Diet & Nutrition

2025 certainly saw some major health-related breakthroughs including a universal cancer vaccine. But the year was also filled with smaller findings that can still have a big impact on your day-to-day health. Here are 18 of them.

In the first long-term and real-world reflective study of its kind, scientists have uncovered new detrimental health impacts of the artificial sweetener aspartame that echoes those found in shorter research.

Researchers have homed in on a single gut microbe that acts to prevent fat gain, even with a high-fat diet. The discovery adds to the booming science of finding ways to enlist the microbes that already live in our bodies to help us improve our health.

Kale has long been crowned a “superfood,” praised for its rich antioxidant and nutrient content – but new research suggests many of those perks go untapped unless you pair the leaves with something to boost the body's ability to absorb the good stuff.

Vitamin C may offer meaningful protection against the invisible but pervasive threat of fine-particle air pollution. The common antioxidant significantly reduced lung inflammation and cellular damage caused by everyday, low-level exposure to PM2.5.

In the most comprehensive investigation of the ketogenic diet’s mental health effects yet, researchers pooled 50 studies spanning six decades to see what we actually know about its influence on mood. The results are a mix of promising and uncertain.

Researchers have demonstrated how a secret weapon made in the gut, produced by consuming pomegranate and walnuts, can rejuvenate the immune system in middle age, shielding us from cell damage, inflammation and chronic diseases including cancer.

Fruit smoothies have become a huge trend in healthy lifestyle world – and for good reason. They are a quick source of vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants, and they take just a few minutes to make! Bananas are the number-one ingredient for a good smoothie. Creamy and naturally sweet, they seem to pair well with pretty much every other fruit ... or do they?

Scientists have identified a significant link between levels of choline and the prevalence of anxiety, suggesting that upping intake of this essential nutrient found in many foods could potentially improve symptoms of these debilitating disorders.

The world’s priciest coffee comes from civet droppings. New research confirms these “poo coffee” beans are chemically distinct – but does that make them taste better, or just pricier?

Sitting has often been referred to as the new smoking thanks to its negative health benefits. For the first time ever, according to researchers in England, the flavanols in cocoa have been found to block its detrimental effects on blood vessels.

There's growing evidence that a Mediterranean diet can provide relief from symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, offering people more variety, nutrients and easier adherence than the current restrictive frontline approach to manage the condition.

For the first time, scientists have used evidence-based research to rewrite the advice on what to consume to relieve constipation, doing away with the broad "high-fiber diet" mantra. And one food in particular stands out as being most effective.

For years, millions of people have sworn that gluten makes them ill – even if they've returned negative results when tested for coeliac disease. Now, researchers have found that it's far more complicated, and gluten itself may not be the culprit.

When choosing a protein powder, we want it to be low in sugar and carbs, and to taste good enough. We don't think that it might also be packed with dangerously high levels of lead – which, a new study finds, is exactly what is in many popular brands.