diet

It’s not clear why grain-fed mice are better able to recover after infection, but a study’s findings suggest food type may skew the results of animal studies.

Pups born to mice whose mothers had been fed a high-fat diet showed social deficits, a study shows. 

The proposed tool aims to inject clarity into the often-murky science of health risk factors, but some experts are skeptical that it’ll succeed.

The key to averting cataclysmic events, such as pandemics, climate change, and mass extinction of species, lies partly in what’s on our plates.

The gut microbiomes of city-dwelling animals, including coyotes, lizards, and birds, show similarities to those found in humans who also live in urban environments.

When consumed for as little as two weeks, common alternatives to sugar affect intestinal bacterial communities, with some reducing the body’s ability to regulate blood glucose levels, a study finds.

A large trial adds to a growing list of conditions once thought to be helped by vitamin D supplementation.

In Chapter 1, “Why We Love Fad Diets,” authors Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill explain the American propensity to take shortcuts to weight loss.

Human beings are susceptible to the latest nutritional trends, regardless of their actual biological value.

Ultraviolet radiation leads to secretion of an appetite-boosting hormone in male mice, but experts say it’s not yet clear whether the mechanism applies to humans.

The Scientist spoke with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers Scott Weiss and Yang-Yu Liu, who propose that people bank stool samples when they’re young and healthy so that they can be transplanted to rejuvenate the gut microbiome later on.

Experiments in animals and observations in humans suggest that the amount of proline circulating in one’s plasma has a strong association with depression severity.

Researchers determine that a primate’s tooth root, and not just its crown, can yield reliable information about body size, but the relationship between root surface area and diet isn’t as clear.

He was among the first to identify lifestyle factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Research in mice and flies suggests that bacteriophages, including those found in dairy foods, may have an influence on an animals’ ability to learn and remember information.

A study identifies a gene that appears to be partially responsible for the health effects of a limited diet.

Reconstructing the diet and microbiome of human ancestors shows an astonishingly rapid loss of microbiome diversity.

The unbalanced gut flora present in some people with autism is not a driver of the condition but rather a consequence of eating behaviors characteristic of the condition, a new study claims.