It never fails. You turn on the TV, start a new podcast, open a web browser, or walk through the supermarket, and you’re bombarded with ads pushing quick fixes to help keep you going in a demanding world: an immune boost here, a hangover cure there, a supplement for your hair or skin, or a little something to help you relax at night. What’s the evidence that these drink mixes, gummies, probiotics, and powders deliver on their promises? We took a look.
Five to 10 percent of Americans suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. Half of people over age 60 have diverticulosis. About a quarter of us lack the enzyme that digests lactose. And we all deal with occasional gas, constipation, bloating, and indigestion. Here’s what may help.
Fermented foods are made by combining milk, vegetables, or other ingredients with yeast or bacteria. Until last year, few well-designed studies had put fermented foods to the test. So Stanford's Christopher Gardner and his team randomly assigned 36 healthy adults to eat a diet high in fiber or fermented foods.
If you’ve got problems with regularity, you’re not alone. Whether it’s occasional or chronic, you’re no doubt looking for relief. “There are so many recommendations out there,” says Jacqueline Wolf, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Some of it works, and some is just folklore.”
In July, experts recommended that we shrink added sugars to less than 6 percent of our calories. Companies were already scrambling to trim sugars because, by 2021, food labels will have to reveal how much each serving contains. Here’s what you need to know.
Many people don’t get enough fiber, vitamin D, calcium, or potassium. Others are seeking more protein (whether they need it or not). But we may be looking in the wrong places. Here’s a handful of foods with less (or more) of those nutrients than you might expect.
Keep scrolling to see foods with surprisingly high (or low) levels of nutrients we overdo (added sugar, saturated fat, and sodium).
First, what does it mean to be “regular”? “We consider normal anywhere from going three times per day to three times per week,” says Jacqueline Wolf, a gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
"Very high in fiber," boasts the bag of Smart Sweets Gummy Bears, which have 100 percent of a day's worth of fiber in each serving. What does the fiber that's added to gummy bears do for you? Maybe nothing at all. Here's the scoop on which kinds of fiber do what.
“Without bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms, there wouldn’t be life on earth, and we wouldn’t be here,” says Lita Proctor. “Every kind of living thing is dependent on communities of microbes we call microbiomes, and that includes humans.”
Proctor is director of the Human Microbiome Project, an eight-year research mission of the National Institutes of Health to explore the role of the microbiome in human health and disease. Here’s some of what we know so far...and what we still need to find out.