Benoit Lamarche

• Université Laval

There is a growing focus on understanding the complexity of dietary patterns and how they relate to health and other factors. Approaches that have not traditionally been applied to characterize dietary patterns, such as latent class analysis and machine learning algorithms, may offer opportunities to characterize dietary patterns in greater depth t...

The diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission has faced criticism concerning its affordability. This study aimed to investigate the cost associated with a greater alignment to the EAT-Lancet reference diet in the province of Québec, Canada. The dietary habits of 1147 French-speaking adults were assessed using repeated Wed-based 24-hour recall data...

Background/Objectives: Hypertensive response to exercise (HRE) is an established risk factor for cardiovascular events. HRE is prevalent among people with excess adiposity. Both obesity and HRE have been individually associated with adverse cardiac remodeling. We hypothesized that HRE would be associated with adverse measures of cardiac structure a...

Background and aims: Epicardial adiposity has been positively associated with visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Few studies have examined the association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and epicardial adiposity. Furthermore, whether this relationship was independent of VAT remains unexplored. Our purpose was to investigate the contribution of...

Optimal non-invasive biomarkers for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) remain elusive, especially in the detection of early stages. This study tested in an asymptomatic cohort of 171 men (49.2 ± 8.6 years) and 131 women (51.8 ± 8.5 years) whether waist circumference (WC) and circulating levels of insulin-like growth fa...

Background Healthy eating habits at a young age are crucial to support growth and development and good general health. In this context, monitoring youth dietary intakes adequately with valid tools is important to develop efficient interventions and identify groups that are more at risk of inadequate intakes. This study aimed to assess the relative...

There is a growing focus on better understanding the complexity of dietary patterns and how they relate to health and other factors. Approaches that have not traditionally been applied to characterize dietary patterns, such as machine learning algorithms and latent class analysis methods, may offer opportunities to measure and characterize dietary...

The primary objective of this study was to examine how social desirability is associated with self-reported measures of dietary intakes and variables related to attitudes and behaviours towards eating. This analysis was conducted in 1083 adults (50.0% women) from the PREDISE study. Social desirability was assessed using the Balanced Inventory of De...

Lay summary Obesity is frequently accompanied by a fatty liver. However, some individuals with high abdominal fat levels nevertheless have low levels of liver fat. Reasons for such discordant phenotypes are unclear. In this paper, we report that among asymptomatic individuals with high levels of visceral fat, low concentrations of IGFBP-2 in the ci...

For the first time since its introduction, the 2019 Canada's Food Guide (2019-CFG) highlighted specific guidance on eating practices, i.e., recommendations on where, when, why, and how to eat. The Canadian Eating Practices Screener / Questionnaire court canadien sur les pratiques alimentaires was developed to assess eating practices based on the 20...

The gut microbiota and the endocannabinoidome (eCBome) play important roles in regulating energy homeostasis, and both are closely linked to dietary habits. However, the complex and compositional nature of these variables has limited our understanding of their interrelationship. This study aims to decipher the interrelation between dietary intake a...

Des milliers d’articles scientifiques sur la nutrition sont publiés chaque année et les professionnels de la santé ont peine à suivre devant ce raz- de-marée d’information. Mais qui dit publication scientifique ne dit pas systématiquement information de qualité. Il est donc essentiel pour les diététistes- nutritionnistes d’être en mesure de juger g...

In 2019, Health Canada released a new iteration of Canada's Food Guide (2019-CFG), which, for the first time, highlighted recommendations regarding eating practices, i.e., guidance on where, when, why, and how to eat. The objective of this study was to develop a brief self-administered screener to assess eating practices recommended in the 2019-CFG...

Background and hypothesis: Low circulating levels of insulin-like growth-factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) have been associated with increased adiposity and metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in individuals with obesity. However, whether IGFBP-2 affects energy metabolism in the ea...

The Canadian Food Intake Screener/Questionnaire court canadien sur les apports alimentaires was developed to rapidly assess alignment of adults’ dietary intake over the past month with the 2019 Canada’s Food Guide’s healthy food choices recommendations. From July to December 2021, adults (n = 154) aged 18–65 years completed the screener and up to t...

The objective of this project was to develop a brief self-administered dietary screener, in English and French, to rapidly assess alignment of adults’ dietary intake with the 2019 Canada's Food Guide healthy food choices recommendations. In consultation with Health Canada and external advisors (n = 15), guiding principles were defined. Existing scr...

Introduction Many dietary guidelines promote the substitution of animal proteins with plant-based proteins for health benefits but also to help transitioning toward more sustainable dietary patterns. The aim of this study was to examine the food and nutrient characteristics as well as the overall quality and costs of dietary patterns consistent wit...

Background Bioactive lipids produced by human cells or by the gut microbiota might play an important role in health and disease. Dietary intakes are key determinants of the gut microbiota, its production of short-chain (SCFAs) and branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), and of the host endocannabinoidome signalling, which are all involved in metabolic...

The Canadian Food Intake Screener/Questionnaire court canadien sur les apports alimentaires was developed to rapidly assess alignment of adults’ dietary intake over the past month with the 2019 Canada Food Guide’s healthy food choices recommendations. From July to December 2021, adults (n=154) aged 18-65 years completed the screener and up to two 2...

The objective of this project was to develop a brief self-administered dietary screener, in English and French, to rapidly assess alignment of adults’ dietary intake with the 2019 Canada’ s Food Guide healthy food choices recommendations. In consultation with Health Canada and external advisors (n=15), foundational principles were defined. Existing...

Automated, self-administered, Web-based 24-h dietary recall tools are increasingly available for nutrition research in different settings, particularly in epidemiological studies and national surveys because of their practicality and efficiency. However, the usability of different 24-h dietary recall tools must be assessed and compared for use in s...

Background Low-carbohydrate, high animal fat and protein diets have been promoted for weight loss and diabetes treatment. We therefore tested the effect of a low-carbohydrate vegan diet in diabetes as a potentially healthier and more ecologically sustainable low-carbohydrate option. Objectives We sought to compare the effectiveness of a low-carboh...

The aim of this study was to assess the association between daily diet costs and the Healthy Eating Food Index (HEFI)-2019, an index that reflects the alignment of dietary patterns to recommendations on healthy food choices in the 2019 Canada’s Food Guide (CFG). Dietary intake data from 24 h recalls, completed between 2015 and 2017, of 1147 French-...

Background The Canada's Food Guide (CFG) was profoundly revised in 2019, but the extent to which adherence to recommendations on healthy food choices reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unknown Objectives The aim of this study was to examine how greater adherence to the 2019 CFG's recommendations on healthy food choices influences...

Low circulating concentrations of insulin growth-factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) have been associated with dyslipidemia, notably with high triglyceride (TG) levels. However, the determinants by which IGFBP-2 influences lipoprotein metabolism, especially that of TG-rich lipoproteins (TRL), are poorly understood. Here, we aimed to assess the relat...

Objectives The sustainable diet paradigm rests, among others, on the replacement of animal proteins by plant-based proteins. Our aim was to provide insights on the food and nutrient characteristics of a dietary pattern consistent with lower intakes of animal proteins among French Canadians. Methods Analyses were conducted in 1147 French-speaking a...

Objectives While there is evidence that the early lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic may have had small positive impacts on several populations’ dietary habits, the longer term effects remain largely unknown. The aim of this study was to document changes in diet quality over the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in adults from the Province of Québe...

Objectives Machine learning (ML) algorithms can potentially improve predictive performances compared to traditional statistical models. The aim of this study was to predict adherence to the 2019 Canada's Food Guide (CFG) recommendations on healthy food choices using ML and a large array of variables/features related to dietary habits. Methods In a...

Background Very few validated instruments, particularly screening tools applicable to large cohort studies, are available to assess the behavior of local food procurement. Objective To develop and validate a short questionnaire that measures local food procurement in a sample of French-speaking adults from Québec, Canada and to assess the associat...

The extended endocannabinoid system, also termed endocannabinoidome, participates in multiple metabolic functions in health and disease. Physical activity can both have an acute and chronic impact on endocannabinoid mediators, as does diet. In this crossover randomized controlled study, we investigated the influence of diet on the peripheral respon...

Machine learning (ML) algorithms may help better understand the complex interactions among factors that influence dietary choices and behaviors. The aim of this study was to explore whether ML algorithms are more accurate than traditional statistical models in predicting vegetable and fruit (VF) consumption. A large array of features (2,452 feature...

The objective of this study was to validate an automated self-administered 24-hour dietary recall web application (R24W) against recovery biomarkers for sodium, potassium and protein intakes and to identify individual characteristics associated with misreporting in a sample of 61 men and 69 women aged 20–65 years from Québec City, Canada. Each part...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and reliability of the Healthy Eating Food Index-2019 (HEFI-2019), which was developed to measure adherence to Canada’s Food Guide 2019 (CFG-2019) recommendations on healthy food choices. Dietary intake data from 24-hour dietary recalls in the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-N...

The release of Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) in 2019 by Health Canada prompted the development of indices to measure adherence to these updated dietary recommendations for Canadians. This study describes the development and scoring standards of the Healthy Eating Food Index (HEFI-2019), which is intended to measure alignment of eating patterns with CFG...

Background The 2019 Canada's Food Guide (CFG) recommends that foods containing mostly unsaturated fat (UFA) should replace foods that contain mostly saturated fat (SFA) to reduce SFA intakes. Objective The objective of this study was to model the theoretical changes in intake of SFA at the population level if all Canadians adhered to that recommen...

The global food system is facing multiple problems, including rising food insecurity, degrading environments, and an increased incidence of diet-related chronic diseases. International organizations are thus calling for a transition toward territorialized food systems to alleviate some of these challenges. Yet, limited evidence supporting the benef...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving area that offers unparalleled opportunities of progress and applications in many healthcare fields. In this review, we provide an overview of the main and latest applications of AI in nutrition research and identify gaps to address to potentialize this emerging field. AI algorithms may help better...

Background The 2019 Canada's Food Guide recommends the consumption of lower fat dairy products to reduce saturated fat (SFA) intakes. Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the impact of such recommendation on SFA intake at a population level in Canada. Methods Analyses were conducted based on dietary intakes from the nationally rep...

The American Heart Association criteria for cardiovascular health include overall diet quality (DQ). The present study evaluated the effect of a workplace health promotion program targeting DQ and physical activity on features of cardiometabolic risk (CMR). Before and after the 3-month intervention, 2260 employees (1462 men and 798 women) completed...

Severe obesity is associated with major health issues and bariatric surgery is still the only treatment to offer significant and durable weight loss. Assessment of dietary intakes is an important component of the bariatric surgery process. Objective: To document the dietary assessment tools that have been used with patients targeted for bariatric...

Given the challenges with nutrition research, the Canadian Nutrition Society and Intertek Health Sciences Inc held an expert consultation in late 2019 to discuss the development and implementation of best practices for clinical trials on whole foods. Key challenges in the design, interpretation, and reporting of clinical efficacy studies on whole f...

The study aimed at documenting motivational orientations for the regulation of eatingas defined by self-determination theory and their association with sociodemographic characteristics and overall diet quality. As part of the PREDISE study, French-speaking women (n = 550) and men (n = 547), aged 18–65 years, living in the Province of Québec, Canada...

Background: Blood lipid concentrations display high interindividual variability in response to dietary interventions, partly due to genetic factors. Existing studies have focused on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) analyzed individually, which only explain a limited fraction of the variability of these complex phenotypes. Objective: We aim...

Diets varying in saturated (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content can impact glycemic control; however, whether underlying differences in genetic make-up can influence blood glucose responses to these dietary fatty acids is unknown. We examined the impact of dietary oils varying in SFA/MUFA content on changes in blood glucose levels (p...

Background Associations between sugar consumption and cardiometabolic health, taking into account the physical form of sugar-containing foods (liquid vs. solid) and the type of sugars consumed [free sugars (FSs) vs. naturally occurring sugars (NOSs)], remain to be thoroughly documented. Objective The objective was to examine whether FS and NOS int...

Increased blood pressure (BP), vascular dysfunction and inflammation are involved in the etiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although several dietary components such as polyphenols and L-citrulline may help to control BP, their combined impact on ambulatory BP in individuals at risk of CVD remains unknown. The objective of this research was t...

Background The impact that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–related early lockdown has had on dietary habits of the population and on food insecurity is unknown. Objective The aim of this study was to document the change in diet quality and in food insecurity observed during the COVID-19–related early lockdown. We hypothesized that the lock...

Purpose To assess how nutrition knowledge is associated with global diet quality and to investigate whether sociodemographic characteristics (ie, sex, age, education, income, marital status, and living with children or not) moderate this association. Design Cross-sectional web-based study. Participants The PREDISE study aims at identifying correl...

Background Although mostly food-based, the majority of dietary guidelines also recommend limiting the consumption of foods high in SFAs. Yet, the association between the consumption of SFAs from different food sources and overall diet quality remains uncertain. Objectives The objective of this study was to examine the associations between SFAs fro...

Indices reflecting overall diet quality are used globally in research to predict the risk of various diseases and metabolic disorders such as metabolic syndrome (MetS). Such indices are built to measure adherence to current dietary guidelines or to best assess the diet–disease relationship. Although mostly food-based, dietary guidelines often inclu...

Introduction The epidemic of non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes is attributable in large part to unhealthy eating and physical inactivity. In the fall of 2016, the Québec government launched its first-ever Government Health Prevention Policy (Politique gouvernementale de prévention en santé (PGPS)) to in...

The research aimed at examining how liking for foods high in salt and fat and for foods high in sugar are associated with overall diet quality and how these associations differ according to individual characteristics (i.e., sex, age, education, income, nutrition knowledge, and energy reporting status) in French-speaking adults from the Province of...

Web-based instruments are being increasingly used in nutrition epidemiology and surveillance. However, the extent to which dietary intake estimates derived from web-based 24-h recalls such as the R24W are consistent with data derived from more traditional interviewer-administered 24-h recalls (TRAD) remains uncertain. Our objective was to compare d...

Recent data from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) suggest that DHA may have stronger anti-inflammatory effects than EPA. This body of evidence has not yet been quantitatively reviewed. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of DHA and EPA on several markers of systemic inflammation by pairwise and network meta-analyses of RCTs. MEDLINE, E...

Background: We previously built a genetic risk score (GRS) highly predictive of the plasma triglyceride (TG) response to an omega-3 fatty acid (n-3 FA) supplementation from marine sources. The objective of the present study was to test the potential of this GRS to predict the plasma TG responsiveness to supplementation with either eicosapentaenoic...

Oxylipins and endocannabinoids (eCBs) both belong to superclasses of lipid mediators with potent inflammation modulatory activities. The adipose tissue (AT) plays a key role in metabolic syndrome-related inflammation, via altered adipocyte physiology, infiltrated macrophages and altered profile of eCBs. We previously reported that DHA is more poten...

Objectives To investigate the short-term impact of supplementation with a combination of polyphenols extracts and L-citrulline on ambulatory blood pressure (BP), vascular function and inflammation in pre-hypertensive individuals. Methods In a randomized double-blind parallel trial, men and women with pre-hypertension were subjected to 6-wk supplem...

Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the effect of DHA and EPA on several markers of systemic inflammation by pairwise and network meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE and The Cochrane Library were searched through September 2019. We included RCTs of ≥ 7 days that directly compared the effects of...

Introduction et but de l’étude Les données sur les habitudes alimentaires d’une population tirées d’études épidémiologiques sont la principale source d’informations dans l’établissement des lignes directrices nutritionnelles. Or, les méthodes d’évaluation alimentaire actuelles sont autodéclarées et sontcritiquées sévèrement en raison d’erreurs syst...

Background: Prospective cohort studies may support public health efforts in reducing health inequalities. However, individuals with a low socioeconomic status (SES) are generally underrepresented in health research. This study aimed to examine the intention and determinants of intention of individuals with a low SES towards participation in a Web-...

Background: Canadian dietary guidelines include a recommendation to limit the consumption of foods high in saturated fats (SFA), regardless of their dietary source. The same guidelines also recommend consumption of lean red meat and low-fat dairy products. Yet, the association between the consumption of SFA from different food sources and diet qual...

We aimed to compare the dietary quality and intake of pregnant women, women planning to conceive and women of childbearing age. Fifty-five pregnant women were matched for age and pre-pregnancy body mass index with 55 women planning to conceive and 55 women of childbearing age. Three Web-based 24-h recalls were completed, from which the Canadian Hea...

The objectives were to assess whether social support for healthy eating and perceived food environment are associated with diet quality, and to investigate if sociodemographic characteristics moderate these associations. A probability sample of French-speaking adults from the Province of Québec, Canada, was recruited in the context of the PREDISE s...

Background: Coaches are considered as an important source of nutrition information by their athletes. However, their knowledge in this area is often insufficient for proper guidance and may lead to the dissemination of misinformation regarding sports nutrition. The aim of this study was to assess coaches' intentions as well as psychosocial determi...

Introduction: The consumption of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) has been reported to have beneficial health effects, notably, by reducing plasma triglyceride levels. Nonetheless, a concomitant decrease in insulin sensitivity has also been observed, but is highly variable among subjects. Herein, we aimed to determine the...

Objective To assess the associations among eating behaviour traits, food label use and diet quality and to evaluate if the association between eating behaviour traits and diet quality is mediated by food label use. Design Eating behaviour traits were assessed using the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), the Restraint Scale and the Intuitive...

Introduction: Carotenoids, which are a reliable biomarker of fruit and vegetable consumption, are positively associated with the lipid profile. Circulating carotenoid concentrations may interact with several omics profiles including genome, transcriptome, and epigenome. Few studies have used multi-omics approaches, and they rarely include environm...

The purpose of this study was to examine how using the mean of two consecutive measurements vs. one measurement post-treatment influences the sample size required to detect changes in cardiometabolic risk factors in dietary studies. For a given statistical power, using the mean of two measurements taken on consecutive days post-treatment instead of...

Background: The extent to which dairy products and their fat content influence cardiovascular health remains uncertain. Objective: This study aimed to assess how consumption of low-fat milk and regular-fat cheese enriched in γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) influences daytime ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and other cardiometabolic risk factors. Meth...

The objective of this study was to characterize the intakes of different types of sugars in an age- and sex-representative sample of French-speaking adults from five regions of the Province of Québec, Canada, enrolled in the cross-sectional PREDISE (PRÉDicteurs Individuels, Sociaux et Environnementaux) study (n = 1147, 18–65 years old; 50.2% women)...

Abstract Background There is very limited knowledge on the magnitude to which foods with low nutritive value constitute the diet of adults from the province of Quebec. The extent to which these foods impact cardiometabolic risk is also poorly documented. The objective was to assess the contribution of low nutritive value foods to total energy intak...

Background: Whether changes in dairy product consumption are related to subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains unknown. Objective: We evaluated the association of long-term changes in dairy product consumption with subsequent risk of T2D among US men and women. Methods: We followed up 34,224 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up...

The 2019 revised version of Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) recommends limiting the consumption of processed foods that are high in saturated fatty acids (SFA). Yet, the contributions of each CFG group to the total SFA intake of Canadians are not specifically known. The objectives of this study were to quantify the total SFA intake of Canadians, determin...

Background: The objective of this study was to develop and validate a short, self-administered questionnaire to assess diet quality in clinical settings, using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) as reference. Methods: A total of 1040 men and women (aged 44.6 ± 14.4 y) completed a validated web-based food frequency questionnaire (webFFQ)...

The aim of the present study was to assess the relative validity of a new web-based 24-h dietary recall (R24W) in terms of vegetable and fruit (VF) intake assessment using serum carotenoid concentrations as reference biomarkers. A total of seventy-four women and seventy-three men (mean age 47·5 ( sd 13·3) years; mean BMI 25·5 ( sd 4·4) kg/m ² ) com...

Purpose: (1) Determine the effect of exercise amount and intensity on the proportion of individuals for whom the adipose tissue (AT) response is above the minimal clinically important difference (MCID); and (2) Examine whether clinically meaningful anthropometric changes reflect individual AT responses above the MCID. Methods: Men (n=41) and wom...

Dietary omega-3 fatty acids (ω3), particularly long-chain ω3 (LCω3), have protective effects against prostate cancer (PCa) in experimental studies. Observational studies are conflicting, possibly because of the biomarker used. This study aimed at evaluating associations between grade reclassification and ω3 levels assessed in prostatic tissue, red...

The objective of this study was to identify key elements from the 2007 Canada’s Food Guide that should be included in a diet quality score aiming to reflect the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Dietary intakes of 998 adults (mean age: 43.2 years, 50% women) were used to obtain the Canadian Healthy Eating Index 2007 (C-HEI 2007) and Alternative He...

Background: Different fatty acids (FAs) can vary in their obesogenic effect, and genetic makeup can contribute to fat deposition in response to dietary FA composition. However, the antiobesogenic effects of the interactions between dietary MUFAs and genetics have scarcely been tested in intervention studies. Objective: We evaluated the overall (...

Variability in plasma carotenoids may be attributable to several factors including genetic variants and lipid profile. Until now, the impact of DNA methylation on this variability has not been widely studied. Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) is a systems biology method used for finding gene clusters (modules) with highly correlate...

Background: The relationship between changes in dairy product consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has not been evaluated. Objective: We evaluated the association of 4-year changes in dairy product consumption with subsequent 4-year risk of T2D among U.S. men and women. Methods: We followed-up 35,148 men in the Health Professionals Follow-...