Cornelia Weikert

Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung | BfR · Food Safety

Background: Globally, plant-based diets are gaining in popularity. Whilst their cardiometabolic benefits are well-documented, there is a lack of studies examining the associations between plant-based diets and risk of hypothyroidism. Methods: We analysed data from the UK Biobank cohort. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were...

Fatty acid esters of 2/3-monochloropropanediol (2/3-MCPD) and glycidol are formed mainly during heat processing (deodorization) of vegetable oils, and are hydrolyzed by lipases in the gastrointestinal tract leading to the absorption of 2/3-MCPD and glycidol. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified 3-MCPD as possibly an...

Objectives To investigate the association of musical activity with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A total of 3,666 participants reported their musical activity before and mental health indicators before and during the pandemic. Depression was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire, anxiety with the Generalized Anxiety...

Musical activities (MA) such as singing, playing instruments, and listening to music may be associated with health benefits. However, evidence from epidemiological studies is still limited. This study aims at describing the relation between MA and both sociodemographic and health-related factors in a cross-sectional approach. A total of 6717 adults...

The urinary mercapturic acids N-acetyl-S-(2-carbamoylethyl)-L-cysteine (AAMA) and N-acetyl-S-(2-carbamoyl-2-hydroxyethyl)-L-cysteine (GAMA) are short-term biomarkers of exposure from acrylamide and its metabolite glycidamide, respectively. The medium-term exposure to acrylamide and glycidamide is monitored by the adducts N-(2-carbamoylethyl)-Val (A...

Background A number of biomarkers denoting various pathophysiological pathways have been implicated in the aetiology and risk of age-related diseases. Hence, the combined impact of multiple biomarkers in relation to ageing free of major chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, has not been sufficiently explored....

Hintergrund: Das Interesse an pflanzenbasierter Ernährung wächst und damit die Notwendigkeit, die langfristigen Vorteile und Risiken dieser Ernährungsweise zu bewerten. Die Fragebögen, die in epidemiologischen Studien in Deutschland eingesetzt werden, erheben den Verzehr pflanzlicher Alternativprodukte nicht ausreichend. Daher wurde ein neuer Verze...

Biomarker measurements in spot urine are often adjusted for creatinine to control for dilution resulting from individual hydration. We here report on results of a study involving age- and sex-matched vegans and omnivores (n = 36 each). The daily urinary excretion of 2,3-dihydroxypropylmercapturic acid (DHPMA, a diet-independent endogenous C3-metabo...

Both veganism and high dietary acid load are linked to unfavorable bone health. However, the specific role of dietary alkali or acid load for the bone health of vegans is so far unknown. Thus, the renal biomarker for dietary acid or alkali load, i.e., urinary potential renal acid load (uPRAL), was measured in 24 h urine samples of 34 vegans and 35...

Background Iodine is an essential trace element, which is important for human metabolism, growth and mental development. Iodine deficiency may still occur in Europe and the use of iodised salt is an effective measure to enhance iodine intake. Knowledge and awareness about the importance of iodine in nutrition and health can have a positive impact o...

Purpose Dietary biomarkers can potentially overcome the limitations of self-reported dietary data. While in ecology and archaeology, stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen are widely used as biomarkers, this is not the case in nutrition research. Since the abundance of the 13C and the 15N isotope differ in food sources from plant and animal o...

Background Despite mechanistic studies linking retinol and RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4) to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), epidemiological evidence is still conflicting. We investigated whether conflicting results of previous studies may be explained by differences in the association of retinol and R...

When the amount of reactive oxygen species produced by human metabolism cannot be balanced by antioxidants, this phenomenon is commonly referred to as oxidative stress. It is hypothesised that diets with high amounts of plant food products may have a beneficial impact on oxidative stress status. However, few studies have examined whether a vegan di...

Over the last few years, the vegan diet has become increasingly popular in Germany. It has been proposed that this diet is generally lower in fat, but less is known about the impact on fatty acid (FA) profiles. Therefore, the cross-sectional “Risks and Benefits of a Vegan Diet” (RBVD) study (n = 72) was used to investigate dietary FA intake as well...

Purpose It has been estimated that most vegans meet the total protein requirements, but whether this is also true for individual essential amino acids (AAs) is unclear. Furthermore, a shift in protein intake is suggested to alter microbiota composition, but this association is unknown in terms of veganism or individual AAs. This cross-sectional stu...

Background Iodine is an essential trace element, which is important for human metabolism, growth and mental development. Iodine deficiency may still occur in Europe and the use of iodised salt is an effective measure to enhance iodine intake. Knowledge and awareness about the importance of iodine in nutrition and health can have a positive impact o...

Following a strict raw food diet (primarily based on fresh fruit and raw vegetables, waiving any consumption of heated or processed food) has the risk of undersupply of energy and certain macro- and micronutrients. In this cross-sectional study, we compared 16 non-smoking strict raw food eaters (5 women and 11 men, age 44.6 ± 12.3 years, duration o...

The exposure of operators, workers, residents and bystanders to pesticides is of high potential concern. Yet, reports on pesticide residues in the environment and near treated fields often spark debates if such findings might indicate a health risk. Although the underlying models are considered conservative, there are only limited field data on sys...

OBJECTIVE Although dietary intake of trans fatty acid (TFA) is a major public health concern, because of the associated increase in the risk of cardiovascular events, it remains unclear whether TFAs also influence risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and whether industrial TFAs (iTFAs) and ruminant TFAs (rTFAs) exert the same effect on health. RESEARCH D...

Scope: Vegans might have a higher exposure to mycotoxins due to their heightened consumption of typical mycotoxin containing food sources. Yet, data on internal exposure among vegans in comparison to omnivores are currently lacking. Methods and results: This cross-sectional study includes 36 vegans and 36 omnivores (50% females, 30-60 years). A...

Inclusion of clinical parameters limits the application of most cardiovascular disease (CVD) prediction models to clinical settings. We developed and externally validated a non-clinical CVD risk score with a clinical extension and compared the performance to established CVD risk scores. We derived the scores predicting CVD (non-fatal and fatal myoc...

Scope Furfuryl alcohol is a heat-induced food contaminant, classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. The proximal carcinogen 2-sulfoxymethylfuran leads to adduct formation in DNA and proteins (e.g., N-((furan-2-yl)methyl)-Val (FFA-Val) in hemoglobin). Methods and results We analyzed human erythrocyte samples from two studies for the presence...

Objective: Chemerin is a novel inflammatory biomarker suggested to play a role in the development of metabolic disorders, providing new avenues for treatment and prevention. Little is known about the factors that predispose elevated chemerin concentrations. We therefore aimed to explore a range of lifestyle-associated, dietary, and metabolic factor...

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a complex group of anthropogenic compounds with exceptional properties. Due to their high persistence and mobility, they have caused ubiquitous environmental contamination and in part accumulate in the food chain. In the general population, diet is the main source of PFAS exposure, with the important sources fis...

A vegan diet could impact microbiota composition and bacterial metabolites like short-chain (SCFA) and branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA). The aim of this study was to compare the concentrations of SCFA, BCFA, ammonia, and fecal pH between vegans and omnivores. In this cross-sectional study (vegans n = 36; omnivores n = 36), microbiota composition,...

Aims/hypothesis Studies suggest decreased mortality risk among people who are overweight or obese compared with individuals with normal weight in type 2 diabetes (obesity paradox). However, the relationship between body weight or weight change and microvascular vs macrovascular complications of type 2 diabetes remains unresolved. We investigated th...

Scientific evidence suggests that a vegan diet might be associated with impaired bone health. Therefore, a cross-sectional study (n = 36 vegans, n = 36 omnivores) was used to investigate the associations of veganism with calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements, along with the investigation of differences in the concentrations of nutrit...

Plant-based diets like vegetarian or vegan diets might influence circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers, thereby reducing the risk of chronic diseases. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the associations of veganism and vegetarianism with circulating inflammatory biomarkers in comparison to omnivores. Literature se...

Since family history of diabetes is a very strong risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), it might be also useful to assess the risk for CVD. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between a familial (parents and siblings) history of diabetes and the risk of inc...

Hintergrund: Das Interesse an einer veganen Ernährungsweise steigt in Deutschland stetig an. Es liegen jedoch keine aktuellen Daten zum Makro- und Mikronutrientenstatus von Veganern vor. Methode: In der Querschnittsstudie „Risiken und Vorteile der veganen Ernährung“ (RBVD) wurden von 36 Veganern und 36 Mischköstlern (jeweils 18 Männer und Frauen i...

Objective: Circulating N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a classic diagnostic and prognostic marker for heart failure. However, it is inversely associated with diabetes risk. We aimed to investigate relationships of NT-proBNP with risk of diabetes-related complications in initially healthy individuals. Research design and m...

Background: Symptomatic gallstones cause high financial and disease burden for public health systems. The combined role of diet and other lifestyle factors has not been studied so far. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between an a priori defined healthy lifestyle score (HLS, including healthy diet, moderate alcohol and regular...

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a complex group of man-made chemicals with high stability and mobility leading to ubiquitous environmental contamination and accumulation in the food chain. In human serum/plasma samples, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are the lead compounds. They are immunotoxic in experimen...

Abstract Background: Professional musicians frequently suffer from musculoskeletal complaints and disorders (MCD), which can be treated by osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness and efficacy of OMT in adult musicians. Methods: A systematic literature search included the electr...

Vegetarian or vegan nutrition might influence inflammatory processes, thereby reducing the risk of chronic diseases. As the vegan diet becomes more importance in modern societies, data from the “Risks and Benefits of a Vegan Diet”-study has been used to investigate the associations of veganism with a comprehensive spectrum of inflammatory biomarker...

Bile acids play an active role in fat metabolism and, in high-fat diets, elevated concentrations of fecal bile acids may be related to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. This study investigated concentrations of fecal and serum bile acids in 36 vegans and 36 omnivores. The reduced rank regression was used to identify dietary patterns associate...

It is assumed that diet influences the composition of gut microbiota, which in turn may affect human health status. This systematic review aimed to summarize associations of a vegan or vegetarian diet with the composition of microbiota. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase for eligible human studies with vegan or vegetarian diets...

Context: Adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (FABP4) is expressed in adipose tissue and may impair glucose homeostasis and promote atherosclerotic processes. Objective: We examined the association between serum FABP4 and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. Design: Case-cohort study embedded within a sample of...

Dietary protein restriction (PR) is emerging as an alternative approach to treat obesity and glucose intolerance since it increases plasma fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) levels. Also, dietary methionine restriction (MR) is known to mimic the metabolic effects of PR by increasing FGF-21 and inducing beneficial effects. Therefore, we tested in...

Dietary methionine restriction (MR) is well known to reduce body weight by increasing energy expenditure (EE) and insulin sensitivity. An elevated concentration of circulating fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has been implicated as a potential underlying mechanism. The aims of our study were to test whether dietary MR in the context of a high‐fa...

Importance: Inflammatory processes have been suggested to have an important role in colorectal cancer (CRC) etiology. Chemerin is a recently discovered inflammatory biomarker thought to exert chemotactic, adipogenic, and angiogenic functions. However, its potential link with CRC has not been sufficiently explored. Objective: To evaluate the pros...

Background: Case reports suggest a link between energy drinks (EDs) and adverse events, including deaths. Objectives: We examined cardiovascular and metabolic effects of EDs and mixtures providing relevant ingredients of EDs compared to a similarly composed control product (CP) without these components. Methods: This randomized, crossover tria...

Introduction: Among the world's regions, the WHO European Region has the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding at age 6 months with around 25%. Low rates and early cessation of breastfeeding have important adverse health consequences for women, infants and young children. Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding are a public health prio...

Objective: To investigate the association between three diet-quality scores corresponding to adherence to healthy dietary patterns [alternate Mediterranean (aMed), Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)] and the risk of symptomatic gallstone disease. Methods: The study comprised 43 635 men of t...

BREASTFEEDING RATES AND NATIONAL PROGRAMS IN EUROPE: SURVEY OF 11 NATIONAL BREASTFEEDING COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES Presenting Author: Melissa Theurich, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, LMU-Ludwig-Maximilians-Universita¨t Munich, Germany Co-Authors: Riccardo Davanzo (IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy); Marianne Busck-Rasmussen (Danish Comm. He...

Despite known positive effects for breastfed children and their mothers, only one third of children under four months of age are breastfed exclusively. In addition, an overview of structures, actors, and measures to promote breastfeeding in Germany is missing. In a two-year international research project entitled Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly (BB...

Background: Despite the undeniable benefits, breastfeeding in public has led in the past to controversies that gained a lot of media coverage. For this reason, the attitudes of the general population towards breastfeeding in public and the experiences of mothers who breastfeed in public were examined. Objective: The objectives were to collect cu...

Background: The Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) has been acknowledged as a healthy diet. However, its relation with risk of major chronic diseases in non-Mediterranean countries is inconclusive. The Nordic diet is proposed as an alternative across Northern Europe, although its associations with the risk of chronic diseases remain controversial. We ai...

Breastfeeding monitoring is understood to be the systematic assessment of current, comprehensive and precise data on breastfeeding rates, breastfeeding behaviour and relevant framework conditions at a national and regional level, with the aim of optimal breastfeeding support. For this purpose, in 2009, the National Breastfeeding Committee in German...

Background: Breastfeeding benefits the short- and long-term health of mothers and their children. Breastfeeding promotion is an important task for society and the healthcare system. Aims: We report national breastfeeding data and monitoring systems of selected European countries based on data provided by national breastfeeding committees and int...

Although breast milk is the best diet in the first few months of life, risks can arise for the breast-fed infant. The article gives a comprehensive overview of possible risks regarding xenobiotics and pathogens in mother's milk, including medications, smoking, alcohol consumption, coffee consumption, persistent environmental contaminants and residu...

Background: Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are a major cause of mortality and loss of quality of life in Germany. Research into risk factors of these diseases requires large population-based cohort studies. Complete and accurate assessment of the incidence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases is a key element for valid interpretation of...

Background: There is only a limited number of studies on associations between musical activity and health issues. It seems that musical activity has physiological and psychological benefits, as well as effects on the mental capacity, but this has been studied only in a few clinical and epidemiological studies. One reason might be that no appropriat...

Metabolomic approaches in prospective cohorts may offer a unique snapshot into early metabolic perturbations that are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in healthy people. We investigated the association of 105 serum metabolites, including acylcarnitines, amino acids, phospholipids and hexose, with risk of myocardial inf...

This work was supported by the French Social Affairs & Health Ministry, Department of Health (Direction Générale de la Santé). The work undertaken by David C Muller for this project was performed during the tenure of an IARC-Australia fellowship supported by Cancer Council Australia. Elio Riboli was supported by the Imperial College Biomedical Rese...

Objective: Recent in vitro data suggested that the novel adipokine chemerin may influence bone health. However, only limited evidence of the relationship between chemerin and bone health in humans is available. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between chemerin and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) in peri/premenopaus...

The adipokines chemerin and omentin-1 have been suggested to influence cardiovascular function. The study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between chemerin, omentin-1 concentrations and risk of incident heart failure (HF), respectively. We conducted a case-cohort study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cance...

Chemerin is a recently discovered adipokine with inflammatory and metabolic actions relevant for chronic disease development. However, evidence from human research on the role of chemerin in chronic disease risk is still lacking. We assessed reliability of plasma chemerin concentrations measured on two occasions over a 4-month period in 207 apparen...

Heart failure (HF) is a disabling condition involving complex vascular, neurohormonal and immune systems’ interactions. Osteoprotegerin (OPG), a bone-regulatory cytokine, has been suggested to play a key role in skeletal, vascular, and immune biology, with elevated levels observed in both experimental and clinical HF. In the present study we aimed...