Study to evaluate family healthy weight program for childhood obesity in primary care clinics in Louisiana and Tennessee
Grant and Award Announcement
This month, we’re focusing on nutrition and the powerful role it plays in our lives. Here, we’ll share the latest research on how nutrients affect the body and brain, how scientists investigate diet and health, what these findings may mean for building healthier habits, and more.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2026 08:15 ET (19-Jun-2026 12:15 GMT/UTC)
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has launched a research study, the COACH trial, to test different ways to help children and their families improve their health through lifestyle changes delivered by primary care clinics in communities in Louisiana and Tennessee.
The COACH trial is enrolling 900 children ages 5 to 17 with obesity, which is classified as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for their age and sex. Patients and their parents are being recruited through urban, suburban and rural doctor’s offices in Tennessee and Louisiana.
New research presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2026) in Istanbul, Turkey, shows that rapid weight loss (RWL) is much more effective than gradual weight loss (GWL) in both achieving higher weight loss and also sustained weight loss at one year. The study is led by Dr Line Kristin Johnson, Department of Endocrinology, Obesity and Nutrition, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, Norway, and colleagues. The Centre is a collaborating centre with the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) (EASO-COM-Centre), which leads obesity advocacy and education efforts in Europe and organises ECO.
A widely used method for measuring how well streams absorb excess nutrients has a hidden flaw: it systematically overestimates uptake length under high-nutrient conditions. Researchers at Duke Kunshan University have derived a corrected zero-order analytical approach that better captures stream nutrient processing when nutrients are abundant, improving the accuracy of tools used to assess river health and guide restoration decisions.
Peanuts may be a familiar snack across the United States, but behind every jar of peanut butter or bag of roasted peanuts are decades of research focused on health, flavor and reliability.
At Texas A&M AgriLife, breeders, growers and industry partners are working to develop peanut varieties with better nutrition, longer shelf life and stronger performance under Texas growing conditions.