Objective: To compare and evaluate the prevalence of food and beverage marketing on the livestreaming platforms Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube Gaming, as well as examine growth of food and beverage marketing on these platforms over a 17-month period of data collection. Design: Cross-sectional data was analyzed across three livestreaming platforms and six food and beverage categories: alcohol, candy, energy drinks, snacks, sodas, and restaurants. Setting: Stream titles of livestreamed events as well as corresponding hours watched on Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube Gaming. Participants: None Results: There were significant differences between the use of food and beverage brand mentions in stream titles across all three studied platforms (p<0.05), as well as hours watched across platforms (p<0.05). Energy drinks dominated food and beverage brand mentions across platforms, followed by restaurants, soda, and snacks. All platforms demonstrated growth over the 17-month data collection period. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both immediate and sustained growth across all platforms, with the greatest impact observed on the Twitch platform. Conclusions: Food and beverage marketing as measured through stream titles is widely prevalent across the three most popular livestreaming platforms, particularly for energy drinks. Food marketing on these platforms experienced growth over the past 17-months which was accelerated substantially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future work should assess the sustained impact this growth may have on marketing practices and eating behavior.

Objective: To compare and evaluate the prevalence of food and beverage marketing on the livestreaming platforms Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube Gaming, as well as examine growth of food and beverage marketing on these platforms over a 17-month period of data collection.Design: Cross-sectional data was analyzed across three livestreaming platforms and six food and beverage categories: alcohol, candy, energy drinks, snacks, sodas, and restaurants.Setting: Stream titles of livestreamed events as well as corresponding hours watched on Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube Gaming.Participants: NoneResults: There were significant differences between food and beverage brand mentions across all three studied platforms (p&lt;0.05), as well as hours watched (p&lt;0.05). Energy drinks dominated food and beverage brand mentions across platforms, followed by restaurants, soda, and snacks. All platforms demonstrated growth over the 17-month data collection period. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both immediate and sustained growth across all platforms, with the greatest impact observed on the Twitch platform.Conclusions: Food and beverage marketing as measured through stream titles is widely prevalent across the three most popular livestreaming platforms, particularly for energy drinks. Food marketing on these platforms experienced growth over the past 17-months which was accelerated substantially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future work should assess the sustained impact this growth may have on marketing practices and eating behavior.

Herbs and spices are recommended to increase flavor and displace salt in the diet. Accumulating evidence suggests herbs and spices may improve risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases. In this narrative review, an overview of evidence from human clinical trials examining the effect of herbs and spices on risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases is provided. Human clinical trials examining supplemental doses of individual spices and herbs, or the active compounds, have yielded some evidence showing improvements to lipid and lipoprotein levels, glycemic control, blood pressure, adiposity, inflammation, and oxidative stress. However, cautious interpretation is warranted because of methodological limitations and substantial between-trial heterogeneity in the findings. Evidence from acute studies suggests intake of mixed herbs and spices as part of a high-saturated fat, high-carbohydrate meal reduces postprandial metabolic impairments, including lipemia, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction. Limited studies have examined the postprandial metabolic effects of incorporating mixed herbs and spices into healthy meals, and, to our knowledge, no trials have assessed the effect of longer-term intake of mixed herbs and spices on risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases. To inform evidence-based guidelines for intake of herbs and spices for general health and cardiometabolic disease risk reduction, rigorously conducted randomized controlled trials are needed, particularly trials examining herb and spice doses that can be incorporated into healthy dietary patterns.

Objective: Assess viewer engagement of a food advertising campaign on the livestreaming platform Twitch.tv, a social media platform that allows creators to livestream content and communicate with their audience in real-time. Design: Observational analysis of chat comments across the Twitch platform containing the word “Wendy’s” or “Wendys” during a 5-day ad campaign compared to two 5-day non-campaign time periods. Comments were categorized as positive, negative, or neutral in how their sentiment pertained to the brand Wendy’s. Setting: Twitch chatrooms. Participants: None. Results: There were significantly more chatroom messages related to the Wendy’s brand during the campaign period. When considering all messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2=1417.41, p <0.001) across time periods with a higher proportion of neutral and positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign compared to the comparison periods. Additionally, the proportion of negative messages following the campaign was lower than before the campaign. When considering only positive and negative messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2=366.38, p <0.001) across each time period with a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign when compared to the other time periods. Additionally, there was a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower portion of negative messages following the campaign when compared to before the campaign. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the impact and sustained impact of a fast-food brand ad campaign on brand engagement on the livestreaming platform Twitch.