Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Scientists have found that ways like soaking, fermenting, or heating plant foods can help remove natural substances that make it harder for our bodies to absorb nutrients.
Descriptive
Soaking and sprouting beans, then cooking them under high pressure, can completely remove some of the natural chemicals that block nutrient absorption.
Quantitative
Some natural compounds in plants like beans and grains can stop your body from absorbing important nutrients like iron, protein, and vitamins, because they stick to those nutrients or mess with your digestion.
Mechanistic
Some natural chemicals in plants can mess with your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and may cause inflammation throughout your system.
Causal
A long time ago, as human brains got bigger, it might have been because our ancestors started eating more meat, eggs, and other animal foods rich in fats and cholesterol.
Drinking tea might make it harder for your body to use iodine, which is important for your thyroid to work properly.
Your body uses cholesterol to make important hormones like cortisol, aldosterone, and sex hormones—without cholesterol, these hormones can’t be made.
Thyroid hormone doesn’t directly make sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen, but it helps the body’s sex glands work properly so they can produce these hormones at the right levels.
When your body is under long-term stress and makes too much cortisol, it starts using the same building blocks to make more stress hormones instead of sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen.
When you push your body too hard for too long, it starts to slow down its stress response system because it stops producing as much of a key stress hormone.
When you're under sudden stress, your liver quickly makes more sugar and releases it into your blood so your muscles have extra energy to react.
Eating more fat might tell your body to stop producing so much of the stress hormone cortisol, as if it’s hitting a brake on your stress system.
When your body is under long-term stress and keeps producing too much of the stress hormone cortisol, it can hurt your brain and weaken your bones.
If you're an adult with obesity and you eat only during certain hours of the day for a year, it won't make you more likely to have bad side effects than if you just eat fewer calories every day.
If you're an adult with obesity, eating only during a certain window each day for a year won't help you lose more waist size, weight, or fat—or improve your blood pressure and metabolism—any better than just eating fewer calories every day.
If you're overweight and eat only between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a year, you’ll lose about 8 kg — but if you just eat fewer calories without worrying about when you eat, you’ll lose about 6.3 kg. The difference is so small that it doesn’t really matter which method you pick — cutting calories is what matters most.
People who are obese and eat only during an 8-hour window each day—without counting calories—stick to this routine 87% of the time for a full year, which suggests it’s a practical way to manage weight long-term.
If obese people eat only during certain hours of the day without counting calories, their body may handle insulin better than if they do nothing—but it’s not any better than just eating fewer calories, and we need more research to be sure.
If obese people eat only during a certain window each day without counting calories, they naturally eat about 425 fewer calories a day over a year, which helps them lose weight—even though no one told them to eat less.
If you eat only between noon and 8 p.m. without counting calories, you’ll lose about the same amount of weight over a year as someone who cuts their daily calories by 25%—the difference is so small it could just be due to chance.
If obese people only eat between noon and 8 p.m. every day—without counting calories—they tend to lose about 4.6 kg (over 10 pounds) in a year, just by changing when they eat, and not by eating less.
If you eat only during certain hours of the day or just count your calories, you’ll lose about the same amount of weight—roughly 4.5% of your body weight—after six months.
Even if you do a lot of heavy weight training for 6 weeks, your muscle fibers don’t actually get more of the main building proteins—so the idea that your muscles grow by diluting those proteins with extra fluid probably isn’t right.
If you lift heavy weights or do lots of reps with lighter weights, your muscles grow at the same rate—so it doesn’t matter which way you train, as long as you’re already fit.