Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
In this group of Filipino women, eating more total fat or healthy fats like those in soybean oil didn’t seem to make their blood fat levels worse or better — only saturated fat did.
Correlational
Some Filipino women have a specific gene version (CC) that makes them more sensitive to the bad effects of saturated fat on cholesterol — when they eat more saturated fat, their cholesterol rises more than in women without this gene version.
When Filipino women in Korea swapped some carbs (like rice or bread) for foods rich in monounsaturated fat (like olive oil or pork fat), their unhealthy blood fat levels went down significantly.
Filipino women in Korea who ate more saturated fat (like from pork and eggs) were much more likely to have high bad cholesterol and unhealthy blood fat levels than those who ate less.
When monkeys ate a high-fat diet, their bad cholesterol went up not because each particle got fuller of cholesterol, but because there were way more particles floating around in their blood.
Descriptive
When monkeys ate a lot of fat and cholesterol for just 6 weeks, their bad cholesterol levels went up, their good cholesterol didn't keep up, and their cholesterol particles didn't get bigger—just more numerous.
When monkeys ate a diet with moderate fat, it didn't matter if the fat came from palm oil, lard, or sunflower oil— their 'bad cholesterol' particles stayed the same in number, shape, and content.
Past studies that said obese people burn fewer calories after eating might have been misleading because they compared obese people with unusually active lean people or included diabetic patients who burn more calories at rest.
Even though obese people have higher blood sugar after eating carbs, their bodies still break down and use the sugar from those carbs just as well as lean people do.
Obese and lean people burn about the same number of extra calories after eating the same amount of food, no matter if it’s protein, carbs, or fat.
People with obesity tend to have higher insulin levels when fasting and their blood sugar spikes more after eating carbs, but their bodies still use the sugar from those carbs just like lean people do.
Eating protein makes your body burn more calories after eating than eating the same amount of carbs or fat, no matter if you're lean or obese.
To accurately measure how many extra calories you burn after eating, it’s better to monitor you for a full day in a special room than to just check for a few hours after one meal.
Eating more protein makes you feel fuller for longer, which can help you eat less overall and avoid gaining weight.
Drinking alcohol makes your body burn more calories during digestion — almost as much as eating protein — even though alcohol isn’t a nutrient your body needs.
Quantitative
Your body uses a lot more energy to digest protein than it does to digest carbs or fat — up to 30% of the calories from protein are used just for digestion, while fat barely uses any.
When you eat food, your body burns extra calories just to digest it — this extra burn is about 5% to 15% of your total daily calorie use, and it’s higher when you eat more protein or alcohol, and lower when you eat more fat.
When trained women lift heavy weights, thrusting the hips up with a barbell turns on the butt and hamstring muscles way more than doing a squat, but the front thigh muscle works about the same in both exercises.
After training, your tendons get a bit looser, so your muscles can start working sooner when you try to push, making you feel stronger faster.
Even though your nerves fire faster after training, they still respond to how hard you’re trying at the same rate—your brain’s control system didn’t get more sensitive.
Your muscles don’t fire faster when you start or stop pushing—only when you’re holding a steady push—after four weeks of strength training.
After four weeks of strong, held ankle lifts, your nerve signals to the muscle get faster during moderate efforts, making your muscle stronger without needing more muscle mass.
After four weeks of doing strong, held ankle lifts, your muscles start firing earlier when you try to push, so you can generate more force without your muscles getting bigger.
Protein shakes make you feel less hungry after eating, even though they don’t help you keep the weight off.
Mechanistic