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Research Area: Reproductive Health

Nut consumption during pregnancy is associated with decreased risk of peer problems in 5-year-old Japanese children.

Nguyen, M.Q., Y. Miyake, K. Tanaka, S. Hasuo, Y. Nakamura, H. Okubo, S. Sasaki, M. Arakawa, 2024. Nut consumption during pregnancy is associated with decreased risk of peer problems in 5-year-old Japanese children. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 78(4):927-935.

Objectives: Nuts are nutrient-dense foods rich in unsaturated fatty acids, protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The present prebirth cohort study examined the association between maternal nut intake during pregnancy and the risk of childhood behavioral problems in 5-year-old Japanese children. Methods: Study subjects were 1199 mother-child pairs. Dietary intake was assessed using a diet history questionnaire. Emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity problems, peer problems, and low prosocial behavior were assessed using the parent-reported version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Adjustments were made for a priori-selected nondietary confounders and potentially related dietary factors. Results: Compared with mothers who had not eaten nuts during pregnancy, mothers who had eaten nuts had a significantly reduced risk of peer problems in children; the adjusted odds ratio was 0.64 (95% confidence interval: 0.42-0.97). There were no measurable associations between maternal consumption of nuts during pregnancy and the risk of childhood emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity problems, and low prosocial behavior. Conclusions: Maternal consumption of nuts during pregnancy may be associated with a decreased risk of peer problems in 5-year-old children.

Effect of a Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction during pregnancy on child neurodevelopment: A prespecified analysis of the IMPACT BCN Randomized Clinical Trial.

Crovetto, F., A. Nakaki, A. Arranz, R. Borras, K. Vellvé, C. Paules, M.L. Boutet, S. Castro-Barquero, T. Freitas, R. Casas, A. Martín-Asuero, T. Oller Guzmán, I. Morilla, A. Martínez-Àran, A. Camacho, M. Pasqual, M. Izquierdo Renau, Ó. J. Pozo, A. Gomez-Gomez, R. Estruch, E. Vieta, F. Crispi, E. Gratacós, 2023. Effect of a Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction during pregnancy on child neurodevelopment: A prespecified analysis of the IMPACT BCN Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 6(8), e2330255. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.30255

Importance: Maternal suboptimal nutrition and high stress levels are associated with adverse fetal and childhood neurodevelopment. Objective: To test the hypothesis that structured interventions based on a Mediterranean diet or mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) during pregnancy improve child neurodevelopment at age 2 years. Design, setting, and participants: This was a prespecified analysis of the parallel-group Improving Mothers for a Better Prenatal Care Trial Barcelona (IMPACT BCN) randomized clinical trial, which was conducted at a university hospital in Barcelona, Spain, from February 2017 to March 2020. A total of 1221 singleton pregnancies (19 to 23 weeks’ gestation) with high risk of delivering newborns who were small for gestational age were randomly allocated into 3 groups: a Mediterranean diet intervention, an MBSR program, or usual care. A postnatal evaluation with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd Edition (Bayley-III), was performed. Data were analyzed from July to November 2022. Interventions: Participants in the Mediterranean diet group received monthly individual and group educational sessions and free provision of extra virgin olive oil and walnuts. Those in the stress reduction group underwent an 8-week MBSR program adapted for pregnancy. Individuals in the usual care group received pregnancy care per institutional protocols. Main outcomes and measures: Neurodevelopment in children was assessed by Bayley-III at 24 months of corrected postnatal age. Results: A total of 626 children (293 [46.8%] female and 333 [53.2%] male) participated at a mean (SD) age of 24.8 (2.9) months. No differences were observed in the baseline characteristics between intervention groups. Compared with children from the usual care group, children in the Mediterranean diet group had higher scores in the cognitive domain (β, 5.02; 95% CI, 1.52-8.53; P = .005) and social-emotional domain (β, 5.15; 95% CI, 1.18-9.12; P = .01), whereas children from the stress reduction group had higher scores in the social-emotional domain (β, 4.75; 95% CI, 0.54-8.85; P = .02). Conclusions and relevance: In this prespecified analysis of a randomized clinical trial, maternal structured lifestyle interventions during pregnancy based on a Mediterranean diet or MBSR significantly improved child neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 2 years.

Key Area: Cognitive Health

Tree nut consumption is associated with a lower risk of hyperestrogenism in men.

Wang, Y., Y. Fang, 2022. Tree nut consumption is associated with a lower risk of hyperestrogenism in men. Nutr. Res. 98:1-8.

Hyperestrogenism may affect 2% to 8% of men globally. Previous studies indicate that tree nut consumption is associated with sex hormones in women. Whether this is the case in men remains unknown. This study hypothesized that consumption of tree nuts was inversely associated with circulating estradiol and prevalence of hyperestrogenism in men. This cross-sectional study included 3340 men aged ≥20 years from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2013 to 2016. Associations of tree nut consumption with circulating estradiol and prevalence of hyperestrogenism were assessed using weighted linear regression and binary logistic regression, respectively. Among the 3340 men, 207 consumed tree nuts. The mean usual intake of tree nuts among tree nut consumers was 34.2 g/d. Amounts of usual intake of tree nuts were inversely associated with bioavailable estradiol (β = -0.032, P = .037) after adjustment for all confounders. Usual intake of tree nuts of ≥ 30 g/d (vs <30 g/d) or ≥42.52 g/d (vs <42.52 g/d) was associated with a 24% or 7% lower multivariate-adjusted risk of hyperestrogenism, respectively. Further analyses showed that usual intake of tree nuts was positively associated with circulating folate, and the latter was inversely associated with circulating estradiol. In conclusion, higher tree nut consumption was independently associated with lower circulating levels of bioavailable estradiol and a lower risk of hyperestrogenism in men. Further research is needed to verify the effectiveness of using tree nuts to treat hyperestrogenism in men.

Sperm DNA methylation changes after short-term nut supplementation in healthy men consuming a Western-style diet.

Salas-Huetos, A., E.R. James, J. Salas-Salvadó, M. Bulló, K.I. Aston, D.T. Carrell, T.G. Jenkins, 2021. Sperm DNA methylation changes after short-term nut supplementation in healthy men consuming a Western-style diet. Andrology. 9(1):260-268.

Background: Many environmental and lifestyle factors have been implicated in the decline of sperm quality, with diet being one of the most plausible factors identified in recent years. Moreover, several studies have reported a close association between the alteration of specific sperm DNA methylation signatures and semen quality. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of tree nut consumption on sperm DNA methylation patterns in healthy individuals reporting eating a Western-style diet. Material and methods: This is a post hoc analysis conducted in a subset of participants (healthy, non-smoking, and young) from the FERTINUTS 14-wk randomized-controlled, parallel trial, recruited between December 2015 and February 2017. The participants included in the current study (n = 72) were randomly selected in a proportion 2:1 from the original FERTINUTS trial between the 98 participants that completed the entire dietary intervention (nut group, n = 48; control group, n = 24). Sperm DNA methylation patterns were examined at baseline and after 14 weeks in 48 individuals consuming 60 g/d of mixed nuts (nut group) and in 24 individuals following the usual Western-style diet avoiding consumption of nuts (control group). Results: Over the course of the trial, no significant changes in global methylation were observed between groups. However, in the nut group, we identified 36 genomic regions that were significantly differentially methylated between the baseline and the end of the trial and 97.2% of the regions displayed hypermethylation. We identified no such change in the control group over the same period of time. We also utilized the recently developed germ line age calculator to determine if nut consumption resulted in alterations to the epigenetic age of cells and no significant differences were found. Discussion and conclusion: Adding nuts to a regular Western-style diet subtly impacts sperm DNA methylation in specific regions, demonstrating that there are some sperm epigenome regions that could respond to diet.