[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-all":3},[4,108,181,253,318,391],{"id":5,"title":6,"author":7,"body":8,"category":91,"description":14,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":94,"navigation":95,"path":96,"publishedAt":97,"readingTime":98,"seo":99,"stem":102,"tags":103,"__hash__":107},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Freading-a-nutrition-study-without-getting-fooled.md","How to read a nutrition study without getting fooled","faculty-research-lead",{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":80},"minimark",[11,15,20,23,27,30,34,37,41,44,48,51,55,77],[12,13,14],"p",{},"Most nutrition headlines describe a study far more confidently than the study describes itself. The gap between the two is where careers in misinformation are built — and where careful practitioners earn their credibility.",[16,17,19],"h2",{"id":18},"start-with-the-design-not-the-conclusion","Start with the design, not the conclusion",[12,21,22],{},"Before reading the abstract's final sentence, find the design. A cross-sectional survey cannot establish that a food causes an outcome, no matter how large the sample. A randomised trial can, but only for the population, dose and duration actually studied.",[16,24,26],{"id":25},"ask-who-was-studied","Ask who was studied",[12,28,29],{},"A trial in 24 young male athletes tells you very little about a 68-year-old with chronic kidney disease. Generalisability is not a technicality; it decides whether the finding belongs in your consultation at all.",[16,31,33],{"id":32},"look-for-the-effect-size-not-just-the-p-value","Look for the effect size, not just the p-value",[12,35,36],{},"\"Statistically significant\" answers whether an effect is likely to be real. It does not answer whether the effect is large enough to matter. A 0.4 kg difference over twelve months is real and clinically irrelevant at the same time.",[16,38,40],{"id":39},"check-what-was-measured","Check what was measured",[12,42,43],{},"Self-reported dietary intake carries substantial measurement error. Surrogate endpoints — a biomarker moving in the right direction — are not the same as the outcome patients care about.",[16,45,47],{"id":46},"read-the-funding-and-conflicts","Read the funding and conflicts",[12,49,50],{},"Industry funding does not invalidate a study, but it belongs in your weighting, especially where the outcome measured is unusually favourable to a single product.",[16,52,54],{"id":53},"a-working-checklist","A working checklist",[56,57,58,62,65,68,71,74],"ol",{},[59,60,61],"li",{},"What was the design, and what can it support?",[59,63,64],{},"Who was studied, and for how long?",[59,66,67],{},"How large was the effect in absolute terms?",[59,69,70],{},"Was the outcome meaningful or a surrogate?",[59,72,73],{},"Who funded it, and were conflicts declared?",[59,75,76],{},"Does it agree with the wider body of evidence?",[12,78,79],{},"If a study fails several of these, it is not evidence you should be changing practice on — it is a hypothesis someone else needs to test properly.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":84},"",2,3,[85,86,87,88,89,90],{"id":18,"depth":82,"text":19},{"id":25,"depth":82,"text":26},{"id":32,"depth":82,"text":33},{"id":39,"depth":82,"text":40},{"id":46,"depth":82,"text":47},{"id":53,"depth":82,"text":54},"Research",null,"md",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Freading-a-nutrition-study-without-getting-fooled","2026-06-18",9,{"metaTitle":100,"metaDescription":101,"title":6,"description":14},"How to read a nutrition study without getting fooled | Nexus Institute Blog","Headlines rarely survive contact with the methods section. A practical checklist for reading nutrition research critically.","blog\u002Freading-a-nutrition-study-without-getting-fooled",[104,105,106],"critical appraisal","evidence","research methods","LCmoNBnWz8TeerDqjqaQr1U4SIRTbl1eTk04WSUcmr8",{"id":109,"title":110,"author":111,"body":112,"category":167,"description":116,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":168,"navigation":95,"path":169,"publishedAt":170,"readingTime":171,"seo":172,"stem":175,"tags":176,"__hash__":180},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fprotein-requirements-across-the-lifespan.md","Protein requirements across the lifespan: what the evidence supports","faculty-clinical-lead",{"type":9,"value":113,"toc":159},[114,117,121,124,128,131,135,138,142,145,149,152,156],[12,115,116],{},"The reference nutrient intake for protein was designed to prevent deficiency in most healthy adults. It was never designed to describe the intake that best supports muscle maintenance in an 80-year-old recovering from hip surgery. Confusing those two purposes causes real clinical harm.",[16,118,120],{"id":119},"children-and-adolescents","Children and adolescents",[12,122,123],{},"Requirements per kilogram fall steadily through childhood while total requirements rise with growth. Deficiency is rare where energy intake is adequate and diets are varied; the more common problem is inadequate total energy.",[16,125,127],{"id":126},"adults","Adults",[12,129,130],{},"For sedentary adults, requirements are modest and easily met. For adults training regularly, higher intakes distributed across the day support adaptation — the distribution matters nearly as much as the total.",[16,132,134],{"id":133},"pregnancy-and-lactation","Pregnancy and lactation",[12,136,137],{},"Requirements rise in the second and third trimesters and during lactation. In practice, appetite usually covers this where food access is adequate; where it is not, protein quality becomes the priority.",[16,139,141],{"id":140},"older-adults","Older adults",[12,143,144],{},"This is where the reference figures mislead most. Anabolic resistance means older muscle responds less to a given protein dose, and illness or immobility accelerates loss. Higher per-meal doses, spread across the day and paired with resistance activity, are the practical response.",[16,146,148],{"id":147},"clinical-caveats","Clinical caveats",[12,150,151],{},"Kidney disease, hepatic encephalopathy and inborn errors of metabolism all change the calculation, sometimes sharply. Protein targets in these groups belong to the care plan, not to general advice.",[16,153,155],{"id":154},"what-this-means-in-practice","What this means in practice",[12,157,158],{},"Assess the person in front of you: their age, their activity, their clinical status and what they will actually eat. A target they never reach is worth less than a slightly lower one they hit every day.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":160},[161,162,163,164,165,166],{"id":119,"depth":82,"text":120},{"id":126,"depth":82,"text":127},{"id":133,"depth":82,"text":134},{"id":140,"depth":82,"text":141},{"id":147,"depth":82,"text":148},{"id":154,"depth":82,"text":155},"Clinical Nutrition",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fprotein-requirements-across-the-lifespan","2026-06-02",8,{"metaTitle":173,"metaDescription":174,"title":110,"description":116},"Protein requirements across the lifespan: what the evidence supports | Nexus Institute Blog","Requirements set to prevent deficiency are not the same as intakes that support strength and recovery. A stage-by-stage look.","blog\u002Fprotein-requirements-across-the-lifespan",[177,178,179],"protein","sarcopenia","requirements","4dGbzNVQ7G43tZ0U2pfmMSCIfJYtSCFKAOjeyhmZlpo",{"id":182,"title":183,"author":184,"body":185,"category":91,"description":189,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":240,"navigation":95,"path":241,"publishedAt":242,"readingTime":243,"seo":244,"stem":247,"tags":248,"__hash__":252},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fdesigning-a-food-frequency-questionnaire.md","Designing a food frequency questionnaire that actually works","faculty-biostatistics",{"type":9,"value":186,"toc":232},[187,190,194,197,201,204,208,211,215,218,222,225,229],[12,188,189],{},"A food frequency questionnaire is the workhorse of nutritional epidemiology, and the fastest way to produce a dataset that cannot answer your research question.",[16,191,193],{"id":192},"match-the-instrument-to-the-question","Match the instrument to the question",[12,195,196],{},"An FFQ built to rank participants by usual intake of a single nutrient looks different from one intended to capture whole dietary patterns. Decide which you need before drafting a single item.",[16,198,200],{"id":199},"build-the-food-list-from-local-data","Build the food list from local data",[12,202,203],{},"Borrowing an FFQ validated in another population is a common shortcut and a common source of error. The food list must reflect what your population actually eats, in the portions they actually eat.",[16,205,207],{"id":206},"keep-the-recall-period-realistic","Keep the recall period realistic",[12,209,210],{},"Asking about the past year gives usual intake but invites recall error. Asking about the past month reduces error and captures seasonality poorly. Both are defensible; the choice needs justifying in your methods.",[16,212,214],{"id":213},"portion-sizes-need-anchors","Portion sizes need anchors",[12,216,217],{},"Photographs, household measures or standard portions all work. Free-text estimation does not.",[16,219,221],{"id":220},"validate-before-you-rely-on-it","Validate before you rely on it",[12,223,224],{},"Compare against multiple 24-hour recalls or weighed records in a subsample, report correlation coefficients by nutrient, and be transparent about which nutrients your instrument measures poorly. Every FFQ measures something poorly.",[16,226,228],{"id":227},"pilot-with-the-real-population","Pilot with the real population",[12,230,231],{},"A pilot with twenty participants from your target group will find problems that months of internal review will not: confusing item wording, missing staple foods, and the point at which people stop concentrating.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":233},[234,235,236,237,238,239],{"id":192,"depth":82,"text":193},{"id":199,"depth":82,"text":200},{"id":206,"depth":82,"text":207},{"id":213,"depth":82,"text":214},{"id":220,"depth":82,"text":221},{"id":227,"depth":82,"text":228},{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fdesigning-a-food-frequency-questionnaire","2026-05-20",10,{"metaTitle":245,"metaDescription":246,"title":183,"description":189},"Designing a food frequency questionnaire that actually works | Nexus Institute Blog","FFQs are cheap to administer and easy to design badly. What separates a usable instrument from an unusable one.","blog\u002Fdesigning-a-food-frequency-questionnaire",[249,250,251],"FFQ","dietary assessment","validation","FvoC8tdwkWP5ZGuZN9Efj1yl25BxTuK7_C00YHw5RNM",{"id":254,"title":255,"author":256,"body":257,"category":304,"description":261,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":305,"navigation":95,"path":306,"publishedAt":307,"readingTime":308,"seo":309,"stem":312,"tags":313,"__hash__":317},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fsodium-reduction-strategies-that-work.md","Sodium reduction: strategies that survive contact with real kitchens","faculty-public-health",{"type":9,"value":258,"toc":297},[259,262,266,269,273,276,280,283,287,290,294],[12,260,261],{},"In most settings, the majority of dietary sodium never passes through a salt shaker. It arrives in bread, processed meats, sauces, stock cubes and restaurant food. Advice built on the shaker addresses the smaller share of the problem.",[16,263,265],{"id":264},"population-approaches","Population approaches",[12,267,268],{},"Reformulation targets, front-of-pack labelling and procurement standards for schools and hospitals shift intake without requiring any individual to change behaviour. These are slow, unglamorous, and among the most cost-effective nutrition interventions available.",[16,270,272],{"id":271},"individual-counselling-that-works","Individual counselling that works",[12,274,275],{},"Focus on the highest-sodium items in that person's actual diet rather than a generic list. Substituting one daily processed item usually beats a lecture on seasoning.",[16,277,279],{"id":278},"salt-substitutes","Salt substitutes",[12,281,282],{},"Potassium-based substitutes lower blood pressure at population level, but they are not appropriate for everyone — advanced kidney disease and certain medications make them unsafe. Screen before recommending.",[16,284,286],{"id":285},"watch-the-discretionary-salt-trap","Watch the discretionary-salt trap",[12,288,289],{},"Telling someone to remove the salt shaker while their daily bread and sauces go unexamined produces disappointment and blame. Name the real sources first.",[16,291,293],{"id":292},"measuring-progress","Measuring progress",[12,295,296],{},"Spot urine estimates are convenient and imprecise; 24-hour urine collection remains the reference standard. Choose based on whether you need individual accuracy or population trend.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":298},[299,300,301,302,303],{"id":264,"depth":82,"text":265},{"id":271,"depth":82,"text":272},{"id":278,"depth":82,"text":279},{"id":285,"depth":82,"text":286},{"id":292,"depth":82,"text":293},"Public Health",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fsodium-reduction-strategies-that-work","2026-05-06",7,{"metaTitle":310,"metaDescription":311,"title":255,"description":261},"Sodium reduction: strategies that survive contact with real kitchens | Nexus Institute Blog","Advice to \"use less salt\" ignores where most sodium actually comes from. What works at population and individual level.","blog\u002Fsodium-reduction-strategies-that-work",[314,315,316],"sodium","hypertension","policy","bRBSlyBqg1F0qSnyYGToBcSy-q-V-CNUG5sXLG5ZOQ4",{"id":319,"title":320,"author":321,"body":322,"category":377,"description":326,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":378,"navigation":95,"path":379,"publishedAt":380,"readingTime":381,"seo":382,"stem":385,"tags":386,"__hash__":390},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fnutrition-graduate-career-paths.md","Where a nutrition degree can actually take you","faculty-scientific-writing",{"type":9,"value":323,"toc":369},[324,327,331,334,338,341,345,348,352,355,359,362,366],[12,325,326],{},"Nutrition graduates are often shown one career: the hospital dietitian. It is a good career, and it is a fraction of what the qualification opens.",[16,328,330],{"id":329},"clinical-and-community-practice","Clinical and community practice",[12,332,333],{},"Hospital dietetics, outpatient clinics, primary care and community programmes. Demands registration in most countries, and the ability to write a defensible care plan quickly.",[16,335,337],{"id":336},"public-health-and-programmes","Public health and programmes",[12,339,340],{},"NGOs, government units and UN agencies. Demands comfort with data, monitoring frameworks and proposal writing more than clinical technique.",[16,342,344],{"id":343},"research-and-academia","Research and academia",[12,346,347],{},"Requires methodological training the undergraduate degree rarely provides in depth — study design, statistics and scientific writing are the gatekeepers here.",[16,349,351],{"id":350},"food-industry","Food industry",[12,353,354],{},"Product development, regulatory affairs, quality assurance and labelling compliance. Pays well, and asks you to hold a clear line on evidence and ethics.",[16,356,358],{"id":357},"communication-and-consultancy","Communication and consultancy",[12,360,361],{},"Writing, media, corporate wellness and private practice. The market rewards visibility, which is precisely why professional standards matter most here.",[16,363,365],{"id":364},"what-to-build-early","What to build early",[12,367,368],{},"Whichever path you take, three things travel with you: a working knowledge of research methods, the ability to write clearly for a specific audience, and a documented record of applied work. Certificates help; portfolios help more.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":370},[371,372,373,374,375,376],{"id":329,"depth":82,"text":330},{"id":336,"depth":82,"text":337},{"id":343,"depth":82,"text":344},{"id":350,"depth":82,"text":351},{"id":357,"depth":82,"text":358},{"id":364,"depth":82,"text":365},"Career Advice",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fnutrition-graduate-career-paths","2026-04-22",6,{"metaTitle":383,"metaDescription":384,"title":320,"description":326},"Where a nutrition degree can actually take you | Nexus Institute Blog","Clinical practice is one path among many. A map of the roles nutrition graduates move into, and what each demands.","blog\u002Fnutrition-graduate-career-paths",[387,388,389],"careers","graduates","professional development","ClqSF1aTmj4R89BmmLTLTiMyPK6gnyL6vvmLhceztho",{"id":392,"title":393,"author":394,"body":395,"category":442,"description":399,"excerpt":92,"extension":93,"featuredImage":92,"meta":443,"navigation":95,"path":444,"publishedAt":445,"readingTime":308,"seo":446,"stem":449,"tags":450,"__hash__":454},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Ffermented-foods-evidence-check.md","Fermented foods and gut health: an evidence check","faculty-food-science",{"type":9,"value":396,"toc":435},[397,400,404,407,411,414,418,421,425,428,432],[12,398,399],{},"Fermented foods have moved from tradition to trend, and the claims have run well ahead of the trials.",[16,401,403],{"id":402},"what-the-evidence-reasonably-supports","What the evidence reasonably supports",[12,405,406],{},"Regular intake of a variety of fermented foods is associated with greater microbial diversity, and small trials have shown changes in inflammatory markers. Fermented foods are also, generally, an easy addition to a diet — they are palatable, familiar in most cuisines and low risk.",[16,408,410],{"id":409},"where-the-claims-outrun-the-data","Where the claims outrun the data",[12,412,413],{},"Specific disease claims — that a particular fermented food treats a named condition — rest on small, short studies with surrogate endpoints. Probiotic effects are strain-specific, and the strains in a jar of home-fermented vegetables are neither standardised nor characterised.",[16,415,417],{"id":416},"live-cultures-are-not-universal","Live cultures are not universal",[12,419,420],{},"Pasteurised sauerkraut, most shelf-stable pickles and baked goods made with sourdough contain few or no live organisms. If the mechanism you are invoking requires live cultures, the product must actually contain them.",[16,422,424],{"id":423},"practical-guidance","Practical guidance",[12,426,427],{},"Encouraging a varied intake of fermented foods alongside adequate fibre is sensible, low-risk advice. Presenting it as treatment is not.",[16,429,431],{"id":430},"safety-notes","Safety notes",[12,433,434],{},"Home fermentation carries real, if modest, risks with incorrect technique. Immunocompromised clients, pregnancy and histamine intolerance all warrant individual advice rather than general enthusiasm.",{"title":81,"searchDepth":82,"depth":83,"links":436},[437,438,439,440,441],{"id":402,"depth":82,"text":403},{"id":409,"depth":82,"text":410},{"id":416,"depth":82,"text":417},{"id":423,"depth":82,"text":424},{"id":430,"depth":82,"text":431},"Food Science",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Ffermented-foods-evidence-check","2026-04-08",{"metaTitle":447,"metaDescription":448,"title":393,"description":399},"Fermented foods and gut health: an evidence check | Nexus Institute Blog","Fermented foods are having a moment. Separating what trials support from what marketing has added.","blog\u002Ffermented-foods-evidence-check",[451,452,453],"microbiome","fermented foods","probiotics","GTJfazMGCOEsUxSxoydD415xjesJhWnTObTjjyZSfw0"]