How can soy foods have it both ways with pro-estrogenic effects in some organs that can protect bones and reduce hot flash symptoms, yet also anti-estrogenic effects in others that protect against breast and endometrial cancer?
Combining certain foods together may be more beneficial than eating them separately.
What can we eat to increase good gut bacteria richness in our colon?
Sun exposure is associated with lower rates of 15 different cancers and improved cancer survival. What happened when vitamin D supplements were put to the test?
Learn why I recommend 250mg a day of a pollutant-free source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.
Overt omega-3 deficiency is rare, but do short-term experiments on cognitive function suggest there might be an optimal DHA dose?
How might beans, berries, and intact (not just whole) grains reduce colon cancer risk?
What is the evidence that all pregnant women should follow the American Thyroid Association’s recommendation to take a daily iodine supplement?
Perhaps dietary guidelines should stress fresh, frozen, and dried fruit—rather than canned.
Pomegranate juice for prostate cancer was finally put to the test in a randomized, controlled, clinical trial.
Why is the field of nutrition often more about marketing products than educating people about the fundamentals of healthy eating?
We don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils: skin cancer versus internal cancers from vitamin D deficiency.
If one is going to make an evolutionary argument for what a “natural” vitamin D level may be, how about getting vitamin D in the way nature intended—that is, from the sun instead of supplements?
The safe dose of vitamin D supplementation to get most of the population to the optimal level is 2,000 IU a day, but the elderly and overweight may need more.
What do 56 randomized clinical trials involving nearly 100,000 people between the ages of 18 and 107 show vitamin D can do to our lifespan?
Those with higher vitamin D levels tend to have lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, but is it cause and effect? Interventional trials finally put vitamin D to the test.
Curcumin-free turmeric, from which the so-called active ingredient has been removed, may be as effective or even more potent.
How the food, drug, and supplement industries have taken advantage of the field of nutrition’s reductionist mindset
A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial found a dramatic effect of the anti-inflammatory spice pigment curcumin against inflammatory bowel disease.
The reason eating citrus fruits appears to protect against cancer may be because of DNA repair enzyme-boosting powers of a compound concentrated in the peel.
I recommend all pregnant and breastfeeding women follow the consensus guidelines to get about 200mg of preformed DHA from a pollutant-free source.
Does maternal supplementation with the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA improve psychomotor, mental, visual, or physical development of infants?
Chlorophyll in our bloodstream after eating greens may react with wavelengths of sunlight that penetrate through our skin to reactivate the antioxidant Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinol).
A quarter teaspoon of the spice turmeric was put to the test for the treatment of uncontrollable lupus (SLE) nephritis in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
If copper is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, what about healthy, whole plant food sources such as nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains?
What’s the best way to fulfill the omega-3 essential fat requirements?
A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial on the use of the turmeric pigment curcumin to prevent diabetes in prediabetics is published with extraordinary results.
If studies from the 1970s showed cancer patients treated with vitamin C lived 4 times longer and sometimes even 20 times longer, why isn’t it standard practice today?
Research on resveratrol, a component of red wine, looked promising in rodent studies, but what happened when it was put to the test in people?
The extraordinarily low rates of chronic disease among plant-based populations have been attributed to fiber, but reductionist thinking may lead us astray.
The whole food is greater than the sum of its parts: how unscrupulous marketers use evidence that ties high blood levels of phytonutrients with superior health to sell dietary supplements that may do more harm than good.
What is the optimal daily dietary calcium intake and might benefits for your bones outweigh the risks to your heart from taking calcium supplements?
The unnaturally large, rapid, and sustained calcium levels in the blood caused by calcium supplements may explain why calcium from supplements, but not from food, appears to increase the risk of heart attacks.
Why does our immune system confuse unhealthy diets with dysbiosis—an overrun of bad bacteria in our colon?
What is the latest science on the performance-enhancing qualities of nitrate-rich vegetables?
Diet and exercise synergize to improve endothelial function, the ability of our arteries to relax normally.
One week on a plant-based diet can significantly drop blood levels of homocysteine, a toxin associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Without vitamin B12 supplementation, though, a long-term plant-based diet could make things worse.
Which foods should we eat and avoid to prevent and treat acid reflux before it can place us at risk for Barrett’s esophagus and cancer?
Neither antioxidant or folic acid supplements seem to help with mood, but the consumption of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables and folate-rich beans and greens may lower the risk for depression.
The ongoing global drop in male fertility may be associated with saturated fat intake and lack of sufficient fruits and vegetables.
