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170 verdicts
4 to 13 mg/dLlower LDL from each food in pooled trials: about 4 for an ounce of nuts or 25 g of soy protein, about 10 for oats or barley and 13 for psyllium; plant sterols about 8 to 12%YESEstablished

Foods That Lower Cholesterol Do Lower It, Mostly by Single Digits. The Diet Said to Match a Statin Fell Short of a Low Dose, With the Food Delivered.

Horizontal bars of the LDL fall in pooled trials, in mg/dL: psyllium 13, barley 10, oats 9.7, 25 g of soy protein 4.8 and an ounce of nuts 4.2; beside it the figure 4 to 13 mg/dL

Oats, barley, psyllium, plant sterols, nuts, soy and unsaturated fats each lower LDL cholesterol by a few percent in pooled trials, sterols by up to about 12%. Combined as the Portfolio diet, with the food delivered, they lowered LDL 28.6% against 30.9% for 20 mg of lovastatin in the first month of a trial of 46 people; completed, with 34 people trying each treatment for a month, the trial found the statin significantly better, 33.3% against 29.6%. Advised to eat that way at home, people's LDL fell about 13%, against 3% on a standard low-fat diet.

25%more sugar taken up under insulin, measured by the clamp, after a 5% weight loss in a randomised trial of adults with obesity; about double in the nine who went on to lose 11 to 16%YESEstablished

How to Reverse Insulin Resistance: A 5% Weight Loss Improved It by About a Quarter. In Pooled Type 2 Diabetes Trials, Low-Carb’s Lead on Blood Sugar Had Halved by 12 Months.

Two bars indexed to 100 at the start: sugar taken up under insulin rose to about 125 after a 5% weight loss in a randomised clamp trial; beside it the figure 25%

In a randomised trial, losing 5% of body weight raised insulin sensitivity by about a quarter; two small trials that matched the weight loss found no clear difference between low-carb and low-fat diets. In type 2 diabetes, low-carb pulled ahead on blood sugar for about six months, and by a year that pooled lead had roughly halved. “Once and for all” did not hold where it was tested: after the diets ended, fasting insulin did not stay down.

42.6%of 225 people with white-coat hypertension in Monza, Italy, had high blood pressure at the clinic and outside it ten years later, against 18.2% of people with normal readings (2009)MOSTLYSupported

White Coat Hypertension: In Four Studies, High Blood Pressure or Pills for It Followed Roughly Twice as Often. The Death Risk Is Unsettled.

Paired bars for four cohorts, the share who went on to high blood pressure with white-coat hypertension against normal readings: Italy 42.6 and 18.2, Japan 46.9 and 22.2, Finland 52 and 18, Portugal 16.5 and 9.6; beside it the figure 42.6%

In four studies, people with white-coat hypertension went on to high blood pressure, or to pills for it, roughly twice as often as people with normal readings: 43% to 52% against 18% to 22% in three population studies. The link to heart attacks and strokes is weaker. On deaths the studies disagree, and a registry analysis behind the scariest figure was retracted. And no trial we found was designed to test pills for it.

13 of 29young, lean adults who had diarrhea after one dose of allulose of 0.5 g per kilogram of body weight, about 34 g for a 150 lb (68 kg) adult by our arithmetic; 4 of the same 29 did on the same dose of table sugar, and at each dose up to 0.4 g per kilogram, 2 to 4 of 29 did on allulose and 1 to 9 on sugar (Korea, 2018)MOSTLYSupported

Is Allulose Safe? Diarrhea at Big Doses, an HDL Dip, and No EU Clearance

Two rows of 29 dots: 13 filled for the young adults who had diarrhea after one 0.5 g per kilogram dose of allulose, 4 for the same dose of table sugar; beside it the figure 13 of 29

In trials lasting up to a year, the one clear harm from allulose was the stomach: after a single dose of half a gram per kilogram of body weight, 13 of 29 young adults had diarrhea, against 4 of 29 on the same dose of table sugar. HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, fell in several trials and came back when people stopped. Europe's food-safety authority said its safety cannot be established after the applicant stopped answering; that is not a ban. Added to a sugary drink, it trimmed the blood-sugar rise by about a tenth in small trials, most of them paid for by its makers.

37people in the three published randomised trials of glycine and sleep, combined (19, 11 and 7 analysed); each had the maker's staff among its authorsMAYBEPreliminary

Glycine Benefits: Three Sleep Trials, 37 People, the Maker’s Staff on Every Paper. GlyNAC: a Trial of 24, and a Bigger One That Missed.

Dots for the people in the three published randomised trials of glycine and sleep: 19 in 2006, 11 in 2007 and 7 analysed of 10 in 2012; beside it the figure 37

Glycine before bed may help you sleep: in a sleep lab, 11 people fell asleep sooner on it than on a dummy powder, though 14 men in the maker's second sleep-lab trial, described in its patent, did not fall asleep significantly faster. The three published randomised trials add up to 37 people over one to four nights, each with the maker's staff among its authors. GlyNAC's anti-ageing case rests on one 24-person trial; a 114-person company trial found no significant rise in glutathione.

1 lbheavier, on average, after being assigned breakfast rather than told to skip it, pooled across seven trials (0.44 kg); the biggest trial found no clear differenceMOSTLYSupported

Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day? Not for Your Weight. People Assigned to Eat It Lost No More Than People Assigned to Skip It.

Bar chart of how much heavier the groups assigned breakfast ended than those told to skip it, in four poolings of the trials: 1.0, 1.2, 0.4 (which could be chance) and 1.5 lb; beside it the figure 1 lb

Assigned at random to eat or skip breakfast, adults in seven trials ended about 1 lb (0.44 kg) heavier on breakfast, and in nine trials ate about 260 calories a day more. The biggest trial found no clear difference either way. Skipping is no weight-loss trick either, and we found no trial that has counted what it does to diabetes or heart disease.

6.2 ozmore fruit a day (175 g) eaten by people with type 2 diabetes told to eat more than by those told to eat less; no clear difference in HbA1c or weight after 12 weeks (63 adults, Denmark)MOSTLYSupported

Is Fruit Sugar Bad for You? Told to Eat More Fruit or Less, People With Type 2 Diabetes Showed No Clear Difference in Blood Sugar.

Bar chart of grams of fructose a day: a medium apple about 10.7, and 104 to 250 added on top of the diet in the trials where fructose put weight on; beside it the figure 6.2 oz

In a Danish trial, 63 people with type 2 diabetes were told to eat more fruit or less for 12 weeks; their long-term blood sugar fell in both groups, with no clear difference. In pooled feeding trials, fruit did not clearly add weight. The overfeeding trials behind the fructose scare gave 104 to 250 g of fructose a day. Juice is a separate question.

19.5 mmHgadded to the top number by a regular cuff on arms that needed an extra-large one (40 adults, measured both ways in random order, 2023)MOSTLYSupported

How to Measure Blood Pressure at Home: A Cuff Two Sizes Too Small Added 19.5 Points. Skipping the Five-Minute Rest Added Less.

Bar chart of what each measuring mistake added to the top blood-pressure number in controlled tests: a cuff two sizes too small 19.5 mmHg, legs crossed up to 10.5, an arm hanging at the side 6.5, talking 5.3, no five minutes of rest 4.0, a cuff over a sleeve 0.6 to 1.1, which could be chance; beside it the figure 19.5

In randomised trials, a regular cuff on arms that needed an extra-large one read the top number 19.5 points high, and an arm hanging at the side 6.5. Crossed legs, talking and caffeine push it up too, and so, by less, does skipping the five-minute rest. Wrist monitors miss more often at home, and most sold online are on no validated list.

+1.0 pointchange in the share of the heart's arteries taken up by plaque over about 15 months on a DASH diet with a dietitian, on top of drugs, against +1.1 on the drugs alone: a gap that could be chance (CT scans, 92 people, 2021)MAYBEPreliminary

Can Plaque in Arteries Be Reversed? Diets Slowed It in Small Trials. Drugs That Push LDL Very Low Shrank It About One Percentage Point of Artery Volume.

Two bars rising from zero: plaque's share of the heart's arteries rose 1.0 point on a DASH diet with drugs and 1.1 points on drugs alone over about 15 months; beside it the figure +1.0 point

The video's first reference found a neck-artery wall 0.03 mm thinner after seven years of a Mediterranean diet, and called it slower progression. In a 1998 lifestyle trial, the narrowest point of the heart's arteries held its width on average while the comparison group's narrowed. Drugs that drove LDL cholesterol to about 60 mg/dL or below shrank coronary plaque by about one percentage point of artery volume.

128weightlifters in the 1961 study the deep-squat warning is usually traced to; trials since found squatters' knees no looserNOUnsupported

Are Squats Bad for Your Knees? The Warning’s Best-Known Source Is a 1961 Study of 128 Weightlifters. Squatters’ Knees Have Mostly Tested Fine Since. Hours of Squatting at Work Have Not.

Cartoon grid of 128 dots, the weightlifters measured in the 1961 study the deep-squat warning is usually traced to; beside it the figure 128

The deep-squat warning is usually traced to a 1961 study of 128 weightlifters. Trials since found squatters' knees no looser, and among 2,607 adults those who had strength trained had less knee arthritis; one trial pointed the other way. Hours of kneeling or squatting at work are a different matter. Most of the nine benefits of twenty squats a day rest on studies of something else.