Ingredients and additives
Microplastics in food: what is known and what is not
Microplastics are discussed in two ways: 'we eat a credit card a week' and 'there is no evidence of harm.
What the research shows
How to tell the tested from the sold, and what «studies show» is actually worth.
Nutrition
Red and processed meat: what "group 1" means
In October 2015, processed meat was placed in the same classification group as tobacco, and the headlines wrote themselves.
Nutrition
Seed oils: are sunflower, rapeseed, and soybean oils harmful?
For the past couple of years, sunflower, rapeseed, and soybean oils have been labeled as sources of inflammation and the primary cause of everything.
Shopping
Nitrates in vegetables: how much and what to do about it
Nitrates are always present in vegetables: they are a form of nitrogen from which the plant builds protein.
Nutrition
Clean eating: what it is and what lies behind it
PP is a Russian abbreviation for "proper nutrition" (clean eating).
Nutrition
Nuts: why they have fewer calories than stated
The calorie content of nuts in reference books is calculated, not measured, and for nuts, the calculation is systematically overstated.
Nutrition
Gout and purines: where they are actually found
Lists of "foods to avoid with gout" are usually based on purine content tables.
Weight loss
Energy density: why the same calorie count can mean different amounts of food
Energy density is calories per gram, and it is already printed on every package: that very line "per 100 g" that people usually overlook while searching for the per-serving figure.
Shopping
Where there is more sugar than in cola: an analysis of 34,000 products on Russian shelves
We took an open dataset from Open Food Facts—four and a half million products—and calculated how much sugar is in what is sold in Russia.
Weight loss
How to lose weight without counting calories
Counting calories is a tool, not a requirement.
Weight loss
Can you lose weight in a week: what actually changes in seven days
In a week, the scale will almost certainly show a lower number—and almost certainly not because of fat.
Weight loss
What happens after weight loss and how to maintain the results
Weight loss and weight maintenance are two different tasks, and the latter is more difficult.
Calorie counting
Why the body gets fewer calories than the label says
No one actually measured the number on the package: it was calculated by multiplying proteins, fats, and carbohydrates by factors over a century old.
Nutrition
How to read a nutrition study
Headlines claiming that "scientists have proven product X reduces the risk of Y" almost always describe a study that does not support such a conclusion.
Nutrition
Multivitamins: what large trials have shown
Multivitamins have been tested in randomized trials involving tens of thousands of people—a rare case in nutrition where we have experiments with placebos rather than just observations.
Nutrition
Creatine in women: what research has shown
Creatine is the most studied supplement on the shelf, but trials involving women make up a smaller portion of this research.
Nutrition
Pre-workout supplements: what works in the jar
A pre-workout supplement is a blend of five to fifteen substances, only one of which is reliably effective.
Nutrition
Fruit and blood sugar: how an apple differs from juice
Fruit is the only food that is simultaneously called a source of sugar and recommended for daily consumption.
Nutrition
Diet for type 2 diabetes: what diet comparisons have shown
Debates about diet for type 2 diabetes often focus on choosing the right diet.
Calorie counting
Calorie calculator: what formulas are inside and why numbers differ
Two calculators using the same height, weight, age, and gender can provide numbers that differ by two or three hundred kilocalories.
Calorie counting
Calorie counter: what it actually counts
A calorie counter does not measure calories.
Biohacking
Sauna and the heart: what the Finnish cohorts showed and where the link ends and the conjecture begins
The sauna often appears in biohacking not because there are robust trials on it, but because it has a compelling curve from Finnish cohorts: the more often people visited the sauna, the lower their cardiovascular mortality.
Biohacking
Breathing practices: what has been measured in the Wim Hof method, hyperventilation, box breathing, and slow rhythm techniques
The term "breathing practices" usually refers to four different things: slow rhythm, equal phases of inhalation and exhalation, conscious hyperventilation, and the Wim Hof protocol, where breathing is combined with cold exposure and meditation.
Biohacking
The "optimization" lab panel: what happens when you test for everything
The logic of "measure first, intervene later" seems flawless and is therefore rarely questioned.
Biohacking
Mitochondria: what lies behind the term "cellular energy" in supplement marketing
Mitochondria are organelles where oxygen and nutrients are converted into ATP.
Biohacking
Autophagy: why the Nobel Prize was awarded and what is being sold based on it
Autophagy is a mechanism by which a cell breaks down its own damaged parts and recycles the material.
Biohacking
Red light and photobiomodulation: where the trials are, and where it's just a lamp
Photobiomodulation is the application of red and near-infrared light.
Biohacking
Biological age: how epigenetic clocks are calculated
A "biological age" test returns a number that can be compared to your chronological age.
Biohacking
Heart rate variability: what the number in your app means
HRV is the variation in the time intervals between heartbeats.
Biohacking
Zone 2: where the trend for slow cardio came from and what comparisons have shown
Zone 2 is an intensity at which you can speak in full sentences and blood lactate levels barely rise.
Biohacking
VO2max: the indicator with the strongest link to mortality
VO2max is the maximum volume of oxygen the body can consume per minute during maximal exertion.
Biohacking
Nootropics: what meta-analyses showed in healthy people
The word "nootropic" unites things that have nothing in common except a promise: prescription drugs, plant extracts, amino acids, and B vitamins.
Biohacking
Sleep hygiene: which rules from the list have actually been tested
The list of “sleep hygiene rules” travels from article to article almost unchanged: a dark room, coolness, no coffee after lunch, phone an hour before bed.
Biohacking
Testing it on yourself: telling an effect apart from noise
Trying something on yourself is the only available way to find out whether it works for you specifically.
Biohacking
Adaptogens: ashwagandha, rhodiola and studies with sixty participants
The word adaptogen was coined in the mid-twentieth century for substances said to raise resistance to stress in general, without specifying to what.
Biohacking
Cold exposure and brown fat: how many calories an ice bath actually costs
Brown fat is one of the rare cases where the elegant mechanism turns out to be real: the tissue genuinely converts fat into heat, bypassing the usual route.
Biohacking
Biohacking: separating what has been tested from what is being sold
There is no definition of biohacking that two people would both sign.
Nutrition
Chromium picolinate: what the tests showed and why the conclusions are cautious
A meta-analysis of randomized trials showed a difference from placebo of about 1.
Nutrition
Berberine: what research has shown and why it is called a "natural supplement"
Berberine is a plant alkaloid that shows an effect on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism markers in meta-analyses.
Ingredients and additives
Sudan dyes: industrial paint found in spices
Sudan I, II, III, and IV are synthetic dyes for industrial use: they are used to color waxes, oils, solvents, and polishes.
Ingredients and additives
Preservatives: why they are needed and what questions arise about them
The word "preservative" on an ingredient label is often seen as a negative, and products "without preservatives" sell better.
Ingredients and additives
Titanium dioxide E171: an additive allowed for decades and then banned
Titanium dioxide has been used as a food coloring for decades and was considered one of the most inert additives: it does not dissolve, is not absorbed to any significant degree, and is chemically extremely stable.
Ingredients and additives
One additive, different rules: why lists do not match
The argument that "this additive is banned in Europe" sounds convincing and almost always requires clarification.
Ingredients and additives
Cyclamate and saccharin: sweeteners that were banned and brought back
The history of these two sweeteners is a prime example of how a scientific conclusion can be retracted.
Ingredients and additives
Brominated vegetable oil: the additive that lasted the longest
Brominated vegetable oil served a specific technical purpose: to keep citrus flavorings in suspension so they would not float to the neck of the bottle.
Ingredients and additives
Potassium bromate: a flour improver that is no longer permitted
Potassium bromate was used for decades as a flour improver: it made dough more elastic and bread more voluminous with an even crumb.
Health
Body mass index: how to calculate it and where it goes wrong
Body mass index takes ten seconds to calculate and is therefore used where it shouldn't be: for an individual.
Nutrition
What to eat for breakfast and is it necessary at all
Breakfast is called the most important meal of the day, and the justification is usually linked to weight: those who skip breakfast overeat in the evening.
Nutrition
Fractional nutrition: is it really necessary to eat five times a day
The advice to eat often and in small portions sounds so familiar that it is rarely questioned.
Weight loss
Cheat meal and refeed: do breaks in a calorie deficit help?
Three terms describe three different things, and the confusion between them costs more than it seems.
Weight loss
Keto diet: what happens in the body and what comparisons have shown
The keto diet promises a non-standard mechanism: not counting calories, but switching metabolism to a different fuel.
Calorie counting
How many calories are in a kilogram of fat and why the "7700" rule does not work
The rule is simple and therefore persistent: there are approximately 7700 kilocalories in a kilogram of fat, which means a deficit of 500 kcal per day results in half a kilogram per week and twenty-six kilograms per year.
Technology
AI nutritionist and nutrition chatbots: what can you trust
Asking a chatbot about your diet has become easier than making an appointment with a specialist, and the answer comes detailed, polite, and structured.
Technology
Pocket food scanners: what a beam of light can detect
A device the size of a keychain is held up to an apple, and sugar, protein, and calorie content appear on the screen.
Technology
DNA test "tailored to your genome": what is known about nutrition based on genes
The promise sounds convincing: a saliva sample, two weeks of waiting, and a diet tailored to your heredity.
Technology
Smart scales: what bioimpedance actually measures
Smart scales display body fat percentage, water percentage, muscle mass, bone mass, and "metabolic age.
Technology
Why AI confidently states incorrect figures
The unpleasant feature of machine responses is not that they can be incorrect—reference books and labels can be wrong too.
Health
Ultra-processed food: what lies behind the NOVA classification
There is a lot of writing about ultra-processed food right now as if the matter is settled: there is bad industrial food and good homemade food.
Nutrition
Monosodium glutamate: why E621 is feared more than other additives
Food additives have a general background of suspicion, but E621 stands apart: it is feared specifically, with symptoms and stories.
Weight loss
Metabolism: is it true that it can be "boosted" and that it can "break"
One person is promised a metabolism boost through spices and frequent small meals, another explains weight plateaus by claiming their metabolism is broken from dieting.
Calorie counting
Negative calorie foods: is celery really more expensive to digest than it is worth?
Celery is the food people name when they want an example of negative calories: eat it and you end the day lower than you started, because digesting it supposedly costs more than it delivers.
Nutrition
Activated charcoal for “detox”: what it actually binds
Activated charcoal is cheap, sold without a prescription, and taken for almost anything: the morning after, a weekend cleanse, sometimes a course of capsules for weight loss.
Health
Excess weight and health: what risks are confirmed
This topic is usually presented in a way meant to induce fear.
Calorie counting
Daily calorie intake
There is no universal norm: it depends on weight, height, age, sex, and activity level.
Weight loss
Hypnosis for weight loss
Reviews for this method are more polarized than for any other: some say their life has changed, while others say they wasted their money.
Weight loss
Types of diets
When comparing diets in studies, an inconvenient result emerges: the difference between them is smaller than the difference between the people who follow them and those who do not.
Nutrition
Artificial sweeteners: are they harmful, and do they help you lose weight?
Arguments about sweeteners are conducted as though the choice were between them and plain water.
Nutrition
Eating habits: what works and what doesn't
Almost all nutrition plans fail not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of execution.
Nutrition
Myths about food additives and GMOs
Two things on packaging cause the most fear: codes with the letter E and the acronym "GMO.
From reading to doing. All of it starts in one place — knowing what is on the plate. Photograph it and the calories and macros appear on their own.
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This article is for general information. It is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a prescription for treatment or a diet, and it does not replace a consultation with your doctor. If you have a health condition, are pregnant, take medication, or follow a diet prescribed to you, decisions about food belong with your doctor.
Figures from regulations, guidelines and studies are given as they stood when this article was prepared and may since have changed; check them against the primary sources. This article is not advertising, an offer, or individual advice, and neither the author nor the site owner is responsible for decisions taken on the basis of it.