Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Even though raw beans can make you sick, eating cooked beans doesn’t cause gut problems or inflammation in healthy people.
Correlational
Eating spinach and nuts won’t cause kidney stones if you’re getting enough calcium from dairy or other sources.
Women who eat a lot of soy foods like tofu and miso over their lifetime are less likely to have breast cancer come back or die from it.
Even though tea can block iron absorption in a single meal, people who drink tea regularly don’t have more anemia than those who don’t.
Beans and whole grains can block mineral absorption, but soaking them or eating them with oranges or bell peppers helps your body absorb those minerals better.
Fermenting soy (like in miso or tempeh) makes the healthy compounds in it easier for your body to absorb and use.
Mechanistic
Eating broccoli and kale won’t hurt your thyroid if you’re getting enough iodine, like from iodized salt or seafood.
Boiling spinach for a few minutes removes most of the compound that blocks your body from absorbing calcium, making the calcium in other foods easier to use.
Quantitative
Boiling beans for an hour makes them safe to eat by destroying harmful proteins that can make you sick if eaten raw.
For people with a certain gene combination, eating broccoli for two weeks actually made one inflammation marker go up instead of down.
Causal
How much of the active compounds from broccoli show up in urine doesn't predict changes in most inflammation markers in healthy young people.
Eating a moderate amount of broccoli for two weeks might lower inflammation in some people with a certain gene, but the effect isn't strong enough to be sure yet.
People with a certain gene variation who eat a lot of broccoli for two weeks see a small but measurable drop in proteins that control inflammation signals in their blood.
Eating broccoli every day for two weeks doesn't change several common blood markers of inflammation in healthy young people.
Even in people who can't break down certain compounds from broccoli well, the more of those compounds they have in their body, the lower their inflammation marker goes.
People with a certain gene variation who eat a lot of broccoli for two weeks see lower levels of two inflammation markers in their blood.
People with a specific genetic variation who eat a mix of broccoli and carrots for two weeks see big drops in two key inflammation markers in their blood.
Eating a mix of broccoli and carrots every day for two weeks slightly increases another inflammation marker in the blood of healthy young people.
Eating a mix of broccoli and carrots every day for two weeks lowers a blood inflammation marker just as much as eating a lot of broccoli alone.
Eating a lot of broccoli, cabbage, and similar veggies every day for two weeks can lower a key inflammation marker in the blood of healthy young people.
The special broccoli has about three times more of a key compound called glucoraphanin than regular broccoli, and that’s what makes it different.
This broccoli lowers a blood marker linked to heart disease, but it hasn’t been shown to prevent heart attacks or strokes.
Descriptive
Scientists think the broccoli works by turning on certain body signals that reduce cholesterol, but this idea comes from mouse studies, not from proof in people.
People with a certain gene version (APOE4) tend to have higher bad cholesterol before they even start eating special broccoli, compared to those with another gene version (APOE2).