ANH News Beat (week 31/2025)

In Brief (click on the links to read more)

• German advisory board pushes government to embrace alt meat
• Eggs don’t increase cholesterol and are brain protective
• Small changes to diet = big health advantages as we age
• Gut-brain link may qualify as a new sense
• Beetroot nourishes oral microbiome and lowers blood pressure
• Floss your teeth and get vaccinated
• UK’s fertility crisis
• Pharma owned health platforms prescribe more of their own drugs

• ANH-USA Update
• Free Speech Controls
• Post-Covid related

Natural News

• The war on meat consumption continues as a government advisory board pushes the German Agriculture Minister, a trained butcher, to encourage people to eat less meat and embrace meat alternatives, including lab-grown meat. The agri-food advisory board’s (WBAE) new report recommends lowering VAT on meat alternatives and increasing taxes on meat and dairy products. But the Minister is resisting such calls saying Germans are mature enough to be able to decide what they buy
• Eggs have swung from food demon to food hero and back for decades. Now evidence is stacking up as to the nutritional benefits of a food deeply entwined in human evolution. A new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds eating eating eggs daily doesn’t increase cholesterol levels as has so often been claimed. A second study, funded by the Egg Nutrition Centre, published in The Journal of Nutrition, reinforces the benefit of regular egg consumption for the brain, finding they protect against the buildup of toxic proteins associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s which further reinforces eggs’ status as a nutritional powerhouse

• A major 15-year study has reinforced the powerful role of diet in protecting against chronic disease in older adults. Publishing in Nature Aging, Swedish researchers found that adherence to anti-inflammatory dietary patterns was strongly linked to slower accumulation of cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric diseases, especially in women and the very elderly. In stark contrast, diets high in inflammatory potential accelerated disease development. The findings underscore that even in later life, dietary choices can meaningfully influence health trajectories, offering a key strategy for reducing the burden of multimorbidity in ageing populations.

>>> Inflammaging—when older age, the modern world and our immune systems conspire

• A sophisticated gut-brain communication pathway, termed the neurobiotic sense, may qualify as a newly identified human sense. This real-time signalling system, triggered by microbial proteins like flagellin, sends messages from the gut to the brain via specialised neuropod cells and the vagus nerve, directly influencing appetite and behaviour. While previously linked to immune responses, these findings further underscore our understanding of how gut bacteria shape our mood and eating patterns
• Nitrate rich beetroot juice is known for its ability to lower blood pressure. New research published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine presents evidence that in older people beetroot juice changed the composition of people’s oral microbiome. It was shown to reduce levels of harmful bacteria and encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria, which improved the conversion of nitrate to nitric oxide, which is key to the healthy functioning of blood vessels. The study reinforces the importance of a healthy oral microbiome to maintain optimal health and wellbeing, particularly as we age.

>>> Why your oral microbiome deserves to be nurtured not wiped out 

• In a move that raises serious concerns about the direction of vaccine delivery, researchers have developed a new method of administering vaccines through the gumline using dental floss. Targeting the leaky junctional epithelium where teeth meet gums, the technique aims to bypass needles by coating floss with vaccines, potentially enabling self-administration at home, without medical oversight. While hailed as a ‘needle-free’ breakthrough, this approach may pave the way for mass, decentralised vaccination with little regard for informed consent, individual choice, or long-term safety. Is this the start of mail-order immunisation?
• New analysis by the Daily Mail reveals a deepening fertility crisis across the UK. The data reveals the national fertility rate has fallen to a record low of 1.44 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1, with some areas reporting rates as low as 0.1 (the equivalent of 1 child per 10 women of childbearing age). Experts warn that continued decline will leave the UK increasingly dependent on immigration to maintain its workforce and support an ageing population. Factors such as career priorities, delayed parenthood, and soaring living costs are contributing to the drop. With nearly every Western nation facing similar trends, urgent policy shifts may be needed to avoid long-term demographic and economic fallout
• A damning US Senate investigation has revealed how pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Eli Lilly are leveraging telehealth platforms to push their own products, often bypassing thorough medical evaluations. Patients routed through branded sites like PfizerForAll or LillyDirect were overwhelmingly prescribed company-linked medications, with some patients able to preselect their preferred drugs before even speaking to a clinician. The report raises serious concerns about conflicts of interest, overprescribing, and the erosion of informed patient care — all under the guise of convenience. With financial incentives potentially influencing doctors, critics warn that this model turns healthcare into a fast-track, profit-driven prescription pipeline directly benefitting the pharma companies. The Defender has the full story.

ANH-USA Update

• Two new bills introduced to the US Congress would bulldoze the entire GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) system, leaving an unworkable mess behind that could reduce the options available to consumers for maintaining their health. Find out why the new bills are such a threat, the smart reforms proposed by ANH-USA, and let your Senator and Representative know you support real GRAS reform
• Two sections of the US House Interior Appropriations bill would stop the EPA from updating warnings on pesticide labels and from finalising a risk assessment to protect the public from toxic PFAS sludge. The bill would also protect big agricultural companies from prosecution for harms caused by their products. Take Action to stop the pesticide industry giveaway and protect people’s health.

Free Speech Controls

• The UK’s Online Safety Act came into force with the introduction of online age checks this month with censorship of information raising its ugly head as the suppression of “false communications” took immediate hold, far exceeding the remit of protecting children from inappropriate material. In fact, Brits are being forced to handover sensitive personal information to be able to view political news about their own country. Such are the concerns about this piece of legislation that nearly half a million Brits have signed a petition calling for the Act to be repealed
• In Australia the government is also quietly introducing mandatory age verification checks as part of moves to police internet content to ‘protect kids’. However, the rules will now apply to anyone using Google or Microsoft services, once again forcing people to share personal information, in what’s being described as a huge and unprecedented change in the rules. Companies not implementing the technology will face fines of up $50 million AUD. The storage of such vast amounts of personal data just creates huge honeypots for hackers wishing to exploit such vast resources.

Post-Covid Related

• A new preprint study, comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated people with long covid like symptoms found those who’d been vaccinated had 7 x the amount of spike antibodies than those who were unvaccinated. The authors of the study raise concerns that ongoing exposure to vaccine-derived spike protein may result in continued inflammation, neurocognitive symptoms and a possible increased risk of developing cancer
• A second preprint study has found that covid jabs can damage gene expression increasing people’s risk of developing cancer, immune dysfunction and inflammatory disorders
• Depending on your viewpoint, a new modelling study published in JAMA Health Forum, led by John Ioannidis, either proves the efficacy of covid jabs or reinforces their shortcomings. The study estimates that more than 2.5 million deaths were prevented by the jabs with 90% of those deaths in people over the age of 60 years. Overall, to save one life, 5,400 people needed to be vaccinated but for those under the age of 30, the number rose 1 per 100,000 jabs. The numbers in the new study are considerably less than previous estimates of 19.8 million deaths prevented made by researchers at Imperial College, London.

>>> Visit covidzone.org for our complete curated covid content of the coronavirus crisis