closer look
A study looks at intermittent fasting for obese teens
Adobe
In 2012, British journalist Michael Mosley sparked a global trend with his BBC documentary, Eat, Fast & Live Longer, which was "intermittent fasting." A new trial in Australia where dieticians, psychologists, and pediatricians guided obese adolescents through diet plans tested whether intermittent fasting — three days of 600-700 calories, followed by four days of unrestricted eating — works.
As STAT's Isabella Cueto and Theresa Gaffney tell us, making sure teens got the right support was key in monitoring their mental health and making sure they didn't develop eating disorders. For more on the study results, check out the story here.
disability
The future of thought-enabled movement
Onward Medical announced Thursday that surgeons had implanted a brain-computer interface into a person with a spinal cord injury so they will perhaps be able to walk again. This implant is the Swiss company's third test of the system, which uses AI to translate a person's neural signals into spinal cord stimulation that aids movement. The company is eager to build on the success of its first implant and its ongoing experiment with its second participant, which targets the arms.
Earlier this year, the FDA designated Onward's system as a "breakthrough device" and placed it in a new agency program that accelerates the development of devices "critical to public health." While CEO Dave Marver cautions that any device is at least a decade away, he said the company's focus on movement, rather than computer control, will set it apart from competitors such as Neuralink and Synchron.
— Timmy Broderick, STAT's disability reporting fellow
nutrition
Picky eating may be genetic, says study
In the latest research taking advantage of the fact that twins are the perfect experiment and control for nature-vs.-nurture questions, UK scientists followed identical and fraternal twin pairs' eating habits to figure out what affects fussy eating.
Parents filled in questionnaires about their children's eating behaviors when the children were 16 months, then at three, five, seven, and 13 years old. Fraternal twins were more likely to be different in their fussy eating habits than identical twins, indicating a large genetic influence. The identical twin pairs also increasingly diverged in their picky eating habits as they got older, suggesting environmental factors, such as having different experiences and friends, is a bigger factor in eating habits as children age.
"Although fussy eating has a strong genetic component and can extend beyond early childhood, this doesn't mean it is fixed. Parents can continue to support their children to eat a wide variety of foods throughout childhood and into adolescence, but peers and friends might become a more important influence on children's diets as they reach their teens," said Alison Fildes, lead author of the study, in a press release.
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