Browse the evidence

Emotional eating mediates the relationship between depression and subsequent weight gain in adults, acting as a behavioral mechanism linking negative affect to obesity.

If you tend to eat more when stressed or depressed, recognize that this is a learned coping mechanism, not a character flaw. Focus on building alternative emotion regulation skills, such as mindfulness or cognitive behavioral techniques, to manage distress without turning to food.

Short sleep duration (≤7 hours) interacts with high emotional eating to significantly increase the risk of weight gain and BMI increase in adults.

If you are prone to emotional eating, prioritize getting at least 7-9 hours of sleep. Short sleep combined with emotional eating significantly increases your risk of weight gain. Improving sleep hygiene may help mitigate this risk.

For older men, total volume of physical activity (including light intensity) is the primary determinant of all-cause mortality reduction, whereas the pattern of accumulation (specifically meeting the 150-minute weekly guideline in bouts of ≥10 minutes) provides no additional mortality benefit.

If you are an older adult, you do not need to worry about finding uninterrupted 10-minute blocks of exercise to protect your heart and lifespan. The total amount of time you spend moving—whether it's light gardening, walking to the store, or short bursts of activity throughout the day—is what matters most. Focus on increasing your total daily movement volume rather than stressing over whether your activity is 'continuous' or 'bouted'.

Skipping 30-minute relief breaks during work shifts significantly increases insomnia, acute and chronic fatigue, and post-traumatic stress symptoms among hospital nursing staff.

If you are a healthcare worker, prioritize taking your full 30-minute break during your shift. The data shows that skipping these breaks directly correlates with worse sleep, higher fatigue, and increased stress. Treat this break as a non-negotiable part of your job safety protocol, not an optional extra.

There is no minimal threshold for cognitive benefit from exercise; any amount of physical activity is better than none, though clinically meaningful changes require ~724 METs-min/week.

You do not need to exercise for hours to see brain benefits. Even small amounts of activity help. However, to see significant, clinically meaningful improvements, aim for approximately 724 METs-min per week (e.g., 150 minutes of moderate activity).

Implementing a beverage excise tax on sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages significantly increases their retail price and substantially reduces their volume sales, although cross-border shopping partially offsets the reduction in the taxed jurisdiction.

If you are a policy maker, a beverage tax is an effective tool to reduce sugary drink consumption. Expect prices to rise, which drives the reduction in sales. Be aware that some consumers will shop across borders, so design the tax to minimize this leakage (e.g., regional coordination) or accept that a portion of the sales reduction will be offset by out-of-city purchases.

Insomnia is a causal risk factor for type 2 diabetes, independent of BMI.

Prioritize treating insomnia as a medical risk factor for diabetes, not just a nuisance. If you have chronic sleep difficulties, address them with the same urgency as blood sugar management.

Living in an urban residence is associated with a significantly higher risk and prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) compared to living in a rural residence.

If you live in an urban area, be aware that your environment may be promoting behaviors that increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, such as less physical activity and more processed food consumption. You may need to be more intentional about your diet and exercise habits to counteract these environmental factors.

Higher neighborhood walkability is associated with a lower risk and prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Living in a neighborhood with higher walkability (e.g., sidewalks, mixed-use zoning, proximity to amenities) is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. This is likely because it makes physical activity easier to incorporate into daily life.

LCHF diets do not provide superior long-term weight loss or metabolic benefits compared to high-carbohydrate diets, and adherence is significantly lower over time.

If you are trying to lose weight or manage diabetes long-term, a strict LCHF diet is unlikely to give you better results than a balanced, higher-carbohydrate diet and is much harder to stick to. Focus on a diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, and moderate fat, which is easier to maintain and equally effective for weight loss over time.

Administering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi) prior to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy significantly improves insomnia symptoms and increases long-term CPAP adherence in patients with Co-morbid Insomnia and Sleep Apnea (COMISA) compared to CPAP alone or no treatment.

If you have both sleep apnea and insomnia, treating them separately often fails. The most effective strategy is to start with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi) delivered by a therapist before or alongside starting CPAP. This approach not only fixes your sleeplessness but also helps you stick with your CPAP machine longer, leading to better overall health outcomes than using CPAP alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant overall decrease in physical activity and mobility, alongside a significant increase in sedentary behavior, across diverse global populations.

During periods of restricted mobility or facility closures, expect a significant drop in physical activity. To mitigate this, prioritize utilizing available outdoor spaces (parks, trails) or adapting home environments, as access to these resources is a key determinant of maintaining activity levels during crises.

Vigorous or moderate exercise significantly reduces the risk of sleep disturbance in individuals with severe sedentary behavior, although this benefit is not mediated by the measured blood-cell-based inflammatory biomarkers.

If you sit for more than 8 hours a day, doing 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week significantly lowers your risk of sleep problems. However, this benefit is specific to those with high sitting times; for those who are already active, the added benefit on sleep risk was not statistically significant in this study.

Objective actigraphy reveals significantly lower physical activity and dampened circadian rhythms in individuals with current depressive or anxiety disorders compared to controls, whereas self-reported measures fail to capture these objective differences.

For individuals with depression or anxiety, relying on memory or self-reports of activity and sleep is often inaccurate. Objective monitoring via actigraphy reveals that these individuals are significantly less active and have more disrupted circadian rhythms than healthy controls. This objective data is crucial for accurate assessment and monitoring treatment response, as self-reports may miss these critical disturbances.

Healthcare workers (nurses and physicians) treating COVID-19 patients exhibit significantly elevated prevalence of sleep disturbances (34.8% for nurses, 41.6% for physicians) driven by workplace stress, anxiety, and exposure to the virus.

If you are a healthcare worker treating infectious disease patients, your risk of sleep disturbance is high (approx. 35-42%). This is driven by stress and anxiety, not just workload. Prioritize stress-reduction interventions and sleep hygiene protocols to protect your health and patient safety.

Simple, high-contrast front-of-package warning labels (specifically black-and-white stop signs with 'High in' text) significantly improve consumer visualization, understanding, and intention to modify purchase behavior compared to complex or positive-framing labels.

For policymakers and public health advocates: Implement mandatory, high-contrast front-of-package warning labels (e.g., black-and-white stop signs with 'High in [Nutrient]'). Avoid complex traffic-light systems or positive-only labels, as evidence shows they are less understood and less effective at modifying purchase behavior, especially among low-SES populations. Simplicity and visual salience are key to driving healthier food choices.

Step intensity (cadence) is positively correlated with step count and independently associated with lower risk of chronic diseases, though the relationship is less consistent than step count alone.

While total steps are the primary driver, walking faster (higher cadence) adds additional benefit. However, you do not need to obsess over speed; simply increasing your total daily steps will likely increase your average cadence and provide protection.

During pandemic lockdowns, adults and adolescents globally shifted toward modified eating behaviors characterized by increased snack frequency, higher consumption of sweets and ultra-processed foods, and decreased adherence to healthy diets (fruits/vegetables).

Pandemic lockdowns and restrictive measures led to a global shift in eating behaviors, with people consuming more snacks, sweets, and ultra-processed foods while eating fewer fruits and vegetables. This resulted in decreased adherence to healthy diets and increased alcohol consumption across various demographics.

Vulnerable populations, including those with diabetes, obesity, and low socioeconomic status, experienced more acute declines in nutritional quality and health during lockdowns compared to the general population.

If you have diabetes, obesity, or live in a high-deprivation area, lockdowns can severely impact your diet. You may experience more acute changes in eating behavior, such as increased consumption of unhealthy foods and decreased adherence to healthy diets. It is crucial to have targeted support and strategies to maintain nutrition during such times.

Pandemic lockdowns led to increased alcohol consumption and a shift in dietary patterns towards higher intake of snacks, sweets, and ultra-processed foods, while decreasing consumption of fresh foods like fruits and vegetables.

Lockdowns led to increased alcohol consumption and a shift towards snacks, sweets, and ultra-processed foods, while decreasing fresh food intake. This resulted in decreased adherence to healthy diets.

Nudging interventions that combine altering both the properties and the placement of fruit and vegetables yield a significant, medium effect size on increasing selection.

For maximum impact, combine strategic placement (e.g., eye-level, front-of-counter) with property alterations (e.g., attractive presentation, priming, or sizing cues). This dual approach significantly boosts fruit and vegetable selection compared to control conditions.

Health-related claims on food labels significantly increase the likelihood of purchasing and consuming the labeled product compared to identical products without such claims.

If you see a health or nutrition claim on a packaged food, expect that it will make you more likely to buy and eat it than if the package were blank. This is a powerful marketing tool that works in both lab settings and real-world sales data. Use this knowledge to be aware of your own biases when shopping.

Occupational physical activity, particularly light-intensity activity (LPA) and sedentary time (ST), does not confer the same cardiometabolic health benefits as leisure-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and high occupational ST is associated with adverse health outcomes regardless of leisure-time activity.

If you have a sedentary job, your health risk is driven by prolonged sitting, not just lack of exercise. If you have a physically demanding job, your health risk is driven by the lack of cardiovascular intensity and recovery time, not just 'activity.' To mitigate risk, office workers should prioritize leisure-time MVPA and reduce sitting time. Manual laborers should prioritize cardiovascular exercise and recovery, as their job activity may not provide sufficient health benefits and may even increase risk if not managed.

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) increase retail prices by 43-100% of the tax amount, leading to a significant decrease in SSB sales and overall consumption among adults.

Implementing a tax on sugary drinks raises their price, which effectively reduces consumption among adults. Policymakers should design taxes to maximize pass-through to consumers and consider broader tax scopes to minimize unhealthy substitutions.