"Promote digestive balance.” “Helps maintain a healthy immune system.” “Friendly bacteria that benefit your skin, health & beauty.” Probiotics make appealing promises, but they may not deliver...and may not be safe.
Faulty. Flawed. Messy. Untrustworthy. The science behind most experts’ advice on diet and health is a popular target these days (thanks, in part, to the food industry). One frequent attack: The advice is based on weak “observational” studies that can’t prove cause and effect. Wrong and wrong. Those types of studies are not necessarily weak, and most advice is also based on randomized clinical trials, the gold standard of scientific research. Here are five game changers.
Like most restaurants, TGI Fridays serves plenty of 1,000-calorie appetizers and entrées. So naturally, customers are going home famished unless they order dessert.
Cut 2 seeded delicata squash into half moons. Toss with a thinly sliced red onion and 2 Tbs. olive oil. Roast on a rimmed sheet pan at 450º F for 30 minutes. Top with ¼ cup toasted pumpkin seeds.
Serves 4.
A sharp knife is a safe knife because it’s less likely to slip while cutting. No sharpener? Some kitchen or hardware stores will sharpen your (non-serrated) blade for a few bucks.
In the late 1980s, researchers wanted to test whether drinking alcohol interfered with a new blood-pressure-lowering medicine called felodipine.
“To make this study more scientifically valid, we tried to find a beverage that would mask the taste of the alcohol,” says David Bailey, professor emeritus of clinical pharmacology at the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University and a scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Ontario, Canada.
Can drinking more fluids help prevent recurring urinary tract infections (UTIs)? Until recently, no one had looked.
So scientists at Danone Research—Danone sells bottled water—randomly assigned 140 premenopausal women to drink either an extra 1½ liters (about 6 cups) of water a day or no more water than usual. (All the women had been diagnosed with at least three UTIs in the previous year and all typically drank less than 1½ liters of fluids a day before the study started.)
The browned flat surfaces of this Roasted Delicata Squash deliver flavor to spare. For max browning, don’t line your baking pan, and use the lowest oven rack.