Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Obese people re-store more fat inside their cells at rest, and insulin doesn’t slow this process down as much as it does in lean people.
Descriptive
Insulin reduces fat burning in the blood the same way in obese and lean people, but obese people still burn more fat overall because their bodies are burning fat stored inside cells — not just from the blood.
In people with obesity, insulin doesn’t reduce fat release from fat tissue as well as it does in lean people — but if you account for how much fat they have, insulin works just as well.
People with obesity have more fat circulating in their blood at rest, and their bodies are breaking down and re-storing fat at a faster rate than people without obesity.
Eating the New Nordic Diet might help the body use insulin better by making the liver produce more ketones and sugar from non-carb sources when fasting, which could help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Causal
People eating the New Nordic Diet had different chemicals in their blood than those eating the usual Danish diet — especially more from plants and fish, and their bodies started using fat and sugar differently when fasting.
People who ate a diet rich in fish, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains lost more weight than those eating the usual Danish diet, and certain chemicals in their blood showed why — some helped burn fat, others didn’t.
Correlational
Plant compounds in foods like berries and tea may help lower blood sugar and inflammation in type 2 diabetes by changing the gut bacteria to produce helpful substances.
Mechanistic
Some compounds made by gut bacteria (not the bacteria themselves) have shown promise in mice to help with blood sugar and inflammation, but we don’t yet know if they work in people with diabetes.
The livers of mice with less Cideb burned more fat for energy, producing more ketones and running their energy factories (mitochondria) faster.
When Cideb was reduced, the mice’s livers made less new fat from scratch, which helped them store less fat overall.
Mice with less Cideb protein burned more calories overall, even when eating the same high-fat diet as other mice.
Quantitative
When Cideb was reduced in obese mice, their bodies responded better to insulin because harmful fat molecules in cell membranes dropped, which helped insulin signaling work better in liver and muscle.
When scientists reduced a specific protein called Cideb in obese mice, their livers stored much less fat because the liver started burning more fat and making less new fat.
Men tend to eat more after working out on an empty stomach in the evening, but women don’t — which might make fasting a better weight-loss strategy for women.
Working out on an empty stomach before an evening workout makes you feel less motivated to start and less satisfied afterward, which might make you less likely to keep doing it.
Working out on an empty stomach before an evening workout makes you less able to push hard during a short, intense effort.
Working out on an empty stomach in the evening makes your body burn more fat and less sugar during the workout.
Skipping a meal before an evening workout makes people eat less overall during the day, even if they eat a bit more right after exercising.
Just eating more or fewer calories affects your body differently than eating processed foods—even if the total calories are the same.
People who eat a lot of processed foods may have more toxic chemicals from packaging in their blood and less of a naturally occurring mineral called lithium, which might help explain why these foods are harmful.
Men who eat mostly processed foods may have sperm that don’t swim as well, which could make it harder to get a partner pregnant—even if they’re otherwise healthy.
Eating a lot of processed foods may lower two important hormones—one that helps control appetite and another that helps make sperm—which could hurt both your metabolism and fertility.
Eating lots of highly processed foods like chips, sodas, and frozen meals can make you gain weight and worsen your 'bad' cholesterol compared to 'good' cholesterol—even if you eat the same number of calories as someone eating whole foods.