Category Archives: Nutrition and Supplements

How Obesity Dismantles Our Mitochondria

In a new study researchers found that when mice were fed a high-fat diet, mitochondria within their fat cells broke apart into smaller mitochondria with reduced capacity for burning fat. Further, they discovered that this process is controlled by a single gene. By deleting this gene from the mice, they were able to protect them […]

Healthy Diet Early in Life Seems to Protect Against Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The global rise in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, has no clear explanation. Previous research has looked at dietary patterns and IBD in adults, but research on children’s diets and links to IBD are scarce. The aim of the current study has been to increase knowledge in this area. […]

Fasting May Protect Against Inflammation

Cambridge scientists may have discovered a new way in which fasting helps reduce inflammation — a potentially damaging side-effect of the body’s immune system that underlies a number of chronic diseases. Inflammation is our body’s natural response to injury or infection, but this process can be triggered by other mechanisms, including by the so-called ‘inflammasome’, […]

B Vitamins to Treat Advanced Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Scientists have uncovered a mechanism that leads to an advanced form of fatty liver disease — and it turns out that vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements could reverse this process. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease involves fat build-up in the liver and is a leading cause of liver transplants worldwide. When the condition progresses to […]

Salt Substitutes for Blood Pressure Control

The replacement of regular salt with a salt substitute can reduce incidence of hypertension, or high blood pressure, in older adults without increasing their risk of low blood pressure episodes, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. People who used a salt substitute had a 40% lower incidence […]

Common Food Preservative Has Unexpected Effects on the Gut Microbiome

Food manufacturers often add preservatives to food products to keep them fresh. A primary purpose of these preservatives is to kill microbes that could break down and otherwise spoil the food.  Common additives like sugar, salt, vinegar and alcohol have been used as preservatives for centuries, but modern-day food labels now reveal more unfamiliar ingredients […]

Switching to Vegan or Ketogenic Diet Rapidly Impacts Immune System

Scientific understanding of how different diets impact the human immune system and microbiome is limited. The keto diet is a low-carbohydrate diet that is generally high in fat. The vegan diet eliminates animal products and tends to be high in fiber and low in fat. The study was conducted by researchers from the NIH’s National […]

Can Eating More Tomatoes Daily Help Lower High Blood Pressure?

For older adults with mild high blood pressure, a new study suggests consuming tomatoes may help manage hypertension and may even lower the risk of developing high blood pressure in the first place. In the study, people without high blood pressure who ate the most tomatoes or tomato-based foods had a 36% lower risk of […]

Fasting May Improve Gut Microbiome Balance in People with Obesity

Recently, research has found increasing evidence of the potential effects of the human microbiome on our health. The microbiome consists of bacteria, archaea, viruses and eukaryotic microbes that live in and on our bodies. A healthy adult will house around 1000 different species of bacteria, the majority of which are in the gut. In most […]

Following a Mediterranean Diet May Help Increase the Chances of Successful IVF

Research is ongoing about potential fertility treatments, including the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). It’s unclear how following certain diets or consuming over-the-counter supplements may contribute to the chances that IVF will result in a healthy pregnancy. A recent review published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online (RBMO) examined 27 studies to see how different nutritional […]