Wellness

What was the secret to the public health community’s triumph when past attempts to regulate the food industry failed? There are three broad approaches to mediating the ruin of risky choices: inform people (like using labeling), nudge people (for example, by offering financial incentives), or directly intervene to make the activity less harmful. Which do […]

Adding a healthy option can actually drive people to make even worse choices, thanks to a mind-blowing glitch of human psychology. In 2017, and to much fanfare, menu labeling for calorie counts began to be mandated in national chain restaurants. Consumers should have the information needed to make healthy food choices outside the home, right?

Which legumes are best at inhibiting the matrix metalloproteinase enzymes that allow cancer to become invasive? Although we’re spending billions of dollars on fancy new types of chemotherapy, the overflowing sink that is cancer treatment is expected to rise by about 70% over the next two decades because drugs are being used to merely mop

How can we avoid the breakdown products of pesticides that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as much as if you carried APOE e4, the so-called Alzheimer’s gene? Although there is a growing list of Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility genes, those genes account for less than half of all Alzheimer’s cases. Here is the “single

I quantify the risks of colon and rectal cancers from eating bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunch meat. In 2018, arguably the most prestigious cancer research institution in the world, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, published its report on processed meat, concluding that foods like

How did the meat industry, government, and cancer organizations respond to the confirmation that processed meat, like bacon, ham, hot dogs, and lunch meat, causes cancer? “It is rare, in the history of nations, that one finds good reasons to render homage to the generosity and altruism of governments and those in power: the birth

Overrated “precision medicine” may just be serving vested interests, and consumer DNA testing can be useless—or even worse. Today, you can get your DNA sequenced—the letters of your entire genetic code spelled out—for about a thousand dollars, a bargain compared to the $100 million or so it cost 20 years ago. And for around a

Why are nuts associated with decreased mortality, but not peanut butter? According to the largest study of risk factors for death in human history, a poor diet causes more deaths than anything. Cigarettes only kill about 8 million people a year, whereas humanity’s diet kills millions more, as you can see below and at 0:20

Fasting and exercise can boost the longevity hormone FGF21, but what can we eat—or avoid eating—to get similar effects? Over a century ago, fasting was hailed not only as a means of combating “cerebral lassitude,” but also for the “prolongation of healthy longevity.” If that turns out to be true, FGF21 might be a missing

What can we do to boost the longevity hormone FGF21? In the year 2000, a new human hormone was discovered. It was the 21st documented fibroblast growth factor, so they called it FGF21. Since its discovery, FGF21 has become recognized as a key agent for the promotion of metabolic and arterial health, leanness, and longevity.