Browse the evidence

The superiority of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss and body fat percentage reduction is most pronounced in subgroups with longer follow-up (≥6 months), younger age (<60 years), and very low carbohydrate intake (<10% carbs).

To maximize weight loss benefits from a low-carb diet, aim for very low carbohydrate intake (<10% of calories) and maintain the diet for at least 6 months. This approach is particularly effective for individuals under 60 years of age.

Caloric Restriction (CR) is more effective for weight loss than low-fat diets without caloric restriction, and low-carbohydrate diets are more effective than low-fat diets regardless of caloric restriction.

If you are restricting calories, choose a low-carbohydrate or Mediterranean diet rather than a low-fat diet for better weight loss results.

A healthy diet emphasizing vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and fish, while minimizing processed meats, refined carbohydrates, and sweetened beverages, decreases ASCVD risk factors.

Fill your plate with vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, whole grains, and fish. Try to cut back on processed meats, sugary drinks, and refined carbs like white bread. This pattern helps lower your risk of heart disease without needing to count calories strictly.

Replacing dietary saturated fat with monounsaturated fats lowers cardiovascular disease risk, although the evidence is stronger for polyunsaturated fats.

You can improve heart health by replacing saturated fats with either polyunsaturated oils (corn, soybean) or monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados, nuts). Polyunsaturated fats have more direct trial evidence, but both are beneficial.

Strength training provides specific health benefits, including improved balance, reduced fall risk, and positive impacts on endurance, previously associated primarily with aerobic exercise.

Include strength training in your routine. It improves balance, reduces fall risk, and can boost endurance, offering benefits beyond just muscle size.

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet, particularly when supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts, reduces the incidence of major cardiovascular events and breast cancer risk compared to a reduced-fat diet.

Adopt a Mediterranean-style eating pattern: emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, and healthy fats like olive oil and nuts. Limit red meat and saturated fats. This pattern is strongly linked to lower risks of heart disease and breast cancer.

Animal-based proteins stimulate muscle protein synthesis and support muscle mass more effectively than plant-based proteins due to higher digestibility, superior essential amino acid profiles (particularly leucine), and lower amino acid oxidation.

If your goal is maximizing muscle growth, prioritize animal proteins (whey, casein, meat, eggs) because they are digested faster and contain more leucine, which triggers muscle building more efficiently. If you rely on plant proteins, you must consume larger quantities (e.g., >30g per meal) or blend sources (like rice and pea) to ensure you get enough of all essential amino acids, particularly leucine, to overcome their lower digestibility.

Increasing the quantity of plant-based protein intake (specifically >30g per meal) can compensate for its lower anabolic quality and stimulate muscle protein synthesis rates comparable to lower doses of animal proteins.

If you eat plant protein, do not rely on small doses. Aim for at least 30 grams of protein per meal from plant sources to effectively trigger muscle growth. If you struggle to eat that much, blend different plant proteins (like pea and rice) to create a complete amino acid profile, or mix plant protein with a small amount of animal protein (like milk) to boost the leucine content.

Post-bariatric patients should target a minimal protein intake of 60 g/day up to 1.5 g/kg ideal body weight per day, utilizing liquid protein supplements (30 g/day) in the early post-operative period to prevent lean body mass loss and protein malnutrition.

After bariatric surgery, your body needs more protein to keep your muscle while you lose fat. Because solid protein foods might upset your stomach early on, use liquid protein supplements (about 30g daily) to help you hit your target of 60g to 1.5g per kg of your ideal body weight each day. This protects your muscle mass during rapid weight loss.

Marine microalgae are superior sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) compared to freshwater species, which predominantly contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

If you need EPA and DHA from algae, choose marine-derived sources (e.g., Phaeodactylum, Nannochloropsis). Freshwater algae (e.g., Chlorella, Arthrospira) are rich in protein but primarily contain ALA, not the direct EPA/DHA found in marine strains.

Higher intake of total protein is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, with a dose-response relationship indicating that an additional 3% of energy from plant protein per day is associated with a 5% lower risk of death from all causes.

To support longevity, aim for a higher total protein intake, prioritizing plant sources. Specifically, increasing your plant protein intake by just 3% of your daily energy (e.g., adding a serving of beans, lentils, or nuts) is associated with a 5% reduction in your risk of death from all causes. This applies to generally healthy adults, not those with pre-existing kidney disease.

Increasing daily protein intake to 1.0–1.2 g/kg body weight (and up to 1.5 g/kg for illness) and distributing it across 25–30 g per meals is superior to current RDAs (0.8 g/kg) for preserving muscle mass and strength in adults over 40.

To maintain muscle as you age, aim for 1.0–1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. Spread this out by eating 25–30 grams of high-quality protein at each of your 2–3 main meals. This strategy is more effective for preserving muscle than simply eating the recommended minimum amount.

Adherence to Mediterranean (MedDiet) or DASH dietary patterns is associated with a 15–38% reduction in the relative risk of developing GDM.

Adopting a Mediterranean or DASH-style diet before pregnancy can lower your risk of gestational diabetes by 15-38%. Focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and olive oil, while limiting red meat and processed foods.

Microalgae species such as Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira platensis provide high-quality protein with essential amino acid scores (AAS) equal to or exceeding those of animal-derived proteins, making them viable alternatives for human nutrition.

If you are looking for a high-quality protein source, consider microalgae like Chlorella or Spirulina. They contain all essential amino acids in amounts that meet or exceed the requirements for human health, rivaling the quality of animal proteins. This makes them a sustainable and effective option for meeting your daily protein needs.

Carbohydrate intake should not be restricted below the levels recommended for normal pregnancies (minimum 175g/day), and the focus should be on the type, amount, and distribution of carbohydrates to avoid postprandial hyperglycemia and ketonemia.

Eat at least 175g of carbs daily. Choose high-fiber, low-GI sources like vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Spread your carbs across 3 meals and 2-3 snacks, and limit breakfast carbs to about 30g to manage morning insulin resistance.

Protein supplementation alone does not improve functional frailty outcomes (lean body mass, strength, gait speed) in pre-frail or frail older adults, but when combined with exercise training, it yields greater benefits than exercise alone.

Do not rely on protein supplements alone to fight frailty. They are ineffective without physical activity. Combine protein supplementation (up to 32g/day) with exercise training to see improvements in muscle mass and strength.

For endurance events lasting longer than 2.5 hours, ingesting 60-70 g/h of carbohydrates (up to 90 g/h if tolerable) improves performance by maximizing exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates.

If your race is longer than 2.5 hours, aim to consume 60-70 grams of carbohydrates per hour. If you can handle it, try up to 90 grams per hour. To maximize absorption and reduce stomach upset, use drinks that contain both glucose and fructose. Practice this exact intake during your long training runs to ensure your stomach can handle it on race day.

Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) improves insulin sensitivity and glycemic control in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, independent of significant weight loss.

Adopt a Mediterranean-style eating pattern focusing on extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains. This specific combination improves insulin sensitivity more effectively than standard low-fat diets, even if you don't lose a lot of weight. Prioritize food quality over strict calorie counting for metabolic health.

Replacing saturated fatty acids (SAFA) with unsaturated fatty acids (specifically polyunsaturated fatty acids, PUFA) lowers LDL-C and reduces cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

To lower your LDL cholesterol and heart disease risk, swap saturated fats (found in fatty meats, butter, and full-fat dairy) for unsaturated fats (found in vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds). Specifically, replacing 5% of your daily calories from saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat can reduce heart disease risk by about 10%. Avoid coconut oil for this purpose, as it raises LDL cholesterol.

Adopting the Portfolio Diet, which combines viscous fiber, plant protein, nuts, and phytosterols, lowers LDL-C by approximately 17-30%, comparable to low-dose statins.

To significantly lower LDL cholesterol, adopt the Portfolio Diet. This involves consuming 20g of viscous fiber (from oats/barley), 50g of plant protein (soy/legumes), 42g of nuts, and 2g of phytosterols (from fortified margarine) daily, while keeping saturated fat below 7% of total energy. This combination can lower LDL-C by 17-30%, comparable to low-dose statins.

Athletes should consume high-quality protein distributed across 4-5 daily meals, targeting 0.3-0.4 g/kg per meal, to optimize muscle protein synthesis and adaptation to training.

Eat 4-5 meals a day, each containing about 0.3-0.4 grams of high-quality protein per kilogram of your body weight. For a 70kg athlete, this is roughly 21-28g of protein per meal. If you are trying to lose weight, aim for the higher end (0.4-0.5 g/kg) to protect muscle mass.

For events lasting longer than 90 minutes, consuming 30-90 g/hour of carbohydrates during the event improves performance by maintaining exogenous fuel supply as endogenous stores dwindle.

For races longer than 90 minutes, consume 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour. For races longer than 2 hours, aim for up to 90 grams per hour using a mix of carbohydrate sources (e.g., glucose and fructose). Practice this during training to avoid stomach issues.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) prevents obesity and reduces cardiometabolic risk in children and adults, whereas adoption of Western diets (high in saturated fats, refined carbs, and processed meats) accelerates obesity epidemics.

Adopt a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern: prioritize vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and olive oil; consume fish and poultry moderately; and minimize red meat, sweets, and processed foods. This approach is cost-effective, transferable to non-Mediterranean regions by substituting local equivalents, and is the most effective dietary strategy for preventing obesity and cardiometabolic disease in both children and adults.

Obese individuals should consume at least 1 g/kg ideal body weight of protein per day to support muscle mass, with higher amounts recommended for high-risk groups.

Eat at least 1 gram of protein per kilogram of your ideal body weight every day. If you are older, sick, or losing weight rapidly, you may need even more. Combine this with exercise for best results.