1. Probiotics: not your mother's supplement anymore
Victoria Lewis of Racked traces how the public’s perception of probiotics has evolved over the years, from those infamous Activa commercials starring Jamie Lee Curtis to new research promoting the beauty benefits of good bacteria. “[Can] bacteria make you healthier, thinner, more beautiful?” Lewis writes. “The short answer appears to be yes.” Read on.
2. Is breakfast overrated?
We’ve long been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but new research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition “could change the way we think about early-hours eating,” writes Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times. Studies found no significant difference in the body weights, resting metabolic rates, cholesterol, and blood sugar measurements of people who ate breakfast and those who skipped it. Read on.
3. Doctors raise concerns about Apple’s new HealthKit
With the iPhone 6 launch just weeks away, the success of Apple’s new HealthKit—a personalized medicine tool designed to track health and fitness and automatically share information with your doctor—is the subject of debate among physicians. Dr. Dushan Gunasekera of myHealthCare Clinic summarizes the problem: “[We are] unable to guarantee that whichever blood pressure monitor, glucose monitor or fitness tracker a patient is using will be accurate.” Read on.
4. San Francisco to offer tax incentives for urban farming
The city of San Francisco recently passed a new law that allows property to be reassessed as farmland if owners dedicate all of it to growing food for five years. Tax benefits will be offered if eligible plots are used to “incentivize farming and gardening that has a public benefit” (for example: involving food donations, retail sales, and/or educational outreach). Read on.
5. The United States of sustainable food
Eve Andrews of Grist set out to find someone in every state who is “breaking the status quo when it comes to production of, access to, and education about food.” Her interactive map of the U.S. provides 51 answers to the question: How can we build a more sustainable American food system? Read on.
Illustration: Katie Eberts
