Vitamin D is implicated in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) through its roles in skeletal muscle metabolism and vascular function. Despite numerous studies linking vitamin D to CRF, no comprehensive meta-analysis has quantified their overall correlation or the effect of vitamin D interventions. The objective of this review was to investigate any association between vitamin D concentration and CRF, and the effect of vitamin D supplementation on CRF. PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were systematically searched from their inception to November 2024. A total of 20 observational studies (14 554 participants) and 9 interventional studies (733 participants) were included in the meta-analysis. The effect size, correlation coefficient r, and a 95% CI (CI) were employed to estimate the correlation between vitamin D concentration and CRF. A random-effects model was used to calculate the standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% CIs. A significantly positive yet weak association (r = 0.17; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.24; P < .0001) was found between vitamin D concentration and CRF, with high heterogeneity (I2 = 88.0%, P heterogeneity < .0001). The correlation coefficient in children (r = 0.05; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.09; P = .0273) was smaller than that in adults (r = 0.26; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.34; P < .0001) (Psubgroup < .0001). No significant differences were observed between study subgroups stratified by gender, CRF measurement method, vitamin D assays, or physical activity level (all Psubgroup > .05). Interventional studies revealed that the effect of vitamin D supplementation on CRF is not significant (SMD: 0.03; 95% CI: -0.12, 0.17; P = .8959), with 0% heterogeneity. This meta-analysis confirms there is a small but significant positive relationship between vitamin D concentrations and CRF, especially in adults. However, the studies found no improvement in CRF through vitamin D supplementation in interventional trials. PROSPERO registration No. CRD42024574603.

The post-farmgate agri-food value chain is highly vulnerable to socioeconomic and climate-related shocks and stressors, which significantly affect food system outcomes. Innovative solutions are needed to strengthen resilience, reduce losses, and improve the quality and safety of food. This review identifies and synthesizes promising post-farmgate innovations in food processing, packaging, and storage that have the potential to be scaled in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A literature review of the Web of Science, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases, supplemented by the Google Scholar and Google search tools, was performed by following the PRISMA-ScR guidance. A total of 82 studies reporting on 79 post-farmgate innovations were included. The identified innovations cluster around 5 domains: Cold chain solutions, solar drying technologies, agri-food business models, hermetic storage systems, and innovative food preservation and packaging solutions. While the food system outcomes of individual innovations vary, these patterns demonstrate potential to reduce food loss and waste, enhance shelf life, and promote sustainable healthy diets in LMICs. The review highlights factors that support and impede the adoption of post-farmgate innovations in LMICs and identifies critical gaps in evidence and practice. Addressing these gaps will be essential for scaling innovations that enhance the healthiness, equity, resilience, and sustainability of food systems.

This commentary explores the pervasive challenge of malnutrition and diarrhea, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children and cancer patients, and highlights the limitations of conventional treatments such as standard oral rehydration solutions (ORSs). Drawing on recent evidence, it examines the emerging role of amino acid-based nutritional formulations, with a focus on branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), VS001, and VS002A, in addressing both nutrient deficiencies and gut dysfunction. The commentary reviews mechanistic and clinical data demonstrating that BCAAs and specialized amino acid-enriched ORSs can promote mucosal healing, improve nutrient absorption, and reduce gastrointestinal symptoms, including those related to chemotherapy. Clinical studies show promising results for VS001 and VS002A in reducing the severity of diarrhea, enhancing hydration, and supporting recovery in both pediatric and oncology settings. While these interventions show considerable potential for transforming supportive care for malnutrition-related diarrhea, further large-scale randomized trials are needed to establish their efficacy across diverse patient populations.

Suboptimal nutritional status has been observed in stroke patients throughout the stroke recovery pathway, negatively impacting recovery and rehabilitation outcomes. Oral nutritional supplements (ONSs) can correct deficiencies and treat malnutrition and may support rehabilitation following a stroke. In this systematic review we aimed to synthesize evidence on the effects of oral nutritional interventions on functional, cognitive, and psychological outcomes of stroke rehabilitation, such as independence or activities of daily living (ADLs), muscle function, cognition, and mood. The search strategy and inclusion/exclusion criteria were established according to the participants, intervention, comparators, and outcome (PICO) framework. Two reviewers screened titles and abstracts using search terms related to stroke rehabilitation or recovery and nutritional supplementation using the databases Web of Sciences, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. This review included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the effects of oral nutritional interventions on rehabilitation outcomes in stroke patients. Details of the interventions and main outcomes were extracted independently by 2 researchers. Twenty-four reports (comprising 23 studies) that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were finally included in the review. The included studies were grouped according to the type of nutritional intervention, including protein-energy supplements, essential amino acids, vitamin D supplementation, and a heterogeneous group of interventions with different polyphenols and omega-3 supplements. Overall, this review reports mixed results for the effects of nutritional interventions on stroke survivors. The evidence suggests that stroke patients with greater nutritional needs may benefit most from targeted interventions. Furthermore, protein-based ONS interventions were suggested to augment functional outcomes when supplemented alongside exercise rehabilitation, including a resistance training component. Further evidence is needed before these findings can be adopted into clinical guidance. Although there were some promising results for other non-protein-related interventions, there were also contradictory findings, with heterogeneity between studies and variability in interventions limiting the transferability of findings to recommendations for clinical practice.

The role of solid-food diets in managing Crohn disease (CD) is gaining increasing attention in the scientific research community, while current evidence is limited and consists of highly heterogenous methodologies. In this scoping review we aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the most important methodological aspects of the available studies on whole-food dietary interventions in adults with CD. Second, this review focuses on describing the nutritional content of the implemented interventions and commenting on their nutritional adequacy. PubMed, Scopus and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) electronic databases were searched from inception up to July 2025, to identify all interventional studies in adult patients with CD that examined the effects of solid dietary interventions on various disease outcomes. Studies that targeted adult patients in remission or active CD and involving a well-defined solid diet interventional arm were rigorously considered. In total, 23 studies were eligible for inclusion, including 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 2 pilot RCTs, 5 prospective interventional studies, and a non-randomized clinical trial. Study participants were in active CD (n = 11), in remission (n = 6), or assorted (n = 6) and were followed up for up to 2 years. Nutritional status and adequacy were among the assessed outcomes in 13 out of 23 studies, while adherence to the dietary regimen was described in nearly all of the included studies. The actual nutritional intake of the participants and its adequacy were rarely evaluated. Several methodological challenges in solid-food dietary trials targeting adult CD patients were identified, including study design variability, participant characteristics, criteria for concomitant drug therapies, provided details for the content and adequacy of the dietary regimens, and examined outcomes. This review underscores the methodological challenges and inconsistencies in solid-food dietary intervention studies for adults with Crohn disease, emphasizing that adopting standardized methodologies and outcome measures could strengthen future evidence and clarify the role of diet in multimodal disease management.

Selenium plays a crucial role in maintaining metabolic health, providing antioxidant protection, and modulating inflammation. Further clarification of the physiological functions and pathological relevance of selenium is necessary to increase understanding of its therapeutic potential through supplementation and to determine the most effective strategies across different populations and metabolic conditions. We sought to systematically map and synthesize existing evidence on the effects of selenium supplementation on inflammation, oxidative stress, and glucose-lipid metabolism in adult populations, and to identify knowledge gaps that hinder the establishment of safe and effective selenium dosing guidelines. A scoping review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, in which we searched for the major electronic databases to identify clinical trials that evaluated the effects of selenium supplementation on standard features of metabolic disease among diverse adult population groups. Improvements in metabolic markers were observed, particularly in studies addressing diabetes and insulin resistance (up to a 26% reduction in Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance [HOMA-IR])), and inflammation (with up to a 62.4% reduction in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP]). The benefits were seen in reported studies with intervention durations of 12 weeks or longer. In limited studies, selenium had neutral effects in a trial of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and an adverse effect in 1 postmenopausal trial, indicating that results in these groups remain inconclusive. Co-supplementation with probiotics or antioxidants had beneficial effects in some studies. Selenium supplementation has been observed to improve insulin sensitivity, lower hs-CRP, and enhance antioxidant defenses, particularly in adults with diabetes or insulin resistance, while effects in PCOS and postmenopausal women remain equivocal. Because both deficiency and excess of selenium can be harmful, dosing must be guided by baseline selenium status. Harnessing this narrow therapeutic window could enhance metabolic care, but long-term, well-controlled trials are still needed to define optimal regimens and clarify who stands to benefit most.

Ulcerative colitis, a major form of inflammatory bowel disease, is strongly influenced by gut microbiota composition and metabolism. Prebiotics are nondigestible food ingredients that selectively stimulate beneficial intestinal bacteria and have emerged as promising strategies for mitigating colitis. This review summarizes recent evidence, with a primary focus on animal models, examining the effects of diverse prebiotic classes including pectic polysaccharides, exopolysaccharides, soluble and insoluble fibers, glucans, resistant starch, and novel enzymatically structured and chemically modified prebiotics. Across studies, these compounds consistently alleviated colitis through consistent multifactorial mechanisms: restoring gut microbiota diversity and richness, increasing the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), strengthening intestinal barrier integrity by upregulating tight junction proteins (zonula occludens 1 [ZO-1], occludin, claudin) and mucin production, and modulating immune responses by suppressing proinflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-α], interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6) while promoting anti-inflammatory mediators (IL-10, T-regulatory [Treg] cells). Novel approaches, such as enzymatically synthesized oligosaccharides and structure-modified prebiotics, further demonstrated superior efficacy compared with natural counterparts, highlighting the potential of precision prebiotic therapy. Importantly, many promising candidates are derived from agricultural byproducts or microbial fermentation, offering cost-effective nutraceutical applications. Collectively, current findings provide mechanistic insights into how prebiotics act on gut-immune-microbiota axes to relieve colitis, and establish a foundation for translating results from animal models into controlled human studies.

The milk of every species is unique to its own offspring. Human milk is a biological fluid that supports the optimal growth and development of the newborn. It is rich in energy, nutrients, and bioactive substances, possesses high bioavailability, and is easy to digest. This makes human milk the natural gold standard that varies according to the needs of the infant. Human milk is the ideal source of nutrition for infants; however, other animal milks, such as those from donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, camels, and buffaloes, are also used in human nutrition. These milks serve as alternatives when human milk is insufficient or unavailable. Although no other mammal's milk can truly replace human milk, these alternatives are easily accessible and provide nutritional support when needed. Milks from various mammals are widely consumed today due to their health benefits, and they offer a range of nutrients that can support infant nutrition. Animal milk is often preferred for its positive properties in the treatment of various diseases. This review comprehensively discusses the basic compositional properties and metabolic effects of human milk, as well as cow, donkey, sheep, goat, camel, and other milk, highlighting their implications for human health and can constitute a starting point to examine the potential health applications for human health.

The red beetroot exemplifies a globally consumed vegetable. Consumption practices vary, with some societies consuming the entire beetroot, including the peel, petiole, and leaves, and others consuming only the flesh, raw or processed. The vibrant red to purple color of red beetroot is attributed to betalains, primarily betacyanins. Additionally, betaxanthins contribute to the spectrum, with their yellow to orange hues. Beyond their visual appeal, these pigments have biological activities, including antioxidant, antitumor, and even epigenetic effects. The diverse consumption practices and the intricate biological activities of red beetroot pigments underscore their potential as not only a dietary staple but also as agents with promising health benefits, particularly in the context of cancer treatment. This review delves into the synthesis of betalains in red beetroot, exploring their applications, efficacy, mechanisms of action, and safety as adjuvants in cancer treatment.