Dopamine Fasting: An Expert Reviews The Latest Craze

It’s the latest fad in Silicon Valley. By reducing the brain’s feel-good chemical known as dopamine – cutting back on things like food, sex, alcohol, social media and technology – followers believe that they can “reset” the brain to be more effective and appreciate simple things more easily.

Migraine is the third most prevalent illness in the world and causes suffering for tens of millions of people. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 U.S. household includes someone with migraines.

Many of our diets are, to some extent, determined by the whims of fashion. This is not an astute observation, nor a particularly new one – just consider the 1970s obsession with pineapple and quiche.

We love sweet treats. But too much sugar in our diets can lead to weight gain and obesity, Type 2 diabetes and dental decay.

More American adults are trying to lose weight these days, but the average body mass index of Americans has increased, research finds.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition linked to surviving or witnessing a traumatic life event, will affect around one in 10 Canadians at some point in their lives.

About 7.4 million people in the U.S. require manufactured insulin to stay alive. I’m one of them. I’ve lived with Type 1 diabetes for over 15 years and inject two kinds of insulin every day.

For many young people, the toughest choice they will ever have to make about food is what to eat at home or what to choose from a menu.

The “wrong” fruits and vegetables, the “wrong” animal parts, and the “wrong” animals inspire varying degrees of “yuck”.

We often crave something (whether it is a new TV, a new car, a certain food, a relationship) only to find once we "fulfill" the craving, that we still aren't satisfied... Why? Because the object of the craving was only a symbol of what we really needed. What we are really seeking is...

For people with difficult-to-control diabetes, adding intensive weight management counseling to group medical visits provided extra health benefits beyond improved blood-sugar control, according to a new study.

Pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods. In the U.S., 350 slices are eaten every second, while 40% of Americans eat pizza at least once a week.

When was it decided that women prefer some types of food – yogurt with fruit, salads and white wine – while men are supposed to gravitate to chili, steak and bacon?

Whether it’s M&M’s or Skittles, everyone has a favorite Halloween candy—but what happens when the sugar rush turns into a toothache at the end of the night?

Recent headlines have warned a diet high in dairy foods may increase men’s risk of prostate cancer.

There is a revolution taking place in burger joints and supermarkets across Australia. Plant products that taste and behave like meat are increasingly making their way onto the plates of consumers as concern grows over the environmental impact of food production.

According to some of its online proponents, unpasteurised or “raw” milk can “heal the gut”, boost the immune system, prevent allergies, give you healthier skin and even contribute to bodybuilding.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sept. 15, 2019 that he plans to pursue emergency regulations to quickly ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, making New York the second state to consider such a ban

Exam time is quickly approaching for HSC and university students. While study is at the forefront, nutrition is often the furthest thing from students’ minds.

It now seems absurd that anyone once believed the ocean was inexhaustable: fish stocks are in dismal shape and scientists say overfishing is a global problem with potentially irreversible consequences to ecosystems and human livelihoods.

In recent years coconut water has left the palm-treed shores of tropical islands where tourists on lounge chairs stick straws straight into the fruit, and exploded onto supermarket shelves

Diet could hold the key to treating polycystic kidney disease, according to new research in rodents.

Some people are incapable of swallowing tablets because of physical reasons, such as surgery or gastric reflux, while others struggle for psychological reasons.

We choose our food for a variety of reasons, including personal preference, availability, cost and healthiness. But we should also take our gut microbes’ preferences into account, a new study published in Cell suggests.

Accurate, consistent dietary advice seems increasingly hard to find. For instance, a widely reported study recently claimed that people don’t need to reduce their consumption of red and processed meat for health reasons.

I felt nauseous and dizzy. My attempted one week of following the intensive olive oil diet was not going well.

Can nicotine keep Alzheimer's at bay? Dave Asprey explains how natural drugs can create super humans.

Between the rise of plant-based sausages and veggie burgers that “bleed”, vegan protesters at supermarkets, and Disney adding hundreds of vegan items to its theme park menus, veganism is in the news.

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This method of communicating risk led to confusion and some hostile reactions. Scientists can explain risks of cancer and other diseases in several ways; some are easier to understand than others.

Judging by some media headlines, you’d be forgiven for thinking researchers, clinicians and the Australian Dietary Guidelines have it all wrong when it comes to eating red and processed meat:

Highlighting the tastiness of healthy food can help us make better food choices, researchers report.

Common herbs, including lavender, fennel, and chamomile, have a long history as folk medicines used to lower blood pressure. New research explains the molecular mechanisms at work.

Often unaware of the dangers, some spice processors in Bangladesh use an industrial lead chromate pigment to imbue turmeric with a bright yellow color prized for curries and other traditional dishes.

This past summer the French food and drug office, the Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament, greenlighted limited medical cannabis trials inside France, something that’s been illegal since 1953.

Since the late 1970s, a diversified diet has been considered an essential component of healthy eating. Ensuring a good balance of nutrients is crucial for people to stay healthy.

Widespread antibiotic use is largely to blame for the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is currently one of the biggest threats to global health. 

Food waste is costly — and not just dollars and cents. Food waste also has significant environmental and health implications.

New findings challenge the wisdom of budgeting calories for the day, which is what weight-control programs like Weight Watchers and diet apps like MyFitnessPal use.

A quarter of all prescription drugs in the U.S. come from substances that are found only in plants. In this episode of SciShow, we take a look at four of these talented plants who make our lives better.

Up to 35% of cancers worldwide might be caused by lifestyle factors such as diet and smoking. So how can we go about reducing our risk of bowel cancer?

Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken is easy, juicy and full of flavor. 

Adaptogens can greatly increase the effectiveness of some modern drugs, including antibiotics, anxiolytics (anxiety relief), antidepressants, and hypoglycemic (blood sugar lowering) agents. They also can reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the side effects of some drugs. They have a proven record of being safe, efficacious, and quite versatile in their treatment of many conditions.

Life-saving antibiotics may cause long-lasting damage to the developing microbial communities in intestinal tracts of premature babies, research finds.

An increasing number of blogs by “ethical mums” have sparked discussions about the appropriateness of imposing vegetarianism, veganism or pescatarianism on their children.

More than half of Americans take a dietary supplement, but the truth is, most people don't need them.

A UK study finding vegetarianism is associated with a higher risk of stroke than a meat-eating diet has made headlines around the world.

A poor diet of chips and crisps caused a teenage boy in England to become blind.

Revered French gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin coined the phrase: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are”.

The rise in cases of otherwise healthy young adults who have been hospitalized or even died from vaping-associated lung injury is alarming.

High-dose vitamin D supplements improve weight gain and help with the development of language and motor skills in severely malnourished children, our latest study has found.

It's a popular notion that we will get more done if we skip lunch. Unfortunately that couldn't be farther from the truth. According to various studies, researchers agree that performance scores plunge when people skip lunch and those who skip lunch soon feel more anxious and tense...

Every year a new batch of diets become trendy. In the past, the blood group, ketogenic, Pioppi and gluten-free diets were among the most popular. 

Nutritional therapy is a system of healing based on the belief that our food is our medicine and our medicine is our food. Disorders ranging from chronic fatigue, energy loss, insomnia, depression, backache, skin complaints, asthma, and headaches can be relieved with nutritional therapy.

Alcohol consumption guidelines vary widely between countries. In the UK and Netherlands, no more than one glass of wine or a pint of beer a day is recommended.

Moving to a new country can be challenging, not just for us but also for our bacteria.

Trying to lose weight is hard work. You need to plan meals and snacks, and make a big effort to avoid situations that trigger more eating and drinking than you’d planned.

Food gives us the nutrients we need to survive, and we know a balanced diet contributes to good health.

The first animal likely was a carnivore, new research finds. Humans, along with other omnivores, belong to a rare breed.

Australian regulators will soon be faced with a challenge: can animal flesh produced in a lab be called meat?

Supermarkets are an essential part of modern living – open almost all the time, selling almost everything, and selling it cheap.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of previous cohort studies on the effects of chocolate consumption has found that chocolate may be linked to a reduction in the risk of developing heart disease. The paper was published overnight in the British Medical Journal.

Prescription omega-3 fatty acid medications are a safe and effective option for reducing high triglycerides, which increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a new study.

Vitamin D deficiency in middle childhood could result in aggressive behavior as well as anxious and depressive moods during adolescence, according to a new study of school children in Bogotá, Colombia.

There are many ways to a woman’s heart. But is a box of chocolates really one of them?

It all starts with the immune system. Every person has one - a group of cells, tissues and organs in the body that helps you fight infections.

The human body needs a tiny amount of sodium to function properly and this is typically found in salt (sodium chloride).

A recent study published in the journal Depression and Anxiety has attracted widespread media attention.

Half-price chips, “two for one” chocolates, “buy one get one free” soft drinks: Australian supermarkets make it very easy for us to fill our trolleys with junk food.

“Organic” is more than just a passing fad. Organic food sales totaled a record US$45.2 billion in 2017, making it one of the fastest-growing segments of American agriculture.

There’s been a rise in recent years of biomedical engineering techniques that can restore lost tissue and bone.

For many of us, eating a meal containing meat is a normal part of daily life. But if we dig deeper, some sobering issues emerge.

Taking nonprescribed psychostimulants may slightly improve a person’s short-term focus but impede sleep and mental functions that rely on it—such as working memory.

Corn on the cob is a sweet, summer staple, so I'll show you how to cook your corn on the cob three different ways.

Food additives do a lot of good: they prolong shelf life, improve taste and texture, and add colour to otherwise unappealing products.

Personalised nutrition, where your DNA tells you what to eat and what not to eat, is gaining momentum.

Learn to make easy, healthy homemade Neapolitan ice-cream using frozen bananas as the base. This ice cream is thick, creamy and super delicious. 

Pregnant women exposed to higher levels of air pollutants had children with lower IQs, compared to the children of women exposed to lower levels, a new study reports.

There are more than 91m school children worldwide now defined as living with obesity – and the UK is in the top 20 countries for obesity levels. In the UK, the obesity rate for children doubles during primary school years – and then increases again in secondary school.

Meatless burger maker Beyond Meat has just reported quarterly earnings of US$67.3 million – much better than market expectations of US$52.7 million. It is now forecasting sales of US$240 million for the 2019 year, nearly three times that of 2018.

New research uncovers the molecular action that enables cilantro to effectively delay certain seizures common in epilepsy and other diseases.

In Australia’s most recent nutrition survey, 29% of people reported having taken at least one dietary supplement. This proportion was even higher in the United States at 52%.

Eating bitter foods more often can change how they taste, according to a new study.

Michael Pollan explains what goes on during the mental fireworks of a psychedelic experience.

Microdosing psychedelics is a growing trend that involves ingesting very small sub-hallucinogenic amounts of substances like LSD or dried psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

People take vitamin supplements for all kinds of reasons, from maintaining general health to preventing cancer. But there’s no convincing evidence that vitamin supplementation benefits people who don’t actually have a vitamin deficiency.

Want to boost your immune system, reduce your physical signs of ageing, or cleanse your blood to get rid of toxins?

Researchers have mapped the crystal structure of a key protein that makes the metabolites responsible for the bitter taste in Brassica vegetables like mustards, broccolis, and cabbages.

Rates of obesity are rising across the globe; a third of the world’s population is now overweight and nearly a fifth is obese.

Eating ultra-processed food is definitely bad for you, a recent study has confirmed. In the experiment, people were fed either ultra-processed or unprocessed food, with meals matched precisely for calories, salt, sugar, fat and fibre. 

Hyperbole can be rampant in health news, particularly with respect to cannabis. One recent headline declared: “CBD is effective in treating heroin addiction.” Another proclaimed: “New study finds CBD could curb heroin addiction.” These stories were referring to a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry that found a short-term course of cannabidiol (CBD) reduced cue-induced cravings and anxiety..

Researchers from the University of Nottingham in the UK recently published a study in the journal Scientific Reports suggesting caffeine increases brown fat. This caught people’s attention because brown fat activity burns energy, which may help with weight loss. Headlines claimed drinking coffee can help you lose weight, and that coffee is possibly even the “secret to fighting obesity”.

Why did government officials stop psychedelics from reaching mainstream culture?

Do you feel like nutritionists are always changing their minds? Do you want science-based information about diet but don’t know whom or what to believe?

These three new easy, healthy salad recipes are the perfect way to work more fresh, seasonal ingredients into your diet.

Poison control experts have advice for how to avoid food poisoning at your BBQs and picnics.

Breastfeeding has long been the gold standard for infant nutrition. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and World Health Organization all recommend it.

Ultra-processed foods, a label coined in research by a Brazilian pediatrician, have been targeted as a menace to society for quite some time, mostly by environmental advocates and health professionals.

Wandering through the grocery store, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the numerous brands and health claims on the dozens of sugar substitutes.

The legalization of marijuana has been a topic of contention and confusion for both sides of the debate.

My go-to green smoothie recipe is perfect for any type of health, fitness or weight loss goal. It's low in sugar and packed with protein and healthy fats, so not only is it delicious