NutritionFacts.org Video Podcast
Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM, founder of NutritionFacts.org and New York Times best-selling author, presents the latest evidence-based nutrition research in easy-to-understand video segments. The podcast covers virtually every aspect of healthy eating, with new videos and blogs uploaded daily. NutritionFacts.org is a non-profit public health organization that operates without sponsors, ads, or paid subscriptions.
Episodes
Friday Favorites: Does Sunscreen Cause or Prevent Skin Cancer? Which Type Is Best to Use?
Sunscreen is put to the test in a randomized controlled trial to see if it can actually prevent skin cancer. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, only two sunscreen ingredients can be considered safe: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
How to Lower Cholesterol with Dr. Greger’s Portfolio Plus Powder Recipes
There’s a simple way to try to fit all the cholesterol-lowering foods into your daily diet.
How to Lower Cholesterol with Herbs and Spices
Can small daily doses of herbs and spices really drop LDL cholesterol by double digits?
Friday Favorites: How Hot Peppers May Extend Your Life
Spice can hack your brain by making foods taste saltier.
Foods That Lower Cholesterol
Adding specific nuts, beans, and fruits to our diet can drive LDL cholesterol even lower—often with drug-like effects.
Statin Drugs vs. Cholesterol-Lowering Dietary Supplements
What happened when rosuvastatin was pitted against six common dietary supplements?
Friday Favorites: Fecal Transplants for Ulcerative Colitis, MS, Depression, Bipolar, and Alcoholism
I go over randomized, controlled trials and case reports of stool transplants for various clinical conditions.
Barberries Rather Than Berberine to Lower Cholesterol
How many dried barberries do you need to eat to get the cholesterol-lowering dose of berberine?
How to Lower Cholesterol with Supplements That Actually Work
What are the whole-food equivalents of some of the most powerful cholesterol-lowering supplements?
Friday Favorites: Dietary Cholesterol and Inflammation from Abdominal Obesity
The optimal intake of dietary cholesterol may be zero.
Why I Don’t Recommend Red Yeast Rice Cholesterol-Lowering Supplements
Red yeast rice contains the drug lovastatin and may also contain kidney toxins.
Why I Don’t Recommend Policosanol Cholesterol-Lowering Supplements
Sometimes, looking at the latest meta-analysis can lead you astray.
Friday Favorites: The Return on Investment (ROI) for Employee Health and Wellness Programs Put to the Test
Workplace wellness programs report an average ROI of 3, returning $3 for every $1 invested. Why do so many workplace wellness programs fail to deliver?
The Latest Clinical Trial of Turmeric Curcumin for Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment
Can turmeric really sharpen memory within hours?
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Changes in Structure
Why does preserving the food matrix make a difference?
Friday Favorites: Vitamin D Supplements Tested for COPD, Heart Disease, Depression, Obesity, and Cancer Survival
Before watching the video, can you guess which conditions vitamin D has actually been proven to work for in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials?
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Calorie Density
The biological mechanisms our bodies use to regulate our weight likely evolved in the context of eating at least four or five pounds of food a day.
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Changes in Texture
The average rate of caloric intake of ultra-processed foods is about double that of unprocessed foods.
Friday Favorites: Is Spicy Food Good for You?
Those who regularly eat spicy foods tend to live longer, but is it cause and effect?
Mercury Exposure from Tuna Fish vs. Silver Dental Amalgam Fillings
The mercury exposure from amalgam fillings is like eating one can of tuna every two months.
Diets and Foods Shown to Improve Depression in Randomized Controlled Trials
Dietary interventions were put to the test for major mental illness.
Friday Favorites: Does Coffee Inhibit Iron Absorption? What Are the Effects of Having Too Much Iron?
Coffee and common herbal teas impair iron absorption, which may help explain some of their benefits.
Why Might Vegetarians Develop Less Depression
The largest study to date found that vegetarians have a 30% lower chance of developing depression over time.
SIBO and Leaky Gut: What the Science Says
Is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) a real disorder?
Friday Favorites: Dietary Sources of the “Longevity Vitamin” Ergothioneine
As we age, it may be even more important to include mushrooms (or tempeh) in our diet.
Do Vegetarians Have More or Less Depression and Anxiety?
Snapshot-in-time cross-sectional studies are mixed when it comes to vegetarian diets and mental health outcomes.
Getting Kids to Eat Their Vegetables
Can offering kale purée to babies shape their future taste for greens?
Friday Favorites: Are Menopausal Hot Flashes Inevitable? How Can Soy Foods Help?
Why do 85% of menopausal women suffer hot flashes in some countries but only 15% in others? Soy can be considered a first-line treatment for menopausal hot flash and night sweat symptoms.
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Loss of Phytonutrients
The 150 key nutritional components that are tracked in nutritional databases are only a tiny fraction of the more than 26,000 compounds present in our food.
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Packaging Chemicals
What are the human health effects of the mineral oils, phthalates, and bisphenols leaching from packaging materials into processed foods?
Friday Favorites: Improving VO2 Max: A Look at Vegetarian and Vegan Athletes
Plant-based diets improve the performance of athletes and nonathletes alike
How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Industrial Contaminants
There are contaminants of processed foods that don’t show up on the ingredients label.
Friday Favorites: How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep Without Sleeping Pills
Taking even less than 18 Ambien-class sleeping pills in an entire year may triple the risk of dying prematurely.
Cold Water Immersion for Gout Flares
Cold water immersion is put to the test for burns, priapism, gout, and muscle aches.
Is Shrimp Good for You? Antibiotic Resistance
The FDA finds 1 in 10 imports of shrimp have unsafe levels of drug residues yet only tests about 1 in 1,000 shipments.
Friday Favorites: The Best Diet for COVID and Long-COVID
Healthy plant-based diets appear to help reduce the risks of severe COVID-19 and getting infected in the first place, even independent of comorbidities.
Is Shrimp Good for You? Pollutants and Food Safety
Eating just a single shrimp could exceed the safety limit for banned pesticides and chemicals.
Use Fiber to Burn Calories in Your Sleep with an Intestinal Workout
Our gut can be sedentary too—unless we feed it fiber.
Friday Favorites: The Effect of Sleep on Weight Loss
Those randomized to 8.5 hours of sleep a night lost significantly more body fat than those who got 5.5 hours. Getting even one more hour of sleep a night may help with weight control.
Flushing Calories with Fiber for Weight Loss
Could eating more fiber mean absorbing fewer calories from everything else we eat?
Mercury Exposure from Tuna vs. Thimerosal in Vaccines
A single can of tuna causes as much mercury exposure as how many mercury-containing vaccines?
Friday Favorites: Why Vegans Should Eat More Plant-Based
One cannot assume that simply avoiding animal foods will necessarily produce a healthy diet.
Can Cold Showers Improve Immune Function?
Does cold stress impair or boost our immunity?
What Is Titanium Dioxide, and Is It Safe?
Banned in Europe for concerns regarding DNA damage, titanium dioxide remains legal in U.S. foods.
Friday Favorites: Fecal Transplants for Aging and Weight Loss
Does poop from centenarians have anti-aging properties?
Iron-Deficiency Anemia: The Best Treatment and Are Vegetarians at Higher Risk?
What is the optimal dosing regiment for iron supplements?
How to Get the Ideal Ferritin Level and Avoid Symptoms of Iron Deficiency
Donating blood can bring down iron levels down to the sweet spot between 15 to 50.
Friday Favorites: The Benefits of Fenugreek for Preventing and Treating Diabetes
The spice fenugreek contains 4-hydroxyisoleucine, a peculiar amino acid that may explain its benefits for controlling blood sugar.
Are the Lower Iron Stores in Vegetarians a Risk or a Benefit?
Having high iron stores can increase cancer risk such that those randomized to donate blood experience a dramatic reduction in cancer death rates.
The Best Milk Alternative: Oat vs. Soy Milk
Can oat milk’s nutritional profile compete with soy milk’s?
Friday Favorites: Do Garlic, Beer, Bananas, and B Vitamins Really Repel Mosquitoes?
Garlic, beer, bananas, and B vitamins are put to the test as repellents for mosquitoes and ticks.
The Best Source and Dose of Plant Sterols for Lowering Cholesterol
Lower LDL cholesterol with 2 to 3 grams a day of phytosterols taken with meals from healthy, fortified foods or safe supplements.
Are Plant Sterols Safe for Lowering Cholesterol?
Safety concerns regarding phytosterolemia, red blood cell fragility, oxysterols, and the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients are addressed.
Friday Favorites: Dietary Approach to Naturally Treating Menopause Symptoms
Specific foods have been shown in randomized controlled trials to improve symptoms like hot flashes.
Are Plant Sterols Effective for Lowering Cholesterol?
Even if we eat little or no cholesterol, phytosterols can block the reabsorption of the excess cholesterol our liver dumps into our intestines.
How to Lower Cholesterol with the Portfolio Diet
Can a plant-based Portfolio Diet lower LDL cholesterol as effectively as statin drugs?
Friday Favorites: The Role of Endotoxins in Alzheimer’s and Dementia
Why can a single meal high in saturated fat impair cognition?
How Not to Die Documentary
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the publication of How Not to Die, a documentary about my life and work.
The Benefits of Turmeric Curcumin for Arthritis, Blood Sugar, Cholesterol, and Body Weight
Dozens of human trials reveal where turmeric delivers—and where it doesn’t.
Friday Favorites: The Harms Associated with Eating More Southern-Style Food
Diet appears to mediate the majority of the racial health gap.
The Role of Accountability in Weight Loss
One of the most effective weight-loss programs ever was free. Why was it so powerful?
The Best Diet for Optimal Thyroid Function (webinar recording)
Are there natural treatments for hypothyroidism?
Friday Favorites: What Is Creatine? Its Sarcopenia Benefits and Potential Side Effects?
When accompanied by a progressive strength-training regimen, 3 grams of creatine a day may improve muscle performance in older adults. A misinterpretation of lab tests may explain concerns over kidney safety with creatine supplementation.
Do the Health Impacts of Ultra-Processed Foods Apply to Plant-Based Meat Alternatives?
If the only ultra-processed food that appears to be killing people is meat, then plant-based meats may be the solution to the ultra-processed foods problem.
Which Ultra-Processed Foods Are the Worst in Driving the Association with Death and Disease?
Only two categories of ultra-processed foods have been associated with premature death.
Friday Favorites: The Benefits of Gum Chewing for Halitosis (Bad Breath)
Are any gum flavors better than others?
How Bad Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
Are there aspects of ultra-processed foods beyond their nutrient profile that contribute to their deleterious effects?
What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
How exactly is “ultra-processed” defined?
Friday Favorites: Do Alkaline Diets Help Athletic Performance?
Can reducing acid-forming foods and boosting alkaline-forming foods replicate the performance-enhancing effects of sodium bicarbonate without the adverse effects?
Is Shrimp Bad for Cholesterol and Heart Disease?
Might asymptomatic food sensitivities to gluten, milk, peanuts, eggs, or shrimp increase the risk of premature death for those who eat these foods?
One of the Most Effective Single Pieces of Advice for Weight Loss
Complicated weight-loss programs can work, but what if we only had to focus on a single dietary change to get the same benefits?
Friday Favorites: The Best Time to Exercise for Weight Loss
Burn off significantly more body fat exercising before meals, rather than after them.
How to Boost Fat Burning by 25%
A single dietary change can increase our resting metabolic rate.
How to Suppress Your Appetite and Naturally Boost GLP-1
Can eating more fiber result in eating fewer calories?
Friday Favorites: Caffeine Shampoo and Rosemary Oil for Hair Growth
I cover natural topical treatments for hair growth, including pumpkin seed oil, caffeine, green tea, pyrithione zinc, ginger, Chinese knotweed, and rosemary.
Plant-Based Diets Could Save Millions of Lives and Trillions of Dollars a Year
How many lives would be saved if everyone ate vegetarian or vegan?
The Negative Effects of Cold Plunges for Building Muscle
Cold plunges following strength training are discouraged since they substantially attenuate long-term gains in muscle mass.
Friday Favorites: Repelling Mosquitoes – Is DEET the Best? What About Natural Alternatives?
What are the pros and cons of DEET mosquito repellent? Also, picaridin, citronella, and lemon eucalyptus are put to the test.
Are Potassium Chloride Salt Substitutes Safe and Effective?
Swapping even half your salt for potassium chloride may make you more than a decade younger when it comes to premature death
Are the Benefits of Cold Plunges and Cryotherapy Just a Placebo Effect?
There have been five placebo-controlled studies on cold water immersion. What did they find?
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