Browse the evidence

Reformulation of products to reduce sugar content in response to taxes can mitigate the financial burden on consumers while achieving public health goals.

Policymakers can design sugar taxes to encourage product reformulation by giving manufacturers time to adjust. This approach can achieve health goals (less sugar) without necessarily imposing the full financial burden on consumers if they choose to reformulate.

Increased exposure to media content related to weight gain, diet culture, and pandemic stress, combined with increased use of video-conferencing, increases eating disorder risk by heightening body image concerns and social comparison.

Be mindful of your media consumption, especially on social media. Limit exposure to content that promotes thin ideals or diet culture. If you use video-conferencing, try to focus on the conversation rather than your appearance, and take breaks from screens to reduce body image preoccupation.

Fears of contagion and health concerns related to the pandemic can increase eating disorder risk by promoting restrictive diets focused on immunity or avoiding foods perceived as contaminated.

Avoid restrictive diets based on fear of contamination. Focus on a balanced diet that supports your immune system. If you have health anxiety, seek professional support to manage your fears and eating behaviors.

College students significantly overestimate the prevalence of risky health behaviors among their peers, including alcohol use, cigarette use, sexual activity, and drug use.

You likely underestimate how many of your peers are making healthy choices. Most students do not drink heavily, smoke, or engage in risky sexual behavior as frequently as it seems. Trust your own healthy choices; you are part of the majority.

Lower education level is inversely associated with weight gain during lockdown, suggesting socioeconomic factors influence food choices.

If you have less formal education, be aware that socioeconomic factors may make it harder to access fresh, healthy food. Focus on affordable, shelf-stable healthy options like canned beans, frozen vegetables, and whole grains to mitigate weight gain.

Good social engagement is modestly protective against dementia, particularly in long-term studies (≥10 years) and when adjusted for depression.

Maintain regular social interactions and a supportive social network, as this may offer modest protection against dementia, especially over the long term. Focus on activities that provide social support and network strength, as these are more consistently linked to reduced risk than subjective feelings of loneliness.

In developing countries, lower socioeconomic status (SES) is increasingly associated with higher obesity prevalence, reversing the trend seen in developed nations where higher SES often correlates with lower obesity.

If you have a limited budget, prioritize foods that offer better nutritional value per calorie, even if they cost more per weight. Be aware that cheap, energy-dense foods are often the default due to economic constraints.

Orthorexia nervosa is a pathological fixation on healthy food that leads to nutritional deficiencies, medical complications, and poor quality of life, distinguishable from anorexia by its motivation (health/purity vs. weight loss) and from OCD by its ego-syntonic nature.

If you find yourself spending hours scrutinizing food labels, avoiding entire food groups due to 'purity' concerns, or feeling intense guilt when eating 'impure' foods, this may be orthorexia. Unlike healthy eating, it causes distress, social isolation, and potential medical issues. Seek help from a multidisciplinary team (therapist, dietitian, physician) if your diet is restricting your life.

Longer duration of breastfeeding is associated with a decreased prevalence of overweight in children in the EMR.

Breastfeed for as long as possible. Longer duration is linked to lower overweight risk in children.

Gut microbiota manipulate host eating behavior and cravings to enhance microbial fitness, potentially at the expense of host health, through mechanisms including vagus nerve hijacking, neurotransmitter production, and receptor alteration.

Instead of relying solely on willpower to fight cravings, consider that your gut bacteria might be driving them. You can influence your microbiota through diet (prebiotics/probiotics), which may help reduce cravings and improve eating habits over time.

Lower income, older age (≥65 years), and female gender are independently associated with physical inactivity in adults with type 2 diabetes.

If you are older, female, or have a low income, you may face barriers to exercise. Seek out community-based programs or low-cost activities like walking. Consult a healthcare provider for an individualized plan.

The decline in physical activity is slightly more pronounced in males than in females during the transition to adulthood.

Males may experience a steeper drop in activity (approx 6.5 min/day less) compared to females (approx 5.5 min/day less) during this life transition. Pay extra attention to maintaining activity levels if you are male.

Aggressive tobacco control reducing male smoking prevalence to 10% by 2030 prevents significant cardiovascular and noncardiovascular deaths in men, but fails to prevent cardiovascular deaths in women.

Aggressive national tobacco control policies targeting male smoking prevalence (down to 10% by 2030) can prevent millions of total deaths in men, though this specific intervention does not reduce cardiovascular mortality in women.

Breastfeeding is associated with lower blood pressure in childhood and a lower risk of developing obesity later in life compared to formula feeding.

Mothers should be supported to breastfeed exclusively for as long as possible, as it is associated with lower childhood blood pressure and reduced obesity risk.

Population-level nutrition interventions focusing exclusively on individual behavior change have limited success because they ignore the social structural conditions (rules and resources) that constrain or enable food choices.

To improve population health, interventions must move beyond telling people what to eat. Instead, they must address the social structures that make healthy choices difficult, such as ensuring affordable access to food, modifying school policies, and supporting family meal norms.

The method of diagnosing diabetes significantly impacts the observed prevalence in PCOS, with self-report or administrative records doubling the odds ratio compared to prospective blood-based techniques.

If you are looking at statistics about PCOS and diabetes, be careful about how 'diabetes' was defined. Studies using blood tests (OGTT) find lower rates than those using medical records, because many women with PCOS are undiagnosed. This highlights the need for active screening.

Living in low socioeconomic neighbourhoods is associated with higher body mass index (BMI) compared to high socioeconomic neighbourhoods, independent of individual-level factors.

If you live in a low-income area, your higher BMI risk may be driven by your environment, not just your choices. Focus on what you can control: nutrition knowledge and seeking out resources, but recognize that structural changes (like better store access) are needed for long-term community health.

For women, higher density of small grocery stores and closer proximity to chain supermarkets are associated with higher BMI, contradicting the assumption that supermarket proximity reduces obesity.

For women, living near small grocery stores or supermarkets might actually increase obesity risk due to exposure to processed foods. Focus on nutrition knowledge and making conscious choices, but recognize that environmental factors play a significant role.

CPAP treatment for OSA in diabetic patients improves daytime sleepiness and cognitive function, though its direct impact on glycaemic control (HbA1c) remains unproven in adequately controlled studies.

If you have OSA and diabetes, CPAP is the standard treatment to fix sleepiness and protect your heart. However, do not expect it to magically fix your blood sugar levels without other diabetes management strategies, as evidence for that specific benefit is still lacking.

High-frequency cell phone use is negatively associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 peak) in college students, independent of sex, body fat percentage, and self-efficacy.

If you use your phone heavily (texting, gaming, social media) for several hours a day, you may have lower cardiorespiratory fitness than light users, even if you exercise. This is likely because heavy phone use displaces time that could be spent on physical activity or promotes sedentary habits like gaming. To maintain fitness, be mindful of 'sedentary phone time' and ensure it doesn't replace your active leisure or exercise routines.

Psychosocial factors, including socioeconomic status, perceived control, and depression, are key determinants of cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Pay attention to your mental well-being and social connections. Managing stress, maintaining a sense of control, and seeking social support are important for cardiovascular health, especially in high-stress environments.

Higher exposure to sociocultural media promoting thinness correlates with higher incidence of eating disorders, with a dose-response relationship observed between media reinforcement frequency and disorder prevalence.

Be critical of media consumption. The high frequency of diet and shape-promoting content in magazines read by young women mirrors the higher prevalence of eating disorders in women, suggesting that media exposure is a significant environmental risk factor. Reducing exposure to these specific media types may mitigate risk.

Experiencing weight bias in primary healthcare negatively influences patient engagement and utilization of health services, leading to avoidance or delay of care.

If you have obesity, you may face weight bias in healthcare, which can lead you to avoid or delay seeking care. This is a common and documented barrier. To overcome this, seek providers who focus on health behaviors rather than just weight, and remember that avoiding care due to fear of judgment can worsen health outcomes.

Smoking cessation during lockdown was observed in 3.3% of smokers, potentially driven by fear of COVID-19 respiratory complications.

For smokers, the heightened awareness of respiratory health risks during the pandemic may serve as a powerful motivator to quit. Leverage this awareness to support cessation efforts.