iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/05/2026

Yes, likely a cup fungus. Found a similar one in my garden 😊

Raised garden bed mulched with seaweed, under which a cup fungus started growing

Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 15/03/2026

🧪🍎📃 Nice article discussing ways to visualize both health and environmental impacts of various food groups. The authors propose a matrix chart showing health effects and carbon footprints for 30 food. The dataset is freely available in Supplementary Materials. www.frontiersin.org/journals/nut...

Figure 1 from doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1572297: A matrix visualization displaying health effects and carbon footprints for 30 food groups. Groups are arranged in the matrix from top (favorable) to bottom (unfavorable) and from left (low carbon) to right (high carbon). Beef is split vertically in the bottom-right to show its exceptionally high carbon footprint. Cell colors utilize a traffic light scheme to correspond to intensity of environmental and health impacts.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 19/02/2026

This is so true and important to remember. I found a relevant table about this in the Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook:

A table from the Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook showing which plant are compatible with each other and which are not

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 19/02/2026

My late submission to #TidyTuesday, week 5. I couldn’t resist making this 📊, as I’m planning my first garden this year. And since I’m ambitious (or delusional?), my plan is to grow more than 20 plants! I summarized the requirements for some of them. #vegetablegarden #greenheart #gardening

Chart titled “What do my garden plants need?”. A dot-matrix comparison of growing requirements for 20 edible plants, ordered vertically from high to low overall needs. Plants listed: aubergine, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, regular tomato, runner beans, bell pepper, basil, soybean, headed lettuce, borlotti beans, beetroot, dill, cress, onion, radish, rocket, thyme, rosemary, chives, and mint.

Each row shows four colored dot groups representing requirements for sun (yellow), water (gray/blue), nutrients (green), and temperature sensitivity (red). More dots indicate higher needs.

Aubergine appears among the most demanding, with many dots across categories. Mint appears among the least demanding.

Annotations note: “Aubergine = DIVA – Prefers full sun; requires high water and nutrients. Temperature class: tender.” and “Mint = (should be) EASY – Prefers full sun, but requires low water and nutrients. Temperature class: very hardy.”

Data source: The Edible Plant Database, GROW Observatory, a European Citizen Science project. Chart was designed and created by Elena Shekhova. The tool for data analysis is R. The tool for data viz is React.js.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 29/01/2026

🧪🍎📃 Nutrition discourse often focuses on protein. Fiber is important too, but rarely talked about. Here is an “oldish” paper showing a dose-dependent association between fiber intake (from cereals, fruits, and vegetables) and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. 🔗 www.bmj.com/content/347/...

Risk of cardiovascular disease across increasing levels of total fibre intake. RR=risk ratio

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

Are they hard to grow? Pollinators are very important. I am designing my first vegetable garden now, ahead of spring, and planning what I want to plant. It seems there are some sweet, low-alkaloid varieties of lupines. From the article:

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 I stumbled across this article about alternative protein sources. Many of them I had never heard of before. It mentioned: -winged beans -grasspea -lupins -Bambara groundnut Also, duckweed species can have protein contents of up to 43% (dry matter) and provide all essential amino acids.

From paper "Alternative Protein Sources and Novel Foods: Benefits, Food Applications and Safety Issues": Figure 1. Underutilized legumes: (a) Winged beans (b) Grasspea (c) Lupins (d) Bambara groundnut.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 26/12/2025

🍄📸🧪 I was cloning a wood ear mushroom that I foraged recently. One of my plates was contaminated, so I let it grow. Then I thought I should definitely photograph it against a lamp and share it here. Perfect for @contamclub.bsky.social The red/pink pigment is likely produced by Fusarium mold.

Agar plate with wood ear mushroom tissues. The red/pink pigment diffusing into the agar is likely metabolites produced by Fusarium mold. Bacterial growth is also visible. Petri dish is photographed against a lamp.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 07/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 In this US study, people with a college degree were more likely to consider or choose plant-based burgers than those without a degree. But when the prices of plant-based options were lowered, consumers without a college degree became more inclined to buy them. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Figure 2:
Price Effect Simulations for Meat and PBMA Burgers (Study 2). Note: Consideration and choice probabilities are shown for the meat burger and PBMAs (aggregated) given a PBMA price range between $12.50 and $5, along with 95% credible intervals. Across PBMA price scenarios, the price of the meat burger was kept constant at $10. A PBMA price of $10 thus corresponds to price parity. The gray dashed lines display the population mean (representative of the United States). Education = high: college degree or higher; No Prior PBMAs = yes: self-report to never eat PBMAs.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 01/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 Very cool new study & great datasets. The authors compared the nutritional composition and density of plant-based meat alternatives vs. meat. They write: plant-based meat is equally nutrient-dense as animal meat and legumes. Heatmap with more details ⤵️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Figure 1 from the publication: Heatmap showing the weighted average nutrient levels per protein source (plant-based meat or animal meat) against the nutrition claim criteria to assess the contribution of the different products to the daily requirement. Data on levels of micronutrients from fortification were excluded. The different shades of green represent to what extend the nutrient levels meet nutrient claim criteria (appendix 2). For the minerals and vitamins these are related to a percentage of the NRV (for iron, zinc and vitamin D the lowest NRV was chosen). Grey colors represent the nutrient levels which do not meet any claim/limit criteria or are lower than one-third of the claim criteria. Shades of blue are given to nutrients to limit and represent whether the level is low or too high and exceeds the criteria for nutrients to limit or the level is somewhere in between those two values (appendix 2).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

While non-animal foods can deliver some B12, they are still not considered reliable sources. That is why industry relies on bacterial fermentation to produce B12 at scale. The vitamin is then purified and used for food fortification. Milk alternatives often have B12 added to them 🥛

Nutritional content of alternative milk called DO NOT CALL ME M_LK, per 100 g

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

This distinction is very important, because what researchers have found makes perfect sense: 🟢Chlorella commercial products contained active B12 🟢Spirulina supplements were dominated by pseudo-vitamin B12 analogues. Spirulina’s B12 works perfectly well for Spirulina, just not for us.

Figure from doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2022.104464: Fig. 1. UHPLC-PDA chromatograms of three selected algae-derived nutritional supplements showing different ratios of cobalamin to pseudo-cobalamin in Chlorella No 41 (a), Spirulina No 54 (b), and Chlorella No 18 (c). It shows how scientists distinguish between pseudo and real B12 (cobalamin).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

There is another non-animal B12 source: algae. Certain edible macroalgae, such as dried purple laver (nori), can contain substantial amounts of bioactive B12.

Figure from PMID: 24803097:Various types of dried green and purple lavers are Vitamin B12 sources: (1) a Japanese green laver, (Suji-aonori, Entromopha prolifera); (2) ordinary purple lavers (Porphyra sp.; nori, which has been formed into a sheet and dried); (3) Taiwan purple laver (Hong-mao-tai, Bangia atropurpurea); and (4) New Zealand purple laver (Karengo, a mixture of Porphyra cinnamomea and Porphyra virididentata).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 15/10/2025

🍄📸 Having a fun(gi) time here in Denmark! 🍄📸 Spotted some interesting fellas in a local forest 😍 #mycology #mushrooms #fungifriends #nature

A cluster of small mushrooms growing on decaying wood in a damp forest, featuring one delicate grayish mushroom with a finely pleated cap standing out in the foreground among paler, dome-shaped fungi. Likely trooping crumble cap

Small, bright orange-red mushrooms growing amongst dense green grass and moss. Likely Hygrocybe or "waxcap" species

Several pinkish-brown, ear-shaped fungi growing along a fallen tree trunk. Wood ear fungus

Small, blue-green mushrooms with glossy, rounded caps growing among damp grass, twigs, and fallen leaves on the forest floor. Possibly Verdigris Agaric

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/09/2025

🧪🍎📃 It only took me 500 years to finish this 📊, but here it is 🎉 Grocery shops in many wealthy countries are oversupplied with animal-based foods. They stock far more meat and dairy than we need for human and planetary health. 🔗 www.lumipie.com/data-vis/pla...

Data visualization comparing national food supplies in high-income countries (based on GDP per capita) with planetary health intake targets. Radial charts for 12 countries (including Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Luxembourg, United States, Australia, Norway, Qatar, Kuwait, Emirates, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia) show that supplies of animal-based foods, especially meat and dairy, consistently exceed recommended levels of intake. Bars below each chart compare grams of plant-based, animal-based, and fats & oils in total daily supply per person. Data is from FAOSTAT (2022)

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 29/09/2025

🧪🍎📃 In South Africa, when people move to cities, their diets become similar to a “Western” one, with more energy-dense foods, animal protein, and fat. This shift changes the diversity of gut microbes, increasing bacteria previously linked to higher colorectal cancer risk. doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Figure 1a from the study (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46265-0): Analysis of fecal microbiota by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing from healthy rural and urban Xhosa individuals showing A bacterial community richness or Shannon Effective as indices for α-diversity,

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 20/09/2025

🧪🍎📃 Important new study: Animal products, especially beef, pose much higher extinction risks for wildlife than grains, legumes, or vegetables. This means shifting land use toward more plant-based diets can give greater opportunities to restore biodiversity and help save species from extinction.

Figure 4 from https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01224-w: The extinction impacts of average daily per capita food consumption in the United States for consumption in 2021, the EAT–Lancet planetary health diet and hypothetical vegetarian and vegan diets. Baseline intake values are taken from FAO data27. The intake of spices, coffee, cocoa, tea and maté remains constant across diets. The EAT–Lancet diet is the ‘Planetary Health Diet’, designed to be consistent with health requirements and planetary boundaries51. The vegetarian and vegan diets are based on ‘Eatwell’ plates, with constituent commodities consumed in the same ratios that they currently are within each group53,54,55,56. Each reference diet is scaled to have the same number of calories as the baseline, which in theory accounts for food waste and overconsumption, probably overestimating their impacts.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 18/09/2025

This has something to do with blood metabolites. The diet may promote more metabolites with protective effect on brain health ⤵️

Fig 5:a Schematic of the two-sample MR and colocalization analyses. Genetic instruments were selected for 657 metabolites and 133 metabolite ratios from a published GWAS. Summary statistics for overall dementia, AD, vascular dementia and cognitive performance were also obtained from published GWASs (Methods). Two-sample MR was performed to identify putative causal relationships between metabolites or ratios and cognitive outcomes, followed by colocalization analysis for the causal associations with an FDR < 0.05. b, Identification of numerous putative causal interrelationships of various metabolites, metabolite ratios and cognitive outcome using genetic instruments. The chord diagram displays causal relationships with an FDR < 0.05 from MR analyses using Wald ratio, inverse variance-weighted or MR Egger methods, where each arc represents an identified link between a metabolite or ratio and a cognitive outcome. Arcs and nodes are color coded by the HMDB superclasses. c, Colocalization analyses strengthening evidence of causality, suggesting that the identified putative causal relationships between metabolites or ratios and cognitive outcomes have potential shared causal variants and biology. Putative causal relationships, represented by the odds ratios (ORs) or β coefficients with 95% CIs, are shown for associations with FDR < 0.05 and colocalization signals. Bayesian colocalization analysis was performed within the ±500-kb region around a genetic instrument (Methods). If multiple instruments were used, a causal association was reported if the metabolite or ratio and cognitive outcomes colocalized at least one genetic locus. Colocalization signals were reported for a locus if the conditional probability of colocalization, PP.H4/(PP.H3 + PP.H4), was >70%, where PP.H3 is posterior probability that the two traits have independent causal variants and PP.H4 is the posterior probability that the two traits share a single causal variant.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 18/09/2025

🧪🍎📃 Even with a genetic predisposition, not everyone will develop dementia. Various factors play a role. This study suggests that people who are APOE4 homozygotes, the group at highest genetic risk, may benefit the most from following a Mediterranean diet. doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03891-5

Figure 3b from the publication "Interplay of genetic predisposition, plasma metabolome and Mediterranean diet in dementia risk and cognitive function": The protective association between adherence to the MedDiet and risk of dementia most pronounced among APOE4 homozygotes. Stratified HR and 95% CIs for dementia risk per a 1-unit increment in the MedDiet index score, categorized by the APOE4 genotype, were estimated from Cox PH models, with stratified P values annotated (unadjusted for multiple comparisons in the hypothesis-driven analysis). The analyses were conducted among NHS participants with genetic, dietary and dementia outcome data (n = 16,497).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 05/09/2025

Agree, combining different cancers into one outcome is problematic. And lumping different food groups together isn’t ideal either. Classic example: UPFs and multimorbidity -- the overall risk was mainly driven by a few UPF types, while others showed no association.

Forest plot entitled "Associations between subgroups of ultra-processed food consumption and risk of cancer-cardiometabolic multimorbidity." From DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100771

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 02/09/2025

New #dataviz art in my home office! Furry colleagues seem pleased. Or maybe not? 😀 #map #DogsOfBluesky #corgi #art

Canvas poster titled Dogs of All Nations Map

Two dogs resting together on a mat: a tricolored Cardigan Welsh Corgi and a black mixed-breed, likely a Border Collie–Labrador mix.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 10/08/2025

🧪🍎📃 Plant vs. animal protein for muscle health: ✔️ Slightly lower muscle mass with non-soy plant protein compared to milk protein, but not with soy ✔️ No difference in muscular strength or physical performance No wonder there are elite athletes who are vegan. 🔗doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuae200

Meta-analysis of Change in Absolute Muscle Mass in Response to Plant vs Animal Protein Intervention, Overall and in Younger (<60 y) and Older (≥60 y) Adults. Forest plot from the publication "Effect of Plant Versus Animal Protein on Muscle Mass, Strength, Physical Performance, and Sarcopenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials"

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 06/08/2025

🧪🍎📃 Short-chain fatty acids are not the only metabolites produced by gut microbes fermenting dietary fiber. Other bioactive molecules such as amino acids and B vitamins can be produced too. Understanding their effects may help explain why people respond differently to fiber. PMID: 38991905

Key figure. Overview of non-short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) microbial metabolites altered upon dietary fiber supplementation. As a result of dietary fiber supplementation, microbially produced metabolites such as neurotransmitters , secondary bile acids (2°BAs) , aromatic amino acids , and B vitamins may be altered, with diverse impacts on host health. The panels depict simplified representations of their interactions with various host cells in the colon, liver, and central nervous system.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 04/08/2025

🧪🍎📃 My recent work: I transformed a table from a publication into an interactive chart on the web. This 📊 illustrates the Planetary Health Diet designed by the EAT-Lancet Commission (PMID: 30660336). 🔗chart: lumipie.com/data-vis/pla...

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/07/2025

🧪🍎📃 Would making healthy foods a bit cheaper and placing them in better spots in supermarkets help people buy fewer ultra-processed foods? This study showed that it didn’t. Perhaps limiting the promotion of ultra-processed foods is a better strategy? doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107599

Title page of the publication "The effects of nudging and pricing strategies on the availability and purchases of ultra-processed foods: A secondary analysis of the Supreme Nudge trial"

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 27/07/2025

🧪🍎📃 From a recent meta-analysis: Plant-based diets do not compromise muscular strength. So no disadvantage vs omnivores. 🔗 doi.org/10.1186/s40798-025-00852-7 Based on 7 randomized controlled trials:

The figure from the publication entitled "Are Plant-Based Diets Detrimental to Muscular Strength? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials". Random effects model meta-analysis for changes in muscular strength comparing plant-based diet interventions and omnivorous diets. g, Hedges’g; CI, confidence interval; I2, inconsistency index

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 12/07/2025

🧪🍎📃 I’ve been learning React.js lately and made this 📊. It shows the protein & fiber content of processed foods commonly found in grocery stores. These nutrients are great for promoting satiety and may help reduce the risk of overeating (PMID: 35592279). Chart 🔗: www.lumipie.com/data-vis/fib...

Scatter plot titled "Fiber and Protein Content in Processed Foods, per 100 calories (100 grams)." The x-axis shows fiber content in grams per 100 calories (with an option to switch to per 100 grams), ranging from 0 to 25. Two toggle buttons at the top allow switching between viewing fiber and protein content. The current view is set to "Fiber." Each dot represents a processed food item, with dot size indicating sugar content and color intensity representing salt content (ranging from 0 to 19 grams). Most foods cluster near 0–5 grams of fiber, with a few outliers like canned asparagus, artichoke hearts, and bamboo shoots reaching 15–20+ grams. Labeled foods include scone, muffin, pizza, tomato puree, and yeast spread. Users are instructed to hover over dots for more info (desktop only). The table and a search function is added too and recommended for exploration on mobile (not shown on the current screen shot).

Scatter plot titled "Fiber and Protein Content in Processed Foods, per 100 calories (100 grams)." The x-axis shows protein content in grams per 100 calories (with an option to switch to per 100 grams), ranging from 0 to 25. The view is set to "Protein" (highlighted in yellow). Each dot represents a processed food item, with dot size indicating sugar content and color intensity representing salt content (0–19 grams). Most foods cluster below 5 grams of protein per 100 calories, with notable outliers like tofu, canned tuna, and canned asparagus containing 10–20+ grams of protein. Foods like carrot cake, juice apple, and coconut cream appear low in protein. Users are prompted to hover over dots for more info (desktop only). The table and a search function is added too and recommended for exploration on mobile (not shown on the current screen shot).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 16/06/2025

Then, according to this doctor's logic, why do whales have menopause? 🧪

A figure from PMID: 36588114 with the following description: Post-reproductive lifespan across species. The human female is one of a few selected species of mammals with a significant post-reproductive lifespan. The significance of menopause is extensively being debated on whether it is a vestigial evolutionary inheritance or has crucial implication in conferring evolutionary survival of the fittest to our early days’ ancestors as been reproduced from Ellis et al.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 15/06/2025

Food insecurity is one of several possible confounders they suggested. This study does not suggest that UPFs are okay, but rather highlights the need for better research into their health effects www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A screenshot from the paper stating:
Results
Higher consumption of UPFs was associated with increased weight gain in meta-analysis (RR = 1.14). The corresponding E value = 1.55, indicating that unaccounted for confounding variables with small-to-moderate sized associations with UPF consumption and weight gain (e.g., depressive symptoms, trait overeating tendencies, access to healthy and nutritious food) could individually or collectively hypothetically account for observed associations between UPF consumption and weight gain.

Conclusions
Unaccounted for confounding could plausibly explain the prospective association between UPF consumption and weight gain in adults. High quality observational research controlling for potential confounders and evidence from study types devoid of confounding are now needed.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 12/06/2025

🧪🍎📃 How to make your child eat healthier? Tell them a fairytale about healthy food. Doing so just once can influence their food choices for the next two weeks. I think it's cute 🙂 www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the experimental procedures. As the experimental manipulation, two interactive stories were used in both studies, one about how two protagonists of similar age as the participants (aged between 4 and 6 years old) saved their hometown from being drained of color with the help of magic fruits or vegetables, while the second control story consisted of a similar plot that did not mention food.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/06/2025

🧪🍎📃 Another randomized controlled trial shows no difference in muscle protein synthesis rates 💪 between vegans and meat-eaters. journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/abstract…

Title page of the paper "Impact of Vegan Diets on Resistance Exercise-Mediated Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis in Healthy Young Males and Females: A Randomized Controlled Trial" DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003725

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 06/06/2025

🧪🍎📃 The weighted vest (WV) + structured weight loss (WL) program was more effective in preserving lost kg 24 months later, compared to the WL program alone. This is likely linked to the abolished reduction in resting metabolic rate when the vest was used. doi.org/10.1038/s41366-025-01795-5

Fig. 1 from the paper: a Change in weight (kg) at three timepoints: baseline, 6, and 24 months, where open circles with the dashed line represent the WL+VEST group and closed circles with the solid line represent the WL only group. b Change in resting metabolic rate (kcal/d) at three timepoints: baseline, 6, and 24 months, where open circles with the dashed line represent the WL+VEST group and closed circles with the solid line represent the WL only group.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 14/05/2025

🧪 This study challenges the idea that full deep sleep and REM are required for memory consolidation. 28 young adults had either: 🌕Normal sleep 🌓Sleep with half of their deep sleep disrupted 🌗Sleep with half of their REM disrupted 🌅 all performed similarly on memory tests and reaction-time tasks.

Title page of the article "Neither fifty percent slow-wave sleep suppression nor fifty percent rapid eye movement sleep suppression does impair memory consolidation". Can be found at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945724004520?via%3Dihub

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/05/2025

🧪🍎📃 Simple but informative graph showing nutrient bioavailability from plant foods. It conveys that processing isn’t all bad: ✔️While some nutrients are lost, others can become more usable 🔗 ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Graph showing an example where the total nutrient content in food decreases over time, but the bioavailable amount increases as food matrix effects are reduced.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 02/05/2025

Interesting article find 🧪 🐸 Amphibians in their larval stage (tadpoles) switch to a vegetarian diet when it’s hot. Unlike adult frogs, which stick to a carnivorous diet, tadpoles switch to plant-based food in the heat. Carbohydrate-rich plants better support their metabolism under stress.

A front page of the paper with the title Frog and toad larvae become vegetarian when it is hot. Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23328940.2017.1288687?needAccess=true

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 29/04/2025

🧪🍎📊 #30DayChartChallenge | Day 19: Smooth Nothing smoother than a streamgraph! This one shows 28 years of global eating habits. We eat more of everything now. I made falafel yesterday and wondered: why are beans & legumes still so underrated? Interactive 📊: www.lumipie.com/data-vis/str...

A streamgraph visualizing global trends in daily food consumption (1990–2018) across seven food groups: grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes, eggs, meat, seafood, and dairy. Flowing, layered bands represent changes in average daily intake (grams per day).The interactive version of the graph is available at https://www.lumipie.com/data-vis/streamgraph/, with tooltips revealing exact values for each food group at key years. Created with D3.js by Elena Shekhova

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 20/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 Another late submission for #30DayChartChallenge | Day 11: Stripes I wanted to visualize how GDP is linked to plant-based food intake, and I think a stripe chart offered some nice visual clarity. Source: Global Dietary Database Interactive version of the chart: www.lumipie.com/data-vis/str...

Stripe chart showing the proportion of plant-based foods in the average diet of each country, sorted by GDP (from the lowest to the highest). Each stripe represents one country. The chart reveals a trend: countries with higher GDP tend to have lower proportions of plant-based foods in their diets. Plant-based foods include fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains. Based on 2018 data from the Global Dietary Database. Chart by Elena Shekhova.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 10/04/2025

😎 I finally reached the very exciting Chapter 7 of D3.js in Action by @elijahmeeks.bsky.social and @annemariedufour.bsky.social

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 10/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 #dataviz My belated submission for #30DayChartChallenge | Day 8: Histogram The chart shows that people in many countries fall short of the recommended daily fiber intake. Made with D3, with a bit of interactivity.

Chart showing the distribution of average daily fiber consumption across various countries. Many countries fall below the recommended intake of 25 grams of fiber per person per day. The interactive version allows users to explore the data by continent. Chart created by Elena Shekhova using 2018 data from the Global Dietary Database.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 #dataviz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge | Day 7: Outliers Processed meat consumption is higher in high-income countries compared to lower-income countries — with a few outliers. Source: Global Dietary Database R code: github.com/ElenaShekhov...

Boxplot showing processed meat intake across different income groups. The chart displays four boxplots representing High-income, Upper-middle-income, Lower-middle-income, and Low-income countries. The y-axis shows processed meat intake in grams per day. The boxplots reveal that high-income countries generally have higher meat consumption. Outliers are labeled with country names. The chart is created by Elena Shekhova. Data source is Global Dietary Database and World Bank.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 04/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 #dataviz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge | Day 4: Big or small Time for the bubble grid chart! Are the differences between milk and plant-based alternatives big or small? Soy looks the most similar 💪👑 Source: PMID: 37717060 R code: github.com/ElenaShekhov...

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 02/04/2025

They did not collect data on religion. They looked at education, race, and political views. It seems grouping by political views showed the most difference, with more vegetarians in the liberal group

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 02/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 #dataviz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge | Day 2: Slope As countries get wealthier, eating habits shift! 🔺 More: Fat, protein 🔻 Less: Carbohydrate Source: Our World in Data R code: github.com/ElenaShekhov...

A scatter plot showing the relationship between GDP and macronutrient consumption, with three trend lines fitted using linear regression. The graph indicates that as GDP increases, protein and fat consumption rise, while carbohydrate intake declines. A correlation coefficient is displayed on the left. Data is from 2016, fetched from Our World in Data website. The chart is created by Elena Shekhova

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 01/04/2025

🧪🍎📃 #dataviz #30DayChartChallenge | Day 1: Fractions Vegetarian diets are often claimed to be more expensive than diets with meat. Yet, lower-income Americans are about twice as likely to be vegetarians as higher-income groups. 📃: news.gallup.com/poll/510038/...

A chart showing that lower-income Americans (7%) are about twice as likely as middle-income (4%) and upper-income (3%) Americans to be vegetarians. Data were collected by Gallup in 2023. The chart was created by Elena Shekhova

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/02/2025

🧪 TIL Lifelong vegetarian Mervyn Hardinge was a pioneering scientist studying vegetarian diets. His dietary habits didn't stop him from working months in a hospital kitchen learning the different cuts of meat. This was required to understand diets of nonvegetarians. shorturl.at/NsBwX

A photo and a short biography of Dr. Mervyn G. Hardinge from https://adventistbookcenter.com/authors/dr-mervyn-g-hardinge

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 23/02/2025

🧪#SciComm Muscle loss is associated with various health issues and accelerated during aging. The good news is that resistance training can offset muscle loss. Simple tools like resistance bands make this type of exercise accessible. 🔗 physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Experimental Physiology, Volume: 109, Issue: 10, Pages: 1650-1662, First published: 06 August 2024, DOI: (10.1113/EP091937)
Schematic representation of exercise training modalities following a period of muscle disuse to recover skeletal muscle mass, strength and function (e.g., gait speed) in older individuals (Bamman et al., 1998; Schroeder et al., 2019; Villareal et al., 2017; Willis et al., 2012). Created with BioRender.com.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 21/02/2025

🧪🍎📃 Autophagy (the degradation of damaged cells) is linked to aging and disease but is hard to measure in humans. Contrary to preclinical models, a study of 42 people found that a high-protein meal didn’t change autophagy levels. Also, women had higher autophagy than men. shorturl.at/vX4I9

A high protein meal does not alter autophagic flux in the blood of fasted, healthy individuals.
(A) Schematic of study design. Fasted and post-prandial plasma (B) glucose (paired t-test, n=41-42), (C) insulin (Wilcoxon test, n=41-42) and (D) autophagic flux (Wilcoxon test, n=35). (E) Heatmap showing p-values of Spearman’s correlations between blood measurements and baseline characteristics. (F) Two-way ANOVA of autophagic flux with sex and meal status as factors (n=17-18).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 14/02/2025

To wrap up, let’s think together how to achieve the recommended 25 grams of fiber per day. I found this awesome site with visuals: rb.gy/jl4clt For example, here is a one-day meal plan rich in fiber that sounds doable ⤵️ (12/13)

An image displaying a day eating more than 25 grams of fibre per day from www.eufic.org/. It includes whole wheat bread, banana, peanut butter, avocado, veggies, chickpeas, quinoa, orange, nuts, tomato soup, hummus

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 14/02/2025

Denis and others proposed explanations: 1️⃣ Fiber is good for tiny inhabitants in the human gut! More fiber = more diverse microbiota. It also prevents the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. Recent study confirming this: rb.gy/p0vdg5 (9/13)

Figure from a publication "Diet changes due to urbanization in South Africa are linked to microbiome and metabolome signatures of Westernization and colorectal cancer". Caption: Analysis of fecal microbiota by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing from healthy rural and urban Xhosa individuals showing bacterial community richness or Shannon Effective as indices for α-diversity.

The figure shows that microbiota of individuals from rural communities with high fiber intake displays more richness and diversity.

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