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Ultra-Processed Foods Change Your Face. Dentists Reveal How
Eating too much ultra-processed food could affect our face shape, jaw development, breathing habits, dental health and oral hygiene, according to dentists. Ultra-processed food, or UPF, is a category that refers to food made in factories with synthetic additives and industrial methods which would be inaccessible to home cooks — such as extrusion or preservatives.
It is food that is designed to be moreish, triggering dopamine pathways in the brain without too much effort, and as such it tends to be low in essential nutrients, high in salt, fat and sugar, and texturally easy to eat. “A diet high in ultra-processed foods during childhood can potentially lead to changes in a child’s facial and jaw development,” Dr. Smita Mehra, principal dentist at The Neem Tree Dental Practices in London, England, told Newsweek.
One way that a diet full of ultra-processed food can alter face shape is by disrupting the development of the jaw, through lack of chewing, Mehra said. “Ultra-processed foods are often soft and require minimal chewing compared to whole foods like fruits, vegetables, meats and whole grains,” said Mehra. “Chewing is a vital part of stimulating jaw growth and alignment, particularly during critical periods of a child’s development.”
Excess Intestinal Protein Responsible for Food Allergy in Children, Study Finds
When is food simply nourishing and enjoyable, and when does it provoke an allergic reaction? The answer appears to lie in the balance of microbes that live in our intestine — and a specific protein secreted by intestinal goblet cells that influences that balance.
Excess amounts of this protein, RELMb, change the profile of intestinal microbes in a way that causes the body not to tolerate certain triggering foods, finds a new study from Boston Children’s Hospital just published in Nature.
“We also showed that RELMb is increased in children with food allergy,” says Talal Chatila, M.D., who co-led the study with Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, M.D., Ph.D.. Emmanuel Stephen-Victor, Ph.D., in the Chatila lab and Gavin Kuziel, a Ph.D. student in the Rakoff-Nahoum, lab were co-first authors. The good news is that RELMb can potentially be inhibited if children are found to have it in high amounts, raising the possibility of preventing or even curing food allergy.
Weight-Loss Treatment for Children With Obesity Has Lasting Effects, Finds Study
When children with obesity undergo weight-loss treatment, the results have effects later in life, and the risk of serious health problems and premature death is lower as they reach young adulthood.
However, this is not the case for depression and anxiety, reports a study from researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Pediatrics. The study shows that children and adolescents who respond well to obesity treatment are less likely to develop obesity-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia (abnormally high levels of fat in the blood) as young adults.
The treatment studied involved support for children with obesity and their families designed to motivate healthy diets, exercise and sleep habits — what is known as “behavioral lifestyle therapy.”
Pre-pregnancy Health Initiatives Overlook Adolescents and Young Adults
Adolescents and young adults are being missed when it comes to pre-pregnancy health initiatives that could have a long-term impact on maternal, perinatal, and child health outcomes, according to a review by researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute and School of Public Health.
The findings, published in Public Health, identify gaps around mental health, domestic and sexual abuse, substance use, sex education, nutrition education, lifestyle modification, and family planning messaging, as well as other areas for young people aged 10 to 25 years old. The evidence gap map, created using data from 2010 to 2023, found health initiatives were more likely in high and upper-middle income countries and an overwhelming majority focused solely on females (88%).
“It wasn’t surprising to see limited evidence of health initiatives for men, but we were surprised to see limited focus on interventions like prevention of substance and tobacco use, improving lifestyle behaviors and nutrition and the prevention of violence, especially considering its impact on their pregnancy and child health,” senior author Associate Professor Zohra Lassi says.
Study Estimates 1 in 12 Children Subjected to Online Sexual Exploitation or Abuse
A new study from researchers at the Georgia State University School (GSU) of Public Health and the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute estimates that 1 in 12 children worldwide have been subjected to online child sexual exploitation or abuse.
The researchers, whose findings appear in the February issue of the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, conducted a meta-analysis of more than 120 studies encompassing 57 countries to arrive at their estimates. In studies that examined the overall prevalence of online child sexual exploitation or abuse, the average was 1 in 12, or 8% of children globally.
“The risk of online child sexual exploitation and abuse is growing rapidly in tandem with increased access to the internet and smartphones,” said Xiangming Fang, Research Associate Professor at the GSU School of Public Health. “Our study seeks to raise awareness among the public and policymakers and to inform prevention efforts to protect young people.”
Dopamine Linked to Autism Symptoms in Mouse Model Study
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have uncovered new insights into the mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study, recently published in Cell Reports, explores how changes in dopamine neurotransmission in the brain contribute to the behavioral symptoms of autism.
Autism is diagnosed based on behaviors that vary greatly among individuals, often overlapping with other conditions, making accurate diagnosis challenging. The study focuses on a mouse model of ASD with elevated levels of eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), a protein that plays a crucial role in the process of translating genetic information into proteins.
“Our study shows that mice with an autism-risk gene, eIF4E, have reduced release of dopamine, a chemical messenger (or neurotransmitter) that is important for motivation, learning and movement,” says Emanuela Santini, principal researcher at the Department of Neuroscience and last author of the article.
The study helps to explain the neurobiological basis for behavioral inflexibility, a common challenge in autism. Understanding how brain circuits and neuronal communication are altered in autism is crucial.
