The “fat gene” accounts for less than 1 percent of the differences in size between people. To date, about a hundred genetic markers have been linked to obesity, but when you put them all together, overall, they account for less than 3 percent of the difference in body mass index (BMI) between people
The common explanations for the cause of the obesity epidemic put forward by the food industry and policymakers, such as inactivity or a lack of willpower, are not only wrong, but actively harmful fallacies. Obesity isn’t new, but the obesity epidemic is. We went from a few corpulent kings and queen
Here is a review of reviews on the health effects of animal foods versus plant foods.Instead of looking only at individual studies or individual reviews of studies, what if you looked at a review of reviews? In my last video, I covered beverages. As you can see below and at 0:20 in my video Friday F
Here is a review of reviews on the health effects of tea, coffee, milk, wine, and soda.If you’ve watched my videos or read my books, you’ve heard me say, time and again, the best available balance of evidence. What does that mean? When making decisions as life-or-death important as what to feed ours
Plant-based diets are put to the test for treating migraine headaches. Headaches are one of the top five reasons people end up in emergency rooms and one of the leading reasons people see their doctors in general. One way to try to prevent them is to identify their triggers and avoid them. Common tr
Plastering front-of-package nutrient claims on cereal boxes is an attempt to distract us from the incongruity of feeding our children multicolored marshmallows for breakfast.The American Medical Association started warning people about excess sugar consumption more than 75 years ago, based in part o
How do healthier plant-based diets compare to unhealthy plant foods and animal foods when it comes to diabetes risk? In my video on flexitarians, I discuss how the benefits of eating a plant-based diet are not all-or-nothing. “Simple advice to increase the consumption of plant-derived foods with com
Public health authorities continue to lower the upper tolerable limit of daily added sugar intake.Dating back to the original “Dietary Goals for the United States” in 1977, also known as the so-called McGovern Report, leading nutrition scientists didn’t only call for a reduction in meat and other so
We had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Sheil Shukla about his work, food, traditional Indian culture, and Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. We hope you enjoy this interview.Please tell us a little bit about your work and career. My name is Sheil Shukla, DO, and I am a board-certified inte
Are the apparent adverse effects of heavy cannabis use on the bone just due to users being thinner? It’s been recognized for decades that cigarette smoking can have “a major effect” on bone health, “increasing the lifetime risk of hip fracture by about half.” It also appears to impair bone healing,
SAD doesn’t just stand for the standard American diet.There’s a condition known as seasonal affective disorder that is characterized by increased appetite and cravings, as well as greater sleepiness and lethargy, that begins in autumn when light exposure starts to dwindle. This now appears to repres
What did randomized controlled trials of phototherapy—bright morning light—for weight loss find? If weakening our circadian rhythm can cause weight gain, might strengthening it facilitate weight loss? You may remember the child’s swing analogy I shared previously. Regular morning meals can give our
Coronary artery disease, the number one killer of men and women, involves blockages in the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle. As discussed in my video Do Angioplasty Heart Stent Procedures Work?, low blood flow can lead to a type of chest pain called angina or, if severe enough, a heart atta
What can shift workers do to moderate the adverse effects of circadian rhythm disruption?Shift workers may have higher rates of death from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease, as well as higher rates of death from cancer. Graveyard shift, indeed! But, is it just bec
Ancient types of wheat, like kamut, are put to the test for inflammation, blood sugar, and cholesterol control. The number one killer in the United States and around the world is what we eat. As you can see in the graph below and at 0:15 in my video Friday Favorites: Are Ancient Grains Healthier?, o
Exposure to bright light synchronizes the central circadian clock in our brain, whereas proper meal timing helps sync the timing of different clock genes throughout the rest of our body. One of the most important breakthroughs in recent years has been the discovery of “peripheral clocks.” We’ve kno
NutritionFacts.org has so many free resources to help you on your journey to a healthier life.The Evidence-Based Eating Guide The Evidence-Based Eating Guide: A Healthy Living Resource from Dr. Greger & NutritionFacts.org simplifies making the switch to a healthier lifestyle. It’s an easy-to-underst
The same meal eaten at the wrong time of day can double blood sugar. We’ve known for more than half a century that our glucose tolerance—the ability of our body to keep our blood sugars under control—declines as the day goes on. As you can see in the graph below and at 0:25 in my video How Circadian
Grape juice and whole grapes are put to the test for brain function, including cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s. In 2010, the first controlled trial was published that examined how the brain responds to grape juice. It helped aged rats, but what about people? “Concord grape juice supplementati
Why are calories eaten in the morning less fattening than calories eaten in the evening? One reason calories consumed in the morning are less fattening than those eaten in the evening is that more calories are burned off in the morning due to diet-induced thermogenesis. That’s the amount of energy t
Harness the power of your circadian rhythms for weight loss by making breakfast or lunch your main meal of the day.In my last chronobiology video, we learned that calories eaten at breakfast are significantly less fattening than the same number of calories eaten at dinner, as you can see at 0:14 in
Raw garlic is compared to roasted, stir-fried, simmered, and jarred garlic.Garlic lowers blood pressure, regulates cholesterol, and stimulates immunity. I’ve talked before about its effect on heart disease risk factors, but what about immunity? Eating garlic appears to offer the best of both worlds,
A calorie is not a calorie. It isn’t only what you eat, but when you eat. Mice are nocturnal creatures. They eat during the night and sleep during the day. However, if you only feed mice during the day, they gain more weight than if they were fed a similar amount of calories at night. Same food and
Given the power of chronotherapy—how the same dose of the same drugs taken at a different time of day can have such different effects—it’s no surprise that chronoprevention approaches, like meal timing, can also make a difference.The 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for “elucidating molecula
