Sigma Nutrition Radio

Nick Hiebert writes about nutrition science on his site The Nutrivore, as well as exclusive, comprehnsive posts on his Patreon page. He is the creator of the "Nutrient Density Cheat Sheet", a nutrition ranking tool for hundreds of whole foods.  Nick has a deep interest in a host of nutrition science topics, from nutrient density to saturated fat & cardiovascular disease. He does a lot of deep anal...

In this episode Danny and Alan discuss the common misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the energy balance equation, leading to problematic debates over the validity of 'calories in, calories out'.   Today's Topic in Focus: Calories In, Calories Out [02:15]    "I Have a Question!" [60:17]    Quack Asylum [70:20]    Random Recommendations [76:20]    SHOW NOTES: sigmanutrition.com/episode359

In this episode Danny and Alan discuss the health impacts of coffee consumption, including long-term protective influence on disease risk, acute impacts, optimal dosages, genetic differences in metabolism and the influence of the bioactive compounds in coffee. Today's Topic in Focus: [01:50] "I Have a Question!" [68:18] Quack Asylum [71:03] Random Recommendations [81:50] Show Notes: sigmanutrition...

Dr. Nicky Keay is a medical doctor (MB BChir, MRCP) with specific training in endocrinology. She has published related to female athlete hormone profiling, energy availability, and relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). As a Research Fellow at St Thomas' Hospital, she was part of the international medical team which developed an anti-doping test for growth hormone. Dr. Keay studied medicine...

Dr. Hana Kahleova is the director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee and directs research testing the effect a plant-based diet has on metabolism, insulin function, fitness, and mental health, as well as studying the impact meal timing and meal frequency have on metabolism and body weight.  Dr. Kahleova earned her doctorate in nutrition and diabetes and her medical degree from Charle...

Danny & Alan discuss a recent paper on time-restricted eating that has been inaccurately interpreted by some as a "disproval" of TRE as an intervention. In this episode, the aim is to provide some context to the situation. There are also three listener questions, and another person/claim is brought into the quack asylum! Today's Topic in Focus: Time-Restricted Eating [05:14] "I Have a Question!" [...

Danny & Alan discuss issues with using and interpreting meta-analyses in nutritional science, they answer a question about methods of reheating food, and they highlight a recent paper published by quacks that experts have termed a "deception". Today's Topic in Focus [08:50] "I Have a Question!" [53:35] Quack Asylum [59:32] Something Random [66:42] Show notes: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode354

Dr. James Hébert is a nutritional and cancer epidemiologist, currently a distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Hébert's professional focus for the past several years has been on developing and refining the Dietary Inflammatory Index™ (DII®), which has now been established as an effective research tool. Dr. Hébert is also a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and...

Danny and Alan take a look at the evidence on weight loss maintenance, answer a question about ApoE4, and admit another nonsensical claim into the quack asylum. In this episode: [02:56] Today's Topic in Focus: Weight Regain vs Weight Loss Maintenance [58:56] I Have a Question!: "How does the ApoE4 allele affect lipid metabolism? And how should someone structure their diet around having one or both...

Glenn Gibson is Professor of Food Microbiology at University of Reading. He has been researching bacteria in the gut for over 30 years. Together with his colleague Marcel B. Roberfroid, both researchers coined the term prebiotics in their 1995 paper. He has published over 450 research papers and 8 books. He currently researches acute and chronic gut disease, with specific projects on probiotics an...

Dr Peter Olusoga is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University. His current research focuses on stress, burnout and wellbeing in sports, with a particular interest in high-performance environments and elite coaching. Peter is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS). Hugh Gilmore is an accredited sport psychologist with experience working in elite s...

Professor Naomi Allen was appointed Chief Scientist for UK Biobank in 2019, having joined UK Biobank in November 2011 as Senior Epidemiologist. She is Professor of Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, with a keen research interest in cancer epidemiology. At UK Biobank she is responsible for following-up participants both through linkage with routine h...

Today's Topic in Focus: Omega-3 Supplementation & Heart Disease [01:52]  "I Have a Question!" [66:30]: UK government obesity plan.  Quack Asylum [87:00]: Is a gram of PUFA in chicken worse than 250g of sugar from honey? Carnivore cannibalism!  Random Recommendations [94:20]  SHOW NOTES: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode348/

Alex Thomas is the founder of Sports Nutrition Association (SNA), which is global association that contains Sports Nutrition Australia, Sports Nutrition NewZealand, Sports Nutrition Asia, and Sports Nutrition USA. Alex is an experienced Clinical Accredited Sports Nutritionist. He is the Australasian Ambassador of the ISSN (International Society of Sports Nutrition). He is co-creator of the Metabol...

Dr. Kathryn Bradbury, PhD is a researcher at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research has focused on examining the role of diet in the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases. Dr. Bradbury spent 5 years in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. There, she worked as a nutritional epidemiologist on large cohort studies, includ...

Dr. Rebecca Leech is a Registered Nutritionist and Nutritional Epidemiologist, based at Deakin's Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition. Rebecca has a PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology, and in 2018, was awarded an Alfred Deakin Medal for her doctoral thesis, which examined adults' eating patterns and their associations with diet quality and obesity. Her postdoctoral research, extends on this,...

Prof. Martin Caraher is Emeritus Professor of food and health policy at Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. He has worked for and acted as a consultant to the UK Department of Health, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation. He was a member of the original London Food Board which developed the food strategy for London. He is a member of the International Obesity Task For...

Danny & Alan discuss how to understand causality in nutrition research. The episodes includes: inferring causality vs demonstrating causality, the hierarchy of evidence vs. standards of proof,  the erroneous application of the biomedical model to nutrition, RCTs vs. epidemiology, what the "highest quality evidence available" is, and how nutritional epidemiology can infer causality. Episode also in...

In this episode Alan and Danny discuss the nutritional science research on vegan diets and human health. Some of the concepts covered include: defining "plant-based" diets, examination of various intervention trials comparing diets, veganism across the lifestage, benefits of a vegan diet, nutrient considerations and lots more. Show Notes: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode342

Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf are the co-authors of Sacred Cow, a book exploring the important role of animals in our food system. Diana is a Registered Dietitian living on a working organic farm in New England, where she runs an active nutrition practice. She speaks at universities and conferences internationally about nutrition and sustainability, social justice, animal welfare and food policy iss...

Professor Corinna Hawkes has been working for the past 20 years with UN agencies, governments, NGOs and academia at the local, national and international level to support the design of more effective policies throughout the food system to improve diets and prevent malnutrition in all its forms. She is currently Director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, UK, a Centre dedi...

Alex J. O'Connor is founder of the Cosmic Skeptic YouTube channel, podcast and blog; platforms dedicated to the publication of philosophical ideas and debates in an accessible format. He is currently reading for a degree in philosophy and theology at St John's College, Oxford University. Alex is an impassioned animal rights advocate and religious critic, regularly discussing these topics on his on...

Professor Paul B. Thompson holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University, where he serves on the faculty in the departments of Philosophy, Community Sustainability and Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. He received his Ph. D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and has held posts at Texas A&M University a...

Andrew Chignell is a professor at Princeton, with appointments in Religion, Philosophy, and the University Center for Human Values. He was previously an associate professor at Cornell and a professor at University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD from Yale. Chignell's work to date focuses on Immanuel Kant and other modern European philosophers, philosophy of religion, the moral psychology of h...

Dr. Bobinet received her Masters in Public Health at Harvard University, specializing in Healthcare Management, Technology-enabled Behavior Change, and Population Health Management. She received her medical degree from the UCSF School of Medicine. She has also studied in Dr. BJ Fogg's Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford. Kyra has founded several healthcare start-ups, spanning behavior health, populati...