News Round-up
Updated Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Guidance
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists have recently published updated eating, drinking and swallowing guidance, along with public information and an EDS competency framework for SLTs.
This work was co-produced by service users with lived experience of eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties.
When asked what the guidance means for BAPEN members, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ Senior Project Manager Kathleen Graham said: “We’re proud to launch this new, open-access guidance on eating, drinking and swallowing (EDS) difficulties, co-produced with people with lived experience. It clarifies how to best utilise the skills of speech and language therapists in EDS care, with new advice on supporting people with avoidance, restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and oesophageal difficulties, as well as recommended response times for initial assessments. We hope it supports more joined-up, person-centred care across different settings.”
There is also a webinar available on the guidance, which you can access here.
For further reading, visit: www.rcslt.org/members/clinical-guidance/eating-drinking-and-swallowing/
Urgent Need for National Strategy to Combat Rising Eating Disorders
With the number of people with an eating disorder increasing, along with a lack of national guidance for support teams, researchers are calling for a new national strategy that includes specific guidance to support the remote delivery of eating disorder services.
In the paper led by academics at Northumbria University, published in the Journal of Eating Disorders, figures outlining the scale of the challenges and increasing numbers of people impacted include:
- Approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder
- 12.5% of 17 to 19-year-olds in England reported having an eating disorder in 2023, compared with 0.8% in 2017
- The financial cost of eating disorders to the English economy was estimated as £8 billion in 2020.
For further reading, visit: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-025-01224-y
Dietary & Lifestyle Patterns & Cancer Prevention – New report from the WCRF
A new report from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) emphasises that analysing dietary and lifestyle patterns together, rather than looking at single nutrients or food groups, can help researchers and the public better understand how to reduce cancer risk.
This report from their Global Cancer Update Programme (CUP Global) looks at how dietary and lifestyle patterns affect overall cancer risk, as well as looking specifically at preventing breast cancer (analysing 84 studies) and colorectal cancer (86 studies).
For further reading, visit: https://bit.ly/4jkUIeO
Seeking Nutrition, Not Sustainability, Reduces Food Waste
Consumers who are conscious of their nutrition exhibit behaviours that significantly reduce food waste, even more so than those whose behaviour is driven by sustainability concerns, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.
Researchers surveyed 1030 Australians and found that nutrition-conscious consumers had many waste-reducing habits and, as a result, generate less food waste.
“People who prioritise healthy eating tend to plan meals and avoid over-purchasing – behaviours that significantly reduce food waste,” says lead author, Dr Trang Thi Thu Nguyen, from the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Global Food and Resources, School of Economics and Public Policy.
“The idea that sustainability-conscious consumers would also waste less food seems logical. After all, they actively seek out ethical and environmentally friendly products.
However, those who prioritise sustainability often focus on choosing environmentally friendly products but do not necessarily translate that concern into waste-reducing behaviours.”
For further reading, visit: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108296
Even Vegans Who Get Enough Total Protein May Fall Short for Some Essential Amino Acids
In a new study of people with long-term vegan diets, most ate an adequate amount of total daily protein, but a significant proportion did not meet required levels of the amino acids lysine and leucine. Bi Xue Patricia Soh and colleagues at Massey University, New Zealand, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One.
These findings underscore that meeting total daily protein requirements does not necessarily mean meeting indispensable amino acid requirements. On the basis of their findings, the researchers call for future research to explore how intake of leucine and lysine could be boosted for vegans in a nutritionally balanced manner.
For further reading, visit: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314889
Does anaemia during pregnancy affect newborns’ risk of heart defects?
New research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology found that mothers who are anaemic in early pregnancy face a higher likelihood of giving birth to a child with a heart defect.
The study assessed the health records of 2,776 women with a child diagnosed with congenital heart disease who were matched to 13,880 women whose children did not have this condition.
Investigators found that 4.4% of children with congenital heart disease and 2.8% of children with normal heart function had anaemia. After adjusting for potential influencing factors, the odds of giving birth to a child with congenital heart disease was 47% higher among anaemic mothers.
For further reading, visit: https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.18150