All Videos for Harvard

Best Brain Foods: Berries and Nuts Put to the Test

Randomized controlled studies put nuts, berries, and grape juice to the test for cognitive function.



Why Patients Aren’t Informed About Mammograms

If doctors don’t understand health statistics, how can they possibly properly counsel patients?



Tomato Sauce vs. Prostate Cancer

What happened when cancer patients were given three quarters of a cup of canned tomato sauce every day for three weeks?



Lycopene Supplements vs. Prostate Cancer

High doses of lycopene—the red pigment in tomatoes—were put to the test to see if it could prevent precancerous prostate lesions from turning into full-blown cancer.



Best Foods for Autism

The sulforaphane found in five cents’ worth of broccoli sprouts has been shown to benefit autism in a way no drug ever has in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.



Fighting Autism Brain Inflammation with Food

One food may be able to combat all four purported causal factors of autism: synaptic dysfunction, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation.



Antiperspirants and Breast Cancer

Shaving before applying underarm antiperspirants can increase aluminum absorption. Could this explain the greater number of tumors and the disproportionate incidence of breast cancer in the upper outer quadrant of the breast near the armpit?



Do Men Who Have More Sex Live Longer?

When done right, love may protect your lover’s life.



Does Aspartame Cause Cancer?

How should we parse the conflicting human data on intake of aspartame (Nutrasweet) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, and pancreatic cancer?



Does Diet Soda Increase Stroke Risk as Much as Regular Soda?

Sugar is no longer considered just empty calories, but an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So what happens if you switch to artificial sweeteners?



The Optimal Dose of Vitamin D Based on Natural Levels

Why do some recommend thousands of units of supplemental vitamin D when the Institute of Medicine set the recommended daily intake at just 600 to 800 units?



Vinegar and Artery Function

Sprinkling vinegar on greens may augment their ability to improve endothelial function.



Preventing Gout Attacks with Diet

If the uric acid crystals that trigger gout come from the breakdown of purines, should gout patients avoid even healthy, purine-rich foods, such as beans, mushrooms, and cauliflower?



Fish Consumption and Suicide

The mercury content in fish may help explain links found between fish intake and mental disorders, depression, and suicide.



Preventing Brain Loss with B Vitamins?

One week on a plant-based diet can significantly drop blood levels of homocysteine, a toxin associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Without vitamin B12 supplementation, though, a long-term plant-based diet could make things worse.



How Much Fruit Is Too Much?

Does the threshold for toxicity of fructose apply to fruit or just to added industrial sugars such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup?



Is Milk Good for Our Bones?

The galactose in milk may explain why milk consumption is associated with significantly higher risk of hip fractures, cancer, and premature death.



Which Parts of the Mediterranean Diet Extended Life?

Of all the components of a healthy Mediterranean diet, which are associated with a longer lifespan?



The Saturated Fat Studies: Set Up to Fail

How might Big Butter design a study (like the Siri-Tarino and Chowdhury meta-analyses) to undermine global consensus guidelines to reduce saturated fat intake?



Preventing Crohn’s Disease with Diet

Diets centered around whole plant foods may help prevent Crohn’s disease through the benefits of fiber on the maintenance of intestinal barrier function and the avoidance of certain processed food additives such as polysorbate 80.



Aspartame and the Brain

The reason artificially sweetened beverages have been associated with depression may be because of psychological disturbances recently tied to aspartame (“Equal” or “NutraSweet”).



Longer Life Within Walking Distance

Researchers find exercise often works just as well as drugs for the treatment of heart disease and stroke, and the prevention of diabetes. Exercise is medicine.



Nuts May Help Prevent Death

Just a few small servings of nuts a week may increase our lifespan and lower cancer risk.



Bacon, Eggs, and Gestational Diabetes During Pregnancy

Eating meat or eggs before pregnancy may increase the risk of gestational diabetes.



Eggs and Diabetes

Even just a single egg a week may increase the risk of diabetes—the leading cause of lower-limb amputations, kidney failure, and new cases of blindness.



Eggs, Choline, and Cancer

Choline may be the reason egg consumption is associated with prostate cancer progression and death.



BOLD Indeed: Beef Lowers Cholesterol?

The beef industry designed a study to show that a diet containing beef was able to lower cholesterol—if one cuts out enough poultry, pork, fish, and cheese to halve one’s total saturated fat intake.



Prostate Cancer Survival: The A/V Ratio

Reducing the ratio of animal to plant protein in men’s diets may slow the progression of prostate cancer.



Male Fertility & Diet

Dioxins, endocrine disrupting pollutants, heavy metals, saturated fat, and steroids in the meat supply may be affecting sperm counts, semen quality, and the ability of men to conceive.



Trans Fat in Meat & Dairy

About half of America’s trans fat intake now comes from animal products.



Reducing Radiation Damage with Ginger & Lemon Balm

A component of cooked ginger root protects human white blood cells in vitro against radiation-induced genetic damage, and lemon balm tea appears to protect radiology staff against radiation-induced oxidative stress.



Which Fruit Fights Cancer Better?

The ability of eleven common fruits to suppress cancer cell growth in vitro was compared. Which was most effective—apples, bananas, cranberries, grapefruits, grapes, lemons, oranges, peaches, pears, pineapples, or strawberries?



Carnitine, Choline, Cancer, & Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection

Expanding on the subject of my upcoming appearance on The Dr. Oz Show, a landmark new article in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that choline in eggs, poultry, dairy, and fish produces the same toxic TMAO as carnitine in red meat—which may help explain plant-based protection from heart disease and prostate cancer.



The McGovern Report

The story behind the first U.S. dietary recommendations report explains why, to this day, the decades of science supporting a more plant-based diet have yet to fully translate into public policy.



Does Coconut Oil Clog Arteries?

Sellers of coconut oil use a beef industry tactic to downplay the risks associated with the saturated fat in their products.



Reducing Cancer Risk in Meat-Eaters

Those who eat meat risk food poisoning from undercooked meat, but also exposure to cooked meat carcinogens in well-cooked meat. By boiling meat, non-vegetarians can mediate their risk of both.



Tree Nuts or Peanuts for Breast Cancer Prevention?

Eating fiber-containing foods—especially nuts—during adolescence may significantly lower the risk of developing potentially precancerous fibrocystic breast disease (fibroadenomas).



Whole Grains May Work as Well as Drugs

The consumption of three portions of whole grains a day appears as powerful as high blood pressure medications in alleviating hypertension.



Protein and Heart Disease

Why is the intake of animal protein associated with heart disease—even independent of saturated fat—and the intake of plant protein protective?



Mineral of the Year—Magnesium

Despite promising autopsy and population data suggesting that inadequate magnesium intake is a risk factor for sudden cardiac death, it wasn’t until recently that this was demonstrated in prospective studies.