Inside a primate lab, a diabetes trial goes part-plant, cheaper lab meat
Undercover investigator Lindsay Oliver's new book pulls back the curtain on daily life inside a primate testing lab, monkeys named and known individually, employees conflicted about the work they do.
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Undercover investigator Lindsay Oliver's new book pulls back the curtain on daily life inside a primate testing lab, monkeys named and known individually, employees conflicted about the work they do [36].
02
Brazilian researchers published the protocol for a new trial testing whether flipping the animal-to-plant protein ratio in a diabetic's diet, from 15% animal protein down to 5%, improves blood sugar control [6].
03
A mouse study found kimchi's benefit to gut bacteria comes from the cabbage itself, not fermentation, while fermented drinks like kombucha and kefir showed no edge over their unfermented versions at all [5].
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A plant-and-yeast-based growth medium matched costlier synthetic formulas at feeding cultivated meat's muscle cells, with a smaller environmental footprint from the swap, an early sign the industry's priciest ingredient might get cheaper [9].
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Zendaya told Jennifer Hudson that her husband Tom Holland cooks her vegetarian meals from his brother's new cookbook, fifteen years into the vegetarian diet she adopted for the animals [39].
The movement today▲Activism & Animals▬Research & Nutrition▬Wins & CultureThe storylines →
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Activism & AnimalsStory
Undercover investigator's new book exposes daily life inside a primate testing lab
Photo: animal emotions
Investigator and author Lindsay Oliver spent time working undercover as a technician inside an active primate testing lab, then wrote about what she saw in a new book, Marshmallows Are Their Favorite: Undercover at a Primate Lab [36]. She told Psychology Today's Marc Bekoff the facility sat in an ordinary town, cinderblock cages down the road from a Target and a Starbucks, and that she came to know the monkeys inside as individuals with distinct preferences rather than numbered research subjects [36]. Oliver said many of the lab's human employees seemed conflicted about the work too, finding small ways to make the animals' lives better even while carrying out the daily routines the job required [36].
“Honestly, I wrote this book because I owe it to the monkeys.”
Lindsay Oliver, undercover investigator and author · [36]
“The facility is in the middle of a town. It could be any town. A Target on one corner, a Starbucks on another, and on another, thousands of monkeys locked in cages.”
Lindsay Oliver, undercover investigator and author · [36]
FromAnimal Emotions
02▬Research & NutritionStory
Brazilian trial protocol proposes swapping animal for plant protein in diabetes care
Wikimedia Commons / Tofu
Researchers at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil published the design for a randomized controlled trial testing whether swapping some animal protein for plant protein improves blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes [6][25]. The trial will randomize participants into two groups eating culturally adapted Brazilian diets: one gets 15% of daily energy from animal protein and 5% from plant protein, the other flips that ratio, while both target the same weight loss over the same span [6][25]. The primary measure is each group's change in HbA1c, the blood marker doctors use to track long-term blood sugar control, at 24 weeks [6][25].
By the numbers
146 participantsthe trial's total planned enrollment, split evenly between the plant-protein-forward diet and the standard animal-protein-heavy diabetes diet [6]
15% vs. 5%the swapped share of daily calories from plant versus animal protein between the two study arms [6]
24 weekshow long each group follows its diet before researchers compare blood sugar control [6]
FromPubMedRequested Evidence
03▬Wins & CultureStory
Zendaya says her husband cooks her vegetarian meals from his brother's cookbook
Photo: plant based news
Zendaya told Jennifer Hudson on her daytime talk show that she makes a "very good" spicy vodka pasta, and confirmed her husband Tom Holland also cooks her vegetarian recipes from his brother's new cookbook [39]. Holland told the Dish podcast in July he leans on the veggie section of Kitchen Kickstart, the cookbook by his brother Sam Holland, because his wife doesn't eat meat [39]. Zendaya has followed a vegetarian diet since age 11, telling People in 2016 why she made the switch [39].
Cook this: One Green Planet's herb-roasted harvest bowl layers roasted parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes over green lentils with a lemony tahini dressing and pumpkin seeds, ready in about an hour for a fall weeknight [34].
VegNews rounded up nine ways to use sourdough starter and its discard this fall, from Indian-spiced aloo kulcha to fried biscuits to a five-day guide for growing a starter from scratch [31].
Research & Nutrition
A four-arm trial fed 66 adults standardized diets varying only in plant-food content for two weeks, then banked their blood, urine, and stool samples to validate a biomarker panel that could measure what people actually eat instead of relying on food diaries [7].
A bibliometric review of plant, microbial, cultivated, and insect protein research found no single platform beats the others on sustainability, cost, and nutrition at once, evidence against any one technology's claim to being the fix for the protein transition [8].
One Good Thing
In Bali, pesticides, light pollution, and development have driven fireflies from the island. Conservationist Wayan Wardika started Bring Back the Light in 2020 to breed them and return them to the wild, and he has since turned to something more durable: persuading his farming neighbors to drop the chemicals and go organic, the habitat fix the fireflies actually need to hold on for good [37].
Animal Emotions
