Browse the evidence

Moderate carbohydrate restriction (30% energy) inducing weight loss does not negatively affect global cognition or health-related quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes compared to a conventional diabetes diet.

If you have Type 2 Diabetes, switching to a moderate low-carb diet (around 30% of calories from carbs) for 6 weeks to lose weight will not harm your thinking abilities or how you feel about your health. It performs similarly to standard diabetic diets regarding mental well-being and cognitive function, though you may see a slight, non-significant boost in mental health scores.

Moderate carbohydrate restriction (30% energy) selectively worsens psychomotor speed (measured by SDMT) compared to a conventional diabetes diet, despite no effect on global cognition.

Be aware that switching to a moderate low-carb diet might make you feel slightly slower at processing information or performing quick mental tasks (like the Symbol Digit Test) in the first few weeks. However, this does not appear to affect your overall memory or general thinking ability, and this specific slowdown may improve with longer-term adherence.

Replacing saturated fatty acids with omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids lowers LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol concentrations in a dose-dependent manner.

Incorporating omega-6 rich oils (like corn, soybean, or sunflower oil) into your diet in place of saturated fats (like butter or lard) will lower your LDL ('bad') cholesterol. The more you replace saturated fat with these oils, the greater the reduction in LDL cholesterol.

GLP-1 receptor agonists cause a reduction in lean body mass (25-45% of total weight loss), which may impact mobility and metabolic rate, particularly in older adults or those with sarcopenic obesity.

When you lose weight on GLP-1 medications, you lose both fat and some muscle. About a quarter to half of your total weight loss might be muscle. This can affect your strength and metabolism, especially if you are older. To protect your muscles, focus on eating enough protein and doing resistance exercises (like weight lifting) while on the medication.

Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) promote inflammation and insulin resistance by activating TLR4 and inflammasomes, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) mitigate inflammation by suppressing NF-κB and upregulating anti-inflammatory IL-10.

Focus on the quality of your fats. Replace saturated fats (found in red meat, butter) with polyunsaturated fats (found in fish, nuts, olive oil). This shift can help lower inflammation and improve your body's sensitivity to insulin.

Dietary intake, specifically higher consumption of sugars, lactose, and folate, distinguishes probiotic responders from non-responders, suggesting diet modulates probiotic efficacy.

Your diet might determine if a probiotic works for you. In this study, people who responded well to the probiotic tended to eat more sugars, lactose, and folate than those who didn't respond. This doesn't mean you should eat more sugar, but it suggests that your current diet interacts with the probiotic. If you're taking a probiotic for metabolic health, your dietary habits are a key part of the equation.

The nitrogen balance method used to establish the 0.8 g/kg RDA likely underestimates true protein requirements due to methodological limitations, such as ignoring nonlinearity and metabolic adaptation.

Understand that the old '0.8g/kg' rule was based on a flawed measurement method. It is safer to aim higher, especially if you are active or older.

Higher intake of fish and shellfish, dietary fiber, and saturated fatty acids (SFA) is independently associated with a reduced risk of incident atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD).

Ensure you are eating at least 300g of fish and shellfish per week and consuming enough dietary fiber (≥2.4g per megajoule of energy). Do not fear saturated fats from whole food sources like dairy, as this study suggests they may be protective when part of a high-quality diet. Focus on the quality of your fats and fibers rather than eliminating them.

Orlistat reduces body weight by inhibiting gastric and pancreatic lipases, thereby reducing the absorption of dietary fats, with efficacy demonstrated in obese patients.

Orlistat helps you lose weight by blocking the absorption of about 30% of the fat you eat. You take it with meals, but you must keep your fat intake low (less than 30% of calories) to avoid unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects. It is effective for weight loss, especially when combined with a hypocaloric diet, but may be less effective than newer GLP-1 drugs.

Acute ingestion of plant proteins generally stimulates Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) to a lesser extent than animal proteins when matched for protein mass, due to lower leucine content and digestibility.

If you eat a small amount of plant protein, it won't spike muscle building as much as whey. However, this doesn't mean it doesn't work; it just means you need to eat more of it to get the same 'signal' to build muscle.

High carbohydrate intake (defined as the highest category in prospective cohorts) is associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with a pooled hazard ratio of 1.15 compared to the lowest intake.

If you consume a high-carbohydrate diet, particularly if carbohydrates make up more than 60% of your total daily calories, consider reducing this proportion. This meta-analysis suggests that lowering high carbohydrate intake is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Focus on balancing macronutrients rather than eliminating carbs entirely.

Orlistat provides modest weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction, but its efficacy is heavily dependent on dietary fat restriction.

Orlistat is an older weight loss medication that works by blocking fat absorption. It is less effective than newer drugs and requires you to eat a low-fat diet to avoid unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects like oily diarrhea. It may offer some cardiovascular benefits for people with metabolic syndrome.

Short-term (10-day) time-restricted eating (8-hour window) does not impair daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates compared to an extended 12-hour eating window when protein intake is matched.

If you are an overweight or obese male who exercises recreationally, switching to an 8-hour eating window (e.g., 10 AM to 6 PM) for 10 days will not hurt your muscle protein synthesis, provided you eat the same amount of protein (1g/kg) as you would over a longer period. Focus on hitting your daily protein goal rather than worrying about the clock.

Processing and cooking methods that reduce antinutrients, denature proteins, and reduce food particle size improve dietary protein quality by increasing essential amino acid (EAA) digestibility and bioavailability.

Don't fear processing plant proteins. Cooking beans, lentils, and grains, or using protein isolates/powders, often makes the protein more digestible and bioavailable than eating them raw or in their whole, unprocessed form. This is especially important if you rely on plant-based proteins to meet your daily needs.

High fructose intake, particularly from sweet beverages, drives hepatic de novo lipogenesis and steatosis in NAFLD, independent of total caloric intake.

Eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages (soda, juice, sweet tea) and limit added fructose. This reduces liver fat production directly, even if your total calorie intake doesn't change. Focus on whole foods rather than processed sugars.

Protein intake in indoor team sports is the macronutrient most likely to meet official recommendations, with roughly 35.7% of studies showing compliance, though non-compliance is split evenly between under- and over-consumption.

You are more likely to hit your protein targets than your carb or energy targets, but you are still at risk of under-eating protein. Ensure you are eating enough protein to support recovery, but be aware that half of athletes in these studies under-consume it.

A ketogenic diet has similar effects on maximal strength or strength gains from resistance training compared to a higher-carbohydrate diet, although a minority of studies show superior effects for non-ketogenic diets.

If your goal is to build strength, you can do so on a ketogenic diet. Studies show similar strength gains compared to high-carbohydrate diets. However, some studies suggest non-ketogenic diets might be slightly superior, so monitor your progress and adjust if needed.

A moderate increase in protein intake (from ~0.8 to ~1.2 g/kg/day) provides a small additional improvement in functional capacity (specifically longer walk tests) but does not improve muscle strength or lean mass quality in postmenopausal women following resistance exercise.

If you are a postmenopausal woman starting resistance training, aim for about 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. This moderate increase over the standard recommendation (0.8 g/kg) may help you walk faster and perform daily tasks better, but it will not necessarily make your muscles stronger or larger compared to eating the standard amount. Focus on consistent resistance training.

NuSH therapies induce significant weight loss that often includes loss of lean mass and skeletal muscle, creating a risk for sarcopenic obesity if body composition is not monitored.

Monitor your body composition, not just your weight. If you are on NuSHs, ensure your treatment plan includes resistance training and protein optimization to preserve muscle mass, as weight loss alone may hide muscle loss.

A 1-week diet break (increasing carbohydrate intake to energy balance) following intermittent energy restriction improves leg muscle endurance in adult athletes without compromising fat loss goals.

If you are an athlete cutting weight, schedule a 1-week 'diet break' where you eat at maintenance calories (focusing on carbs) every 3-4 weeks. This will not add fat, but it will significantly improve your leg endurance and mental alertness, making your training sessions more effective. Time this break before a key training block or competition.

Animal protein intake may have a mild protective association with cancer mortality, but plant protein intake is not associated with cancer mortality risk.

While animal protein may have a mild protective association with cancer mortality, plant protein does not show this specific benefit in this study. You do not need to avoid animal protein for cancer prevention, and plant protein is not uniquely protective.

Incretin receptor activators (GLP-1RA and GIP/GLP-1 dual agonists) cause a reduction in skeletal muscle mass (SMM) that is proportional to fat loss, with approximately 5% of lean body mass lost for every 10% reduction in total body weight, potentially leading to sarcopenia in a subset of treated patients.

If you are taking GLP-1RA or similar weight-loss medications, be aware that you will lose some muscle along with fat. To minimize this, engage in structured exercise programs and discuss monitoring your muscle mass with your doctor, especially if you are older or have existing frailty.

Higher relative carbohydrate intake (42-51% of energy) causally reduces hypertension risk by 71% compared to lower intake, independent of protein and fat intake.

If you have hypertension, increasing your carbohydrate intake to represent 42-51% of your total daily energy may help lower your blood pressure risk, provided you adjust other macronutrients accordingly. This finding is based on genetic evidence from large European cohorts, suggesting a causal protective effect of relative carbohydrate intake over protein and fat.

Replacing saturated fatty acids (SFA) with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) reduces coronary heart disease (CHD) risk by 2-3% for every 1% of energy substituted, whereas replacing SFA with low-quality carbohydrates (refined starches/sugars) provides no such benefit and may increase risk.

If you want to lower your heart disease risk by reducing saturated fats (like those in animal fats), you must replace them with unsaturated fats (like those in fish, nuts, or olive oil). Do not replace them with refined carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, or sugar, as this offers no cardiovascular benefit and may increase risk. Focus on the quality of the replacement, not just the reduction of fat.