Anna Borek 🐌 Profile picture
Medically trained & sceptically minded. I mostly tweet about #animalfree diets. My tweets ≠ medical advice.
Omni Mane Profile picture 2 subscribed
Feb 16 5 tweets 1 min read
Summary of the research of ultra-processed foods:

1⃣ +++ Observational studies link ⬆️total UPF to bad health outcomes.

2⃣ But sub-analysis by UPF type indicates that only a few UPFs are driving these associations (mainly fizzy pop🥤 & ultra-processed animal products🥓). 3⃣ The aforementioned observational studies usually control for diet quality & energy intake... this is NOT about whether junk food is bad for health (we pretty much know it is).

The key question is whether ultra-processing is intrinsically harmful.
Feb 9 16 tweets 3 min read
The “heritability” of bodyweight is thought to be between 40-50%. For those with severe obesity, this figure rises to 80%.

What does this mean❓

In this 🧵, I’ll try to shed some light🔦 on this Q.👇 "Does it mean that the obesity crisis was primarily caused by genetics?"

💬 No.

The recent surge in obesity was/is primarily caused by environmental changes (imo) ....

... & this is entirely compatible with high heritability values for bodyweight.
Feb 8 10 tweets 4 min read
In this study from 1994, 7 pairs of identical twins 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️were monitored for 24/7 for 4 months in a metabolic ward (wow 🤯).

They were placed on a maintenance diet & an energy deficit (1000kcal/d) was induced via exercise training (🚴‍♀️🚴) for about 90 days.

So what happened❓ Image They lost weight (naturally).

Mean weight loss was 5kg. Which is 78% of the estimate energy deficit.

Nearly all the weight loss was from fat 🤩 Image
Nov 15, 2023 9 tweets 2 min read
A meal containing animal flesh was found to be more anabolic compared to a protein-equated whole-food plant-based dish in older adults:

⬆️ EAA
⬆️ Peak EAA
⬆️ Leucine
⬆️ Peak leucine

⬆️ Muscle protein synthesis
⬆️ Whole body protein synthesis

Some thoughts 👇🧵 Image This result is what many of us would have predicted... as whole plant foods contain more anti-nutritional factors as well as fibre (which may impair absorption/speed of amino acids).

But it's good to see this confirmed in a controlled study.
Nov 13, 2023 7 tweets 4 min read
In this thread I will gather studies on vegan/vegetarian meats & hard clinical outcomes 🧵 👇

💬 Please feel free to link me to studies I may have missed In this prospective cohort (AHS-2) "meat analogues of at least one serving daily reduced the risk of hip fracture by up to 49 %".

Interesting to note that legumes intake and meat intake independently reduced the risk of hip fracture by 40–64 %.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…


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Oct 21, 2023 21 tweets 11 min read
👁️📜 "Red meat consumption & risk factors for type 2 diabetes: a systematic review & meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials"

💬Yes, it was funded by "Beef Checkoff".

But in this 🧵, I want to focus on analysing the details of the SR&MA itself (+ included studies).

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You can find the study here.

I am going to be reading all of the studies... so it's going to take a while.

Feel free to help by replying with learned opinions & observations 🖖ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Aug 14, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
👁️📜 Meta-analysis of RCTs shows that an 🏃‍♀️exercise-induced 🚴 calorie deficit is superior for inducing reductions in visceral fat compared to caloric restriction (dieting),

What's more, the relationship between exercise & ⬇️ visceral fat was found to be dose dependent Image I am not terribly surprised by this. I think it's pretty much common sense.

Exercise has a tendency to protect lean mass... and this may be the explanation imo.
Nov 27, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
IMO ⬇️ energy density > ⬆️ protein (for satiety & weight loss).

Disagree❓ Why❔ "Experimental studies indicate that decreasing energy density of food products has a strong and largely linear effect on daily energy intake".

link.springer.com/article/10.118…

Effects on daily energy intake (all studies) & studies manipulating energy density of all foods/meals 👇
Apr 6, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read
🟢Chickpeas (boiled) vs 🔴Sirloin steak (fat eaten)

[Per 250kcal]

🔔Round 1 [fibre and fats]

Fibre 🟢🥊💥
Saturated fat 🟢🥊
Cholesterol 🟢

🎙️"A great first round for chickpeas... this plucky underdog seems to have been underestimated!" 🔔Round 2 [protein and amino acids]

Total protein: 🔴🥊💥(26.7 vs 13.5
Cystine: 🔴
Histidine: 🔴
Isoleucine: 🔴
Leucine: 🔴🥊
Lysine: 🔴
Methionine: 🔴
Phenylalanine:🔴
Threonine:🔴
Tryptophan: 🔴
Tyrosine:🔴
Valine: 🔴
Jul 26, 2021 7 tweets 4 min read
(1/n) I will be conducting an N=1 'experiment' to try to determine the impact of 2 #eggs per day on my LDL-C, ApoB, HDL-C and triglycerides.

I will document everything in this thread 👇

#eggsperiment (2/n) Protocol:

Blood test.

Tofu diet phase: Breakfast of scrambled tofu plus a set menu x 14 days.

Blood test.

Wash out phase: Usual diet x 10 days.

Blood test.

Egg diet phase: Isocaloric breakfast of scrambled egg plus the same set menu x 14 days.

Blood test.
Apr 20, 2021 35 tweets 9 min read
(1/n) Some ideas on the planning of a healthy low-carb plant-based diet.

A THREAD 👇⬇️

#Vegan #plantbased #lowcarb #ecoatkins (2/n) ⚠️TWITTER IS NOT A SOURCE OF MEDICAL ADVICE⚠️

• If you have a serious medical condition &/or take medication, it is necessary to consult your doctor before making changes to your diet.

• Ketogenic diets have been associated with serious side-effects.
Oct 12, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read
To make table sugar from sugar beets involves a level of processing which seems to me more akin to creating a pharmaceutical grade substance than a foodstuff.

I will list the processes below. Sugar beets are washed and cut into chips and boiled.

Only the water is used to make suagr -- the 'chips' are used to create pet food.

Next the 'sugar water' is cleaned with limewater and then filtered.
Oct 10, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
Plant-based proteins do not stimulate muscle growth as well as animal-based. It is less digestible and contains lower levels of branch-chain amino acids. But I do not think that this is a good enough reason to favour animal-based protein: I will explain why below: Plant proteins in sufficient quantities can help us to build muscle and strength – the numerous elite-level plant-based athletes are a testament to this. When plant protein is eaten at higher levels, the problems of lower digestibility and anabolic potential are overcome.