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Fasting diets are not better than calorie counting for weight loss

26 June 2023

Diets that involve intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating have become popular in recent years, but it seems they help people lose weight simply by eating less

Calorie boost may explain why adults evolved ability to digest milk

6 May 2023

Why some people evolved the ability to digest milk in adulthood hasn't been clear, but the extra calories that young children got may have been key

How ultra-processed food harms your health and how to fix the problem

26 April 2023

Ultra-processed foods contain artificial ingredients that impact our health in ways that we are only just beginning to understand, says Chris van Tulleken

Keto diet may treat epilepsy by changing the gut microbiome

12 April 2023

Mice that received gut microbes from children with epilepsy on the ketogenic diet were protected from seizures. The finding suggests the microbiome is behind the diet's seizure-reducing effect

Ingesting microplastics may increase fat absorption by 145 per cent

31 March 2023

Using a model of a human small intestine, researchers found that microplastics in high-fat foods significantly increase the absorption of fat

We are trapped in a junk food cycle that is making us sick

29 March 2023

Poor diet is the biggest cause of avoidable illness and premature death in high-income countries. Our food system is broken, say Henry Dimbleby and Jemima Lewis

Students ate less meat for three years after a talk on climate impact

2 March 2023

In a randomised trial, students who listened to a single 50-minute talk on the health and climate impacts of meat ate 9 per cent fewer meat-based meals over the next three years

In a trial, some participants were asked to reduce their calorie intake by 25 per cent every day. After two years, they showed signs of slowed biological ageing in one test, but not in others

Does restricting calories slow down ageing? We simply don't know

9 February 2023

A test based on blood biomarkers suggests that calorie restriction slightly slows ageing, but the jury is out on whether the dieting strategy really works

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The food and drink that really can boost your immune system

31 January 2023

Whether it is immune-boosting smoothies or bacteria-laden yogurts, there is a whole world of products that claim to improve your immune system – but these are the ones that actually work

Countries such as the UK, Mexico and South Africa have a tax on sugary drinks

Taxing sugary drinks may not cut obesity as much as headlines claim

27 January 2023

A study has suggested that the UK’s 2018 sugar tax prevents 5000 cases of obesity among 10 to 11-year-old girls in England every year, but the picture may be rather more complicated than that