Health & Medicine / Nutrition

Vital Signs: Fishy Food

A tropical vacation goes south when a tourist catches something horrible from the catch of the day. But what exactly is it? 04.28.2009

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Fat

Body fat can kill you, keep you warm, or power your boat. 01.05.2009

#19: Salmonella Outbreak Shines Light on Food Safety

Two deaths and countless dollars later, the chinks in the food system are exposed. 12.19.2008

#46: FDA Approves Food From Cloned Animals

Meat and milk products from cloned livestock may soon hit the shelves. 12.13.2008

#59: Low-Fat Is Officially Inferior to Low-Carb

A comprehensive study gives a big piece of ammunition to the Atkins crowd. 12.11.2008

#75: Chilies' Fire Is Self-Defense Against a Surprising Foe

Capsaicin keeps fungus from chomping on pepper plants but does nothing to dissuade hungry bugs. 12.09.2008

I'll Have My Burger Petri-Dish Bred, With Extra Omega-3

How researchers can make meat that's better for you—and better for animals. 09.22.2008

How to Fall Out of a Plane and Live, and Other Survival Tips

What to do when you're trapped in the desert, hit by lightning, stranded at sea, etc. 09.05.2008

Athletes On the Edge: Sword Swallowers, Arctic Swimmers, and Human Cannonballs

They won't be in the Olympics, but extreme athletes also perform at the highest levels of skill and athleticism. 08.13.2008

Whodunnit: TV or Fast Food or Genes?

When it comes to obesity, no one explanation tells the whole story. 06.03.2008

When It Comes to Nutrition, Do Doctors Practice What They Preach?

Discover's survey of MDs shows they pretty much do. 06.03.2008

Eating Paper in Search of Missing Nutrients

Sometimes the body makes a bad diagnosis, too. 03.31.2008

Introducing the Absolute Scale of Food Healthfulness

A ban of junk-food advertising relies on a new measure of nutrition. 01.25.2008

89. Common Food Additive Doubles Kids' Hyperactivity

Sodium benzoate may be more than just a preservative... 01.15.2008

96. And Here's Why You Have an Appendix:

When you're sick, it re-boots your gut with good bacteria. 01.15.2008

Further Proof: Exercising Is More Important Than Dieting

The treadmill and General Mills can both be your best friends. 01.14.2008

Fish Oil and Spice and Everything Nice

Can dietary supplements help treat diabetes? Yes. And no. 01.08.2008

8. Can Vitamin D Save Your Life?

New studies highlight the importance of the forgotten vitamin. 12.12.2007

Scientist of the Year Notable: Hans Rosling

His mission: To enlist hard data in the global war on poverty and disease. 12.06.2007

The Legend of Green Tea Keeps a-Growin'

The elixir may help treat diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. 10.29.2007

The Future of Space Food: Bugs

They reproduce rapidly, eat just about anything, and are nutritious, too. 10.24.2007

Health FAQs: Diet and Genetics

If protein, fat, and carbs are bad, what do you eat? 06.06.2007

The Open Secret to Successful Dieting

No short-cuts involved, just straight-up arithmetic 06.06.2007

Fat Is Not the Enemy

A low-fat diet won't necessarily make you thinner... or healthier. 05.11.2007

Reviews: What the Heck's in a Twinkie?

Steve Ettlinger shows what passes for 'cream' and 'butter.' 03.28.2007

Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head

New treatments for a disease that may affect the whole body 03.22.2007

Vital Signs: Potassium Overload

Funky fruit can be fatal. 03.13.2007

Vital Signs: Why Is He Limping?

The injury seemed recent, but its origins were not. 10.18.2006

Tanning Beds and Cancer

Long chided for rising skin cancer rates, sun exposure may provide essential doses of Vitamin D. And the tanning bed industry's happy to hear it. 08.15.2006

Calories and Alzheimer's

Dieting may fend off memory loss in your later years. 08.11.2006

Vital Signs: A Parent's Nightmare

Why has the baby become so listless? 07.29.2006

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Obesity

Money for getting squashed in your airplane seat, our country's fattest state, the Monster Thickburger, and more. 07.24.2006

Cooking For Eggheads

Great cuisine is more than art; it's science. The French can now prove it. 02.20.2006

Vital Signs

Benign but irritating skin eruptions signal much more serious internal troubles 11.22.2005

Nutrition

Nutritional genomics promises to make diets truly personal 10.24.2005

Can Food Heal?

Can Food Heal? 09.09.2005

Science Takes On Supersize

Science Takes On Supersize 09.09.2005

Vitamin Cure

Can common nutrients curb violent tendencies and dispel clinical depression? 05.01.2005

Vital Signs

An elderly man's puzzling symptoms are as old as humanity itself 01.02.2005

The Chemistry of Fish

Legendary food scholar Harold McGee rocks us again 11.25.2004

The Inuit Paradox

How can people who gorge on fat and rarely see a vegetable be healthier than we are? 10.01.2004

Discover Data

09.30.2004

Ask Discover

02.05.2004

What Does Science Say You Should Eat?

Most diets aren't realistic or advisable, including the U.S. agriculture department's famous food pyramid. Instead, a Harvard scientist recommends a new way of eating based on the world's largest and longest food study. 02.05.2004

Zoology

01.02.2004

Food for Thought

08.01.2003

Fish Really

03.01.2003

Vital Signs

The disease that shows us how we are what we eat 05.01.2002

Works in Progress

Powders, hormones, and herbs may boost performance—riskily 02.01.2002

Medicine

Year In Science 01.13.2002

Follow Up:

12.01.2001

The Most Important Fish in the Sea

You've never heard of them, but your life may depend on them 09.01.2001

The Chemistry of . . . Fat Substitutes

The Next Generation of fake fats has arrived, but does anyone want them? 03.01.2001

Future Food

Beans that don't have to be soaked, apples that don't turn brown, and other wonders from the food technology conference 12.01.2000

Pop, Crackle, Snap

11.01.2000

Worrying About Milk

08.01.2000

Future Tech

Cholesterol-lowering snacks and veggie vaccines blur the boundaries between nutrition and drugs 03.01.2000

Staying Alive

When Roy Walford was just a boy, he figured out that science could fix his biggest complaint: Life is too short 02.01.2000

Vital Signs

Why was my patient suddenly falling apart after decades of healthy living? 02.01.2000

Potassium Paralysis

Mr. Chang can't move his legs, and if something isn't done, his lungs will go next 12.01.1999

Young Salts

12.01.1998

The Year in Science: Medicine 1997

Where's the Beef? 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Medicine 1997

Case Closed 01.01.1998

Bat Spit

09.01.1997

Real Men Don't Eat Deer

You are what you eat, the saying goes. But what you don't eat says a lot too. 06.01.1997

Bac Talk

02.01.1997

Bottle-Fed Eyes

08.01.1996

What the Dinosaurs Left Us

Their fossilized poop shows what they ate. 06.01.1996

Great Teeth

05.01.1996

Beefeaters No More

05.01.1996

Strange Brew

01.01.1996

The Pizza Lab

01.01.1996

Paper Trail

11.01.1995

Return of the Blob

07.01.1995

What a Gas

04.01.1995

Biology and Medicine

Once upon a time, all the fruits, nuts, and berries our gathering ancestors ate were wild. Someone, at some time, had to come up with the bright idea of crops. 09.01.1994

Brave New Veggies?

03.01.1993



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