Healthy Eating Archive

A 2024 research review suggested that drinking more water can help people stave off a variety of health problems as well as promote weight loss.

Social media sources may share misleading information about canola, soybean, and other seed oils. But these oils, which consist mostly of unsaturated fat, can be a good source of heart-healthy fat when combined with whole, fresh foods rather than in processed foods like crunchy, salty, or sweet snack foods. Consuming unsaturated fat in place of saturated fat (found mainly in animal-based foods) is linked to a lower risk of heart attack and death from heart disease.

Doctors are rethinking their recommendations about a supplement used to help slow dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). They're advising people to keep taking the pill even when they reach the late stage of the disease. Previously, the supplement-a cocktail of antioxidant nutrients known as the AREDS2 formula-was believed to slow disease progression only in the beginning and intermediate stages of dry AMD. New evidence suggests the supplement might also slow vision loss in late-stage dry AMD.

Anorexia of aging affects about one-quarter of older adults, and women more often than men. The condition is marked by diminished appetite and can prompt a breakdown of muscle and bone mass that can lead to frailty, falls, delayed recovery from illness or surgery, and earlier death. Risk factors include changes in smell and taste, swallowing problems, slower digestion, medications that lead to dry mouth, dental problems, cognitive decline, and loneliness or social isolation. Treatments can include exercising, boosting protein intake, and medications.

In a large 2024 study, people who ate more plant-based proteins than animal proteins had the lowest risks of developing cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease, compared with those who ate more animal proteins than plant-based proteins.