Browse the evidence

Higher circulating levels of linoleic acid (LA) are specifically associated with a ~50% lower risk of non-arrhythmic coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, while other omega-6 fatty acids (AA, GLA, DGLA) show no significant association with mortality.

If you consume linoleic acid (LA) through vegetable oils, it is specifically linked to a significantly lower risk of dying from non-arrhythmic heart disease. Other omega-6 fats like Arachidonic Acid (AA) do not show this protective effect, highlighting that not all omega-6s are the same.

Low circulating plasma adropin levels are significantly associated with obesity, aging, and metabolic syndrome risk factors in humans, while gastric bypass surgery leads to a transient increase in adropin levels.

If you are obese or aging, your body's natural production of the hormone adropin tends to be lower. This low level is linked to higher risks for metabolic issues like high triglycerides and insulin resistance. Bariatric surgery can temporarily boost these levels, suggesting that restoring adropin might be part of why weight loss surgery improves metabolic health. Monitoring metabolic health should consider hormonal factors beyond just weight.

Low plasma adropin levels are independently associated with higher fasting triglycerides (TG) and other metabolic syndrome risk factors, regardless of BMI and age.

Low levels of the hormone adropin are specifically linked to high triglyceride levels, even when you account for your weight and age. This suggests that adropin plays a direct role in how your body handles fats, independent of just being overweight.

In patients with type 2 diabetes, being overweight (BMI 25–29.9 kg/m²) is associated with a lower all-cause mortality risk compared to normal weight (BMI 18.5–24.9 kg/m²), whereas obesity (BMI >30 kg/m²) confers no mortality benefit and increases cardiovascular event risk.

If you have type 2 diabetes, being overweight (BMI 25-29.9) is associated with better survival than being normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9). Obesity (BMI >30) does not increase mortality risk compared to normal weight, though it does increase cardiovascular events. Do not use this to justify obesity, but understand that extreme thinness in T2D is a high-risk state. Focus on fitness and managing comorbidities rather than aggressive weight loss alone, especially if you are already lean.

Simultaneous strength and endurance training (concurrent training) results in compromised adaptations compared to single-mode training due to conflicting molecular signaling pathways (Akt-mTOR vs. AMPK-PGC-1).

If your primary goal is to maximize both strength and endurance simultaneously, be aware that you will likely achieve less in both areas than if you focused on one at a time. To mitigate this 'interference effect,' separate your strength and endurance sessions by at least 6-8 hours, or prioritize one modality in a given training block while maintaining the other at a low volume.

Intensive lifestyle counseling does not consistently reduce cardiovascular events or mortality in the long term, although it significantly reduces the incidence of diabetes.

While lifestyle counseling significantly lowers your risk of developing diabetes and improves your blood pressure and cholesterol, it may not immediately prevent heart attacks or death in the short term. This is often because the number of heart attacks in these studies was low. The real value is in preventing diabetes and managing risk factors over many years, which collectively lowers your long-term cardiovascular risk.

Successful long-term weight loss maintenance is associated with high levels of physical activity (averaging ~2,621 kcal/week), but there is no single optimal amount of activity required, as successful maintainers exhibit wide variability in activity levels.

If you are trying to maintain weight loss, aim for regular physical activity, but do not stress about hitting a specific calorie-burn target. Successful maintainers vary widely in how much they exercise. Focus on finding activities you enjoy and can sustain long-term, whether that is walking, resistance training, or other forms of movement.

Five days of high-fat diet combined with endurance training, followed by one day of carbohydrate restoration, decreases pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activation and muscle glycogenolysis during exercise, despite fully restoring muscle glycogen levels.

If you follow a high-fat diet while training, simply eating carbohydrates the day before an event will not immediately restore your body's ability to burn those carbohydrates efficiently. Your muscle enzymes (specifically PDH) remain suppressed, meaning you will continue to rely more on fat oxidation even with full glycogen stores. This suggests metabolic adaptations persist beyond substrate availability.

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is associated with a significantly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, independent of body mass index in some contexts, driven by high energy density and rapid carbohydrate absorption.

Limit or eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages. The evidence strongly links daily consumption of sugary drinks to a significantly higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Focus on replacing these with water or unsweetened alternatives to reduce rapid carbohydrate intake and overall energy density.

Higher dietary whole grain intake is associated with significantly lower total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, with each serving (28 g/d) reducing total mortality by 5% and CVD mortality by 9%.

To reduce your risk of dying from heart disease or other causes, aim to include at least one serving (approx. 28 grams) of whole grains in your daily diet. This could be a slice of whole grain bread, a half-cup of cooked whole grain pasta, or a bowl of oatmeal. Focus on the bran component (found in whole wheat, oats, barley) as it drives the cardiovascular benefits. This is a sustainable, low-effort dietary change that compounds over time.

Five days of high-fat, low-carbohydrate dieting followed by one day of carbohydrate restoration enhances fat oxidation and spares muscle glycogen during prolonged submaximal cycling, but does not improve time trial performance compared to a standard high-carbohydrate diet.

If you are an endurance athlete, switching to a high-fat, low-carb diet for 5 days and then eating high carbs for 1 day before a race will change your metabolism to burn more fat. However, this strategy does not make you faster than eating a standard high-carb diet. The metabolic shift is real, but it does not provide a performance advantage in time trials.

Higher habitual intake of specific flavonoid subclasses (anthocyanins, flavonoid polymers, and flavonols) is associated with reduced long-term weight gain in adults.

To support weight maintenance, prioritize foods rich in anthocyanins (berries), flavonoid polymers (tea, apples), and flavonols (tea, onions). While the effect size is small, consistently choosing these foods as part of a balanced diet may help prevent gradual adult weight gain.

Maintaining high plasma glucose concentrations during exercise improves performance through mechanisms other than substrate (glycogen/fat) oxidation rates.

Don't worry about 'saving' your muscle glycogen by eating carbs during exercise. The benefit comes from keeping your blood sugar stable, which likely helps your central nervous system manage fatigue, allowing you to perform better in the final stages of a long workout.

Women exercising in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle utilize significantly less muscle glycogen and exhibit lower glucose turnover rates compared to women in the follicular phase or men during moderate-intensity endurance exercise.

If you are a female endurance athlete, be aware that during the luteal phase (post-ovulation), your body relies less on muscle glycogen and more on fat oxidation compared to the follicular phase. This shift in fuel economy might allow you to sustain effort differently, but it also means your glucose turnover is lower. You may not need to fuel as aggressively with carbohydrates during long, moderate-intensity sessions in this phase, or you may experience different fatigue patterns due to altered glycogen sparing.

Higher protein intakes (above RDA) do not negatively impact bone mineral density and may actually protect against osteoporosis and hip fractures by increasing calcium bioavailability and IGF-1 release.

You do not need to worry that eating more protein will weaken your bones. In fact, getting enough protein helps your body absorb calcium better and may lower your risk of hip fractures, especially if you are getting enough calcium in your diet.

Treatment with the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide (1.2 mg/day) prevents bone mineral content loss and increases bone formation markers in obese women who have maintained significant weight loss.

If you are an obese woman who has successfully lost weight and kept it off, ask your doctor about GLP-1 medications like liraglutide. This study shows that this medication can protect your bones from the typical loss that happens after weight loss, likely by boosting bone formation markers.

A low-carbohydrate diet (LCD) results in lower subjective hunger (being bothered by hunger) compared to a low-fat diet (LFD) over a 2-year period.

If you switch to a low-carb diet, you may find that hunger is less of a bother compared to a low-fat diet. This doesn't mean you won't feel hunger, but the distress associated with it may be lower, potentially aiding long-term adherence.

Men experience larger reductions in appetite ratings (hunger, being bothered by hunger, wanting to eat, thoughts about food) compared to women during a 2-year weight loss diet, regardless of whether they follow a low-carb or low-fat diet.

If you are a woman, you might find that hunger and thoughts about food return to baseline levels sooner (around 6 months) than men, who may experience reduced appetite for the full 2 years. This is a biological difference, not a failure of willpower.

Sodium added to food outside the home (commercial processing and restaurant preparation) accounts for approximately 71% of total sodium intake in US adults, making it the primary source of dietary sodium.

To reduce sodium, focus on the food you buy and eat outside the home, not just the salt shaker. Check Nutrition Facts labels for packaged foods and ask for nutrition info when eating at restaurants. Reducing salt at the table is helpful but insufficient on its own because most sodium is already in processed and restaurant foods.

Sodium added to food outside the home is the leading source of sodium across all demographic subgroups, including variations by age, race, education, and geographic region.

No matter your background, most of your sodium comes from food bought or eaten outside your home. Focus on choosing lower-sodium packaged foods and making smarter choices at restaurants, as this is the most effective way to reduce sodium for everyone.

In extremely obese individuals, standard two-compartment body composition models (relying on fixed fat-free mass hydration of 0.738) are inaccurate due to elevated extracellular water, whereas three-compartment models incorporating total body water measurements provide accurate assessments of body fat percentage.

If you are extremely obese (BMI > 40), standard body fat estimates based on simple assumptions (like standard BIA or BMI) are likely inaccurate because your body holds more water in your lean tissue. To track your progress accurately, especially after weight loss surgery, use methods that account for total body water, such as three-compartment models combining air displacement plethysmography (BOD POD) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA).

Higher circulating levels of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA, are associated with a significantly lower incidence of congestive heart failure in older adults.

For older adults, maintaining higher levels of long-chain omega-3s (specifically EPA and DHA) is linked to a roughly 50% lower risk of developing congestive heart failure. This is best achieved through dietary sources like oily fish, as indicated by blood biomarker levels, rather than relying solely on self-reported diet. While this is observational data, it supports current guidelines to consume fish, especially oily fish, at least twice a week.

Potassium supplementation significantly lowers blood pressure in normotensive individuals with low habitual dietary intake, whereas calcium and magnesium supplements do not.

If you are normotensive but have a diet low in potassium, supplementing with potassium (approx 40 mmol/day) can modestly lower your blood pressure. However, adding calcium or magnesium supplements does not help and may not be necessary. Focus on identifying if your dietary intake is low before supplementing.

Consuming 1 L of fat-free milk daily for 12 weeks significantly increases serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and decreases parathyroid hormone (PTH) in young women, suggesting a reduction in bone turnover.

To support bone health, ensure you are getting enough calcium and vitamin D. This study suggests that drinking 1 liter of fat-free milk daily can significantly improve vitamin D status and reduce bone turnover markers in young women, even if they were previously vitamin D insufficient.