aquatic foods have been overlooked in moves to end food insecurity. That needs to change, says Christopher Golden.
- Dom Byrne
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News |
Eat less meat: will the first global climate deal on food work?
A declaration on reducing the eye-watering emissions from food production is a start, say researchers — but it sidesteps contentious issues in the role of food production in global climate change.
- Carissa Wong
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News |
These brain cells could influence how fast you eat — and when you stop
Scientists found the cells in mice — and say they could lead to a better understanding of human appetite.
- Carissa Wong
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News |
Giant UK programme to lower people’s blood-sugar levels really works
One of the world’s biggest campaigns to prevent diabetes through behaviour change holds promise for public-health gains.
- Heidi Ledford
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Editorial |
Hunger and famine are not accidents — they are created by the actions of people
Hundreds of millions of people are going hungry as conflicts affect food supplies. There is also growing evidence that food producers are exploiting the situation to increase their profits.
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News Feature |
Lab-grown meat: the science of turning cells into steaks and nuggets
Companies making cultured meat are attracting billions of dollars of investment. Here are their biggest challenges.
- Nicola Jones
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News Feature |
Fungi bacon and insect burgers: a guide to the proteins of the future
Humanity needs to eat less meat. Here are seven alternatives.
- Nicola Jones
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Spotlight |
By the numbers: China’s changing diet
Data show that the Chinese middle class is eating a higher-fat, less-healthy diet — a trend reflected in the increases in heart disease and childhood obesity.
- Yvaine Ye
- & Jack Leeming
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Spotlight |
From tea to tofu: why Chinese dietary staples are rich pickings for research
Public-health researchers are exploring the nutritional benefits of some familiar favourites of the Chinese table.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Spotlight |
Why China’s changing diet is a bellyache for public health
The shift from traditional cuisine to an increasingly Western diet is creating issues for nutrition researchers and countering other steps forward in public health.
- Yvaine Ye
- & Jack Leeming
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News |
Mother’s milk helps baby mouse hearts to develop
A component of the milk consumed by newborn mice triggers a crucial shift in heart cells’ metabolism.
- Elissa Welle
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Article
| Open Access
Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development
The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Anu Mishra
- , Bin Zhou
- & Majid Ezzati
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News |
Common sweetener suppresses mouse immune system — in high doses
Finding suggests that the sugar substitute sucralose could one day be used to treat autoimmune conditions.
- Max Kozlov
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Research Highlight |
There’s no one ‘best’ diet for promoting health
Several diets are linked to lower rates of chronic disease — but eating red and processed meats poses a higher risk.
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World View |
Sims-style ‘digital twin’ models can tell us if food systems will weather crises
From COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine, virtual models could inform global food policy before emergencies unfold.
- Zia Mehrabi
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Spotlight |
How France became the unlikely home of the insect-farming industry
The country is known for its love of meat. Could the growing insect industry help to reduce agricultural carbon emissions?
- Rachael Pells
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Comment |
Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems
Agricultural sciences have for too long ignored traditional and local knowledge about crop plants and how best to grow them. That must change if the world is to ensure future food security.
- Alexandre Antonelli
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Correspondence |
Food: use artificial intelligence to create new proteins
- Selena Ahmed
- , Maya Rajasekheren
- & Tracy Shafizadeh
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Editorial |
Farming feeds the world. We desperately need to know how to do it better
Interventions designed to improve agricultural practices often lack a solid evidence base. A new initiative could change that.
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Where I Work |
Braving stings to put jellyfish on the menu
Antonella Leone catches jellyfish off the coast of Italy to study them as potential sources of medicine and food.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News Round-Up |
Seafood carbon footprint, malaria vaccine and a US health chief
The latest science news, in brief.
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News |
Flight emissions, which fish to eat — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.
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News |
Eat more fish: when switching to seafood helps — and when it doesn’t
Survey identifies several species that are more nutritious and better for the planet than beef, pork or chicken.
- Jude Coleman
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News |
Healthy foods, COVID rebound — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.
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News |
Healthier foods are better for the planet, mammoth study finds
Analysis of 57,000 multi-ingredient foods reveals which have the best and worst environmental impacts.
- Freda Kreier
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Technology Feature |
The overlooked variable in animal studies: why diet makes a difference
Careful consideration and documentation of laboratory animals’ diets will boost the reproducibility of experiments.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Career Q&A |
Boosting banana nutrition for Ugandans
Government scientist Priver Namanya Bwesigye’s research career is focused on genetic engineering and Uganda’s staple food.
- Christopher Bendana
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Career Q&A |
A nutritionist in Kenya shares advice for prospective students
Rose Okoyo Opiyo says women need help balancing family demands if Africa is to narrow its PhD gender gap.
- Christopher Bendana
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Editorial |
Sustainability at the crossroads
A look back at 2021 through the Sustainable Development Goals.
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News |
AI mathematician and a planetary diet — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.
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News Feature |
What humanity should eat to stay healthy and save the planet
What we eat needs to be nutritious and sustainable. Researchers are trying to figure out what that looks like around the world.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Nature Podcast |
What’s the best diet for people and the planet?
Designing a nutritious and planet-friendly diet, and an AI that guides mathematicians.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News & Views |
From the archive
Nature’s pages feature a look at scientific connections to Montpellier and discuss food in Paris during a siege.
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News & Views |
Evidence that overnight fasting could extend healthy lifespan
A feeding schedule of prolonged overnight fasting periods extends healthy lifespan in fruit flies by promoting night-time autophagy, a process in which material in cells is degraded and recycled.
- Stephen L. Helfand
- & Rafael de Cabo
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Research Highlight |
Affluence buys a diet good for human health and bad for the planet
Prosperous people in the United States tend to consume food that requires large amounts of land and water to produce.
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News |
Health researchers report funder pressure to suppress results
Small study hints that interference from bodies funding research into public-health issues such as nutrition and exercise might be more common than realized.
- Clare Watson
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News & Views |
Designer fibre meals sway human gut microbes
Understanding how diet affects gut microbes and thereby influences human health might lead to targeted dietary strategies. A clinical trial now provides some steps on the path towards this goal.
- Avner Leshem
- & Eran Elinav
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Article |
Caloric restriction disrupts the microbiota and colonization resistance
Severe caloric restriction in humans leads to reversible changes in the gut microbiota that promote weight loss and the expansion of an enteric pathogen in mice.
- Reiner Jumpertz von Schwartzenberg
- , Jordan E. Bisanz
- & Peter J. Turnbaugh
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News & Views |
Mapping micronutrients in grain and soil unearths hidden hunger in Africa
A diet containing insufficient micronutrients can harm human health. Maps that pinpoint areas of Africa associated with micronutrient-poor grains now offer a way to target interventions that tackle such deficiencies.
- Ken E. Giller
- & Shamie Zingore
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Outlook |
Sustainable nutrition
The world’s population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050. Providing everyone with a nutritious diet and protecting the planet requires a global response.
- Catherine Armitage
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Outlook |
Will cell-based meat ever be a dinner staple?
Laboratory-grown meat has been stuck in the experimental stage. For it to become a commercially viable industry, tissue needs to be grown efficiently at scale.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Healthy people, healthy planet: the search for a sustainable global diet
By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on Earth. To provide them with a healthy diet, eating habits need to change.
- Chris Woolston
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Outlook |
Changing diets at scale
Researchers are working out how to achieve a widespread change in eating behaviour.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
Can aquaculture overcome its sustainability challenges?
Increasing the amount of protein produced through aquaculture is essential to feed a growing global population. But scientists want to ensure the industry grows sustainably.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Outlook |
Research round-up: sustainable nutrition
A way to estimate household food waste, the unintended consequences of environmental interventions and other highlights from research.
- Dyani Lewis
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Outlook |
Cooperate to prevent food-system failure
Jessica Fanzo says that food systems must evolve and governments must work together if people are to be kept nourished during a global pandemic.
- Jessica Fanzo
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Outlook |
Could a better diet improve mental health?
Brain function and food are thought to be connected through the community of microorganisms that live in the gut.
- Clare Watson
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Outlook |
Microbial ambassadors against food allergies
Early disruptions in the composition of the gut microbiome can directly influence digestive and immune function in ways that put children at greater risk.
- Michael Eisenstein
Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein