Read Online | June. 28, 2025

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Bananas are the most eaten fruit worldwide, but few people know what type of banana they should eat: green, yellow, or yellow with brown spots.

The vitamins and nutrients in bananas remain relatively consistent throughout the ripening process. What does change, however, is their antioxidant, starch, and sugar contents, which have different effects on blood sugar and the digestive system.

(Read more)

• Birth control pills triple the risk of stroke in young women, but experts stress the overall risk remains low, emphasizing the need for personalized counseling based on individual factors like smoking or migraines.
• New cardiology guidelines now recommend weight loss drugs for heart disease prevention before lifestyle changes, but critics warn this shift could create lifelong medication dependency.
• CDC advisers voted to recommend removing mercury-based thimerosal from all flu vaccines, even though most are already free of it, due to concerns about cumulative mercury exposure.
• The FDA expanded its COVID-19 vaccine warnings, noting heart inflammation occurs most commonly in males aged 12 to 24, with some showing heart scarring months after vaccination.
• Health Secretary RFK Jr. announced the United States will stop funding Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, due to safety concerns and a wider policy shift away from international organizations.

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🏥 Health News

Junk food and other ultra-processed foods (UPFs) may be rewiring your brain to make you overeat, according to research that examined brain scans from nearly 30,000 middle-aged adults.

The research, recently published in Nature, linked these foods to increased thickness in the bilateral lateral occipital cortex, regions that control hunger and food cravings.

“Our findings indicate that a high consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with structural changes in brain regions regulating eating behaviour, such as the hypothalamus, amygdala and right nucleus accumbens. This may lead to a cycle of overeating,” Arsène Kanyamibwa, the study’s first author and doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, said in a press statement. (More)

More Health News:

• Prenatal exposure to “forever chemicals” significantly raises blood pressure in teens, especially boys and black children, according to a study of nearly 1,100 people tracked over 12 years.
• Artificial phosphate additives in processed foods may raise blood pressure by sneaking into the brain and activating the nervous system.
• Addictive phone and social media use—not total screen time—triples suicide risk in teens, with nearly half showing signs of screen dependency by age 10, a four-year study has found.
• A vitamin B3 derivative significantly improved symptoms in a premature aging disease by reducing issues such as arterial stiffness, suggesting the supplement could have wider anti-aging uses.

🍲Food & Nutrition

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Dietary guidelines have shifted dramatically since the days when health experts warned that eating eggs could lead to dangerous cholesterol levels.

Research reveals eggs are muscle-building powerhouses containing complete proteins and essential amino acids. With 97 percent digestibility and high leucine content, eggs effectively combat age-related muscle loss that begins at age 30.

Whole eggs outperform egg whites alone for muscle growth, providing not just protein but vital nutrients like choline, vitamin D, and omega-3s. Adults typically need two to four eggs post-workout or one to two eggs daily for optimal muscle maintenance and strength. (More)

More Nutrition:

• Vitamin K, found in leafy greens and fermented foods, emerges as a powerful anti-aging nutrient that activates proteins essential for bone strength and cardiovascular health.
• Not all sugars are equal. While bread spikes blood glucose more than Coke, the fructose in Coke is actually more dangerous because it’s processed by the liver into fat, potentially causing fatty liver disease, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes even without raising blood sugar levels.
• When your body lacks essential minerals like iron, calcium, and zinc, toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury can “trick” your absorption systems and enter your body more easily.

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☀️ A Few Good Things

✍️ Health Viewpoint: What to Do When You Have a Goal–But Can’t Find the Motivation by Sina McCullough

🍿 Movie: Follow the journey of Abraham Lincoln as he rises from rail splitter to president in D.W. Griffith’s classic film. (Watch free on Gan Jing World)

🎵 Music: Johannes Brahms—Alto Rhapsody Op. 53 sung by Sara Mingardo (Listen)

🔬 Featured Article of the Week 👇

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🍵 Exercise

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Statistics show that one in three women and one in five men over age 50 experience a fracture due to osteoporosis, a condition that causes bones to thin and become weak.

These fractures can lead to disability, illness, and even death.

A clinical trial suggests there may be a simple way to reduce fracture risk that doesn’t require much time or effort: jumping for two to three minutes per day, four to five times per week.

Osteoporosis is more common in women because they have less bone mass than men, and the drop in hormone production during menopause results in rapid bone loss.

The researchers found the jumping program not only helped maintain bone health but also reversed expected age-related bone loss in areas most vulnerable to fractures. Areas include the hip bone, the lumbar spine, and the neck of the thigh bone.

(More)

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