Browse the evidence

Higher BMI is significantly associated with an earlier onset of injury and illness, and a higher frequency of injuries over time, regardless of exercise prescription.

Your risk of injury is linked to your body weight, not necessarily the exercise you do. Losing weight reduces this risk. If you get injured, consider that your current weight may be placing excessive stress on your body, and weight loss can help delay or prevent future injuries.

Muscle quality factors (composition, metabolism, fat infiltration, fibrosis, neural activation) are critical determinants of mobility and function in older adults, often preceding or occurring independently of muscle mass loss.

Don't just focus on building muscle size. As you age, prioritize exercises that improve muscle quality, such as resistance training for strength and power, and aerobic exercise for metabolic health. Be aware that factors like fat infiltration into muscles and neural efficiency play a huge role in your mobility, often more so than muscle size alone. Regular physical activity is the most effective way to maintain these qualities.

Performing squats to depths greater than 90 degrees of knee flexion does not increase ACL or PCL injury risk and may enhance joint stability through increased soft tissue constraint, while maximizing quadriceps and gluteus maximus activation.

If you have healthy knees, squatting deep (past parallel) is safe and likely better for your ligaments than stopping at 90 degrees. It also recruits more muscle. If you have specific knee pain or cartilage issues, consult a professional to determine your safe depth.

Maintaining serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations between 30–50 ng/mL (75–125 nmol/L) is required to ensure optimal skeletal and non-skeletal health effects, whereas levels below 20 ng/mL indicate deficiency requiring medical treatment.

Aim for a blood test to check your 25(OH)D levels. If you live in Central Europe, you likely need supplementation, especially from October to March. The goal is to keep your levels between 30-50 ng/mL. For most adults, this means 800-2,000 IU/day, but obese individuals or the elderly may need higher doses. Do not rely solely on sunscreen or diet, as these are often insufficient.

Natural menopause is associated with a significant decrease in resting metabolic rate and leisure-time physical activity, leading to accelerated loss of fat-free mass and increased central adiposity.

As you approach menopause, your body naturally burns fewer calories at rest and you may naturally move less during leisure time. This metabolic slowdown, combined with a loss of muscle mass, drives fat gain, particularly around the waist. To counter this, you must proactively manage your energy balance by maintaining or increasing physical activity and preserving muscle mass, rather than assuming weight gain is inevitable.

The health effects of saturated fat are dependent on the food matrix and the overall dietary pattern, particularly carbohydrate intake, such that high saturated fat intake combined with low carbohydrate intake does not increase circulating saturated fatty acids or CVD risk.

If you are insulin resistant or consuming a high-carbohydrate diet, high saturated fat intake may be less beneficial. However, if you reduce carbohydrates, your body will oxidize saturated fat for energy, leading to lower circulating levels of harmful lipids. Focus on the balance of macronutrients rather than just cutting saturated fat.

De novo lipogenesis (DNL) contributes significantly to hepatic triglyceride accumulation in insulin-resistant states, particularly when driven by high carbohydrate intake, and is a target for drugs like pioglitazone and liraglutide.

High carbohydrate intake, especially in the context of insulin resistance, can lead your liver to create its own fat (DNL). Reducing refined carbs and improving insulin sensitivity can lower this internal fat production and help manage NAFLD.

Hydroxytyrosol (HTyr) and its derivatives provide cardioprotective benefits by protecting LDL from oxidation, with a specific health claim established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requiring a daily intake of 20g of olive oil containing at least 5mg of HTyr and derivatives.

To get the heart-protective benefits of hydroxytyrosol, incorporate high-quality extra virgin olive oil into your daily diet. The European Food Safety Authority suggests that 20 grams of olive oil containing at least 5mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives provides these benefits. This is easily achieved by using EVOO as your primary cooking fat and dressing.

The Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) front-of-package labeling system is the most effective existing labeling format for helping consumers correctly identify healthier food products compared to other systems like %Daily Intake or monochrome labels.

Look for products with a Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) label. The green lights indicate lower levels of fat, sugar, and sodium, while red lights indicate higher levels. This system is currently the most reliable visual tool for quickly identifying healthier options on the shelf, more so than labels that just show percentages or simple checkmarks.

Front-of-package labeling systems, particularly those with clear criteria like the Multiple Traffic Light or Choices logo, can drive industry product reformulation, leading to reduced sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar in processed foods.

Support labeling systems that require manufacturers to meet specific nutrient criteria (like low sodium or sugar limits) to display a favorable label. This forces companies to improve the actual nutritional content of their products, benefiting everyone, not just those who read labels.

Front-of-package labels that include interpretive text (e.g., 'High', 'Medium', 'Low') significantly improve label comprehension and correct nutrient identification compared to labels using only percentages or colors alone.

Choose labels that use simple text like 'High', 'Medium', or 'Low' alongside colors. This combination is the easiest way to quickly understand if a food is healthy or unhealthy without needing to calculate percentages.

Obesity-induced chronic low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue, driven by immune cell infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β), directly causes insulin resistance by disrupting insulin signaling cascades in metabolic tissues.

Focus on reducing systemic inflammation through diet, not just weight loss. The paper highlights that obesity creates an inflammatory environment in fat tissue that directly blocks insulin action. Nutritional strategies that reduce this inflammation (e.g., anti-inflammatory nutrients) may help improve insulin sensitivity independently of or alongside weight management.

Weight reduction improves insulin sensitivity and reduces hepatic VLDL-triglyceride production rates, supporting a mechanism where insulin resistance drives hypertriglyceridemia.

High insulin levels drive high triglycerides by telling the liver to produce more fat-carrying particles. Losing weight reduces this insulin drive, allowing the liver to produce fewer triglycerides. This suggests that managing insulin sensitivity is key to managing blood fats.

Higher visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volumes are independently associated with lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations, with VAT showing a stronger inverse association than SAT.

If you have higher body fat, especially visceral fat, your blood vitamin D levels are likely to be lower, even if you get enough sun and eat vitamin D-rich foods. This is partly because vitamin D gets stored in fat cells. If you are lean, your vitamin D levels may be higher for the same intake. Focus on managing adiposity, as it directly impacts your vitamin D status.

Liraglutide (1.8–3.0 mg) reduces ad libitum energy intake by approximately 16% and increases postprandial satiety in obese, non-diabetic adults, mediating weight loss through appetite suppression rather than increased energy expenditure.

For obese adults without diabetes, taking liraglutide (1.8 or 3.0 mg) once daily significantly reduces hunger and the amount of food eaten at meals (by about 16%) without needing to change exercise habits. This appetite suppression is the main reason for weight loss, not burning more calories. To minimize nausea, the dose should be started low and increased gradually.

Consumption of school breakfast and lunch meals significantly improves the micronutrient intake of school-age children, particularly those from low-income families.

Ensure children participate in school breakfast and lunch programs to guarantee they receive essential vitamins and minerals, especially if they come from low-income households.

Reducing the dietary omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio from typical Western levels (15:1) to 4:1 or lower significantly reduces total mortality and cardiovascular disease risk.

To lower your risk of heart disease and total mortality, change your cooking oils. Replace corn, soybean, or sunflower oils (high in omega-6) with olive oil and canola oil (higher in omega-3). Aim for a ratio of 4 parts omega-6 to 1 part omega-3. This involves eating more plants, nuts, and legumes while reducing processed foods high in seed oils.

A lower omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (2-3:1) suppresses inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a ratio of 5:1 has a beneficial effect on asthma.

For inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or asthma, aim for a lower omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (2-5:1). This involves reducing seed oils and increasing omega-3 sources (fish, flax, walnuts). High omega-6 ratios (10:1) may worsen symptoms.

Viscous soluble dietary fibers (SDF) such as beta-glucan, pectin, and psyllium reduce serum total and LDL cholesterol by preventing bile salt re-absorption in the small intestine, which forces the liver to synthesize new bile acids from cholesterol.

To lower cholesterol, prioritize viscous soluble fibers like oat beta-glucan (3g/day) or psyllium husk (7g/day). These fibers must be viscous to physically bind bile acids in your gut, forcing your liver to use blood cholesterol to make more bile. Non-viscous fibers do not offer this specific benefit.

A positive diagnosis of 'food addiction' using the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) is strongly associated with higher BMI and binge eating behavior, but this association does not validate 'food addiction' as a distinct neurobiological disease or causal driver of obesity.

If you score high on the YFAS, it likely indicates you struggle with binge eating and psychological distress, not necessarily that you have a unique 'food addiction' disease. Focus on managing binge eating behaviors and psychological factors rather than treating it as a distinct biological addiction, as the evidence for a unique disease phenotype is weak.

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) significantly reduces the incidence of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women at high cardiovascular risk compared to a control low-fat diet.

If you are a postmenopausal woman with cardiovascular risk factors, incorporating extra-virgin olive oil as a primary fat source (aiming for roughly 1 liter per week distributed across your meals) into a Mediterranean-style diet may significantly lower your risk of developing invasive breast cancer. This benefit appears driven by the polyphenols and monounsaturated fats in the oil, rather than just calorie reduction. Focus on high-quality EVOO and use it to replace saturated fats, rather than adding it on top of an already high-fat diet.

Higher cumulative consumption of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is dose-dependently associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, with the highest quintile of consumers showing the lowest risk.

The more extra-virgin olive oil you consume as part of your daily diet, the greater the potential protection against breast cancer, up to a point. Aim to derive 15-20% of your daily calories from EVOO (roughly 3-4 tablespoons) to maximize the intake of protective polyphenols.

Self-reported sleep duration exceeding 8 hours per night is associated with a moderate increase in all-cause mortality, with risk ratios rising significantly for 9, 10, and 11 hours of sleep.

Aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep. While sleeping less than 7 hours showed no significant increased mortality risk in this specific meta-analysis, sleeping more than 8 hours was associated with a moderate but significant increase in all-cause mortality. If you consistently require more than 8 hours of sleep, consider it a marker for elevated cardiovascular risk and consult a healthcare provider to rule out underlying conditions.

Subjective poor sleep quality is associated with a significant increase in coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, but not with all-cause mortality or other cardiovascular outcomes.

Focus on sleep quality, not just duration. If you frequently report poor sleep quality (restless, disturbed nights), you have a 44% higher risk of coronary heart disease. Address sleep disturbances through sleep hygiene or medical evaluation, as this is a specific risk factor for heart disease.