Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Eating this special broccoli lowers bad cholesterol but doesn’t change good cholesterol, overall cholesterol, or fat levels in the blood.
Causal
The special broccoli lowers bad cholesterol equally well whether your cholesterol was already high or just a little elevated, but regular broccoli only helps if your cholesterol was already high.
Quantitative
Even when broccoli is cooked and frozen, it still lowers bad cholesterol, meaning our gut bacteria can turn its natural compounds into something beneficial.
Mechanistic
This special broccoli lowers bad cholesterol about as much as other well-known heart-healthy foods like oats or plant sterols.
Whether people have certain common gene versions doesn’t change how much their bad cholesterol drops when they eat high-glucoraphanin broccoli.
Eating regular broccoli for three months doesn't lower bad cholesterol enough to be considered a real effect in this group of people.
Eating a specific type of broccoli with more of a natural compound called glucoraphanin for 3 months lowers bad cholesterol more than regular broccoli does.
Blood tests for fruit and vegetable nutrients are better at predicting diabetes risk than asking people what they ate, because people often misremember or misreport their diet.
Descriptive
The benefit of eating more fruits and vegetables for preventing diabetes is less strong in older people than in younger ones, possibly because aging changes how the body responds to nutrients.
Correlational
Blood tests for vitamin C and plant pigments stay accurate even after years in storage, making them trustworthy tools to measure how much fruit and vegetables people eat over time.
Even after accounting for body weight, people who eat more fruits and vegetables still have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, meaning the benefit isn’t just because they’re thinner.
People who eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day — as estimated by blood tests — have about a one-third lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who eat less.
Adding a little more fruit and veggies to your diet helps a lot if you’re eating little now — but adding even more beyond that doesn’t help as much.
Different plant pigments like lycopene (from tomatoes) and beta-carotene (from carrots) are linked to lower diabetes risk, but their benefits seem to work best together, not alone.
People with the highest levels of fruit and vegetable biomarkers in their blood are about half as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those with the lowest levels.
Leafy greens might help prevent diabetes because they contain good nutrients like magnesium and antioxidants that help your body use insulin better and fight cell damage.
People who eat about 66 grams more fruits and vegetables each day — roughly one extra apple or a cup of carrots — have a 25% lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes, according to blood tests that measure plant nutrients.
There’s no sign that only studies showing benefits of leafy greens were published—so the results probably aren’t biased by hiding negative findings.
People with higher levels of carotenoids — natural pigments from fruits and vegetables — are significantly less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, even after accounting for weight and lifestyle.
Most studies asked people to remember what they ate over time, which isn’t very accurate—so the real link between leafy greens and diabetes might be even stronger than what was found.
People with more vitamin C in their blood — which comes from eating fruits and vegetables — are less likely to get type 2 diabetes, even after accounting for other healthy habits.
Most of the people in these studies were women, so we don’t know if eating more leafy greens helps men avoid diabetes the same way.
Different studies defined 'leafy greens' differently—some included spinach, others Chinese greens—so it's hard to know exactly what foods are linked to lower diabetes risk.
People who eat more fruits and vegetables—up to about 10 servings a day—are much less likely to develop heart disease, with the biggest drop in risk coming from adding even a few servings to their diet.