Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Industry-funded study of the week: walnuts
Thanks to Matthew Kadey for this one.
The Study: The impact of a walnut-rich breakfast on cognitive performance and brain activity throughout the day in healthy young adults: a crossover intervention trial. Food Funct., 2025,16, 1696-1707.
Method: To examine whether walnuts led to cognitive improvements throughout the day, 32 healthy young adults, aged 18–30, were tested in a double-blind, crossover pilot study, to compare the effects of a breakfast containing 50 g walnuts with a calorie-matched control containing no nuts.
Results: Mood ratings for negative affect appeared worse following walnuts compared to control, possibly due to a general dislike of the intervention. However, walnuts elicited faster reaction times throughout the day on executive function tasks.
Conclusion: Overall, these findings provide evidence for reaction time benefits throughout the day following a walnut-rich breakfast, while memory findings were mixed with benefits only observed later in the day.
Funding: The study was funded by the California Walnut Commission, USA. The funder made no contribution during the design or implementation of the study, nor in the interpretation of findings or the decision to publish.
Comment: People don’t like eating walnuts for breakfast? The study managed to find enough evidence to justify the funding. Why the California Walnut Commission keeps funding such studies makes plenty of marketing sense, if not scientific sense. The Commission would like you to believe that there is something specially good for your health about walnuts as compared to any other nuts or foods, so you will buy walnuts rather than those others. Walnuts are fine foods. Eat them if you like them. If not, other nuts are also healthy. But watch out for the calories: 50 grams provides more than 300.
