A cultivated-meat plant stalls, cancer risk drops, DC goes vegan
Upside Foods walked away from its $50 million bid for a shuttered North Carolina plant built to make 26 million pounds of cultivated chicken a year after Believer Meats went bankrupt, leaving the funding winter's highest-profile casualty in limbo.
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Upside Foods walked away from its $50 million bid for a shuttered North Carolina plant built to make 26 million pounds of cultivated chicken a year after Believer Meats went bankrupt, leaving the funding winter's highest-profile casualty in limbo [63].
02
A 12-week randomized trial found a self-selected vegan diet shrank older adults' muscle mass and protein synthesis compared with an omnivorous diet, but adding resistance training closed most of the gap [6].
03
A meta-analysis of seventeen studies found vegetarians carry 13% lower total cancer risk and vegans 23% lower, with the sharpest drops in stomach and proximal colon cancer [22].
04
HBO's Lanterns made DC hero John Stewart canonically vegan in its premiere episode, with other characters accommodating rather than mocking his diet [73].
05
Foods Alive recalled its organic moringa leaf powder nationwide over possible Salmonella contamination [72].
Upside Foods drops its bid for the idle Believer Meats cultivated-chicken plant
Photo: cultivated meat news
Upside Foods withdrew its $50 million offer for a North Carolina cultivated-meat facility built to produce 26 million pounds of cultivated chicken a year, after Believer Meats collapsed into insolvency and left the plant sitting idle [63]. Upside Foods says it still wants the site and is waiting for the bankruptcy court's receiver to run a new sale process [63].
By the numbers
$50 millionthe stalking-horse bid Upside Foods walked away from for the idle plant [63]
26 million poundsof cultivated chicken the North Carolina facility was designed to produce every year [63]
Landmark RCT finds a vegan diet shrinks muscle mass in older adults
Anna Shvets (via Pexels)
A 12-week randomized controlled trial from Wageningen University put 72 healthy adults over 65 on a self-selected vegan diet, an unchanged omnivorous diet, or a vegan diet paired with resistance exercise, and found the diet-only vegan group lost thigh muscle volume and lean mass while protein intake fell sharply [6]. Adding resistance training to the same vegan diet held muscle loss and protein synthesis far closer to the omnivore group's numbers [6].
By the numbers
-1.15 kgappendicular lean mass lost over 12 weeks on the vegan diet alone, versus a +0.05 kg gain on the unchanged omnivorous diet [6]
-27.7 g/dthe drop in daily protein intake in week one of the vegan diet [6]
72healthy adults aged 65 and up split across the three study arms [6]
FromPrimary Sources
03▲Research & NutritionStory
Meta-analysis finds vegetarian and vegan diets cut cancer risk across seven types
Wikimedia Commons / Broccoli
A systematic review pooling seventeen publications found vegetarians carry a lower risk of total cancer and seven specific cancer types than non-vegetarians, with the sharpest drops in stomach and proximal colon cancer, and vegans a lower risk of total and breast cancer, using data from prospective cohort studies [22]. The World Cancer Research Fund's criteria rated the evidence for vegetarian diets and total, colorectal and breast cancer as "probable," its second-strongest confidence grade [22].
By the numbers
0.87relative risk of total cancer for vegetarians versus non-vegetarians, pooled across four studies [22]
0.77relative risk of total cancer for vegans versus non-vegetarians, pooled across three studies [22]
0.55relative risk of stomach cancer for vegetarians, tied for the largest single-site reduction the review found [22]
FromPubMed
04▲Wins & CultureStory
HBO's Lanterns makes DC hero John Stewart canonically vegan
Photo: plant based news
HBO's new series Lanterns reveals in its first episode that John Stewart, played by Aaron Pierre, is vegan, and has other characters accommodate his diet rather than mock it [73]. Stewart joins a short list of vegan superheroes that includes writer Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman, Marvel's Bruce Banner, and Harley Quinn's Poison Ivy [73].
“Ordered you up some tofu steaks. Hope that'll do you.”
Cook this: Vegan Kale Caesar Salad With Sourdough Croutons, crisped kale and toasted bread in a miso-nutritional-yeast dressing standing in for anchovy and parmesan [57].
A Harvard study of 192,000 people found five or more weekly servings of dark chocolate cut type 2 diabetes risk 21%, while milk chocolate raised it [56].
Research & Nutrition
A six-week trial found a vegan Mediterranean diet cut LDL cholesterol and fibromyalgia pain scores more than a standard Mediterranean diet in women with the condition [14].
A crossover feeding trial cut LDL cholesterol 17.9% with a whole-food, plant-based diet versus a standard American diet in adults with a genetic high-cholesterol disorder [17].
A meta-analysis of seven clinical trials found plant-based diets lower C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, though the researchers rated the certainty of the evidence low [23].
A meta-analysis found a healthful plant-based diet tied to 21% lower dementia risk, while an unhealthful plant-based pattern raised risk 24% [30].
UK diners chose plant-based meals far more often when menus paired them with differently named meat dishes instead of matching ones, lifting selection from 21% to 30% [25].
A peer-reviewed argument makes the case that reproducing casein micelles, not just casein protein, is what will let precision-fermented dairy actually behave like real cheese [53].
A new study found fertilized egg white could replace up to 80% of the fetal bovine serum used to grow muscle cells for cultivated meat [37].
A compound in blueberries and grapes helped stabilize a protein that drives fat-burning in cultured mouse muscle cells, an early, cells-only finding [1].
Recreational runners and lifters at four universities showed no significant drop in performance after four weeks on a plant-based dining-hall diet [28].
Innovation
Textile Exchange published new human rights guidance for its incoming Materials Matter Standard, covering supply chains for vegan and other materials [64].
Wins & Culture
A UK study of Meat Free Monday participants found people who lived with meat-eaters logged fewer meat-free days than those who didn't [75].
One Good Thing
Cathryn Michon just published I'm Still Here: A Cat's Purpose Forever, a hand-illustrated book of free-verse poems written in the voice of a departed cat, telling grieving guardians their love didn't end when their pet died [70]. Michon wrote the first book in the series after her own dog died, and people now use both books to build memory corners for animals they've lost [70]. It's a small, specific reminder of why this whole movement bothers: the love people feel for animals, alive or gone, is real enough to build a book around.
