Sept 9-10, 2025 Diet and Optimum Health, LPI, Corvalis
200 LaSells Stewart Center
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
HERE ARE MY NOTES FROM THIS MEETING
8:30-10am – Session 1: KEYNOTE Panel I: Future of Dietary Supplements, Healthspan and Optimal Health
Ordovas – Tufts, food and nutrition board
In 2030, older adults will outnumber children. $4.5 trillion on healthcare in 2023. 175 of older adults use 37% of expense. Average is $22,000/yr. over 65. Factors: wealth, nutrition, education environment.
2 years added health would save $7 trillion over 50 years. AI alone could save $150 billion a year in health care. Food industry and delivery systems are far behind precision nutrition science. Predimed study of mediterranean diet would savge $68 billion annually if everyone adopted it. Clock gene is mediated by diet! Reduced diabetes and stroke. Food is medicine!! Would save a fortune.
Inulin is important. Inulin is a type of prebiotic. It’s not digested or absorbed in the stomach. It stays in the bowel and helps certain beneficial bacteria to grow. Inulin is a starchy substance found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including wheat, onions, bananas, leeks, artichokes, and asparagus. The inulin that is used in supplements most commonly comes from soaking chicory roots in hot water.
Andersen – Buck, neuroscience
Future of supplements. Dysbiosis vs eubiosis.
The mind diet: berries twice a week, fish once a week, cheese once a week, salad and one vegie daily, beans every other day, limit margarine. Protein high, fat unsatd high, simple vs complex carbs. Good supplements to take – resveratrol, curcumin, quercetin, luteolin, oleocanthal, caempherol, morin
Low dosage lithium orotate is good. 1/1000th the dosage used for medicine is best dosage.
Gut brain important – Prevotella, bacteroides, lactobacillus good, fimicutes, e. coli, rumninococcus bad
Bile acids good, inflammation bad, high fiber diet good.
Medi, DASH, MIND, NBP diets – look at biomarkers of brain structure and function. Can get Lithium orotate supplements OTC – check out mineral water, plants
Pasiakos- Pennington Center, led NIH nutrition
Future of supps, healthspan: human performance is the foundation of healthspan. Dietary sups can help. Only 1 in 5 adults get daily exercise, 1 in 4 get enough; ¼ get no physical activity at all. Children-0nly 15 to 16% of kids met recommendations; 77% are ineligible for military service because of obesity. Diet quality is only 50% of standards.
10-20% of kids are micronutrient deficient. Vitamin D, zinc, iron are the main deficiencies.
Supplement use – 70% of elderly use sups, 30% of kids: bone health requires vitamins K, D, Ca; neurological fuction takes Fe, D, Zn, Mg
Creatine important for everyone – Creatine you make 50%, rest from diet- essential at all ages GET 2-4mg/day. In supplement or Creatine is naturally found in seafood, meat, and poultry, but not in plant foods. 500mgs per 4-ounce serving of salmon
Kaviani M, Shaw K, Chilibeck D. Benefits of creatine supplementation for vegetarians compared to omnivorous athletes: A systematic review. Int J Environ Res Pub Health. 2020;17(9):3041. doi:10.3390/ijerph17093041
Military installations in Scandanavia only have healthy foods, no ice cream and burgers and fries.
One thing to improve science communication – be direct, be specific,
Session 2: Technology and Artificial Intelligence
10:30 AM – 12:00 PMat Cascade Ballroom
Disrupting Heathcare Using Deep Data and Remote Monitoring
Speaker: Michael Snyder, PhD
AI – omics and aging, fiber,we have sickcare instead of healthcare
Omics – genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, cytokines, metabolome, antibodyome, microbiome
You should get a whole body MRI! 49 major health discoveries found pre-symptomatically-mutations, etc. Two crests in aging-age 44 and age 60 – % significant molecule changes 9000 molecules change-lifestyle and diet
Fiber supplementation
Inulin vs araboxylan fiber – drop in cholesterol with Araboxylan, but opposite with different people
Depends on microbiome bugs
SFCAs affect histones-20-90K targets in genome; they have a direct effect on gene expression
Different people spike glucose with different foods. Diabetes is highly heterogeneous in many organs
Subtype you have determines what food is most hazardous for you.
Diet, sleep, exercise – Should include stress! He took a mindfulness class and dropped it.
What motivates people is money and family! Measure age by patterns
Unlocking the Complexity of Diet: Innovative Tools for Precision Nutrition
Speaker: Abigail Johnson, PhD, RD
What to eat to feed microbiome – vegetables and fruit, diversity of plants, beans and whole grains, fiber 35g/day, fermented foods. What are personal recommendations? Stable microbiome vs food intake. 26,000 biochemicals in our food. Green bananas have more fiber.
YOU can use DietDriver to analyze your diet and microbiome – they match, best is multiday data
The Role of AI in Precision Nutrition
Speaker: David Wishart, PhD
Machine learning vs deep learning – DL in 2010, ML in 1980s
ML is fly brain, DL is human brain. How do we get from coarse recommendations-eat more bananas, to specific ones for you. Use AI to analyze all the papers published. Know about 500,000 compounds. AI to predict what’s in foods. Used AI to predict food structures, found 72 million vs 70,000 known. 45% of predictions are found, AI could analyze hundreds of biomarkers from a blood sample instead of just HDL, LDL, triglycerides
100 day action plan substantially improved health – molecular you – they have a website. Costs about $1,200 – though someone disagreed about how much it costs
LUNCH HIGHLIGHTS – Two biggest things to save the planet via nutrition -1) eat plant based diet 2)reduce food waste; Doctors should join the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (13,000 doctors now), tell your doctor to join.
Book publisher – CRC Press
Session 3: Nutrition & Microbiome Innovations
1:00 PM – 2:00
Microbiome-Informed Precision Nutrition and Healthy Aging1:00 PM –
Speaker: Sean Gibbons, PhD
Signature of aging in the gut. Uniqueness – diversity in microbiome-with age, goes up a lot. Older men cohort-weak signal-fast walkers, etc. healthier had unique microbiome. Declione in bacteroids and other gram negative anaerobes So should not give microbiome transplants from young to old pople. Eat more dietary fiber. ADP-HEPTOSE is bad. Good metabolites – SCFAs butyrate, proprionate; SCFAs have great metabolic health- high fiber diet works for some people but not many – interventions fiber helps, some need probiotic too. More exercise decreases biological age in microbiome.
Butyrate is good as an enema, not as supplement. For probiotic choice, look at consumer reports for cfu value
Precision Nutrition, Gut Microbiome, and Cardiometabolic Disease1:30
Speaker: Daniel Wang, MD, ScD
Metabolites-SCFAs, secondary bile acids, TMAO; MED DIET aids microbiome; animal is bad, plant is good; need med diet and exercise; some day doctors will analyze your microbiome for specific recommendations forecasting disease risk
Session 4: Inflammation and Immunity
A Gut Feeling of Aging: Nutrient-Sensing Ghrelin Signaling in Immune Reprogramming and Disease Resilience
Speaker: Yuxiang Sun, MD, PhD Texas A&M
Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. 20aa hormone. Ghrelin does lots of stuff metabolically; reduces adiposity and insulin sensitivity; made in hypothalamus and peritoneal macrophages; in obesity, macrophages are pro-inflammatory.
Part 2 – inflammation – develops with aging. Why? Innate immune profiling with aging. Aging leaky gut causes colitis and Chrohns disease. GHSR deficiency is anti-inflammatory. Preserves memory too. GHSR grehlin hormones signal receptor. Intermittent fasting helps a great deal in older people, no effect in kids; young have low baseline inflammation. GHSR inhibition enhances Intermitent fasting benefits. 12 hr fasting is good intermittent fasting
A Novel Mechanism of Protein Acylation
Speaker: Emily Goldberg, PhD UC-San Francisco
Neutrophils lipids, and chronic inflammation. Neutrophils from bone marrow, short lived, clear pathogen – lives 6-36 hrs make billions daily. Great phagocytes, lytic granules, netosis traps pathogens. Go anywhere. Glycolytic. Die after acting. Filled with lipids. Why? Lipid containing cells are bigger, stickier, move towards a target.
Early Stage Researcher Award Finalists
Post prandial metabolism – took samples after eating obese vs normal – key obesity marker plasma metabolites
Fiber utilization – inulin – global market value big.
Inulin is a popular supplement
60-80% of dementia is Alz
1 in 9 over 65 has AD
Brain lipodome shows fats in brain; big differences
Polyphenol content varies greatly in different apple types.
Periodic table of food initiative – neuropeptides are largest class of signaling molecules – cell contact, short distance, and long distance types of signals. Glial communication. These signals regulate stress resistance.
Vitamin C enhances catecholamine synthesis; enhances antidepressant effect; affects many synthesis steps. Vitamin C affects and upregulates enzyme synthesis as does retinoic acid
Invited Speakers
Blackberries improve cognition in older people; lots of flavonoids in blackberries; 12 week study of over 55 age; 20gm BID blackberry powder; significant improvement but depression increased too. Had 1 ¼ cups of berries daily.
Ketogenic diet increases memory and healthspan and endurance; about 10 years life extension, rescues memory after 3 mos of ketogenic diet; BHB supplement; lots of evidence for benefit of ketogenic diet – works by synaptic plasticity and decreasing inflammation; females apoE4 positive should get keto diet as they have 4x risk for alzheimers.
Gut microbiome and broccoli sprout diet – sulforaphane (SFN) is chemical in broccoli – gut affects dietary impact; 7 bacteria control SFN results; pretreatment microbiome affects SFN benefits
Medium chain triglycerides – ketogenic diet shifts microbial diversity in microbiome;
WHAT IS KETOGENIC DIET? t he ketogenic diet, commonly known as the “keto diet,” is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate dietary pattern that aims to induce a metabolic state called ketosis.
Session 6: KEYNOTE Panel II: Advancing Precision Nutrition and Health
Bailey, Fla State
Nicastro, NIH
NIH updates. Everyone responds differently to nutrition, many opposite. NIH Nutrition for Precision Health Study. 8,000 people. All of us research database.
Fukagawa, Univ VT
At USDA. Did food composition data base. Must have a nutrition system that preserves the planet. Need to know food composition. Need to focus on workforce development, listening and communicating
Most excited about: figuring out integration that people follow; implementation of diet recommendations by doctors; people who are interested. No comments about Psycho/social/economic aspects of nutrition. Need econonists with health insurers to fund healthy diets to reduce medical costs.
What is ultraprocessed food? 8 definitions currently. Look at specific foods: Sugary sweetened beverages. Cosmetic additives, high in sodium, added sugar, and added fats.
Big issue: implementation science; change food environment; engage the community
Session 7: Nutrition & Metabolomics
10:30 AM – 12:00 PMat Cascade Ballroom
Exploring the Role of the Gut Microbiome in the Bioavailability and Bioactivity of Plant Polyphenols10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Speaker: Tiffany Weir, PhD
Blueberry polyphenols; microbiome obesity oxidative stress and inflammation. Demonstrated microbiome can cause cardiovascular disease; – endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness. Post menopausal women with high blood pressure – exptl got 1 cup blueberries daily – 12 weeks – tremendous benefit to blood flow; hippuric acid is main polyphenol; end product of most polyphenol metabolism; causes changes in microbiota-NO! some had a negative response to blueberries! Responders had a reduced microbial richness in their microbiome. Myricetin and quercetin are main chemicals causing benefit! Bind t estrogen receptors in post-menopausal women. Trying to find which metabolites would be best for dietary supplements.
Standardized Nontargeted Metabolomics for Dietary Analyses11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Speaker: Oliver Fiehn, PhD-UC Davis
Dietary intake of fruits and veggies-How do we know what people are eating? Need to standardize how to measure data, what data to measure, how to report it; set up database LC BinBase. Use mass.wiki. mixed meal analysis-Can analyze what someone ate based on urinary biomarkers, e.g. peach, strawberry, carrot, etc. Urinary biomarkers appear after 4 hours.
Integrating Multiple Spectrometries and Computational Predictions of Molecular Properties for Reference-Free Compound Identification11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Speaker: Thomas Metz, PhD
10 to the 50 possible molecules from food metabolism.
Session 8: Diet and Dietary Patterns for Healthspan
Optimal Dietary Patterns for Healthy Aging in the GLP-1 Agonist Era1:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Speaker: Frank Hu, MD, PhD, MPH
Ozempic considered the fountain of youth pill. Weight returns after drug stopped. Is fasting the fountain of youth? Nurses Health Study 50 years ago. Million veteran program. Did med diet+nuts, med diet+olive oil, control group. Studied protein, K, fatty acid omega-3, beta-carotene; nuts and olive oil both reduced cardiovascular disease 25%. Healthy aging study people over 79. Looked at 8 diets, incl. Dash, Med, MIND, etc. All were about the same. Anti aging foods vs pro-aging foods; just what I know; coffee 3-5/cups/day is healthy! Cancer, CVD parkinsons, depression, cognitive function, gout, gallstone, diabetes; food pyramid includes wine; plant based diet can be unhealthy if processed with added sugar.corn oil is bad, olive best, soybean okay. Good stuff-ellagic acid, resveratrol, vanillin, olive oil, best med diet lower CVD risk 50%. 8 lifestyle factirs-stress, alcohol, exercise sleep – 87% lower mortality risk and more than 20 years more healthspan. Everyday lifestyle habits are best fountain of youth. seed oils have high omega-6.
Alignment and Misalignment of Popular Diets with Optimal Health: As Intended vs. As Followed1:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Speaker: Christopher Gardner, PhD-standford
Nutrition has gone from nutrients to foods to diets. HUGO evaluates 40 diets. Table of 10 dietary patterns DASH, med, low fat, very low fat, low carbo, paleotlithic, very low carb, etc. It is a pattern. Ciompared guidelines vs diets. DASH, Med, pescatarian were best, paleo rated low, best were dash, med, pescarterian, low fat diet; worst was keto diet.
Keto vs med diet – keto opposes whole grains, legumes. Compared keto vs med 12 weeks. Keto harder to follow
Vegan vs omnivore: vegan did better in LDL, weight. Healthy omnivore vs western diet: best is exercise-get up and move; diet keep getting better.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil and its Phenolic Derivatives for ADRD2:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Speaker: Amal Kaddoumi, PhD
Olive oil – MUFAs and phenolic portion; olive oil EVOO without med diet? Olive oil reduced Abeta substantially in mouse brain; improves blood brain barrier; reduces IgG entry into brain; evoo reduces neuroinflammation. Reduces inflammasomes. Activated autophyagy that removes Abeta. Improved memory function. Oleocanthal OC is responsible for pungent taste. Similar effect to ibuprofen. OC has same effect as EVOO. EVOO/OC helps with sleep; Seems OC is responsible for EVOO benefits. Does EVOO prevent cognitive decline becoming AD. EVOO were much better after 6 months taking EVOO. 6 characteristics improved- Is it genetic affect for subjects with family history of AD? Ongoing trial.
Session 9: Novel Interventions
The Role of Vitamin K in Aging: From Development to Senescence
Speaker: Leon Schurgers, PhD
From Molecular Insights to Biomarkers: The Role of Choline in Health
Speaker: Isis Trujillo-Gonzalez, PhD
Vitamin in 1998. Get from eggs, bacon, chicken, spinach, etc. Makes betaine for methylation and liver, for phosphatidylcholine, acetylcholine.
Intake is below the requirement – need about 200 mg more daily. Highly polymorphic gene. Esp. for pregnant women. Essential for the brain. Hurts kids in memory tests. Essential in utero. Also affects the eye retina. Deprived get muscle damage and fatty liver.
Ketone Drinks and Healthy Aging: From Bench to Bedside4:00 PM 430 PM
Speaker: Brianna Stubbs, PhD – Buck Inst
Ketone drinks – Chart of hallmarks of aging; dietary restriction extends healthspan; common feature is making ketone bodies; ketogeconic diet extends lifespan. Acetone, acetoacetic, beta-hydroxybutyrate. Fasting, restricting sugar, calories raises them. Made in liver. 17% of brain energy during fasting. Big signaling molecules-gene expression, etc. ketone drinks are good way to get them. Ketone acids, ketone salts, ketogenic agents-coconuts. BHB is key one. Beta-hydroxybutyrate
Fuel exercise performance from sugar to fat for energy, lower muscle glycogen use. Ketones increase physical performance. Mixed findings. For healthspan of older adults – 30g/day foe 6 mos. Big recovery from Alzheimers. Ketones great for neurodegenerative disease. Also great for heart disease. 100g/day 14 days – major increase in heart performance.
Frailty – no older adult study – they did BIKE study. KE Beverage12.5g/day well tolerated, no difference in endurance, strength, cognition, fatigue. But does reduce senescence markers. Whole person function – physical cognitive social. Doing 25g of ketones BID in human studies.
HIghlights:
MSM: the Natural Solution for Pain Book: take 4.8g/day; Freedom Press publisher
Look at food waste book Nutrition Security for Planetary Health, Irana Hawkins
North American Olive Oil Association certifies which olive oils are legitimate
