u/Meatrition

Abstract
Red meat intake has been associated with the evolutionary journey of human beings, shaping metabolic pathways, cognitive development, and social complexity. Beyond its role as a nutrient source, meat, beef particularly, represents a biologically complex matrix whose composition reflects the ecological and production contexts in which the animal was raised. This review integrates evidence from evolutionary biology, nutritional science, epigenetics, and metabolomics to reframe the role of beef within human development and modern food production systems. We propose the concept of “beef terroir” to describe how soil–plant–animal interactions influence animal performance and beef quality, and, consequently, human health. Differences between pastoral and industrial (feedlot) production systems are critically examined alongside alternatives such as plant-based systems. Finally, we identify priority research areas required to align livestock production with human health and sustainability goals.

Significance
Cannibalism has appeared repeatedly in human history, yet it is subject to one of the strongest contemporary cultural prohibitions. Why does this behavior recur, but rarely persist? We present a formal model showing that cannibalism reflects a trade-off between nutritional benefits and escalating infection risks, particularly those arising from within-species pathogen transmission. The model demonstrates that cannibalism is viable only under narrow ecological conditions and becomes unsustainable as trophic chains lengthen. These constraints help explain both its episodic occurrence and the widespread emergence of cannibalism taboos. More broadly, the findings illustrate how epidemiological dynamics can shape cultural evolution, producing stable norms that limit behaviors which are locally adaptive but globally destabilizing.

Abstract
Cannibalism is among the most widespread taboos in human societies, yet archaeological, ethnographic, and historical evidence indicates that it has repeatedly emerged across human populations. This coexistence of recurrent practice and persistent prohibition raises a fundamental question: when does cannibalism become adaptive, and what mechanisms lead to its suppression? We address this problem using a formal model that treats cannibalism as a potential food source subject to energetic benefits and multiple sources of cost. Nutritional gains are modeled using a saturating function of caloric intake, while costs arise from acquisition, digestion, and infection. Infection costs are represented as a stochastic process whose mean increases with the length of the trophic transmission chain, capturing the risks associated with repeated within-species consumption. Analyzing the expected energetic balance across levels of food availability and cannibalism order reveals narrow ecological conditions in which cannibalism yields a positive expected balance and broader conditions in which it is strongly disfavored. The model provides a framework for interpreting archaeological and ethnographic findings by specifying boundary conditions and identifying the most probable ecological scenarios under which different forms of cannibalism are expected to occur. The results predict that cannibalism is most likely to emerge under extreme resource scarcity, when acquisition costs are low and infection risks are constrained, while sustained cannibalism rapidly becomes unviable due to escalating infection costs. Overall, the findings suggest that cannibalism is best understood as a conditional trade-off rather than a behavioral anomaly, with cultural taboos functioning as adaptive responses to nonlinear epidemiological risks.

Abstract
Since its discovery, Homo floresiensis—an extinct, short-statured, and small-brained hominin species from Flores, Indonesia—has often been ascribed unexpectedly advanced behaviors, such as hunting large game and using fire. Here, we report the results of a systematic taphonomic study sampling the proboscidean bone assemblage at Liang Bua where the frequency and locations of predatory marks, along with skeletal part profiles, show that Komodo dragons likely had primary access to these remains leaving behind only low-utility elements for H. floresiensis to scavenge. Moreover, no signs of intentional use of fire are present in the stratigraphic units associated with H. floresiensis. Together, these results suggest that H. floresiensis was not as behaviorally advanced as originally suggested and provides critical insights into the behavioral repertoire of H. floresiensis, raising important questions about its ancestry.

Lipid peroxidation products in French fries are a potential risk factor for non-communicable diseases. Malondialde-hyde and methylglyoxal are among the most pathophysiologically-relevant lipid peroxidation products, but are generally not regarded as major products of the oxi-dation of linoleic acid- or monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA)-rich oils, because mech-anisms of their formation from such fatty acids are poorly understood. This study aimed to determine the formation of malondialdehyde and methylglyoxal, as well as conjugated dienes and conjugated trienes (precursors of secondary prod-ucts including aldehydes) in French fries fried with four oils having different fatty acid composition. Conjugated dienes and trienes (CDs and CTs, respectively) were determined spectrophotometrically, malondialdehyde by the thiobarbituric acid test, and methylglyoxal by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). CT formation occurred to the same extent in sunflower and canola oils although the former lacked fatty acids with at least three double bonds, signifying desaturation of fatty acids during lipid peroxidation. More malondialdehyde was formed in sunflower oil containing more linoleic acid than canola oil with higher α-linolenic acid (18:3, n-3) content, indicating the importance of linoleic acid as a malondialdehyde precursor. Olive oil generated more malondialde-hyde, methylglyoxal, CD and CT than palm olein, which is attributable to greater monounsaturated fatty acid content in the former. Mechanisms are proposed for the formation of CDs, CTs, malondial-dehyde and methylglyoxal from MUFA and linoleic acid. Thus, MUFA- and linoleic acid-rich oils are relevant as sources of the two dialdehydes in fried foods. CDs and CTs can be considered as appropriate for monitoring lipid peroxidation even in MUFA- or linoleic acid-rich oils. Furthermore, formation of CDs through fatty acid desaturation helps to explain the formation of some ‘unexpected’ lipid oxidation products.

New research led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist reveals that the earliest Native Americans had highly specialized diets, primarily hunting the largest animals on the landscape, and they targeted these megafauna consistently from Alaska to South America.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, examined data from 50 archaeological sites excavated throughout the Americas. An international team of researchers from the U.S., Canada and Argentina analyzed animal bones at campsites and identified species, grouped by how much food they provided. UAF anthropology professor Ben Potter and McMaster University researcher James Chatters led the study.
What they discovered addresses one of archaeology's most contested questions: How did humans spread so rapidly across two continents?
"One of two competing ideas is dietary generalization: exploiting a wide variety of resources that would differ based on region," said Potter. "The other is megafaunal specialization: focusing on just a few large-bodied prey."
Rare giants dominated the menu
The study focused on three of the earliest and most widespread cultural groups in the Americas: Eastern Beringians in Alaska and the Yukon, Clovis people across North America and Fishtail Projectile Point people in South America. Within those groups, the researchers concluded that 83% to 88% of their food came from massive plant-eaters such as mammoths, elephant-like gomphotheres and giant ground sloths, collectively known as megaherbivores.
In order to reach that conclusion, scientists looked at a variety of data. Bones from prey animals at each of the excavation sites showed what people were eating. They then calculated which and how many animals —large and small—could be expected to live in the nearby landscape. To account for body size, the team multiplied individual animal counts by each species' estimated edible biomass. Even when the researchers artificially inflated small-animal counts in their models as a test, megaherbivores still accounted for the overwhelming majority of available food.
"The test of dietary specialization isn't just how many of a given animal you find at an ancient campsite," Potter said. "It's what the record looks like relative to natural abundance. If early people were dietary generalists, you'd expect to find the most common animals would be more common in peoples' campsites."
Instead, they found the opposite.
"Animals like mammoths and ground sloths, which were actually quite rare in the landscape, completely dominate the archaeological record," he said. "Rabbits and mice, which would have been everywhere, barely register."

Shared prey, shared tools
Potter said the focus on large herbivores for food also explains why the early toolkits appear very similar from California to Maine to Florida, and at sites in South America. People hunting the same kind of animal across radically different landscapes had no need to adapt their technology to local conditions. The tools found at the archaeological sites included implements for hunting large game, such as large fluted projectile points and specialized butchering implements. Fishing gear and plant-processing tools were notably absent.
This focus on hunting large prey also explains the rapid expansion of humans from Alaska through South America, the study finds.
When hunter-gatherers move into unfamiliar territory, they typically need generations to learn the new landscape, how to effectively hunt local small and medium-sized game, and which local plants are edible.
Building a diet around large mammals changes that dynamic.
"Mammoths, for example, can cover a tremendous range and occupy vast territories," said study co-author Mat Wooller, a professor at UAF. "In effect, specialist hunter-gatherers used their knowledge of megaherbivores, like mammoths, to expand successfully across the continents rather than learning about each localized ecosystem they encountered."
Extinctions followed a southward wave
The study also found that the timing of megafauna extinctions tracks with human arrival, not all at once, but like a wave moving southward down the continents.

In Alaska, mammoths and horses disappeared around 13,300 years ago, at the end of the earliest known human occupation there. Clovis-era megafauna in North America were gone by 12,800 years ago,and gomphotheres and giant ground sloths survived in South America until about 11,600 years ago.
Potter said the same sequence of arrival, overlap and extinction played out again and again, each time a little further south, making a strong circumstantial case for human hunting as a major contributing factor to megafauna extinction, compounded by climate change, which could have reduced their habitat, making them more susceptible to hunting pressure.
"Megaherbivores reproduce slowly, space births widely and, as adults, have no natural predators," he said. "They would have had no learned wariness of new, technologically sophisticated human hunter-gatherer populations."
Members of the research team include Potter, Chatters and Wooller; Luciano Prates of Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina; S. Ivan Perez of Museo Histórico y Arqueológico, CONICET, Argentina; Todd Surovell and Robert Kelly of the University of Wyoming; and Gustavo Politis of Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Abstract
Background and aims
Hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer (BC) accounts for the majority of BC cases. Although early-stage patients generally have favorable outcomes, recurrence and metastasis substantially worsen prognosis. We aimed to evaluate whether plasma metabolomics combined with machine learning could predict postoperative outcomes in HR+/HER2- early BC.

Methods
A total of 178 patients with HR+/HER2- BC were prospectively enrolled. Preoperative plasma samples were analyzed using untargeted metabolomics based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Differential metabolites between patients with short (< 5 years) and long (≥ 5 years) disease-free survival (DFS) were identified. Using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator feature selection followed by random forest classification, a prognostic model was constructed in a discovery cohort (n = 125) and validated in an independent test cohort (n = 53).

Results
A total of 209 metabolites were annotated, of which 100 were significantly altered between groups. Key dysregulated metabolic pathways included linoleic acid and galactose metabolism. A 10-metabolite prognostic model (10-PM) achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve of 0.907 (95% CI: 0.883-0.925) in the test cohort, outperforming conventional clinicopathological models. The 10-PM model effectively stratified patients into high- and low-risk groups with significantly different DFS and overall survival, and remained an independent predictor in multivariable Cox regression analysis.

Conclusion
We developed and validated a 10-PM model based on plasma metabolomics that accurately predicts short DFS in HR+/HER2- BC. This model outperforms conventional clinicopathological indicators, offering a specific, blood-based tool to stratify high-risk patients and guide individualized postoperative management.

Background
Eicosanoids are bioactive signaling lipids that have roles in airway remodeling, smooth muscle hypertrophy, emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis via mediation of pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways. Specific eicosanoids have been associated with lung diseases such as asthma and pulmonary fibrosis, yet their association with lung function more broadly is not completely understood. We aimed to investigate the association of eicosanoids and related metabolites with early changes in lung function and structure.

Methods
We performed comprehensive profiling of over 250 eicosanoids and eicosanoid-related metabolites using directed non-targeted mass spectrometry in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Lung Study with independent validation in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). We performed cross-sectional analysis of the associations between metabolites and lung function as assessed by spirometry and quantitative lung measures on computed tomography (CT).

Results
Among 3384 participants (mean age 63 ± 10 years, 51% women), 51 metabolites were associated with lung function in MESA Lung (22 with % predicted FEV1, 18 with % predicted FVC, and 25 with FEV1/FVC ratio), with 24 validated among FHS participants. Of these 51 metabolites, 27 were associated with obstructive lung physiology, including linoleic acid derivatives (9-HODE) and other long-chain fatty acids (hydroxyhexadecanoic acid, hydroxyoctadecanoic acid) associated with higher odds. Fourteen metabolites were associated with restrictive physiology, including putative dihydroxy-20:3 and an LTB3 analog associated with lower odds, and omega-3 fatty acids (EPA, stearidonic acid) associated with higher odds.

Conclusions
Specific eicosanoids and eicosanoid-related metabolites including linoleic acid derivatives and long-chain fatty acids were associated with obstructive, and leukotrienes and omega-3 fatty acids with restrictive lung physiology. These findings highlight bioactive lipids involved in both pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways as potential influencers of lung function and may serve as future therapeutic targets early in lung disease development.

Citation: Ambatipudi M, McNeill JN, Roshandelpoor A, Alotaibi M, Mounsey LA, Hoffman E, et al. (2026) The association of eicosanoids with lung structure and function: Findings from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis lung study and Framingham Heart Study. PLoS One 21(6): e0351692.

Highlights
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Maternal TOCO exposure causes dose-dependent brain and liver damage in offspring.

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Lycopene supplementation provides 60–66% protection across target tissues.

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Cerebellar Purkinje cells show greatest vulnerability (Cohen’s d=2.5).

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Histomorphometry outperforms MDA/GSH as developmental toxicity biomarker.

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Human equivalent dose of 2.7 mg/day is achievable from dietary sources.

Abstract
Background
Thermally oxidized cooking oil (TOCO) generates reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation products that cross the placental barrier, posing risks to offspring organ development in low-to-middle income countries where cooking oil reuse is endemic. Lycopene, a potent carotenoid antioxidant, possesses neuroprotective and hepatoprotective properties, yet its capacity to prevent maternal-to-offspring oxidative damage through maternal supplementation remains unexplored.

Methods
Twenty-four female Sprague Dawley rats were randomized into six groups (n = 4 dams each): Control, CMC vehicle, TOCO1 × , TOCO3 × , TOCO1 × + Lycopene, and TOCO3 × + Lycopene. Lycopene (0.24 mg/kg) was administered via oral gavage from gestational day 1 through postnatal day 14 (total duration: 35 days encompassing pregnancy and early lactation). Dam was used as the experimental unit for all inferential statistics to avoid pseudo-replication. Statistical analysis employed Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests with Benjamini-Hochberg FDR correction, effect size estimation (Cohen’s d with 95% CI), and post-hoc power analysis.

Results
TOCO3 × exposure significantly reduced normal hippocampal CA1 neurons (60% vs 85% controls; Cohen’s d=2.2, p < 0.05), cerebellar Purkinje cells (55% vs 90%; d=2.5, p < 0.05), and increased hepatocyte damage (27% vs 8%; d=2.8, p < 0.05). Lycopene supplementation provided substantial protection: hippocampal recovery to 75% (PI 60%), cerebellar recovery to 78% (PI 66%), liver recovery to 15% damaged (PI 63%), with NNT of 4–5. Biochemical markers (MDA, GSH) showed non-significant trends (post-hoc power 15–42%). Caspase-3 expression showed dose-dependent elevation with TOCO and suppression with lycopene.

Conclusions
Maternal lycopene supplementation provides significant multi-organ protection against TOCO-induced developmental toxicity. These findings are supported by convergent evidence from histopathology (d=2.2–2.8), molecular markers (caspase-3 dose-response), and exposure characterization, consistent with oxidative stress-mediated mechanisms. The translational HED (2.7 mg/day from 150 g fresh tomatoes) supports investigation of dietary lycopene as a public health intervention for pregnant women in TOCO-endemic populations.

Abstract
Background/Objectives: Vascular diseases remain a leading cause of global mortality, yet the dietary and lifestyle factors that contribute to them are not fully understood in Central Anatolian populations. This study aimed to quantify the dietary and lifestyle predictors of vascular disease status in a case–control cohort from a tertiary care setting in Yozgat province. Methods: A total of 1452 adults were enrolled from Yozgat Bozok University Research Hospital: Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS; cases, n = 720) and Primary Care (PC; controls, n = 732). All participants completed a 43-item questionnaire on diet, lifestyle, and sociodemographic characteristics. Binary logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of case status, with age, sex, education, and income being included in the model. Results: Chronic comorbidities were present in 33.9% of the control group and 80.3% of the case group. Use of olive oil was most strongly associated with control status (odds ratio [OR] = 0.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.11–0.27), followed by use of butter (OR = 0.25). Paradoxically, fast food (OR = 0.24) and junk food (OR = 0.31) consumption were more frequent among controls. The use of sunflower oil (OR = 2.30), diabetes (OR = 5.22), and elevated serum ferritin (OR = 1.04 per 10 ng/mL) independently predicted a higher likelihood of being in the case group. The model explained 54.8% of the variance (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.548). Conclusions: The apparently higher prevalence of unhealthy dietary behaviours among controls is most plausibly attributed to post-diagnosis dietary modification among cases (an ‘illness effect’), underscoring the window for intervention before disease onset. As this case–control design precludes causal inference, these associations are hypothesis-generating. Promoting olive oil and reducing sunflower oil represent practical, culturally feasible dietary targets for cardiovascular risk counselling in Central Anatolia, pending prospective confirmation.

Keywords: vascular diseases; dietary habits; cooking oils; illness effect; primary care; case–control study; Türkiye

Abstract
Exposure to benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[a]pyrene, collectively known as PAH4, poses potential health risks to humans. This study simulated the migration behavior of PAH4 from rapeseed oil into fume particles during high-temperature frying using isotope-labeled PAH4 (PAH4-d12), and analyzed fatty acid-derived components that may facilitate PAH4 migration. Results showed that the migration of PAH4-d12 into oil fumes increased with heating, fine particles (< 2.1 μm) carrying 58.01%–72.90% of the total migrated PAH4. Single-particle and chemical composition analyses revealed that aldehydes generated from oxidative degradation of unsaturated fatty acids were closely associated with the migration of PAH4. The increases in acid value and total polar compound content indicated accelerated oil deterioration, enhanced the emission of aldehydes and other oxygenated organics, and promoted PAH4 migration. These findings establish a mechanistic link between fatty acid oxidation and PAH migration, providing a scientific basis for strategies to enhance cooking safety.

Keywords: Oxidative deterioration, rapeseed oil fumes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, migration

Abstract
There are currently 15 well-documented Late Pleistocene localities in North America in which Clovis points are found associated with proboscidean remains. These localities are routinely assumed to represent evidence that Clovis foragers hunted proboscideans, and in turn are often invoked as evidence for a human role in the extinction of Pleistocene large mammals. Such assumptions have never been thoroughly tested, nor have archaeologists fully considered the possibility that Clovis foragers were facultative scavengers, which might account for the association of artifacts with proboscidean remains at some or even all these localities. A significant obstacle to differentiating hunting from scavenging archaeologically is the challenge of equifinality. Here we explore whether Clovis foragers hunted, scavenged, or did both, and whether we can tell the difference. To set a broad foundation for considering the question, we begin with an overview that shows the near ubiquity of scavenging among non-human animals. Our survey of the paleoanthropological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic records shows that scavenging is quite common as well among human groups past and present. Following that, we consider the opportunities scavengers have – and Clovis foragers might have had – in exploiting proboscidean carrion. We then assess the proposed archaeological evidence for Clovis hunting and scavenging and show that while Clovis foragers likely practiced both, we cannot currently distinguish the two archaeologically and thus cannot reliably show how many Clovis proboscidean sites represent hunting versus scavenging events. Nonetheless, it would be odd indeed if Clovis foragers – alone among ethnohistoric and ethnographic human groups and nearly all omnivores and carnivores – did not scavenge. Scavenging could possibly explain the high δ15N values recently reported for the Anzick child, which could readily result from his mother eating maggots and not mammoth meat. Given the present state of knowledge, the Clovis archaeological record cannot be used to argue that Clovis groups routinely hunted proboscideans, or that there are sufficient “kill sites” to support a human role in proboscidean extinctions.

A forensic autopsy report says the boy was last seen by his primary care doctor in February 2024 when he was referred to a pediatric endocrinologist, whom he never saw.

“It was reported that the decedent’s diet was potato chips and fries because of texture issues,” Deputy Medical Examiner John A. Bechinski wrote in a forensic autopsy report.

Police and Children’s Protective Services reported the home was “absolutely disgusting” with piles of trash throughout it.

“There was trash on the floor throughout the residence. It was so extreme, I could not tell if there was carpet or wood floors,” one township police officer wrote in a case report.

Damien O’Brien told police he worked as a cloud engineer for Delta Dental in Okemos. He reported his son liked to watch videos, disliked contact with water, which made bathing difficult, and was prone to fits of anger.

“Nobody knew these kids existed,” said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. “I don’t want to charge parents with neglect or murder. I didn’t have any choice.”

MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Elias J. Fanous, an attorney representing Damien and Jessica O’Brien in the case, on Friday, June 26.

Both parents are scheduled to return to district court for a probable cause conference on July 2.

Court records allege the O’Briens failed to care for their son, who was immobile, and failed to take him to a doctor despite the family having health insurance.

Prosecutors also charge the couple with failing to assist their son’s morbid obesity and failing to provide a safe and clean environment for him.

According to an obituary published after Casper O’Brien’s death, the boy “was a bright, loving young boy whose joyful spirit touched everyone around him.”

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Abstract
The timing of divergence between hominins and the bonobo-chimpanzee clade has been at the core of palaeoanthropological debate for over a century. The earliest molecular studies indicated divergence times ranging from 5 Ma to as recently as 1.3 Ma. This study critically reviews the trends of time estimates published between 1967 and 2023, and analyses how these are supported or rejected by the current molecular and fossil records. We compiled 202 divergence estimates and defined three distinct thresholds based on fossil evidence at 4.4 Ma (Australopithecus anamensis and Ardipithecus ramidus), 6.2 Ma (Orrorin tugenensis and Ardipithecus kadabba), and 7.2 Ma (Sahelanthropus tchadensis). We then used these thresholds to filter out molecular estimates that are too young to fit the fossil record.

Overall, the data suggests a divergence event within the late Miocene, with each threshold pushing it further back, 8.63–6.38, 10.33–7.81, and 10.95–8.81 Ma, respectively. We use a quadratic regression to demonstrate that estimates have been slowly shifting from ~ 6 Ma to ~ 8.5 Ma over the past 56 years.

A Bayesian meta-analysis of genomic estimates filtered by our most consensual threshold (i.e., assuming Australopithecus belongs to Hominini) indicates that the split must have occurred early in the late Miocene, most likely before 7 Ma (~ 99.5% posterior probability) with a pooled effect of 8.69–7.28 Ma.

We conclude that, despite an initial bias towards younger estimates, the molecular timing for the last common ancestor (LCA) of Pan-Homo has been progressively approaching the intervals suggested by the current fossil record.

Abstract
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans affirms the recommendation of limiting saturated fatty acid (SFA) intake within 10% of total energy intake but simultaneously recommends intake of red meats and full dairy rich in SFA, leading to public confusions. This review summarizes evidence from short-term feeding trials, longitudinal observational studies, and long-term dietary interventions that examined SFA, in comparison with other fatty acids and carbohydrates, in relation to blood lipids and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Overall, the knowledge base clearly suggests that SFA, when isocalorically replacing cismonounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and cispolyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), lead to elevated levels of atherogenic low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Consistently, longitudinal observational studies and long-term high-quality dietary intervention trials demonstrated that isocalorically replacing SFA with PUFA led to lower risk of developing CHD. Conversely, when SFA are replaced by refined carbohydrates, the effects on blood lipids and CHD risk become more neutral. Evidence from feeding trials and observational studies also suggests that animal fat, including dairy fat, leads to adverse lipid profiles and elevated CHD risk, when compared with non-tropical plant-based oils rich in MUFA and PUFA. A higher consumption of red and processed meats is also associated with a higher CHD risk, especially when compared with nuts, legumes, and whole grains. The health impact of dairy products may be influenced by their fat content, vary among dairy products, and depend on the consumption levels. Overall, the evidence supports the conclusion that a heart-healthy diet shall emphasize healthful sources of PUFA and MUFA, such as non-tropical plant oils, nuts, and seeds, healthful sources of carbohydrate and protein, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and dark-meat fish, and moderate intake of low-fat and fermented dairy products, while de-emphasizing excess intake of red and processed meats and full-fat dairy products.

ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Recently, studies investigating the association between blood metabolites and gastrointestinal tumors have gained increased attention. A Mendelian randomization (MR) study is considered the second most persuasive research method to explore the causal relationship between exposure and outcome after RCT.

Material and methods:
This analysis utilized the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, the weighted median (WM) method, and MR-Egger regression. Initially, we analyzed GWAS data from the FinnGen database to identify various metabolites and their ratios. Subsequently, we repeatedly analyzed GWAS data from the Open GWAS database to filter out duplicate results.

Results:
5-methyluridine (FinnGen : odds ratio (OR) = 1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–1.31, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.01–1.17, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04)

and 1-dihomo-linolenylglycerol (FinnGen: OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.02–1.65, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.02–1.31, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04) were positively associated with the risk of gastric cancer (GC).

Sphingomyelin (FinnGen: OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.54–0.98, p = 0.04, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.67–0.97, p = 0.02, FDR-P = 0.04) was negatively correlated with GC risk.

Carnitine to propionylcarnitine (C3) ratio (FinnGen: OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.01–1.22, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01–1.14, p = 0.04, FDR-P = 0.04),

arachidonate to linoleate ratio (FinnGen: OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.02–1.19, p = 0.02, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.06–1.18, p = 4.44 × 10–5, FDR-P = 3.55 × 10–4),

and androsterone sulfate (FinnGen: OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01–1.14, p = 0.03, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01–1.10, p = 0.04, FDR-P = 0.04) were positively associated with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC).

1-oleoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl-GPC (FinnGen: OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.81–0.98, p = 0.02, FDR-P = 0.04; Open GWAS: OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87–0.99, p = 0.02, FDR-P = 0.04) was negatively correlated with CRC risk.

Conclusions:
Three blood metabolites were found to be associated with the risk of GC; 4 blood metabolites and metabolite ratios were associated with the risk of CRC. These findings may provide valuable guidance for the early clinical diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal tumors.