A monthly newsletter bringing you the latest from ASN Publications

The Journal of Nutrition
Volume 152, Issue 4, April 2022

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Volume 115, Issue 4, April 2022

Advances in Nutrition
Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2022

Current Developments in Nutrition
Volume 6,Issue 4, April 2022

  • In 2014, the Navajo Nation passed the Healthy Diné Nation Act (HDNA), applying an additional 2% tax on unhealthy foods and beverages and, concurrently, a waiver of Navajo sales tax on healthy foods and beverages. In order to assess the impact of the HDNA, the authors of “Shopper Purchasing Trends at Small Stores on Navajo Nation since the Passage of Healthy Diné Nation Act Tax: A Multi-year Cross-sectional Survey” surveyed shoppers in small Navajo stores to assess their HDNA awareness as well as their purchases of water, sugar-sweetened beverages, fruits, and vegetables. 332 shoppers at 34 stores in 2017 and then 274 shoppers at 44 stores in 2019 were surveyed to assess changes in awareness and purchasing habits over time. According to the study findings, “shopper habits at small stores located on Navajo Nation have shifted towards healthier purchasing from 2017 to 2019.” For example, water purchases went up between 2017 and 2019 while, at the same time, purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages went down.  The authors did note that “despite the healthier purchasing trends and the possible influence of HDNA on healthier habits, substantial barriers remain in the Navajo Nation to accessing healthy foods and beverages. The large land area combined with poverty and the small number of grocery stores continue to make accessing healthy foods challenging and the risk for food insecurity high.”

Editorial Board Updates

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Editor-in-Chief, Christopher P. Duggan, MD, MPH is pleased to welcome Nancy F. Krebs, MD, MS as Associate Editor for AJCN. Dr. Krebs is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado and Head, Section of Nutrition at Colorado Children’s Hospital. Her expertise is in maternal and child health, with special expertise in defining dietary Zn requirements, including metabolic regulation and adaptation to different physiologic states, including in normal infants, pregnant and lactating women.

Reviewer Recognition

2021 Top Reviewers 
Every year, the four American Society for Nutrition journals identify up to five ad hoc reviewers to be named a Top Reviewer from the previous year.  Selections are based on the quality, number, and timeliness of manuscript reviews completed.

The ASN editors are grateful for the support of our many reviewers, and especially grateful to those who go above and beyond by providing multiple well-written and punctual reviews in a single year. Anonymous, conscientious, fair, and timely peer review is the lifeblood of our journals. Top 2021 Reviewers for AJCN are listed below.

Geoffrey Livesey
Independent Nutrition Logic
Martine Armand
Aix-Marseille University
Leila Larson
University of South Carolina
Kenneth Lo
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
J. Thomas Brenna
University of Texas at Austin 

Authors’ Corner

Closing soon: Call for Papers on Precision Nutrition and Metabolism in Public Health and Medicine 
AJCN is seeking manuscripts on topics including, but not limited to:Systems science and data science to help explain the complex associations between diet, nutrition, and disease.Biomarkers for assessment of nutrient needs in health and diseaseEffects of metabolites arising from metabolism of food and other biochemical processesHost biology and microbiome changes in response to foods or dietary patternsInnovative approaches to dietary-intake data captureNew tools to assess interindividual variability in response to dietary exposures Submissions for this collection are due by April 26th! Information on joining this collection can be found here.

Publish Open Access in ASN’s Journals at No Charge to You! 
Last year authors from Swedish Universities (BIBISAM affiliated) utilized an OUP Read and Publish agreement to publish 4 open access articles in ASN’s journals! Read and Publish agreements allow authors from participating institutions to publish Open Access, and the institution may pay the charge.

ASN’s publisher, Oxford University Press, recently announced 2 new read and publish deals; 1 with HEAL-LINK of Greece, and another with Polish Institutions (ICM Institutions). Does your institution participate? Find out here!

Reduced publication fees! 
As of April 1, 2022 page charges in JN and AJCN have been reduced by 20-39%! Did you know that ASN journals also stopped assessing manuscript submission fees for ASN members and non-members alike in 2018! Details here.

Reader Specials

Cardiology and Nutrition Research
Nutrition and cardiology are closely linked disciplines, and research into the connection between diet and heart health remains a vital field of research for medical academics and practitioners. This collection from Oxford University Press showcases a range of the latest research into the intersection between nutrition and cardiology. Featuring content from the internationally respected publications of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), and the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), this selection of book chapters and journal articles provides an essential resource for nutrition experts and cardiologists to keep up to date with the latest research in the field. From the opening article from Advances in Nutrition, Whole-Fat or Reduced-Fat Dairy Product Intake, Adiposity, and Cardiometabolic Health in Children: A Systematic Review , you can read this collection for free online until 31 May 2022.

Podcast: Phytosterols, LDL and Nutrigenetics
In this episode, Dennis M. Bier MD Young Career Editor Kevin C. Klatt, PhD, RD speaks with  Dylan MacKay, PhD, Assistant Professor of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba and senior author of the recently published AJCN manuscript, “Genosets for APOE and CYP7A1-rs3808607 variants do not predict LDL cholesterol lowering upon intervention with plant sterols in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial”. In this episode, we dive into the potential to predict LDL-lowering through a nutraceutical intervention (i.e. plant phytosterols) using genetic variants and more broadly, discuss the emerging field of nutrigenetics and the need for rigor and application of gold-standard clinical trial designs in the field.

AJCN In Press podcasts are available on iTunes, Spotify, and at the AJCN website.

Nutrient Information Update
Vitamin B-12
Agata Sobczyńska-Malefora, A David Smith
Adv Nutr https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmac030
Search the full list of Nutrient Information Briefs here.

Featured on nutrition.org

Current Developments in Nutrition Addresses Cultural Palatability
ASN member Dr. Samara Sterling, Research Director at The Peanut Institute, lamented that “sometimes we don’t think about cultural palatability, in other words, taking the foods that are already present within a culture and thinking about ways to healthfully prepare those foods.  Instead, often what we see is what we call ‘dietary assimilation,’ where we try to completely transform a diet to something that people are just not used to.  We need to make sure that, specifically within Black and Brown populations, the richness of flavor is there and the richness of cultural heritage is there, because it is such a big part of who we are.  We want to make sure our nutrition interventions aren’t losing people because we don’t take advantage of this really important aspect.”….READ MORE

Learn More About Publishing with ASN 

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ASN Staff