What Is the Best Poop Position?

What Is the Best Poop Position?

The Squatty Potty is put to the test. Previously, I’ve talked about the potential efficacy of prunes and dried figs to keep us regular. What influence does body position have on defecation? While squatting continues to be the traditional position for people in Asia and...
Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Fixed by Tweaking Their Nutrients?

Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Fixed by Tweaking Their Nutrients?

What happened when ultra-processed foods were matched for calories, sugar, fat, and fiber content in the first randomized controlled trial? In the United States, “junk food” is often used to describe less-healthy foods, like candy, ice cream, and chips, but there isn’t...
How the Fight to Ban Trans Fat Was Won

How the Fight to Ban Trans Fat Was Won

What was the secret to the public health community’s triumph when past attempts to regulate the food industry failed? There are three broad approaches to mediating the ruin of risky choices: inform people (like using labeling), nudge people (for example, by offering...
Why Healthy Fast-Food Menu Options Can Backfire

Why Healthy Fast-Food Menu Options Can Backfire

Adding a healthy option can actually drive people to make even worse choices, thanks to a mind-blowing glitch of human psychology. In 2017, and to much fanfare, menu labeling for calorie counts began to be mandated in national chain restaurants. Consumers should have...
Which Beans Best Block the Spread of Cancer?

Which Beans Best Block the Spread of Cancer?

Which legumes are best at inhibiting the matrix metalloproteinase enzymes that allow cancer to become invasive? Although we’re spending billions of dollars on fancy new types of chemotherapy, the overflowing sink that is cancer treatment is expected to rise by about...
A Persistent Pesticide Is Linked to Alzheimer’s Risk

A Persistent Pesticide Is Linked to Alzheimer’s Risk

How can we avoid the breakdown products of pesticides that may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease as much as if you carried APOE e4, the so-called Alzheimer’s gene? Although there is a growing list of Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility genes, those genes account...