Wellness

Do potato eaters live longer or shorter lives than non-potato eaters? Is there a link between potato intake and the incidence of hypertension? Harvard researchers followed the diets and diseases of more than 100,000 men and women for decades and found that those who ate potatoes on most days—not only French fries and potato chips, […]

Does the link between white potatoes and diabetes extend to non-fried potatoes without butter or sour cream? The trouble for white potatoes began in 2006, when the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, which had followed the diets and diseases of tens of thousands of women for 20 years, found that greater potato intake was associated with

Prunes, figs, and exercise are put to the test as natural home remedies for constipation. The act of defecation is very private and the object of cultural taboos, so much so that it’s rarely thought of, even by physicians—but it should be. Constipation accounts for three million annual visits to doctors in the United States

Glycidol may help explain why people who eat fried foods get more cancer. “The main purpose of frying is to produce foods with good consumer acceptability. However, not all acceptable foods are safe.” Food chemists have been very interested in the newly discovered toxic compounds produced by frying. We’ve been refining vegetable oils for more

What does an anti-inflammatory diet look like? “Intervention studies to enhance healthy ageing need appropriate outcome measures, such as blood-borne biomarkers, which are easily obtainable, cost-effective, and widely accepted.” We need blood-borne biomarkers of mortality risk. For example, having higher levels of C-reactive protein in your blood may increase your risk of dying prematurely by

Inflammatory markers can double within six hours of eating a pro-inflammatory meal. Which foods are the worst? Excessive inflammation may play a role in a number of leading causes of death and disability, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. “But what are the stimuli that jumpstart the destructive inflammatory cascade?” You typically hear

Pomegranates are put to the test for weight loss, diabetes, COPD, prostate cancer, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The case of POM Wonderful (the pomegranate juice company) vs. Federal Trade Commission made it all the way up to the U.S. Court of Appeals before being denied review by the Supreme Court. In that landmark case, a

The foundation of cancer prevention is plants, not pills. “The vast majority of cancer research is devoted to finding cures, rather than finding new ways to prevent disease. The results of these skewed priorities are plain to see.” It’s been nearly 55 years since President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, yet deaths from the

Does choosing organic over conventional foods protect against cancer? What are the effects of pesticides on cancer risk? In a review updating the evidence on human exposure and toxicity of pesticides, the body of evidence linking pesticide exposure and cancer is said to be so massive that pesticides’ role in the development of cancer “cannot

There’s a lot of focus on personalized nutrition, but maybe we should focus on taking personal responsibility for our health. “Personalized nutrition (PN) is rooted in the concept that one size does not fit all,” and who doesn’t want to think they’re special? The idea of personalized nutrition is inherently appealing to our ego; that’s