iStockphoto
U.S. News & World Report’s annual diet rankings give top marks to a meal-replacement plan to shed pounds fast. There’s also a low-carb diet to stave off cravings; its virtues are sung in a new book.
Read more at NPR.org.
Mahafreen H. Mistry/NPR
Popular advice suggests a low-carb diet is necessary to trigger the body to shed fat. But a small, rigorous study published in the journal Cell Metabolism finds low-fat diets also spark body-fat loss. The key: Choose a diet you’ll stick to.
Read more at NPR.org.
Image source: New York Times
The Paleo diet is based on the belief that we should eat foods that our ancestors ate. Typically this means that Paleo diet followers stick to diet high in meats and vegetables, and steer clear of carbohydrates. Newly published research is arguing this notion, and hypothesizes that the human brain needed glucose provided by carbohydrates to evolve.
Read more about the interconnection of glucose metabolism and human evolution at The New York Times.
Marcus Butt/Ikon Images/Corbis
The results of a meta-analysis, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that people on vegetarian diets lost around 4.4 pounds more than the control group who had no change in diet. Those who tried a vegan diet dropped 5.5 pounds more.
Read more at NPR.org.
Zoran Ivanovich/iStockphoto
The path from scientific discovery to media sound bite can be perilous, says commentator Tania Lombrozo, and it should be traversed with care. Take for example how the media is covering a recent paper published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease about the risks and benefits of coffee consumption.
Read more at NPR.org.
Ryan Kellman/NPR
A daily habit of sugary-sweetened drinks can boost your risk of developing the disease — even if you’re not overweight. And diet soda might not be doing you any favors, either.
Read more at NPR.org.
Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images
Regular chocolate eaters had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke compared to people who didn’t eat chocolate. The researchers say it’s more evidence that polyphenols may be protective.
Read more at NPR.org.
iStockphoto
John Bohannon, the man behind a stunt that bamboozled many news organizations into publishing junk science on dieting, talks to NPR’s Robert Siegel about why he carried out the scheme.
Read more and listen to the interview at NPR.org.
Meredith Rizzo
From Paleo to vegan to raw, nutrition gurus package their advice as sound science. But peel the studies away and you’ll find timeless myths and superstitions of religion.
Read more at NPR.org.
iStockphoto
A recent study finds that people in their 60s and 70s who followed the Mediterranean diet for four years held steady on cognitive tests. But the cognitive test scores of people following a lower-fat diet went down.
Read more at NPR.org.