Health

Gut health and muscle health are often thought of as separate concerns. The first brings to mind eating fiber and probiotics, while the other centers on exercise and protein.

The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee weighed the available evidence on dietary patterns associated with the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia but said there were not enough data to make a recommendation. In response, a new paper by U.S. and European researchers addresses ambiguities across studies and harmonizes key data to shed light on how different diets may shape cognitive performance, executive function and dementia.

While the adult obesity rate appears to be slowing in the United States, childhood obesity remains historically high, affecting nearly 1 in 5 school-age children. Many efforts to address this persistent health crisis have urged children to make multiple lifestyle changes at once—such as increasing physical activity, improving diet and getting more sleep—but these interventions are often difficult to implement and unrealistic for children and families to sustain.

Protein has been everywhere lately. You may have seen food products promoting high protein content or reels online telling you how to boost your intake. One of the ways protein supports our health is by helping a meal fill us up (satiation) and keeping us feeling fuller for longer between meals (satiety). It does this by influencing our appetite hormones and other metabolic processes.

Unhealthy dietary patterns are among the leading drivers of the global health crisis, significantly contributing to rising rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Nutritional science has long established that the quality of fat in our diet is crucial for metabolic health. Reducing saturated fat intake or replacing it with unsaturated fats has been shown to lower CVD and T2D risk by improving blood lipid profiles and reducing inflammation. While traditional blood lipid profiles focus on key markers like cholesterol, advanced lipidomics provides a comprehensive view of the entire circulating lipidome, uncovering specific changes in lipid classes.

Eating the components of a meal in a specific order is the principle of meal sequencing. For example, foods with a low glycemic index, especially vegetables or salad, are eaten first, followed by carbohydrate-rich foods with a higher glycemic index, such as bread, rice, potatoes or pasta. This sequence is intended to limit the rise in blood sugar after eating and, according to experts in health and nutrition, could also be relevant for people with type 2 diabetes.

Adults with type 2 diabetes who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 16 weeks, eating as much as they wanted, with no calorie counting or portion control, lost weight, reduced fat buildup in the liver and abdomen and improved insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function, according to a new clinical trial published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

A study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine identified shared molecular patterns in human milk that link maternal nutrition, mammary gland biology and infant growth.

In treating diabetes, postmeal elevation of glucose levels is an important therapeutic target. Existing clinical studies indicate that eating vegetables, protein or fat before carbohydrates can moderate a postmeal rise in blood glucose, pointing to the potential of meal sequencing as a simple and sustainable dietary strategy.

Increased consumption of potassium-rich foods that are part of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet did not raise blood potassium to dangerous levels in people taking medications to lower their blood pressure, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2026, held in Arlington, Virginia, Oct. 7–11.