Browse the evidence

Medical nutrition therapy (MNT) provided by a registered dietitian is effective for improving weight outcomes and metabolic markers, but should not be used in isolation due to compensatory brain mechanisms.

Work with a registered dietitian for personalized nutrition advice. Do not rely on diet alone; combine it with physical activity and psychological support to manage the biological drive to regain weight.

An unhealthful plant-based diet (high in refined grains, sugary beverages, potatoes, and sweets) is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Avoid labeling your diet as 'plant-based' if it relies heavily on refined grains, sugary beverages, potatoes, and sweets. These foods are linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, even if you don't eat meat. Focus on whole, unprocessed plant foods to get the benefits.

Food companies target children through marketing in schools and 'pouring rights' agreements to establish lifelong consumption habits.

Advocate for healthier school food policies and limit access to sugary drinks and processed snacks at home. Teach children to recognize marketing tactics.

A 25% caloric deficit induces mitochondrial biogenesis (increased mtDNA content and expression of biogenesis genes like PPARGC1A and SIRT1) in human skeletal muscle, leading to improved metabolic efficiency and reduced oxidative stress without increasing the activity of key mitochondrial enzymes.

If you are overweight but not obese, a sustained 25% reduction in calories for several months can reprogram your muscle cells to become more energy-efficient. This involves creating more mitochondria (the power plants of your cells) and upregulating specific genes (like SIRT1 and PGC-1alpha) that manage energy. Interestingly, this happens without necessarily increasing the speed at which your muscles burn fuel (enzyme activity), suggesting your body is becoming more 'efficient' rather than just 'faster'. This adaptation may help reduce oxidative stress and DNA damage associated with aging.

Circadian disruption, such as that caused by shift work or sleep restriction, leads to insulin resistance, hypoleptinemia, and increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Prioritize consistent sleep duration and quality. If you must work shifts, try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule even on days off, and expose yourself to bright light during your 'day' and darkness during your 'night' to help reset your internal clock.

Obesity accelerates the loss of pancreatic beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity through ectopic adipose expansion, systemic low-grade inflammation, and lipotoxicity, leading to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).

Obesity is not just about weight; it actively damages the body's ability to use insulin and produce it via inflammation and fat accumulation in organs like the liver and pancreas. Managing obesity is critical to preventing or delaying T2DM, but it requires addressing metabolic health, not just scale weight.

Maintaining a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5-25 kg/m2 and avoiding adult weight gain reduces the risk of developing cancers of the oesophagus (adenocarcinoma), colorectum, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium, and kidney.

Aim to keep your BMI between 18.5 and 25. Avoid gaining significant weight during adulthood. This is a key strategy to reduce the risk of several common cancers, including breast, colorectal, and endometrial cancer.

Alcohol consumption increases the risk of cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, liver, and breast; intake should not exceed 2 units/d.

If you drink alcohol, limit your intake to no more than 2 units per day. This helps reduce the risk of several cancers, including those of the mouth, throat, liver, and breast.

Low-load resistance exercise performed to volitional failure stimulates myofibrillar protein synthesis for a longer duration (sustained at 24 hours) compared to high-load resistance exercise, despite similar acute (4-hour) stimulation.

If you cannot lift heavy weights due to joint issues or equipment limitations, you can still stimulate muscle growth by using lighter weights (e.g., 30% of your max) and performing enough reps to reach failure. While heavy weights might spike muscle building signals faster in the first few hours, light weights keep those signals active much longer (up to 24 hours), potentially making them equally or more effective for long-term muscle gain.

A higher proportion of slow-twitch (ST) muscle fibers is associated with greater insulin sensitivity and accelerated glucose uptake, whereas a shift toward fast-twitch (FT) fibers is linked to insulin resistance.

Your muscle fiber composition influences how well your body handles insulin. Slow-twitch fibers are more efficient at glucose uptake. While you cannot completely rewrite your genetics, endurance training can stimulate molecular pathways (like PGC-1 and PPAR-α) that enhance the oxidative capacity of your muscles, effectively making them more 'slow-twitch' in function and improving insulin sensitivity. This is particularly relevant if you are at risk for type 2 diabetes or obesity.

Endurance exercise training increases the abundance of PGC-1 and PPAR-α proteins in skeletal muscle, which promotes a slow-twitch (ST) phenotype and protects against insulin resistance and obesity.

Engaging in regular endurance exercise (like running or cycling) triggers molecular changes in your muscles, specifically increasing PGC-1 and PPAR-α. These proteins help shift your muscle's metabolic profile toward a more efficient, slow-twitch state, which improves your body's ability to manage blood sugar and resist obesity. You don't need to know your exact fiber type to benefit; consistent endurance work drives these adaptations.

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) causes an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and type 2 diabetes, independent of body mass index (BMI).

Stop drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. Even if you maintain your weight, the sugar in these drinks independently raises your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Choose water, unsweetened tea, or coffee instead.

High consumption of processed meats causes an increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease (CHD).

Limit processed meats like bacon, sausages, and deli meats. They are linked to a 37% higher risk of fatal heart disease per daily serving. Choose unprocessed meats, fish, or plant-based proteins more often.

High consumption of glycemic load causes an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Reduce your glycemic load by choosing whole, unprocessed foods. High glycemic load foods like white bread and sugary drinks increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Opt for vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Type 2 diabetes should be managed as a component of Metabolic Dysfunction Syndrome (MDS) rather than solely as a hyperglycemic disorder, requiring holistic protection of target organs against all MDS-related metabolic disorders.

Do not treat Type 2 Diabetes as just a 'blood sugar problem.' Your risk of organ damage comes from the combination of high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high lipids, and excess weight. Effective management requires addressing all these metabolic factors together to protect your heart, kidneys, and eyes, rather than focusing on glucose alone.

In older men, 20 g of whey protein is sufficient to maximize myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) at rest, but resistance exercise creates anabolic resistance that requires 40 g of whey protein to further elevate MPS rates above the 20 g threshold.

If you are over 60 and doing resistance training, 20g of high-quality protein (like whey) might not be enough to maximize muscle building after your workout. Try increasing your post-workout protein to 40g. At rest, 20g is likely sufficient, but exercise increases your body's demand for protein to trigger muscle synthesis.

Subsidizing healthy foods (specifically fruits and vegetables) by 10% increases their consumption by approximately 14%, and this price reduction is associated with a modest reduction in BMI.

To increase fruit and vegetable intake, policy-level subsidies that lower their price by 10% are effective. This economic lever directly drives a 14% increase in consumption. For individuals, this suggests that programs offering discounts on produce (like farmers market vouchers) are a viable strategy to improve diet quality.

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and fast food by 10% decreases their consumption by approximately 6-7%, though the effect on BMI is not statistically significant.

Implementing a 10% tax on SSBs and fast food reduces consumption by 6-7%. However, this alone does not significantly lower BMI. To maximize health impact, tax revenue should be used to subsidize healthy foods, leveraging the larger effect size of subsidies.

Women with type 2 diabetes are undertreated for cardiovascular risk factors (HbA1c, blood pressure, lipids) compared to men, contributing to worse outcomes.

Women with diabetes often receive less aggressive treatment for blood pressure and cholesterol than men. If you are a woman, advocate for yourself to ensure your risk factors are treated as aggressively as a man's, as undertreatment contributes to higher heart disease risk.

Higher fiber and lower glycemic load (GL) in vegetables are associated with stronger inverse relationships with weight change, whereas fiber and GL content in fruits do not significantly modify the weight loss association.

For weight management, prioritize vegetables with high fiber and low glycemic load (like leafy greens and cruciferous veggies). For fruits, the type (fiber/GL) matters less; all whole fruits seem to support weight loss, likely due to other beneficial compounds. Avoid fruit juice.

Higher consumption of yogurt is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas total dairy consumption and other individual dairy types (milk, cheese, ice cream) are not appreciably associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes.

If you are looking to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes through diet, focusing on yogurt consumption may be beneficial, as higher intake is consistently linked to a reduced risk. However, increasing your overall intake of dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream) does not appear to offer the same protective benefit and may not be necessary for diabetes prevention. You do not need to eliminate other dairy, but yogurt should be your primary dairy focus for metabolic health.

Ad libitum low-fat diets produce a statistically significant, dose-dependent weight loss in overweight individuals without requiring active energy restriction.

To lose weight without counting calories, reduce the percentage of your daily energy coming from fat. This meta-analysis shows that simply lowering fat intake (while eating ad libitum) leads to an average loss of about 2.5 kg in overweight individuals over several months. The key is that low-fat foods are less energy-dense, which naturally reduces total calorie intake.

The magnitude of weight loss on a low-fat diet is positively correlated with initial body weight and the percentage reduction in dietary fat.

If you are overweight, lowering your fat intake will result in more weight loss than if you were normal weight. Specifically, for every 1% you reduce the percentage of calories from fat, you can expect to lose an additional 0.37 kg over the study period.

In elderly men, 20g of soy protein isolate fails to stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) at rest or after resistance exercise, whereas 40g only stimulates MPS post-exercise, while equivalent doses of whey protein stimulate MPS in both conditions.

For elderly men, 20g of soy protein is insufficient to build muscle, whether you exercise or not. You need 40g of soy protein, and even then, it only works if you perform resistance exercise. If you want to maximize muscle growth with less protein or without exercising, whey protein is a more effective source due to better leucine availability and lower oxidation.