Browse the evidence

Adopting CODEX-aligned dietary fiber definitions that include digestion-resistant oligomers (DP 3-9) and added fibers is a necessary strategy to bridge the global 'fiber gap' and improve population health.

To improve your health, focus on getting enough dietary fiber from all sources, not just whole foods. Look for foods fortified with added fibers (like resistant oligomers or resistant starch) as these are now recognized as beneficial. Aim for the recommended daily intake (e.g., 25-38g depending on gender and region) by combining whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables with fiber-fortified options to bridge the gap between what you eat and what your body needs.

Early postoperative enteral tube feeding (ETF) reduces infective complications and shortens hospital length of stay compared to nil-by-mouth management.

If you have had gastrointestinal surgery, ask your care team about starting tube feeding within 24 hours. This approach is proven to lower infection rates and get you home faster, even if your bowels haven't fully 'woken up' yet.

Enteral nutrition (EN) is superior to parenteral nutrition (PN) in reducing infective risks in the perioperative period.

For surgical patients, if the gut works, use it. Enteral feeding (tube feeding) is proven to be safer than IV feeding (parenteral) regarding infection risk.

Early oral/enteral nutritional support reduces case fatality (death) in hospital patients.

Ensure hospitals screen all patients for malnutrition upon admission. Providing adequate nutrition, especially early, significantly reduces the risk of death.

Lifestyle modification interventions significantly reduce systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, waist circumference, and fasting blood glucose in patients with MetS, but do not significantly improve HDL levels.

Lifestyle changes effectively lower blood pressure, triglycerides, waist size, and blood glucose in people with MetS. However, you should not expect a significant increase in HDL ('good') cholesterol from these changes alone. Focus on the other improvements for better health outcomes.

Longer duration of successful weight maintenance (2-5+ years) significantly reduces the relative risk of subsequent weight regain compared to shorter maintenance durations (<2 years).

If you have recently lost weight (less than 2 years), your risk of regaining it is significantly higher than if you have maintained it for 5+ years. Treat your current maintenance phase as a critical period requiring active behavioral adherence, not a passive state of 'being thin'.

Higher baseline levels of dietary disinhibition, binge eating, and depressive symptoms are significant predictors of subsequent weight regain in successful weight losers.

If you struggle with binge eating, dietary disinhibition, or depression, your risk of regaining weight is higher. Seek interventions targeting these psychological factors to improve long-term maintenance.

Processing methods such as germination, soaking, boiling, and autoclaving significantly improve the in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) and Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) of legumes by reducing antinutritional factors like phytic acid, tannins, and protease inhibitors.

If you eat plant-based proteins like beans, peas, or lentils, do not eat them raw. Use processing methods like soaking, boiling, pressure cooking (autoclaving), or germination (sprouting). These methods break down antinutritional factors like phytic acid and tannins, significantly improving how much protein your body can actually absorb and use. For example, autoclaving or microwave cooking can yield much higher PDCAAS scores than raw or simply soaked beans.

Supplementation with 4 g/day of purified docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) significantly lowers 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in overweight, mildly hyperlipidemic men, whereas an equivalent dose of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has no significant effect on these cardiovascular parameters.

If you are an overweight man with mildly high cholesterol looking to lower your blood pressure and heart rate, taking 4 grams of pure DHA daily for at least six weeks may help. Simply taking generic fish oil or EPA alone may not provide these specific blood pressure benefits, as this study showed EPA had no effect on blood pressure or heart rate in this population.

Fructose, particularly when consumed in high amounts via beverages, promotes de novo lipogenesis, increases visceral adipose tissue, and impairs insulin sensitivity, contributing to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome.

Be mindful of high-fructose intake, especially from beverages. While fruit is healthy, fruit juice and fruit juice concentrate can deliver high doses of fructose that may harm liver health and insulin sensitivity. Limit fruit juice to small amounts and prioritize whole fruits.

In community-dwelling older adults, involuntary weight loss of 4% or greater per year is a strong independent predictor of increased 2-year mortality, regardless of baseline BMI, comorbidities, or nutritional markers like albumin.

For older adults, any unintentional weight loss of 4% or more in a year is a serious medical warning sign, not just 'aging.' It predicts a significantly higher risk of death within two years, even if the person still has a normal BMI or normal blood protein levels. This risk applies whether the weight loss was intentional (dieting) or not. Clinicians should investigate the cause of such weight loss aggressively, as it is a stronger predictor of mortality than many standard lab markers.

Chronic administration of a long-acting GLP-1/Glucagon receptor dual agonist (DualAG) causes superior weight loss and lipid lowering in diet-induced obese mice compared to a GLP-1 receptor selective agonist (GLPAG) of matched potency and pharmacokinetics.

This research suggests that combining GLP-1 and Glucagon receptor activation in a single long-acting molecule produces greater weight loss and better lipid profiles than activating the GLP-1 receptor alone. For obese individuals, this dual mechanism leverages both reduced food intake and increased energy expenditure/fatty acid oxidation. While this specific peptide (DualAG) is experimental, the findings support the clinical development of dual agonists (like retatrutide or similar candidates) as potentially more effective than current single-target GLP-1 therapies for obesity.

Adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet is associated with a moderate reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) compared to non-vegetarian diets, primarily driven by lower plasma cholesterol levels and lower body mass index (BMI).

If you reduce or eliminate meat from your diet, you may lower your risk of dying from heart disease. This benefit comes largely from the resulting drop in cholesterol and body weight, not just the absence of meat itself. Ensure your diet includes fiber-rich plants to support these changes.

Vegetarian and vegan diets are consistently associated with a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and slower weight gain over time compared to non-vegetarian diets, although obesity prevalence can still be high in specific subgroups.

Switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet often leads to a modest reduction in body weight (approx 1 kg/m2 BMI difference). Vegans tend to gain weight more slowly than vegetarians and meat-eaters. Focus on whole plant foods rather than refined carbs to maximize this benefit.

Vegetarian and vegan diets are associated with suboptimal Vitamin B12 status and elevated homocysteine levels, requiring careful monitoring and supplementation to avoid potential health risks.

If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you must monitor your Vitamin B12 levels. Relying on plant sources like seaweed is unreliable. Use fortified foods or supplements to maintain adequate B12 status and keep homocysteine levels low.

Adiponectin levels are inversely correlated with visceral adipose tissue mass and obesity, and low levels are associated with insulin resistance, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, while high levels may have protective anti-atherogenic effects.

Maintaining healthy adiponectin levels, often associated with lower body fat and physical activity, may protect against cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. Strategies that improve insulin sensitivity may help maintain higher adiponectin levels.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels are positively correlated with BMI and glycated hemoglobin, and elevated hsCRP (>3 mg/L) is an independent risk factor for the development of diabetic microangiopathy and cardiovascular disease.

Monitoring hsCRP levels can help assess cardiovascular and diabetic risk in obese individuals. Lowering inflammation through weight management and healthy lifestyle choices may reduce hsCRP levels and associated risks.

Rotating shift work, particularly transitions involving evening-to-day shifts or consecutive night shifts, causes significant sleep restriction and circadian misalignment, leading to impaired objective alertness and performance (slower reaction times and more lapses) during night shifts.

If you work rotating shifts, especially nights, expect significant sleep loss and performance impairment. This is worst when transitioning from evening to day shifts or working consecutive nights. Do not rely on how you feel to judge your safety; objective performance remains poor on subsequent nights even if you feel subjectively better. Prioritize sleep duration between shifts, particularly avoiding 'quick returns' from evening to day shifts.

High BMI is more strongly associated with adverse cardiovascular biomarker levels than physical inactivity, yet maintaining physical activity provides favorable biomarker profiles even within overweight or obese BMI categories.

Focus on maintaining a healthy body weight as the primary lever for improving cardiovascular biomarkers like CRP and cholesterol. However, do not neglect physical activity; even if you are overweight or obese, being physically active (≥1000 kcal/week) significantly improves your biomarker profile compared to being inactive. The best outcome is achieved by combining regular moderate activity with a normal BMI.

In urban and rural India, obesity (generalized and abdominal), diabetes, dysglycemia, and sedentary lifestyle are strongly associated with high prevalence of dyslipidemia, particularly low HDL-C and hypertriglyceridemia.

Focus on maintaining a healthy weight, managing blood sugar, and staying physically active to improve lipid profiles, especially if you live in urban or rural India where these risk factors are prevalent.

Urban residents have higher prevalence of most lipid abnormalities compared to rural residents, except for low HDL-C which shows no urban-rural difference.

Be aware that living in an urban area may increase your risk for certain lipid issues, but rural living also carries specific risks like low HDL-C. Regular screening is key regardless of location.

Dietary leucine supplementation improves muscle protein synthesis in elderly men independently of hyperaminoacidaemia.

Elderly men can potentially improve their muscle protein synthesis by consuming meals supplemented with leucine. This should be done as part of a balanced diet, not just as a standalone supplement. The study used a dose of 0.052 g/kg body weight, spread out over 5 hours. This suggests that incorporating leucine-rich foods or supplements into regular meals might be beneficial for maintaining muscle mass in old age.

Screening positive for sleep disorders (specifically obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, or shift work disorder) is significantly associated with increased risks of adverse health outcomes (depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes) and safety/performance failures (administrative errors, falling asleep while driving, fatigue-related safety violations) in police officers.

Police departments should implement routine, non-punitive sleep disorder screening for all officers. Given the high prevalence of undiagnosed OSA and insomnia, treating these conditions is a critical safety intervention that reduces administrative errors, safety violations, and health risks like cardiovascular disease and depression.

Acute intravenous administration of the GLP-1 receptor agonist exenatide reduces brain activation in appetite- and reward-related regions (insula, amygdala, OFC, putamen) in response to food cues in obese and T2DM individuals, leading to reduced food intake, independent of metabolic/hormonal changes.

For obese or T2DM individuals, GLP-1 receptor agonists like exenatide reduce the brain's reward response to food cues, leading to lower food intake. This effect is driven by central nervous system mechanisms, not just metabolic changes or stomach emptying, and is mediated by GLP-1 receptors.