It's true that having obesity puts you at greater risk of disease than being overweight. But being overweight is far from harmless. The biggest danger: type 2 diabetes. Roughly 46 percent of adults now have prediabetes or diabetes (mostly type 2). Of those with diabetes, 26 percent are overweight and 61 percent are obese.
Americans live shorter lives than people in most other high-income countries.
In a 2018 study, researchers tracked roughly 123,000 U.S. men and women for 30 years. Then they identified five “low-risk lifestyle factors”:
Never smoking
Normal body weight
More than 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise a day
Moderate alcohol intake
A healthy diet
“Alzheimer’s symptoms worsened by canola oil—and it could cause onset of dementia, scientists warn,” ran Newsweek’s headline in December 2017. Yikes. Time to toss your canola oil?
Research shows that regular physical activity is essential to slowing arthritis progression and maintaining mobility as you age.
“Physicians used to tell people with osteoarthritis to sit down and take it easy,” says Stephen Messier, director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University. “We’ve moved past that.”
In one study, scientists randomly assigned 5,442 women to take high daily doses of vitamin B-6 (50 milligrams), vitamin B-12 (1,000 micrograms), and folic acid (2,500 mcg), or a placebo. After seven years, the risk of bone fractures was no lower in the B vitamin takers.
In another study, researchers randomly assigned 95 people with debilitating fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease to take vitamin B-12 (1,000 mcg a day) or a placebo. After eight weeks, fatigue was no lower in the B-12 takers.
What do you need to eat to protect your bones? Enough protein, fruits and vegetables, vitamin D, and, of course, calcium. Here are the basics on how much to shoot for, how much you get from food, and when to take a supplement.
Do you check the ingredients list on food labels for “partially hydrogenated oil”?
It’s increasingly hard to find. That’s because Monday marks the deadline for the food industry to stop producing foods that contain artificial trans fat.
Is there evidence that kava quells anxiety? And could there be a downside?
“Kava root has a long history of use in Polynesia for its mild sedative effects,” says Craig Hopp, an expert on medicinal plants at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
“But that’s very different from how people are using it today. Kava bars serving kava drinks have sprung up, and you can get kava as a dietary supplement.”
What's the scuttlebutt on what some foods, drinks, or vitamins can do to you or for you? Here are five claims you might have heard or read about.