During his career at Duke, Dr. Walter Kempner treated more than 18,000 patients with his rice diet. The diet was originally designed as a treatment for kidney failure and out-of-control high blood pressure at a time when these diagnoses were essentially a death sentence. Patients who would have died in all other hospitals had a […]

A number of studies suggest that exposure to industrial pollutants may affect sexual function, for example, loss of libido, sexual dysfunction, and impotence. This may be due to effects on testosterone levels. In a study of men who ate a lot of contaminated fish, an elevation in PCB levels in the blood was associated with […]

Multiple myeloma is one of our most dreaded cancers. It’s a cancer of our antibody-producing plasma cells, and is considered one of our most intractable blood diseases. The precursor disease is called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). When it was named, it’s significance was undetermined, but now we know that multiple myeloma is almost […]

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease affecting millions. It is characterized by persistent pain, stiffness, and progressive joint destruction leading to crippling deformities, particularly in the hands and feet. What can we do to prevent and treat it? In my video Why Do Plant-Based Diets Help Rheumatoid Arthritis?, I show a famous 13-month randomized […]

New DVD, New Organization & Last Chance to Register for Research Training   All the evidence in the world is worthless, unless it can be translated into action. I can research until I’m blue in the face (like the time I didn’t screw the blender tight and my blueberry smoothie went WHOOSH), but if there […]

In my video How to Prevent Kidney Stones With Diet you can see what the jagged surface of a kidney stone looks like under a microscope. Imagine one of those scraping down your urinary canal! Kidney stones affect approximately 1 in 11 people in the United States. Twenty years ago it was only 1 in […]

Pesticides have been classified as probable carcinogens for 25 years. Different pesticides have been associated with different cancers through a variety of mechanisms, including genetic damage—direct hits to our DNA or chromosomes—and epigenetic modification, changes in the way our genes are expressed. These effects have been documented in workers who are spraying the pesticides, but […]

The medical literature has been historically hostile to organic foods, blaming in part erroneous information supplied by the health food movement for our ignorance of nutrition. But until just a few generations ago, all food was organic. It’s kind of ironic that what we now call conventional food really isn’t very conventional for our species. […]

How might we reduce our exposure to pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables? What about staying away from imported produce? Well, it turns out domestic produce may be even worse, dispelling the notion that imported fruits and vegetables pose greater potential health risks to consumers. Buying organic dramatically reduces dietary exposure to pesticides, but it […]

The stated principles of organic agriculture are “health, ecology, fairness, and care,” but if you ask people why they buy organic, the strongest predictor is concern for their own health. People appear to spend more for organic foods for selfish reasons, rather than altruistic motives. Although organic foods may not have more nutrients per dollar […]

Are organic foods safer and healthier than conventional alternatives? Those are two separate questions. Some consumers are interested in getting more nutrients; others are more concerned about getting fewer pesticides. Let’s do nutrition first. As seen in my video, Are Organic Foods More Nutritious?, hundreds of studies have been reviewed and researchers didn’t find significant differences […]

There’s a take-off of the industry slogan, “Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner” – “Beef: It’s What’s Rotting in Your Colon.” I saw this on a shirt once with some friends and I was such the party pooper—no pun intended—explaining to everyone that meat is fully digested in the small intestine, and never makes it down […]

The most comprehensive and systematic analysis of causes of death ever undertaken allows us to answer questions like, how many lives could we save if people cut back on soda? The answer is 299,521.  Soft drinks aren’t just bad because they’re empty calories. More than just not being a health-promoting item, soda appears to be an […]

New Features With More on the Way Notice anything different? NutritionFacts.org just got a major redesign! The site was looking SO 2014, but the main reason we wanted to shake things up is to make the homepage more newbie-friendly. Previously, the new video-of-the-day was featured front and center, which is great for those who already […]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rates of all of our top 10 killers have fallen or stabilized except for one, suicide. As shown in my video, Antioxidants & Depression, accumulating evidence indicates that free radicals may play important roles in the development of various neuropsychiatric disorders including major depression, a common […]

In my video Arterial Acne, I described atherosclerotic plaques as inflamed pockets of pus. Our coronary arteries start out healthy, but then the saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol in the standard American diet increases the cholesterol in our blood, which accumulates in the artery wall. This triggers an inflammatory response. This so-called fatty streak can […]

Generally, adherence to healthy lifestyle patterns has decreased during the last 18 years. Obesity is up, exercise is down, and the number of people eating just five servings of fruits and veggies a day dropped like a rock. And we didn’t start out that great to begin with. Only 3% of Americans at the turn […]

Clostridium difficile is one of our most urgent bacterial threats, sickening a quarter million Americans every year, and killing thousands at the cost of a billion dollars a year. And it’s on the rise. As shown in C. difficile Superbugs in Meat, uncomplicated cases have been traditionally managed with powerful antibiotics, but recent reports suggest […]

We’ve known that breastfed infants may be protected against obesity later in life for more than 30 years, but why? It may be the formula. Giving infants formula based on cow’s milk presents an unusual situation. Cow’s milk is designed to put nearly two pounds a day onto a growing calf, 40 times the growth rate […]

Sooner or later, every man and woman has to stand for themselves. The best your parents can do is helping you through your years of still being a student. But when you’re capable enough to earn on your own, it’s your duty to get on your feet and actually do so. Most people get jobs, […]