In 2010, Laura de Magistris and colleagues published a study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition that compared intestinal permeability in children with autism, their first-degree relatives, and healthy controls. They found significantly elevated intestinal permeability in 36.7 percent of children with autism, compared to 4.8 percent of controls. This is the phenomenon often called “leaky gut”: tight junctions between intestinal epithelial cells become loose, allowing larger molecules (partially digested food proteins, bacterial endotoxins, microbial fragments) to pass through into the bloodstream where they trigger immune responses. When this happens, several cascades unfold. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an endotoxin shed by gram-negative bacteria, enters circulation and triggers systemic inflammatory cytokines that can cross the blood-brain barrier and activate microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells. Food peptides that should have been digested into amino acids reach the bloodstream and provoke immune memory and food sensitivities. Mast cells, distributed throughout the gut, lung, and brain, become primed and start releasing histamine, tryptase, and inflammatory mediators in response to ordinary stimuli. The gut-immune-brain axis is one continuous loop, and dysfunction at any node propagates throughout the system. Digestive Enzyme Insufficiency A separate but related problem has emerged from endoscopic biopsy studies in children with autism: many of them simply cannot digest sugars and carbohydrates properly. In 1999, Karoly Horvath and colleagues evaluated 90 children with autism undergoing endoscopy and found that 49 percent had at least one deficient disaccharidase enzyme (lactase, maltase, sucrase, palatinase, or glucoamylase), and 20 percent had deficiencies in two or more. Lactase deficiency was the most common. A 2011 study by Williams and colleagues, published in PLoS ONE, confirmed and extended these findings, also documenting altered intestinal microbiota associated with the carbohydrate digestion impairment.

Heart disease, while still the #1 cause of mortality in the developed world, can be prevented and even reversed with nutritional interventions. Considering that heart disease is the #1 cause of death in the developed world, anything that can prevent or reduce cardiac mortality, or slow or even reverse the cardiovascular disease process, should be of great interest to health professionals and the general public alike. So, with this in mind, let's look at a small but significant sample of natural, food-based alternatives to these drugs through the lens of the clinical and biomedical literature itself. Three Natural Substances that Reduce the Risk of Heart-Related Death - Omega-3 Fatty Acids: There is a robust body of research indicating that the risk of sudden cardiac death decreases with higher omega-3 fatty acid intake. Going all the way back to 2002, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study titled, "Blood levels of long-chain n-3 fatty acids and the risk of sudden death," which found: "The n-3 fatty acids found in fish are strongly associated with a reduced risk of sudden death among men without evidence of prior cardiovascular disease." Another 2002 study, published in the journal Circulation, found that Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation reduces total mortality and sudden death in patients who have already had a heart attack. - Vitamin D: Levels of this essential compound have been found to be directly associated with the risk of dying from all causes. Being in the lowest 25% of vitamin D levels is associated with a 26% increase in all-cause mortality. It has been proposed that doubling global vitamin D levels could significantly reduce mortality. Research published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology in 2009 confirmed that lower vitamin D levels are associated with increased all-cause mortality, and that the effect is even more pronounced for cardiovascular mortality. This finding was confirmed the same year in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, and again in 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Sperm counts have been falling for fifty years. Miscarriage rates are climbing. The age at which couples can conceive has crept up every decade since the 1970s. Something is changing about the environment our species reproduces in… And most of what's changing is chemistry. New chemistry. Chemistry humans have never lived inside before. This piece is about one chemical in particular, because it's everywhere, and the evidence is clearer than for any other. I’m talking about glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. In 2018, researchers tested 71 pregnant women in central Indiana for glyphosate via urine samples. 93% had detectable levels. The women with higher levels delivered shorter pregnancies. Let me show you what's going on. But first, a bit about glyphosate so we’re all on the same page… Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide patented by Monsanto in 1974 and brought to market as Roundup. It works by inhibiting a metabolic process called the shikimate pathway, which plants and some bacteria use to make essential amino acids. Animals don't have this pathway, which is part of why glyphosate was sold as low-risk for humans. We'll come back to that. Today, it's the most heavily used herbicide on earth. The reason isn't only Roundup, but the system Monsanto built around it. Starting in 1996, "Roundup Ready" crops were engineered to survive direct glyphosate application. Soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets, alfalfa. Spray entire fields, kill everything that isn't the crop. The product and the seed got locked together. But the part most people don't know (and the part RFK Jr. specifically singled out in 2024) is the practice of pre-harvest desiccation. Glyphosate is sprayed on non-Roundup-Ready crops shortly before harvest to dry them out for processing. Wheat, oats, and legumes such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils. So your "non-GMO" oat product can still carry significant glyphosate residue, because the chemical wasn't used to grow the plant but to kill it on schedule.

Researchers at Loma Linda University Health report that eating eggs may be linked to a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in adults age 65 and older. Their findings suggest that regular egg consumption could play a role in supporting long-term brain health. The study found that people who ate at least one egg per day for five or more days each week had up to a 27% lower risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. "Compared to never eating eggs, eating at least five eggs per week can decrease risk of Alzheimer's," said Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH, a professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health and the study's principal investigator. Even smaller amounts of egg consumption were associated with benefits. Eating eggs just 1 to 3 times per month was linked to a 17% reduction in risk, while those who ate eggs 2 to 4 times per week saw about a 20% lower risk, Sabaté said. The research, titled Egg intake and the incidence of Alzheimer's disease in the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort linked with Medicare data, was published in the Journal of Nutrition. Scientists conducted the study to better understand how diet, a factor people can change, might influence the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease. Eggs contain several nutrients that are important for the brain, Sabaté said. They are a rich source of choline, which the body uses to produce compounds such as acetylcholine and phosphatidylcholine that are essential for memory and communication between brain cells. Eggs also provide lutein and zeaxanthin, which are carotenoids that build up in brain tissue and have been linked to better cognitive performance and lower levels of oxidative stress. In addition, eggs contain omega-3 fatty acids, and the yolk is especially high in phospholipids, making up nearly 30% of total egg lipids. These compounds play a key role in how neurotransmitter receptors function. Finally, eggs have not impact whatsoever on heart disease. In other words, eating eggs do not affect your risk of having more heart issues.

Bananas are one of the most common smoothie ingredients, which makes this finding worth knowing. In a controlled crossover study in Food & Function, researchers had people drink a banana-based smoothie or a mixed-berry smoothie, each containing the same dose of flavan-3-ols, the beneficial flavanols found in cocoa, berries, tea, and apples. After the banana smoothie, blood levels of those flavanol compounds were about 84 percent lower than after the low-PPO berry smoothie or a capsule. The culprit is polyphenol oxidase (PPO), an enzyme abundant in bananas that oxidizes flavanols within minutes of blending, the same reaction that turns a cut banana brown. The enzyme stayed active even under simulated stomach conditions, so the loss was not prevented by keeping the ingredients separate until drinking. This is a fascinating and practical finding, given how many people build smoothies around bananas. It is a reminder that plant foods sometimes contain compounds that block the absorption of nutrients, much like the oxalates in spinach that bind calcium. If you want the flavanol benefits of cocoa, berries, or green tea in a smoothie, pair them with low-PPO fruits like the mixed berries used here, and save the banana for another time.