Browse the evidence

Participation in organized sports helps mitigate the age-related decline in physical activity during adolescence, particularly on weekends.

Keep adolescents involved in sports as they get older to prevent the typical drop in physical activity. Non-participants tend to become significantly less active as they age, whereas participants maintain higher activity levels.

A national produce prescription program for patients with diabetes and food insecurity is projected to improve diet, BMI, and HbA1c, thereby reducing long-term cardiovascular disease outcomes, improving quality-adjusted life-years, and generating health care cost savings.

If you have diabetes and struggle with food insecurity, a produce prescription program can help you eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. This change in diet can lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes complications, improve your daily quality of life, and potentially save money on healthcare costs over time. Talk to your healthcare provider about accessing such programs.

Targeting the Ghrelin Receptor (GHSR1a) with inverse agonists or antagonists like LEAP2 reduces food intake and postprandial glucose, offering a potential treatment for type-2 diabetes and obesity.

A new approach to blocking hunger involves a natural peptide called LEAP2. In a small study, giving LEAP2 intravenously reduced how much people ate and lowered their blood sugar after meals. This suggests it might help people with type-2 diabetes or obesity, but more research is needed to see if these benefits last long-term.

Ten weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) partially restores muscle proteostasis in obese, insulin-resistant men by increasing the turnover rates of specific proteins, although it does not fully mitigate indicators of poor proteome health.

If you have obesity and insulin resistance, 10 weeks of HIIT (3x/week, cycling at max effort for 1-minute intervals) can significantly improve the turnover and abundance of key muscle proteins. While this doesn't erase all metabolic risks or fully normalize your muscle proteome, it does partially restore a critical aspect of muscle health (proteostasis) that is typically compromised in obesity.

Older adults transitioning to vegetarian or vegan diets may face greater challenges in maintaining protein adequacy compared to younger adults.

If you are an older adult switching to a plant-based diet, pay closer attention to your protein intake. You may need to be more deliberate about including high-quality plant proteins like legumes and soy products to ensure you are meeting your increased requirements, as the margin for error is smaller than in younger adults.

Children following vegetarian or vegan diets do not have specific concerns regarding protein adequacy due to their high energy requirements relative to protein needs.

If you are raising a child on a vegetarian or vegan diet, you generally do not need to worry about protein deficiency. As long as the child is eating enough calories from a variety of plant foods, they will likely get enough protein.

Very-low carbohydrate ketogenic diets (<10% carbs) promote weight loss and improve lipid profiles (lower triglycerides, higher HDL) primarily through energy restriction and ketone body production, rather than macronutrient partitioning alone.

If you choose a ketogenic diet, expect short-term weight loss and improved triglycerides/HDL. However, note that these benefits are largely due to eating fewer calories, not just the lack of carbs. Be aware that this diet excludes many healthy foods like whole grains and fruits, and long-term adherence is difficult.

Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet is associated with a significant decrease in all-cause mortality and cancer incidence, particularly when compared to Northern European or US dietary patterns.

Incorporate more plant-based foods, fish, and healthy oils into your daily diet to potentially lower your long-term risk of cancer and all-cause mortality. This is achieved by consuming bioactive components found in these foods rather than through supplementation alone.

Ketogenic diets positively affect the gut microbiome by increasing the ratio of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes and increasing beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacteria and butyrate-producing species.

You can support your gut health on a KD by eating low-carb vegetables, nuts, and berries. This can increase beneficial bacteria like Bacteroidetes.

Consuming mycoprotein provides a sustained release of essential amino acids (EAAs) and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) compared to milk protein, supporting muscle protein synthesis without rapid spikes.

To support muscle growth, include mycoprotein (like Quorn) in your diet. It digests slower than milk or meat, providing a steady stream of amino acids over several hours, which is beneficial for muscle protein synthesis. Aim for 60-80g servings to maximize this effect.

Mycoprotein consumption reduces postprandial insulin response and energy intake at high doses (132g) compared to chicken, without altering glycemic response.

If you are overweight or obese, incorporating mycoprotein into your meals, particularly in larger portions (around 132g of protein), may help reduce your insulin response and naturally lower your calorie intake at the next meal compared to chicken.

Mycoprotein consumption is associated with a significant reduction in plasma cholesterol, particularly in smaller lipoprotein particles, likely due to its high fiber content (chitin and beta-glucans).

To support heart health, include mycoprotein in your diet regularly. Its unique fiber content helps reduce cholesterol levels, particularly smaller lipoprotein particles, over a period of 3-8 weeks.

A delayed-morning, earlier-evening time-restricted feeding (TRF) protocol (10:00–18:00 h) improves nocturnal glycemic control in men with overweight/obesity compared to extended feeding (07:00–22:00 h), while maintaining positive subjective adherence.

For men with overweight or obesity, shifting your eating window to start at 10:00 AM and end by 6:00 PM can significantly improve blood sugar levels during sleep compared to eating from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. This approach is metabolically effective and more socially sustainable than extreme early-fasting protocols, provided you maintain your total calorie and macronutrient intake.

Periodic refeeding (brief overfeeding, primarily carbohydrates) can acutely increase circulating leptin levels, but its effect on increasing Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is modest and may not significantly improve long-term weight loss success.

If you are dieting for a long time, a planned refeed day (high carb, slightly above maintenance) might help your leptin levels. However, don't expect it to massively boost your metabolism. It’s a small tool, not a magic bullet.

Cold exposure induces non-shivering thermogenesis via brown adipose tissue (BAT) and beige adipocytes, increasing energy expenditure by 2-17%.

Exposing your body to cold temperatures can activate brown fat and increase calorie burning. Start with small, manageable exposures like slightly cooler showers or a lower bedroom temperature. Consistency is key to building up your body's thermogenic capacity.

Dietary palatability, driven by sensory cues like sweetness and fat content, consistently increases energy intake regardless of physiological hunger signals.

Highly palatable foods, especially those high in sugar and fat, tend to make you eat more. To manage intake, be mindful of portion sizes and variety, and try to incorporate less palatable but nutrient-dense foods into your diet.

High intake of specific food groups, including legumes, nuts, chocolate, and adherence to a vegetarian diet, significantly reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Incorporate legumes, nuts, and moderate amounts of chocolate into your diet to help lower your risk of coronary heart disease. A vegetarian diet is also associated with lower CHD risk. These findings are based on observational studies, so they suggest strong associations rather than guaranteed causation.

Post-exercise nutrient timing may be beneficial for individuals training in a fasted state or those with long gaps (>3-4 hours) between their last meal and exercise.

If you train first thing in the morning before eating breakfast, or if it has been 4+ hours since your last meal, eat a protein-rich meal (25-40g) as soon as possible after your workout. This helps reverse the catabolic state caused by training on an empty stomach.

Replacing saturated fatty acids (SFAs) with omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), specifically linoleic acid, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events and cardiovascular mortality.

To support heart health, replace sources of saturated fats (like butter or fatty meats) with oils high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, corn, or sunflower oil. This substitution is associated with a lower risk of heart disease events compared to keeping saturated fats or replacing them with carbohydrates. While individual RCTs have shown mixed results, large observational studies consistently support this replacement strategy.

Higher biomarker levels of linoleic acid (LA) are associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Higher levels of linoleic acid in your body, which come from consuming omega-6 rich oils, are associated with a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This suggests that including these oils in your diet may help protect against diabetes.

Supplemental fish oil (4 g/d providing 1,600 mg EPA and 800 mg DHA) for 6 weeks significantly increases fat-free mass and decreases fat mass in healthy adults.

Take 4 grams of fish oil daily (providing 1,600 mg EPA and 800 mg DHA) for 6 weeks. This specific dose was shown to increase lean mass and decrease fat mass in healthy adults, likely by lowering cortisol levels. Maintain your normal diet and exercise habits.

Fish oil supplementation reduces salivary cortisol levels, and this reduction is significantly correlated with increased fat-free mass and decreased fat mass.

Fish oil may help lower cortisol, which is linked to fat gain and muscle loss. This study suggests that by lowering cortisol, fish oil might help you build lean mass and lose fat.

GLP-1 receptor agonists provide cardiovascular benefits, including reduced blood pressure and improved endothelial function, which may occur independently of weight loss.

GLP-1 receptor agonists offer cardiovascular protection beyond just weight loss. They can lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel function, likely through direct effects on the kidneys and blood vessels. These benefits may start appearing within weeks of treatment, even before significant weight loss occurs.

Regular glucosamine supplementation is associated with a statistically significant reduction in all-cause mortality (15% lower risk) and cause-specific mortality for cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory, and digestive diseases.

This observational study suggests that regular glucosamine use is linked to a lower risk of death from various causes, including heart disease and cancer. The authors propose this may be due to anti-inflammatory effects or metabolic changes similar to low-carb diets. However, because this is not a randomized trial, it does not prove glucosamine causes these benefits; users might simply have healthier lifestyles. It should not replace standard medical care for chronic diseases.