Browse the evidence

The physical structure of plant-based foods (food matrix) acts as a barrier to nutrient digestion, meaning intact cell walls in nuts and grains reduce lipid and starch bioaccessibility compared to disintegrated foods.

When eating whole nuts or grains, your body may not absorb all the calories listed on the package because the tough cell walls protect some of the fats and starches from digestion. This means whole plant foods might be less calorie-dense than their labels suggest, but you should not rely on this to overconsume them.

Among women, higher consumption of vitamin E from supplements and food sources is not associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease.

If you are a woman concerned about heart disease, taking Vitamin E supplements (up to 800 IU/day) or eating Vitamin E-rich foods does not appear to lower your risk of coronary heart disease based on this study. Focus on proven strategies like not smoking, managing blood pressure, and maintaining a healthy weight instead of relying on Vitamin E for heart protection.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (EPA+DHA) supplementation does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events or mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus or prediabetes.

If you have diabetes or prediabetes, taking fish oil supplements will not protect your heart or prevent heart attacks. Do not take them for this purpose. Focus on proven diabetes management strategies instead.

Vitamin E supplementation (1200 IU/day for 30 days) does not attenuate contraction-induced muscle damage, torque deficits, or inflammatory cell infiltration following eccentric exercise in healthy young men.

If you are doing heavy eccentric training (like downhill running or heavy lifting), taking 1200 IU of Vitamin E daily for a month will not reduce your muscle soreness, strength loss, or inflammation. You can skip the supplement for this purpose as it offers no protective benefit over placebo for muscle damage indices.

A three-week ketogenic diet shifts tryptophan metabolism to increase kynurenic acid and decrease quinolinic acid, potentially promoting mitochondrial protection and reducing neuroinflammation.

Following a ketogenic diet may shift your body's processing of tryptophan away from potentially neurotoxic byproducts (quinolinic acid) toward protective ones (kynurenic acid). This suggests a potential neuroprotective benefit of long-term ketosis.

Chronic supplementation with high-dose Vitamin C and E combined with strength training does not enhance muscle strength or hypertrophy and may blunt hypertrophic adaptations.

Do not take high-dose Vitamin C and E supplements if your goal is to build muscle or strength through resistance training. These supplements do not improve your gains and may actually stop your muscles from growing by blocking the natural chemical signals your body uses to adapt to exercise. Save your money and focus on your training and whole-food nutrition.

Adding glutamine to a post-exercise beverage containing essential amino acids and carbohydrate does not enhance muscle protein synthesis or glycogen resynthesis in healthy young males.

If you are drinking a post-workout shake with essential amino acids and carbs, adding glutamine will not help your muscles grow or recover faster. Your muscles are already getting the signal they need from the essential amino acids. You can save your money on glutamine supplements without losing any muscle-building benefits.

Duodenal-jejunal bypass liner (DJBL) therapy causes significant depletion of essential fatty acids (linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid) and their long-chain polyunsaturated derivatives (arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, docosahexaenoic acids) in the blood.

If you undergo DJBL (EndoBarrier) therapy, you are at high risk for depleting essential fatty acids (Omega-3 and Omega-6). This device blocks absorption in the upper small intestine. To mitigate this, you must ensure adequate dietary intake of healthy fats (fish, nuts, seeds) or take high-quality fish oil/PUFA supplements, as standard diets may not be enough to overcome the malabsorption. Monitor your levels with your doctor.

Supplementation with Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate (HMB) in either free acid or calcium salt form does not enhance strength or hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in resistance-trained men consuming adequate protein.

If you are already lifting weights regularly and eating enough protein (at least 1.7g per kg of body weight), taking HMB supplements (whether free acid or calcium salt) will not help you build more muscle or get stronger than you would from training alone. Save your money.

Pea protein supplementation (25 g/day for 13 days) does not attenuate exercise-induced muscle damage in older adults following prolonged walking, performing similarly to a placebo.

If you are over 60 and walk long distances, switching to pea protein instead of whey may not help reduce muscle soreness or damage markers. You might need to stick with whey or increase the dose of plant protein.

Current anti-obesity medication (AOM) studies frequently misrepresent skeletal muscle mass (SMM) loss by using DXA or BIA to estimate fat-free mass (FFM) or lean mass, which includes bone and non-skeletal tissues, thereby confounding the assessment of clinically significant muscle loss.

When reading studies on weight loss drugs (like GLP-1 agonists) that report 'muscle loss' based on DXA or bioimpedance scales, recognize that these numbers likely overestimate true skeletal muscle loss because they include bone and water. True muscle loss is likely lower than reported in these specific studies. Look for studies using MRI or CT for accurate skeletal muscle quantification.

Post-exercise consumption of 25g collagen hydrolysate or dairy protein does not improve indices of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) or accelerate recovery compared to an isoenergetic placebo in recreationally active males.

If you are doing intense eccentric exercise (like downhill running), drinking 25g of collagen or dairy protein immediately after and for the next two days will not speed up your recovery or reduce soreness any more than drinking a placebo with the same calories. Focus on total daily protein intake and sleep rather than timing specific recovery supplements.

Short-term (7-day) supplementation with cocoa polyphenols (~240 mg/day) does not reduce platelet activation or aggregation in response to acute exercise in either trained or sedentary men.

Taking cocoa polyphenol supplements for one week will not protect your platelets from the stress of a sudden intense workout. If you are sedentary, do not rely on supplements to make strenuous exercise safe; focus on building fitness gradually.

Whey protein supplementation does not improve bone health biomarkers (formation, resorption, or turnover ratio) in male soldiers undergoing intense initial entry training compared to carbohydrate supplementation.

If you are undergoing intense military or athletic training, drinking whey protein shakes daily will not protect your bones from stress injuries any more than drinking a carbohydrate shake will. Focus on adequate total calorie intake, vitamin D exposure, and managing training load instead of relying on protein supplements for bone health.

Increasing dairy calcium intake to 1400 mg/day (via high-dairy diet) does not enhance weight loss or fat loss compared to a moderate calcium intake of 800 mg/day when both groups are in a caloric deficit.

If you are trying to lose weight by eating less, eating four servings of dairy a day won't help you lose more fat than eating two servings. Stick to a moderate amount of dairy (around 800mg calcium) and focus on maintaining your calorie deficit.

Estimating body fat percentage from skinfold thickness requires using the logarithm of the skinfold measurements to achieve a linear relationship with body density, as the raw relationship is non-linear.

If you are using skinfold calipers to estimate body fat, do not simply add the millimeter readings and plug them into a standard linear formula. You must use the specific regression equations provided by Durnin and Womersley that utilize the logarithm of the skinfold sum. Using raw numbers will lead to inaccurate results, especially for individuals with higher body fat percentages.

Dietary (poly)phenolic compounds exert protective effects against chronic diseases (cardiovascular, neurodegeneration, cancer) primarily through their phase II metabolites and colonic catabolites, rather than the parent compounds found in food.

Eat a variety of (poly)phenol-rich foods like berries, tea, coffee, and cocoa. The health benefits are real, but they likely come from how your body and gut bacteria break these down into active metabolites, not from the original plant compounds circulating in your blood. Don't expect high-dose supplements of the parent compound to work like the whole food.

Biofortification of crops with essential mineral elements (iron, zinc, copper, calcium, magnesium, selenium, and iodine) through agronomic fertilization and genetic breeding is a viable strategy to remediate global mineral malnutrition.

To improve your mineral intake, focus on consuming crops that are biofortified. This can be achieved through agricultural practices that optimize mineral fertilizers or by choosing crop varieties bred to accumulate more iron, zinc, and other essential minerals. This approach addresses mineral malnutrition globally, especially in areas where soil quality is low.

Comprehensive, standardized databases of polyphenol content in foods are essential for accurately calculating population-level intake and studying the association between polyphenol consumption and chronic disease prevention.

To understand how polyphenols affect health, we need precise data on what is actually in our food. This database provides that by aggregating data from hundreds of studies, allowing researchers to better link specific polyphenol intakes to health outcomes like cardiovascular disease or diabetes prevention.

Selenium's health benefits are mediated by selenoproteins, which are synthesized through a unique mechanism involving the UGA codon and the SECIS element, and these proteins play critical roles in redox regulation, thyroid hormone metabolism, and cancer prevention.

Understanding that selenium works through selenoproteins helps explain why balance is key. Too little selenium means these protective proteins aren't made, while too much can be toxic. Focus on a balanced diet to support your body's natural synthesis of these vital proteins.

Mineral elements are essential inorganic nutrients required for fundamental physiological processes including bone structure, enzyme function, and metabolic regulation in humans, animals, and plants.

Ensure your diet includes a variety of mineral-rich foods (dairy, meats, legumes, vegetables) to meet daily requirements. Be aware that soil quality affects the mineral content of plant foods, so dietary diversity is key to avoiding deficiencies.

Vitamin D supplementation alone does not significantly increase bone mineral density or reduce the risk of fractures or falls in older people.

If you are an older adult taking Vitamin D supplements hoping to prevent falls or broken bones, know that current evidence does not support this specific benefit when taken alone. You should not stop taking it if prescribed for other reasons, but do not rely on it as a fall-prevention strategy. Focus on balance training and strength exercises instead.

Gut microbiota-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS) contribute to systemic low-grade inflammation (metabolic endotoxemia) through increased gut permeability, particularly in contexts of aging, obesity, and high-fat diets, triggering Toll-like receptor 4 activation and subsequent inflammatory responses.

Support your gut barrier by consuming diets rich in fermentable fibers and whole plant foods. This helps maintain a healthy microbiome, which can reduce gut permeability and lower the risk of systemic inflammation triggered by bacterial products like LPS.

Enhancing the bioavailability of bioactive food compounds (such as polyphenols and PUFAs) through technologies like nanosystems, emulsification, or structural modification is necessary to ensure their bioefficacy and health benefits.

If you are consuming functional foods or supplements for specific health benefits, understand that 'more' is not always 'better' if your body cannot absorb it. The way food is processed (e.g., heating, grinding, emulsifying) and what it is eaten with (e.g., fats for lipophilic compounds) drastically changes whether you get the benefit. Look for products that utilize technologies designed to enhance absorption, such as nano-encapsulation or lipid-based delivery systems, especially for compounds known to have poor bioavailability like curcumin or certain polyphenols.