• Measles is surging in a Texas outbreak, but doctors say most adults don't need a booster shot.
• Consider another measles vaccine if you're unsure whether you had both shots, or if you got them before 1968.
• Children may also get an early dose if traveling to high-risk areas.

Amidst a growing measles outbreak in Texas, your childhood shots are likely enough to keep you safe from the highly-contagious illness, according to doctors.

Having both recommended doses of measles vaccine offers about 97% effectiveness against infection— enough protection for most people, said pediatrician Dr. Michael Glazier, chief medical officer and co-founder at Bluebird Kids Health.

"I'm not worried that I'm going to get measles or that I need another dose," Glazier told Business Insider.

Outbreaks are still cause for public health concern, as measles is exceptionally good at spreading from person to person. Areas with lower rates of vaccination are vulnerable to a surge in cases.

"It's one of the most contagious diseases out there," Glazier said. "If what's happening in Texas is a harbinger of having more pockets of children that aren't vaccinated, it will become a much more widespread issue."

You may need extra protection if you're unsure of your vaccine record, got an obsolete version of the shot, or plan on traveling to a high-risk area. Here's what to know.

People vaccinated before 1968 may need a booster

The first step in protecting against measles is to know your vaccine status, according to Dr. William Moss, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center.

If you were vaccinated before 1968, you might benefit from a booster.

Earlier versions of the vaccines aren't as effective, Moss said, so older Americans may want to talk to their doctors about re-upping their immunity.

Consider a measles booster if you're unsure of your vaccine history

Another reason to consider a booster is if you can't confirm you had both doses of the vaccine, Glazier said.

If that's the case, it's worth thinking about a precautionary shot.

"The issue is that a lot of people don't know," he said. "If you're unsure, get another one. There's no harm whatsoever."

Measles isn't something to gamble on, since it can lead to serious health consequences like pneumonia or brain inflammation.

"It's not the benign disease people make it out to be," Glazier said. "Saying 'I had measles and it was fine,' I liken it to saying "I never wore a seatbelt, and I was fine.'"

If you only had one shot, you're still likely to have solid protection, but may want to consider a booster if you're immune-compromised, caring for someone who is, or are in a high-risk situation, such as a healthcare setting or outbreak area.

"It's an individual judgment call in consultation with a healthcare provider," Moss said.

Children under a year old can get an early dose

One of the biggest concerns about the current outbreak is the recent death of a child, the first measles death in the US since 2015, Moss said.

"That's completely preventable, it's tragic, we should not be having childhood deaths from measles in the United States," he said.

Children are typically protected from measles by one shot administered between 12 and 15 months old, and a second between ages four and six.

In cases of international travel to areas with a higher exposure risk to measles, the CDC recommends an earlier precautionary shot to infants as young as six months.

If you're in or near a current outbreak area, it's worth talking to your doctor about whether that might apply to your child, according to both Moss and Glazier.

With a rise in vaccine hesitancy in recent years, parents should understand what's at stake in staying up-to-date on recommended vaccines.

"The assumption is that every parent wants to do what's best for their children," Moss said. "What happens is that parents can underestimate the risk of a disease like measles, and overestimate the risk of a vaccine."

• WNBA player Aaliyah Edwards follows a vegetarian, high-protein diet to stay at the top of her game.
• Tofu, beans, and Greek yogurt feature heavily in her meal rotation.
• A sports dietitian said this diet is perfect for anyone who wants to avoid injury and level up at the gym.

WNBA rising star Aaliyah Edwards is under a lot of pressure. One key way she stays focused and fuels her recovery for peak performance is diet.

At just 22 years old, Aaliyah Edwards already has an Olympics under her belt, repping Canada's women's basketball team in Tokyo in 2021 as the then-youngest member of the team. She's also racked up accolades as a college forward, helping to bring UConn to the Final Four of the NCAA's D1 women's basketball tournament in 2024 before signing with the Washington Mystics for her rookie season of the WNBA.

Now in the WNBA — one of the world's hottest sports leagues right now — Edwards said it's a perfect moment of opportunity, and responsibility, to rep women's athletics. "The momentum for women's pro sports is building," she told Business Insider.

Edwards is a plant-based athlete, an increasingly popular choice favored by superstars like Serena and Venus Williams, Alex Morgan, and Kyrie Irving.

Being a vegetarian in pro sports is all about balance for better energy and recovery, Edwards told BI in the interview, coordinated through her partnership with plant-based food company Nasoya.

"I have to make sure I have high-protein meals throughout the day so I can perform on the court," she said. "It's not as difficult as you think."

Edwards said her routine includes nourishing staples like tofu, tempeh, and lentils for meals and energy-boosting, high-protein snacks to fuel intense training.

Her high-protein staples include tofu and legumes

Edwards said tofu is a regular ingredient in her meals because it's deceptively simple to prepare and it takes on the flavors of any sauces or condiments you add.

One of her favorite dishes is crispy soy garlic tofu — the secret to great texture is in coating the tofu in cornstarch before frying.

"It may look intimidating but it also takes about 30 minutes to make it," she said.

Edwards said she also eats tempeh, another soy product, as well as lentils and chickpeas.

"I'm always looking for new protein-packed recipes," she said.

Legumes are a great source of protein for athletes because they're also high in carbs for energy and fiber for healthy digestion.

Getting enough protein on a plant-based diet comes down to eating enough and eating the right balance of foods, according to sports dietitian Nancy Clark.

Plant sources of protein can have a different combination of amino acids, essential building blocks of protein, so it's important to get all of them.

"That's where mixing and matching comes in, like rice and beans. Mixing and matching can happen over the course of the day, it doesn't have to be at each meal," Clark told BI.

Athletes need more carbs than sedentary people to help muscles recover after exercise, according to Clark. She recommends adding chickpeas to salad or making lentil soup as healthy, high-protein meal ideas.

For energy: a pre-workout parfait

Edwards said she makes sure to get a snack before training, since she often has two workouts in a day.

Her go-to snack is a parfait with Greek yogurt, fruits, and granola, offering a combo of pre-workout carbs for energy with protein from dairy.

It's particularly important for athletes to get the right balance of carbs and protein if they're working out more than once per day, to give their muscles the best chance to recover, according to Clark.

Edwards said nutrition can be highly personal, and finding exactly what works best for her body has been a process. Her current routine is dialed in to help her keep up with the intensity of the WNBA.

"You can be super committed to what you do on the court in the moment, but it's what you do in prepping your body and your recovery that's the biggest thing in long-term performance," she said.

• A sports dietitian shares what she eats instead of eggs to get enough protein throughout the day.
• Foods like oatmeal, nuts and seeds, beans, dairy, and lean meats are good sources of protein.
• A simple guideline is to aim for 20-30 grams of protein per meal from a variety of sources.

Eggs, the gold standard of cheap protein for breakfast and beyond, are costing more than ever.

It's enough make anyone cringe at the grocery store, Nancy Clark, a registered sports dietitian and author, told Business Insider — but you don't need them to get enough protein.

Clark said she does still eat eggs, but buying them is a bigger blow to her budget and she's making more of an effort to get her money's worth.

"It's fewer eggs, maybe two instead of three, and I always eat the yolk," she said.

She's also leaning more into more affordable proteins, from whole grains to legumes to dairy, to get enough of the nutrient daily. Adults need at least 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day, and up to 0.7 to maximize muscle gains, research suggests.

Here are some of Clark's go-to meals to get enough protein and other nutrients while cutting back on eggs.

For breakfast: oatmeal, nut butter, and dairy

Clark said her approach to getting enough protein is to build meals that incorporate a variety of protein sources that add up to about 20-30 grams of protein per meal.

It starts with breakfast. Clark often relies on oats which provide about six grams of protein per half-cup.

She then mixes in almond butter and milk (dairy, not almond or oat milk) to add even more protein and healthy fats for a well-balanced, filling meal.

Oatmeal is also high in fiber packs of ton of carbs, good for building muscle and boosting energy. Ideally, you want a two-to-one ratio of carbs to protein, since "it's actually carbs that fuel muscles," Clark said.

For lunch: lentil soup with homemade bread

Clark's midday meal amps up the nutrients of a classic soup-and-sandwich lunch with bread that she makes using almond flour. It contains twice as much protein as all-purpose flour.

Her go-to choice for soup is lentils, with about 18 grams of protein per cup, plus to nutrients like iron, magnesium, and B-vitamins.

If you're not in the mood for a soup, add high-protein legumes (like chickpeas) to a salad for an extra boost at lunch.

To snack: nuts, seeds, and cheese

Between meals, Clark said she reaches for cottage cheese, offering about 13 grams of protein per half-cup serving, sometimes drizzled with olive oil for a boost of antioxidants.

If that's not your thing, other popular cheeses like Parmesan pack a surprising amount of protein (around eight grams per one-ounce serving — roughly the size of your thumb).

"Dairy is an excellent source of high quality protein," Clark said.

To round out a snack plate, Clark also regularly stocks nuts like walnuts and almonds, which contain four to six grams of protein per one-ounce serving (a small handful), in addition to healthy fats and fiber.

For dinner: Mexican lasagna

Clark said one of her staple recipes for dinner is Mexican lasagna, a casserole made with lean ground beef or turkey, taco seasonings, beans, and layers of corn tortillas, topped with cheese.

The combination offers plenty of protein for a satisfying way to end the day, and can be flexible based on whatever kind of beans or veggies you have on hand.

• For the first time, a randomized controlled trial showed Ozempic curbs alcohol cravings.
• Researchers say this opens the door to researching microdosed Ozempic for alcohol dependence.
• Scientists are racing to identify the brain pathway involved to unlock new addiction treatments.

A major new study on weight-loss drugs poses a new idea for addiction treatment: small doses of Ozempic could help people cut down on drinking and smoking.

For years, GLP-1 medications have been changing people's relationship with snacking.

This week, JAMA Psychiatry published the results of a small but significant trial that showed a similar effect on alcohol cravings. For two months, 48 people with alcohol use disorder were given either a small weekly shot of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, or a placebo. Those who received the drug drank 30% less than usual and reported fewer cravings.

The federally-funded study is the first randomized controlled trial — the gold standard of clinical research — to look at Ozempic and alcohol cravings, after years of reports from Ozempic users that they feel less attached to alcohol.

There was a bonus finding, too. Cigarette smokers who received a dose of semaglutide reduced their daily cigarette consumption more than those who got the placebo.

Researchers say the results open up a whole new world of possibilities for drug developers. Could we manufacture a new, smaller dose of GLP-1 drugs that people can use to break habits?

"I could absolutely see microdosing come into play," Gregg Stanwood, a behavioral neuroscientist at Florida State University who was not involved in the study, told Business Insider.

"That could be a good thing if someone does it and successfully has a Dry January and maybe they go back to drinking in February, but it reduces binges and they go into something that's more sustainable for everyday life."

We still have major questions about what that could look like. Further trials are needed with different doses, a longer period of time, on more people.

Still, scientists are buzzing about this trial, what it teaches us about our brain's reward system, and the drug-development potential.

Here are a few reasons for intrigue, according to three researchers:

A vacuum cleaner for dopamine

We still have a lot to learn about how GLP-1 drugs work on the brain, though studies on alcohol offer some clues.

It's tempting to think that, because semaglutide can help people cut down on calories and sugar, it similarly reduces the "appetite" for alcohol. It's not that simple, Anders Fink-Jensen, professor of psychiatry at the University of Copenhagen who's researched the effect of GLP-1s on substance use disorders, told BI.

For example, animal studies showed that GLP-1 drugs not only reduced alcohol cravings in mice, but also slowed down the urge for a fix in rats who were craving cocaine, which is calorie-free.

"We know quite little about it," Fink-Jensen told Business Insider. "We just don't really know how the drugs get there. There are areas for regulating appetite and we know it reaches these areas. But how it gets to the rest of the brain, we don't really understand."

One theory is that GLP-1 drugs mitigate dopamine rushes in the brain, the feeling of pleasure triggered by certain behaviors like eating candy or sipping expensive whiskey.

It does that by boosting a specific type of protein through complex cellular processes scientists are still working out.

"It acts as a vacuum cleaner for dopamine, basically sucks the dopamine up," Stanwood told Business Insider. "Rewards like drinking, gambling, sex, share a mechanism to increase the amount of dopamine in your brain. Cleaning up the excess dopamine reduces incentive for those behaviors."

The race to explain this brain effect — to unlock a whole new drug market

There is huge potential for this area of research. Whoever can explain what, exactly, GLP-1s do to the brain will be the toast of the pharmaceutical industry. Treatments could be developed for alcohol use disorder — and so much more.

"Addictions in general, also functional addictions such as gaming addiction," Dr. Markku Lähteenvuo, a researcher from the University of Eastern Finland who specializes in how drugs affect the brain, told BI.

So, the race is on. Central dopamine regulation is "the most rooted for" theory, Lähteenvuo said, but there is no shortage of research teams looking for other explanations.

It's hard to assess the safety of such treatments without understanding quite how drugs like Ozempic work in the brain, though.

"The question is, does GLP-1 receptor activation do this all the time or just when dopamine is excessive?" Stanwood said. "If it's all the time, that could be a problem because we need these dopamine hits to reinforce these wonderful things like hugging your kids, listening to music, having chocolate cake. We don't want to clamp that down to nothing."

So far, research is supportive of the theory that GLP-1s act on excessive dopamine levels. A key finding of the latest study is that participants didn't stop drinking entirely, or even less often, but they were less likely to drink heavily and fewer drinks per session when they did.

Why you really (really!) need to consult a doctor before trying this

In the future, it's feasible that GLP-1s may be a tool for people to manage their drinking.

The tricky part is safety.

Stigma around addiction could scare off investors from developing a GLP-1 for substance abuse disorders, researchers told BI. Ozempic has other lucrative and appealing applications for which companies could develop next-gen medications, like preventing heart attacks or kidney disease.

"It could easily take three or four years or much longer if they're not interested or if data are not so positive as we hope them to be," Fink-Jensen said.

People can — and do — take GLP-1s off-label for weight loss, finding Ozempic (technically a diabetes drug) from gray market websites. Fink-Jensen said it's a risky move, even under supervision, since we don't yet understand exactly how to use this drug for addiction.

"We really suggest that people should avoid prescribing these compounds now and wait for more strong data."

• Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed reporting.

• A 46-year-old man said he worked out for years without seeing the results he wanted.
• He achieved a more athletic physique and improved his strength and energy by tracking his routine.
• Counting macros like protein and increasing his workout intensity helped to burn fat and build muscle.

Getting older doesn't have to derail your gains if you make smart choices with your diet and workouts. That's according to a 46-year-old man who transformed his fitness.

Gerry Skehan, a communications professional based in Berlin, had always gone to the gym regularly, but working a desk job for more than a decade took a toll. He wasn't seeing the same progress as in his 20s, despite working out just as hard.

"Since turning 40, I felt that it was natural that I would develop a dad bod," he told Business Insider. "I wanted to look like someone who is exercising and I felt like I didn't."

While there's nothing wrong with a dad bod, Skehan wanted to break through his fitness plateau.

In August 2024, he started working with Adam Enaz, a personal trainer and dietitian who specializes in fitness transformations.

In the half a year since, Skehan said, he has improved his strength and energy, seen more defined muscle, and lost fat. His routine involved keeping tabs on his calories, protein, and exercise weight and reps.

"Despite your age, you can really achieve at lot," Skehan said. "Before I started, was feeling quite sluggish. This has rebooted me. I feel a lot more lively and spring out of bed in the morning."

For fat loss, count calories and protein

Skehan said paying attention to his diet was the first step in burning fat and achieving better muscle definition, since he would previously overeat without realizing.

"It was more about being aware of what I'm consuming. In the past I had no idea how many calories I was having," he said.

Since working with Enaz, he follows daily and weekly goals for protein and calories. While he mostly eats home-cooked meals, a flexible plan which means he still enjoys social events or an occassion indulgent day without getting off track overall.

"I'm able to go for a drink or go for dinner with friends as long as it fits the goal," Skehan said. "Sometimes I don't hit all the correct macros but at the end of the week it's taken into account. It doesn't feel like this obsessive thing. It's pretty easy to stick to."

A flexible approaching to dieting can make it easier to sustain over time, and consistency is more effective than maintaining a strict plan, dietitians previously told Business Insider.

Build strength and muscle by tracking workouts

Skehan's current routine includes four to five sessions per week, with full-body workouts to hit each muscle group using exercises like lunges, squats, bench presses, and shoulder presses.

He uses combination of free weights and gym equipment like the Smith machine, which is like a barbell rack with rails and safety ledges so the bar can only move up or down. That provides more support and prevents the bar from swinging sideways or dropping.

The routine provides the best of both worlds in functional strength and muscle gains, according to his trainer. "Machine-based exercise is more stable so they can go heavier," Enaz said.

To build muscle — and see the results quickly — it's essential to consistently increase the weight or reps (known as progressive overload), Enaz said.

"It's easy to see and track. In the past when I had trained, I didn't feel like things were as precise," Skehan said. "I actually look forward to it, it doesn't feel like a burden."

Stay spry with mobility exercise for better gains

A few minutes of stretching in each workout has made a big difference for Skehan in terms of how he feels and his exercise performance, too.

"Any time I don't stretch, things tend to bother me," he said.

Improving your mobility (especially as you get older) can help you avoid getting hurt, and also lead to more gains, since limitations in your movement can actually impair muscle growth, according to Enaz.

"People in their 20s, their bodies are more flexible and less prone to injury," Enaz said. "Range of motion is really important."

• Eggs are no longer the affordable high-protein staple they used to be.
• Eating a wide range of protein sources can help you get all the essential nutrients you need.
• Yolks are also a source of other nutrients, which you can find in carrots and mushrooms.

The cost of eggs has skyrocketed over the past year, and gym goers are feeling the burn in their budgets. The once affordable staple for gains has more than doubled in price in recent years.

Sure, Peloton stars can still afford to slurp egg whites every morning — but for the rest of us, how on earth we're supposed to get enough protein and not go broke?

"If I have a busy day and want to feel full, I'll have eggs for breakfast. Now, I wince — but I still buy them," Nancy Clark, a registered sports dietitian and author, told Business Insider. "Eggs are indeed nutrient-dense, and they're highly satiating,"

Fear not. Some of the best (and cheapest) sources of protein are still readily available at your local grocery store.

The combo of protein, fat, and nutrients is a tough act to match.

2 large eggs contain about 12g protein and 150 calories.

"Optimally, you want to have protein at every meal," Clark said, ideally 20-30 grams per sitting.

But you can expand your protein roster with alternatives like legumes, seeds, and low-fat dairy as the foundation of healthy, satisfying meals that won't break the bank.

1. Beans are rich in protein and fiber

One of the biggest contenders for affordable, versatile protein is the humble bean.

Dietitians call them a longevity superfood because beans offer benefits beyond just protein, packing a dose of fiber, which curbs cravings and nurtures heart health. Nutrients like magnesium and folate in beans support healthy muscles.

They're also cheap (less than $2 per pound) and widely available, shelf-stable (both canned and dried are healthy) and go well in a variety of recipes from soups and sides to main courses and even dessert.

1 cup of beans contains about 15 g protein and 230 calories

Clark recommends adding chickpeas to a salad for lunch.

The classic combination of beans with rice offers a range of amino acids, building blocks of protein, to fuel muscle recovery, and carbs for energy and muscle growth, making for a perfect after-gym dinner.

2. Nuts and seeds are packed with vitamins

Bulk-buying almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and cashews, and flax, chia, pumpkin, or hemp seeds can help expand the protein options in your pantry.

A ¼ cup of almonds contains about 7 g protein and 170 calories. A ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds contains 10 g protein and 160 calories.

Seeds can replace eggs in more ways than just providing protein, as flax and chia seeds can act as a binding agent in baked goods like muffins or homemade energy bars.

Chia seed pudding is a filling, high-protein breakfast you can customize with your favorite fruits for a dose of healthy fats and anti-inflammatory nutrients to start the day.

Nuts and seeds are also a great source of nutrients like zinc and magnesium.

Use almonds and the like to help round out breakfasts like oatmeal or a yogurt parfait to make it more filling, Clark recommends. They can also make a good replacement for hard-boiled eggs as a snack to get a good dose of protein between meals.

"Try nuts instead of eggs for snacks if you're budget conscious," she said.

3. High-protein yogurt and cheese

Enterprising omnivores can still get a protein fix from foods like yogurt and cheese.

"Dairy is an excellent source of high-quality protein," Clark said.

Low-fat Greek yogurt and cottage cheese both offer a high ratio of protein to calories.

The probiotics in fermented dairy like yogurt also offer a boost to your gut health, thanks to beneficial bacteria.

1 cup of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt contains 23 g protein and 134 calories. 1 oz Parmesan cheese contains about 10 g protein and 112 calories.

Hard cheeses are also surprisingly protein-dense, with varieties like Parmesan and Swiss offering a solid nutritional boost to meals like pasta or sandwiches.

4. Whole grains have protein and essential minerals

Another pantry staple with a surprising bit of extra protein: whole grains, which Clark said can add up to help you hit your daily protein target.

High-protein grains include oats, buckwheat, farro, quinoa (technically a seed, but cooked as a grain).

1 cup of quinoa contains about 8 g protein and 222 calories. 1 cup of oats contain about 6 g protein and 166 calories.

Cooked alongside other protein sources like dairy and legumes, they offer a well-rounded meal with fiber for satiety and nutrients like iron and magnesium.

Eat the rainbow to get other nutrients eggs provide

The challenge of replacing eggs in your diet is that they offer much more than just protein, Clark said. Eggs provide a little bit of a lot of important vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, calcium.

The trick to balancing out those benefits is a strategy sometimes called "eating the rainbow," opting for a diversity of food sources that correspond with different nutrients based on different hues.

"Eggs are colorful, so match those colors and eat colorfully," Clark said. Here's how:

• White produce like onions, bananas and potatoes provide nutrients like B vitamins, potassium, and magnesium.
• To match the bright yellow and orange hue of egg yolks, reach for squash and carrots to get folate and vitamin A.
• Eggs also provide nutrients like choline and vitamin D that people are more likely to be deficient in. Produce like mushrooms and broccoli are good sources of those nutrients to try instead.

• Cody Rigsby said protein helps him stay healthy and energized as he ages.
• The Peloton star drinks a cup of egg whites every morning.
• He said protein is key for building muscle to promote healthy aging as well as fitness.

At 37, Peloton star Cody Rigsby knows he's getting on in age. He's been a fitness icon for over a decade, back-up dancing for pop stars and leading some of the most popular spin classes out there.

Staying active, ironically, helps him keep up with his high-energy lifestyle and avoid slowing down with age, Rigsby said.

His other top priority? Getting enough protein.

"When I look at myself and I compare myself to some of my peers, I think that I'm in better shape and able to do so much more because I'm so physically active and I take care of my nutrition," Rigsby told Business Insider.

Full disclosure, our interview was organized by the protein bar company Fulfil, which he has partnered with. Rigsby spoke effusively about the new line of chocolate and caramel protein bars, saying even his picky-eating mom loves them and ate his entire stash. ("I was just like, you know what sis? If you are really enjoying these, then I'm so proud of you," Rigbsy said.)

He also spoke more broadly about the ways protein keeps him in shape. Protein is a key component for building muscle, a crucial part of getting the the most out of your workouts and also staying strong and healthy as you age.

"You're putting in so much work, you're showing up to the workouts, you're sweating, you're doing hard things, and if you want to feel that change, I really do believe that nutrition component is really important to it," Rigsby told BI. "And I think the foundation of that nutrition plan is really protein intake."

Here are his tips to easily get more protein in your diet:

Build your meal around protein to curb cravings

Rigsby said he drinks a cup of egg whites every morning — about 30 grams worth of protein. The rest of his day is planned around animal-based protein sources, including steak, chicken, and salmon.

If you want to live longer and stay healthy as you age, there's good evidence strength training to build muscle can help. To do that, it's crucial to get enough protein, an essential nutrient for for building and maintain muscle tissue.

"More lean muscle mass that we're building throughout our lives helps us live a healthier lifestyle as we're getting older," Rigsby said.

While Rigsby said he loves a bag of chips, he will add it as a side to a meal with protein and veggies instead of a stand-alone snack so it's easier to enjoy in moderation.

"You make a complete meal around it so that you're not just snacking, you're feeling satiated," he said.

A little bit of planning goes a long way

Rigsby doesn't track his every bite. He has enough experience counting macronutrients like carbs and protein that he doesn't need to think too much about meal planning.

If you're just starting out on a weight-loss or muscle-building journey, and have the means, he recommends trying out a meal delivery service that curates healthy meals to know you have your nutrition dialed in.

If you have a balanced meal plan, you can factor in some flexibility to enjoy food without feeling guilty or nervous.

"I've got my day so planned out that I know, OK, I'm going to eat this at this time, and it all kind of works out and balances," Rigsby said.

Focus on being consistent instead of perfect

Rigbsy said it's also important to be honest about the tradeoffs when it comes to meeting your health goals.

"I feel like with anything, whether it be fitness or nutrition, there is going to be a sucky part to it," he said.

Being healthy and staying in shape doesn't mean you need to eat chicken and broccoli for every meal.

"I don't think that we need to go fully into this bro diet of everything needs to be perfect," Rigsby said. "Something I've been really moving into right now is don't let perfect be the enemy of good."

Rigsby has previously said he aims to make about 80% of his diet healthy and the rest more relaxed (sometimes called the 80/20 rule).

His advice is to have a general idea of how much protein and how many calories you're aiming for, taking some time to track your food if needed. Then find a balance of eating what you enjoy that hits your targets most of the time.

"Sometimes we hyperfixate on the meal being so perfect, the right macros, so much protein, low in fat, whatever it is," Rigsby said. "I would rather you have an imperfect meal that still had lots of protein, kept you satiated and gave your body energy than waiting throughout the day and potentially not nourishing your body just so that you got to the perfect meal."

• The dietitian for the Philadelphia Eagles said players benefit from under-the-radar proteins like quinoa.
• He aims to balanced carbs and protein in players' diets for peak performance on game day.
• Nutrients like B vitamins, collagen, and antioxidants help boost recovery after hard exercise.

Leading up to Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs have beef — literally. The team's executive chef said in an interview that players swear by a protein-heavy breakfast of steak and rice.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles are loading up on bone broth and breakfast quinoa.

Roman Montijo, the Eagles' performance chef and registered dietitian, told Business Insider their pre-game fuel is all about variety and maximizing recovery.

With more than 50 players on the roster, Montijo says he works on optimizing nutrition and performance for each player's unique needs.

Montijo takes into account individual factors, such as a player's role on the team, to decide the right balance of macronutrients like carbs and protein.

"You can imagine the planning that goes into making sure everyone's needs and preferences are taken into account. We might switch up protein sources — chicken, steak, seafood, maybe even venison for variety — but modify the macro ratio for each respective player's plate," Montijo told Business Insider in an interview last fall, coordinated by MyFitnessPal, the official nutrition tracking app of the Philadelphia Eagles franchise.

Different protein sources offer different nutrients, so mixing them up can help ensure you're getting the most out of your meals.

"Right now, quinoa and bone broth, both great sources of protein, are team favorites," Montijo said.

Here are the potential benefits of adding them to your menu.

Quinoa packs protein, carbs, and minerals in one dish

While technically a seed, quinoa is often eaten like a grain, as a vegan and gluten-free side dish, or as an ingredient in salads, soups, and bowls. It's a good source of plant-based protein at 8 grams a serving, containing more than staples such as rice or oats.

It's also a complete protein that contains all nine essential amino acids and is rich in micronutrients such as folate, iron, magnesium, and zinc.

Quinoa provides a healthy dose of carbohydrates, which can fuel exercise and recovery, especially for elite athletes who need plenty of gas in the tank.

"It's important that we provide quick and sustainable sources of energy for our athletes when they're exercising, and depending on the intensity of that effort, we need to tune the macros to ensure the energy source will last through providing carbohydrate-rich foods," Montijo said.

Quinoa is also rich in B-vitamins and magnesium which help support healthy energy levels, and antioxidants to help ease the inflammation that can come from hard exercise.

Bone broth is rich in protein, amino acids, and collagen

Another trendy food that's caught on with the Eagles is bone broth, made from simmering animal bones in water. The result is full of protein (about 10 grams a serving), including collagen, which makes up connective tissues such as tendons and ligaments and supports healthy bones and muscles.

Bone broth can help replenish electrolytes after a workout and also provides a healthy dose of amino acids, which can boost recovery.

"A player's next performance begins as soon as the previous one ends. Recovery is incredibly important for our team, not only for improved performance but also to reduce the risk of injury," Montijo said. "We're making sure that the macro mix includes carbohydrates and protein, along with micronutrients which help with muscle repair and recovery."

You can add bone broth in recipes such as soups, use it to cook grains such as rice and quinoa, or sip on it by itself.

Rounding out their roster of recovery beverages, players also drink beet juice during exercise, and tart cherry juice afterward, team chef James Sirles told MyFitnesspal.

The Chiefs' dietitian, Leslie Bonci, serves up a recovery smoothie with similar ingredients.

That's because beet juice may help boost endurance, thanks to nutrients that improve blood flow to the muscles.

Tart cherry juice may ease muscle aches, improve sleep, and speed recovery because of its anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Montijo said on the Eagles that each player's menu looks slightly different, based on adjustments for personal preference and needs.

"There's no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition and its role in achieving our overall team's and individual athletes' health goals," he said.

• A woman in her late 30s finally saw the results she wanted in the gym, burning fat and getting stronger.
• Since May 2024, she transformed her fitness by eating more protein and lifting weights reguarly.
• Her personal trainer said full-body workouts can help you lose weight without long hours of exercise.

With a milestone 40th birthday coming up, Sanduni Gamage decided the best gift she could give herself would be to finally get in shape.

At 39 years old and balancing exercise with a desk job, she was started to feel frustrated after her efforts at the gym didn't seemed to pay off.

"I had been trying to reduce my weight for a very long time, but I didn't see anything different," Gamage told Business Insider. "I just thought this was how my body is."

Gamage, an accountant based in Ottawa, said her brother had recently gotten into shape and built six-pack abs with the help of a personal trainer, so she reached out.

Working with Adam Enaz, a personal trainer and dietitian who specializes in fitness transformations, she made a few simple but significant changes to her diet and exercise routine.

Less than a year later, she's lost a total of about 35 pounds and trimmed inches from her waistline. She also said she's gotten stronger, has more energy, and fixed knee pain and back pain.

"My knees were noisy, it would hurt to go up stairs. Now I feel so energetic," she said.

Gamage said her progress was the result of simple but sustainable changes: tweaking her diet to include more protein, and doing full-body strength workouts with a focus on glute exercise.

A high-protein meal plan

Gamage said one of the biggest mistakes she had made in her earlier attempts to lose weight was ignoring her nutrition. Her eating habits involved a lot of Southeast Asian cuisine full of carbs and oils and light on protein.

"I didn't follow a diet plan or anything," she said.

Enaz developed a diet plan for Gamage: three meals and two snacks a day, cutting calories with the aim to lose about a pound per week. Each plate centered high-protein staples like Greek yogurt, chicken, and fish.

"For the first two to three weeks it was hard, because it was the opposite of what I was used to," she said.

Meal-prep helped, making her weekday meals in advance.

She also found ways to incorporates high-protein ingredients into her favorite meals such as using Greek yogurt instead of coconut milk for curry.

On the weekends, Gamage said she remained a bit more flexible in what she ate She still enjoyed dining out and other social events, sticking to her calorie and protein goals as much as possible and picking smaller portions.

"I would just take little bites and that helped me a lot," she said.

Weightlifting workouts

Gamage said full-body strength training was the staple of her workouts to burn fat, with an extra focus on glute exercise.

She hits the gym four times a week, and each session is about an hour.

The workout kicks off with a bit of cardio on the treadmill or step stepper, then four exercises each for upper and lower body. Gamage said she does three sets of each exercise and aims to do each set to muscle failure — meaning she can't do another rep.

For upper body, she does exercises like:

• shoulder presses
• tricep extensions
• chest presses
• lat pulldowns

Exercises for lower body and the one day a week dedicated to glutes include:

• Bulgarian split squats
• leg extensions
• deadlifts
• reverse lunges
• hip thrusts

Many of the workouts include free weights like dumbbells, which help build core strength by requiring the body to stabilize more during the movement.

Enaz told Business Insider these techniques can help people work smarter instead of harder to build muscle and burn fat without long, grueling workouts.

"A lot of people that I work with really struggle with losing fat and getting in shape," he said. "There's a misunderstanding that you just need to do loads of exercise."

For Gamage, the key was making changes she could stick to, and being able to see the changes over time as she eventually had to upgrade her whole wardrobe to keep up with the weight loss.

"It's not fast, it's time-consuming, but I think it's sustainable," she said.

• In a study of 777 older people, omega-3 supplements slowed biological aging.
• Researchers found that taking a gram of omega-3s daily reduced aging by up to 4 months.
• The effects were strongest when combined with vitamin D supplements and regular exercise.

Omega-3 fatty acids — nutrients in salmon and chia seeds — may keep your body and mind younger for longer, a new study suggests.

An international team of scientists, including researchers from Harvard University and the University of Zurich, analyzed clinical trial results 777 elderly Swiss adults to test the potential anti-aging benefits of supplements and exercise.

While there's no perfect way to measure biological aging, the researchers used tools that help measure age-related decline in the cells and organs, including factors like brain health and heart health.

They looked at participants who underwent one of eight longevity treatments over three years, including exercising and supplementing omega-3s, vitamin D, or both.

The researchers found that older adults who consumed a gram of omega-3s every day were biologically younger and healthier than their peers who didn't supplement the nutrient — shaving off three to four months of aging during the course of three years.

The benefits were even greater in people who also supplemented vitamin D and did at-home exercise at least three times a week for 30 minutes.

The results were published February 3 in the journal Nature Aging.

Anti-aging treatments don't have to be expensive, experts say

Most of the previous research on longevity and omega-3s has been observational, which means it suggests — but does not confirm — a link between the nutrient and certain anti-aging benefits.

Research has linked omega-3-rich diets to reduced inflammation, better joint health, a lower risk of heart disease and cancer, and a lower risk of dementia.

If additional studies pan out, omega-3s could be an attractive, affordable alternative to expensive anti-aging treatments that are currently trendy.

Mary Ni Lochlainn, a research fellow in geriatric medicine at King's College London who was not involved in the study, said this latest study should inspire people to try cheaper longevity methods.

"It adds to the growing evidence that these simple and fairly low-cost interventions are beneficial and, based on this and previous existing research, worth engaging in for adults as they get older," Lochlainn said in a press release.

• Exercise is crucial for longevity, but fitness priorities change as you age through your 30s and 40s.
• A personal trainer said training for your age can help maintain a healthy, active life over decades.
• Strength training is the foundation of healthy aging, along with stability, recovery, and cardio.

Stop putting off fitness for a longer life — if you want to be strong, athletic, and active in your 80s and beyond, now is the time to start.

One of the biggest fitness mistakes is failing to prioritize long-term fitness goals, according to Ollie Thompson, a UK-based personal trainer who specializes in longevity. He said working with clients in their 40s and older changed his own approach to fitness.

"People aren't thinking about it until they're too late," Thompson told Business Insider.

A bit of planning ahead by combining smart strength training exercises, cardio, and good recovery habits can help you stay spry for decades to come, according to Thompson.

"It's about living better, how can you stay capable and healthy throughout the years," he said.

Prioritize strength training in your 20s

Thompson said the foundation of longevity fitness is strength training as early as possible.

Forget about maxing out on the bench press. While challenging yourself and progressing over time is key, overtraining a few movements can backfire by causing repetitive injuries over time.

"What happens when you go to do something else and you're only strong in that position and you're weak in positions that the body is supposed to move in?" Thompson said.

Instead, more varied exercises, a range of intensities, and weightlifting plus cardio can offer more bang for your buck in terms of longevity.

Try functional movements like lunges and weighted carries, along with dynamic exercise like kettlebell swings for well-rounded fitness.

Focus on keeping healthy habits in your 30s

It can seem more difficult to stay in shape or get fit in your 30s, but it doesn't have to be, according to Thompson.

"We tend to overemphasize those changes," he said. "The biggest thing is that life starts to get more serious. Maybe you put health and fitness on the backburner."

Physiologically, there's no special way to exercise differently in your 30s, since you still want to aim for building muscle and doing some cardio.

Thompson said the major difference is figuring out how to fit exercise into your busy schedule. Spending time in your 30s to make a consistent fitness habit is an investment in making and maintaining gains as you get older.

"It's a peak time to build up strength and resilience around the joints as well as muscle mass so as you start to get older, you'll have a bit of a safety net," Thompson said.

Add more stability exercises in your 40s

Once you hit 40, there's no need to reinvent your workouts. Regular strength training is crucial, and more cardio is a good idea to bolster your health, Thompson said.

You may want to slightly adjust the type of strength training you do by adding more core and stability-focused movements like planks, step-ups, and single-leg deadlifts.

Better stability can help keep you mobile, protect your joints, and prevent injury.

"It's quite common for people to overcomplicate things by thinking they need to do a certain thing in their 30s and then change things again in their 40s," Thompson said. "It's not about changing the big picture, it's about being a bit more sensible."

Your 50s and beyond are all about maintenance and recovery

Once you start getting older, the biggest priority is making sure you can stay active while giving your body more time to recover from workouts.

Sleep and good nutrition are more important than ever. You should keep working out, but make sure the intensity is manageable. The goal is maintaining healthy pain-free movement, Thompson said.

It's never too late to get started in fitness, or to return to it after some time off.

To get into the gym as an older adult, look for workouts that make you feel good or that have a social component like a strong community that will keep you coming back for more.

"It's finding a mode of exercise you can find some enjoyment and repetition in," Thompson said.

• A 43-year-old triathlete was sidelined by a hip injury from sitting too much and could barely walk.
• He said working with a physical therapist on hip stretching and strengthening got him back to running.
• Eating more protein also helped fuel his recovery as he prepped for the toughest triathlon in the world.

In the first ten minutes of his run, Pablo Sampaio knew something wasn't right.

The 43-year-old Michigan resident was in his second day of a weekend conference, sitting for about 10 hours each day before hitting the hotel gym to train for an upcoming triathlon.

With just a few months left to get ready, he decided to run multiple days in a row, between conference events, despite his trainer's warning not to.

The first day was fine. The second day, Sampaio felt pain but pushed through to complete the workout. The third day, he could barely walk.

"I knew I messed something up," Sampaio told Business Insider. "I couldn't land on my feet without excruciating pain."

His triathlon was three months away, and it wasn't an ordinary race — the Norseman is considered the toughest triathlon on the planet. To Sampaio, it had been bucket list event ever since he attempted but couldn't finish it in 2014.

"I made a lot of rookie mistakes. It haunted me for a decade," he said.

But he couldn't move without pain, let alone think about tackling the Ironman-style event: a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and full marathon of running, much of which is uphill (or in this case, up a mountain).

With the help of physical therapists, Sampaio said a consistent program of stretching, simple exercises, and recovery habits helped him offset the damage from a desk job and finally finish his bucket list race injury-free.

Hip flexor stretches help offset the damage from sitting

Long hours at a desk job, combined with lengthy endurance workouts, had twisted Sampaio's pelvis, according to Andrey Simeonovski, a physical therapist who worked with him.

"When he came in, he wasn't able to do anything," Simeonovski told BI. "Because he was training so hard and sitting so long, his hip flexors tightened so much they pulled his pelvis into rotation."

To help stretch the hip flexors, Sampaio did exercises like:

• Modified pigeon pose — Pigeon pose in yoga typically involves having one leg extended along the ground with the other bent at a 90 degree angle in front of your body. An alternate version can be done by elevating the front leg on a box or bench for less pressure.
• Figure-four stretch — Start by lying on the ground face-up, bend one knee toward your chest, and then cross your opposite ankle over the knee. Gently pull your knee closer to your chest to increase the stretch if needed and hold.
• Half-kneeling rock — From a kneeling position, extend one leg out to the side with the foot flat on the ground. Slowly rock backward, stretching the front of your hip, return to the starting position, and repeat.

Sampaio said his PT team also did a lot of manual therapy like soft tissue mobilization, and later had Sampaio use a kettlebell to put pressure on tight spots (like an extra-intense version of foam rolling) which was uncomfortable but effective.

"A lot of it was just trusting the process and trusting the team, " Sampaio said.

Strengthening the glutes can fix lower back pain

Problems with the hips and back are common for people who work a desk job, but fixing muscle imbalances can help.

Simeonovski said that helping Sampaio run without pain involved strengthening his glutes and hip muscles like the extensors with exercises like:

• Glute bridges — Start by lying face-up with both heels on the ground and knees bent at 90 degrees. Push your feet into the ground to lift your hips up. Variations like using one leg at a time or wrapping a resistance band around your hips can make the exercise more challenging and help address imbalances.
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts — Holding a weight like a kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand, lift one leg off the floor straight out behind you, hinging your hips back and keeping your pelvis parallel to the ground as you balance on the working leg until the weight reaches about shin height. Return to the starting position by pushing through the standing leg and bringing your hips forward.

The key to relieving pain and imbalances with glute and hip exercise is performing them slowly with control and perfect form.

"They can be frustrating because they seem very simple. But it's very easy to compensate instead of isolating the proper muscles," Simeonovski said.

Sampaio said progress felt slow, but his patience started to pay off as the race approached.

"It probably wasn't up until two weeks before the race where I did a two-hour run," he said. "It was a huge milestone for me. I wasn't pain free but I thought, I can swing this."

Eating more protein and hydrating is key to recovery

Sampaio said better nutrition and recovery habits also helped him bounce back from injury.

For one thing, he found as a vegan, he was only eating about 50 grams of protein a day — the typical recommended amount of protein is around 140 to 150 grams daily for an athlete of his size.

He noticed a major improvement in how he felt after eating more plant-based protein sources like tofu and lentils and supplementing with protein shakes.

"That changed the game, I felt like I had more energy, I was recovering faster," Sampaio said.

He also drank more water at his doctor's recommendation.

Still, Sampaio wasn't sure if it he was ready to tackle the Norseman, even the morning of the race. It wasn't until he took his first step off the bike and could run pain-free that he felt a sense of hope, and said the triumph and closure as he finished the final mile was one of the best moments of his life.

"To this day I'm still in disbelief," Sampaio said. "There was so much suffering involved, there was a lot of grief, but crossing that finish line was amazing."

• If you get knee pain or injuries in the gym, that could be from sitting all day.
• Exercises that strengthen and stretch the leg muscles effectively will help protect knees.
• For healthier joints, aim to move regularly and work on your balance and stability.

Simple exercises can help prevent knee pain from derailing your routine, according to a physical therapist.

Andrey Simeonovski, a physical therapy doctor, recently spent a week in Kathmandu as part of Operation Walk, helping rehabilitate patients who'd had knee replacement surgeries.

He said a major takeaway from the experience is that consistently putting your body through the same motions can cause problems, whether you're sitting all day or doing repetitive physical tasks.

"It's a variety of movements that are important for your health in your body," Simeonovski said.

Here are some exercises that offer your joints a range of motion to strengthen the surrounding muscles. As always, it's best to work with a qualified trainer, or talk to a doctor first if you have existing injuries.

Lateral "monster walks" can relieve knee and back pain

Resistance bands are a great tool for strengthening muscles that help stabilize the knee joint.

Simeonovski said a common exercise he uses for the knees, hips, and back is the "monster walk," taking steps from side to side with a band around the legs or feet.

The band provide tension to engage the glutes, which can be underdeveloped from sitting all day, so firing them up helps to stabilize the rest of the body.

"It reduces strain on the low back," Simeonovski said.

Quad stretches help take pressure off your knees

Knee pain can often result from tightness in the quads, which then pull on the knee and create problems, according to Simeonovski.

A couch stretch can help lengthen and loosen up the quads while opening up the hip flexors.

Simeonovski typically recommends an elevated version of the stretch, which is easier on the knee:

Rest one knee on a bench or box near the wall. Bend that knee while moving the shin and top of the foot to rest flat up against the wall.

If it's painful, ease up on the stretch, especially if you have an injury.

Simeonovski said the best way to avoid injury is pay attention — if something is painful enough that it's distracting, or if you stop the exercise and the pain persists, don't continue.

"Pain that lingers is a red flag," he said.

Hamstring curls can protect your knees from injury

Simeonovski said the hamstrings, the muscles on the back of the leg, are often overlooked. We tend to focus on the quads on the front of the leg. But that can increase the risk of damaging ligaments in the knee because the quads can put too much pressure on the ACL without the hamstrings to counteract them.

To strengthen the hamstrings, try Nordic hamstring curls.

Start in a kneeling position with your feet secured (you can use a special mat or bench, tuck them under a couch or other furniture, or have someone hold them). Keeping your torso, hips, and shoulders in a straight line, slowly lower yourself to the ground, landing on your hands as if in the bottom of push-up.

This exercise can be challenging. If you feel like you don't have control, use a resistance band secured behind you to help offset some of your body weight. That will make the movement easier.

Step-ups strengthen the knee and help fix imbalances

One of Simeonovski's go-to exercises for improving lower body strength and joint health is the step-up.

Stand in front of a stool, bench, box, or stairs, and place one foot on the elevated surface. Pressing through that foot, lift your body up onto the step, and then return to the starting position. Repeat, alternating the starting foot.

Step-ups are low-impact and work the glutes, hamstrings, and quads as well as the core muscles. Alternating sides can also help improve your balance.

Go slow and gradually increase weight, height, or intensity as you get comfortable with the exercise. Squats and lunges offer similar benefits, but may need modifications if you have an existing injury.

Simeonovski said he prefers these movements to exercises like knee extensions, which aren't necessarily bad for your joints, but don't offer as much stability.

Rotational exercise helps to offset damage from sitting

Tightness in one area can cause a chain reaction and create aches and issues elsewhere.

For instance, back problems can worsen strain and pressure on the knees.

That's why Simeonovski recommends the open book exercise for patients who have knee pain and spend lots of time sitting. It doesn't directly involve the knees but can improve overall mobility.

Lie on a mat or the floor with your knees and hips bent at 90 degrees and your arms extended in front of you. Slowly rotate the top arm up and across your body as far as you comfortably can, gently twisting your spine. Return to the starting position and repeat, being sure to perform the exercise on both sides.

You can also do a similar rotation from a half-kneeling position.

Take breaks for movement throughout the day

The key to strengthening and protecting your joints is consistency, especially if you sit all day, according to Simeonovski.

Find opportunities to get up and move around at regular intervals, setting an alarm if needed to remind yourself to take a stretch break, go for a short walk, or otherwise give your body a rest from repetition.

"Staying in one position is a problem long-term," he said.

• Ham, hot dogs, and other processed red meats are increasingly linked to health problems.
• Eating processed meat regularly may raise the odds of developing dementia, cancer, and heart disease.
• Studies suggest switching to foods like beans and fish instead helps improve longevity and health.

Bacon, ham, and sausage could be shaving healthy years off your life, growing evidence suggests. Research over the past few years has linked processed meats to a higher risk of illnesses like cancer, heart disease, and most recently, cognitive decline and dementia.

Like other ultra-processed foods, processed meats typically contain additives like salt, sugar, and preservatives to keep them shelf stable.

Scientists say there's plenty more research to be done to confirm a direct cause-and-effect link between meats and disease risk.

So far, the latest science offers five compelling reasons to cut back on processed meat.

Link to higher risk of dementia

Daniel Wang, nutrition professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently authored a study which found eating as little as two slices of bacon or a hot dog daily can age your brain.

Wang and his team studied data from more than 130,000 American healthcare workers over more than four decades.

His analysis found that people were more likely to develop dementia if they ate processed meat regularly. Eating a quarter of a serving daily, on average, was enough to make a difference, according to the data. People who ate processed meat were also more likely to self-report symptoms of cognitive decline like memory problems or loss of concentration.

Their brains also aged more quickly, measuring about 1.6 years older per serving of processed meat.

The findings were shared in a preliminary presentation in August 2024, and published January 15 in the journal Neurology.

Nitrates in bacon and ham may increase cancer risk

Foods like deli meat, ham, and bacon get flavor and color from substances called nitrates, which also stave off bacteria.

Nitrates are also a known carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization, because they can form cancer-causing compounds.

Nitrates are particularly linked to higher risk of some cancers — a 2022 study found that eating more of them was linked to higher risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

2 servings of bacon puts you at risk of high blood pressure

Sodium, or salt, is another ingredient that gives processed meats flavor and prevent spoiling.

Too much salt contributes to high blood pressure, known as hypertension, by causing your body to hold on to more fluid. Current dietary guidelines recommending sticking to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. A serving of bacon has more than half the daily allowance at 1,430 mg, while a serving of ham or sausage has between 760 to more than 1,000 mg.

Reducing your blood pressure to healthy levels by eating less sodium can help prevent heart attack and stroke.

Preservatives in meat linked to Type 2 diabetes

Nitrates and other stabilizing ingredients in processed meat may also increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to some research. Scientists suspect that's because the preservatives can damage the pancreas which helps regulate blood sugar.

While most diabetes prevention focuses on managing carb and sugar intake, cutting back on processed red meat may be helpful too.

Red meat and heart disease

Bacon, sausage, ham, and other processed red meats also tend to be high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which studies have linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular problems like heart disease.

The research is complex, since diets high in processed meat tend to be high in other processed foods, making it difficult to work out which foods are the culprit in certain health risks.

Still, the latest recommendations advise limiting saturated fat and cholesterol for a healthy heart.

Swap in fish, beans, and nuts for healthier aging

Eating for longevity isn't just about cutting out unhealthy foods, but also eating more nutrient-dense foods.

Some of the world's healthiest ways to eat, from the Mediterranean diet to the MIND diet, are high in longevity superfoods like beans and nuts.

Here are some options:

• Try replacing one daily serving of processed red meat with nuts or legumes — in Wang's recent study, that was linked to about 20% lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
• Switch to seafood. That was linked to 26% lower dementia risk in the study.
• Add berries, leafy greens, olive oil, and whole grains to your diet. They're rich in nutrients like fiber, healthy fats, and magnesium, which help support a healthy brain, gut, and heart.

• Increasingly, young people with clean diets and healthy lifestyles are getting colon cancer.
• Doctors say diet plays a role in the rising risk, but doesn't tell the whole story.
• We are learning more about ways microplastics, sleep cycles, and our environment may play a role.

At 30, Chris Lopez was hitting his stride. He was attending culinary arts school in Dallas. He was meal prepping and hitting the gym regularly, focused on getting a degree and setting up his life right.

His symptoms were easy to dismiss, at least at first. "I had a real bad stomach ache that was going on for about a month," he told Business Insider. "I thought, 'Oh, maybe I ate some sushi, some fish or something that was undercooked.'"

Except food poisoning doesn't typically last for weeks on end, and doesn't leave blood in your stool. He rapidly lost weight, from 175 pounds to 145 in a single summer — without eating less. "I was pretty much like a skeleton," he said.

Lopez went to his doctor, who eventually decided to do a colonoscopy to learn more. That's when they discovered a "grapefruit-sized" tumor in his colon, he said. Lopez saw the scan and couldn't believe his eyes. Colon cancer? He was so young, healthy, and fit.

Stories like Lopez's are increasingly common. Colon cancer rates are rocketing among athletic young people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and survival rates are dropping.

Take Chris Rodriguez, a 37-year-old improv actor and CrossFit enthusiast who adheres to a high-fiber, high-protein diet, with plenty of veggies. He was 35 when he was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer.

"The question pops in your mind, 'What else was I supposed to do?'," Rodriguez told BI. "That's really the unfortunate thing with a diagnosis like this, is there isn't really much else that you're supposed to do, outside of looking for symptoms."

The most convenient explanations for the rise in young colon cancer are diet and weight. We know diet can influence colorectal cancer risk, and it's something people can fix, to a degree. Plus, our diets have changed. These days we all consume more sugar, more ultra-processed foods, more oil and butter, while moving less.

Still, doctors say the trend we're seeing now defies neat categories of genetics or lifestyle, and it's baffling. Other factors are clearly messing with our digestive systems, but they're tough to pinpoint. Pollution, microplastics, and artificial light — all are pervasive in society, yet very tricky to study.

Thanks to recent research, we are starting to get a better picture of why young colon cancer cases are rising, and we're on the cusp of some pretty big results that may uncover better ways to prevent and treat it.

Young colon cancer is getting deadlier and more common

Something shifted in the 1960s. Everyone born after 1960 has a higher colon cancer risk than previous generations. This phenomenon is known as the "birth cohort effect."

"The rise that we're seeing cannot just be accounted for by inherited differences," Dana Farber colon cancer researcher Dr. Marios Giannakis told BI.

In the US, young colon cancer rates have been rising about 3% every year since the early 1990s, according to National Cancer Institute data.

"We do think since genetics haven't changed, the cancers that are increasing are environmentally based," Dr. William Dahut, the chief science officer at the American Cancer Society, said during a recent briefing to reporters. "Exactly what's doing it is really — more research is needed."

The biggest cancer centers in the US are opening units to investigate this trend. In 2018, Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York opened a first-of-its-kind center for "young-onset" colorectal cancer patients. Dana Farber in Boston, Mass General, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Columbia University Irving Medical Center followed close behind, all opening special programs for young colon cancer cases.

In 2021, the CDC took action, lowering the age of recommended colon cancer screening from 50 to 45. It's an effort to catch more young colon cancer cases sooner, upping the odds of people surviving.

It isn't a uniquely American issue. Wealthy countries, in particular, are seeing similar spikes. New Zealand, Chile, Norway, and Turkey are among 27 countries recording record-high rates of young colon cancer.

Diets matter — to an extent

It's hard to dismiss the role our changing food landscape has played. We are undoubtedly eating worse than our grandparents did 100 years ago.

Take fiber, for example. Found in abundance in whole plant foods like beans, it is a nutrient clearly associated with lower risk of cancer.

Some of the most popular foods in US supermarkets — prepackaged for our convenience — tend to have fiber stripped out during processing, and extra salt, sugar, and oils added in to make them more palatable and shelf-stable.

It started in the aftermath of World War II, when industrial processing and factory farming took hold nationwide.

"Essentially we redeployed what had allowed the United States and allies to prevail in that war to non-military applications, and it completely transformed agriculture," Dr. David Katz, a leading expert in chronic disease prevention and nutrition, told BI.

"You only have a certain total number of calories you can eat per day, and if a higher percentage of those is made up of hamburgers and Pop-Tarts, then a lower percentage ipso facto is made up of lentils and all the other good stuff."

Ultra-processed foods now account for a significant proportion of what we eat. Excess sugar, salt, and chemicals lurk in pasta sauce, breakfast cereals, and salad dressing. Brown bread labeled "heart healthy" can have a higher sugar content than white Wonderbread.

Upsetting the balance of nutrients in our guts has consequences. Compounds that aren't necessarily harmful in moderation, like omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils, take up a disproportionate part of our diets. That can lead to inflammation, infection, and diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and, yes, colon cancer.

Your microbiome is not just about what you eat. It's influenced by myriad factors, from how you were born to your work schedule.

What else is going on?

Doctors and lab scientists who spoke to BI for this story all said the rise in millennials getting colon cancer likely won't be attributed to one single thing.

Shuji Ogino, an epidemiology professor at Harvard Medical School, has been studying young colon cancer cases across the world. He published a study in Nature that showed the early life "exposome" — diet, lifestyle, environment, exposures — has changed dramatically, becoming conducive to cancer.

We've introduced lots of new things to our environment without knowing the ramifications. Now, we're starting to see the long-term effects.

Something as simple as artificial light could play a role. "That's something no human being experienced 200 years ago," Ogino said. Lights allow us to work and socialize at all hours, impacting how our body clocks regulate hormones and metabolism.

Dr. Heinz-Josef Lenz, co-lead of the gastrointestinal cancer program at the University of Southern California cancer center, is also studying how the environment may be damaging our DNA in ways we don't yet understand.

His data so far suggests the trend of more younger folks developing colon cancer isn't genetic, but our genes may affect how we respond to our exposures — the processed food we eat, the antibiotics we take, and the polluted air we breathe.

"When you are 16 years old or 20 years old, you cannot blame it on diet or exercise or obesity — it's just too short," he said. "We're just scratching the surface on better understanding the impact of the parents, particularly in the young onset: was their exposure part of it, or not?"

Here are five things we're learning:

1. Sleep cycle

We can't separate gut health from our internal clock.

Gut bacteria help regulate sleep, which cuts cancer risk.

Emerging evidence suggests that disrupting the circadian rhythm creates problems in the gut that can contribute to colon cancer, according to studies in mice and data in humans. Our sleep can be derailed by late schedules and artificial light from our homes and phones, which may be one factor in rising colon cancer cases.

2. Microplastics in air and water

Increasingly, researchers are finding evidence that microplastics play a negative role in fertility.

They can also be pro-inflammatory, driving diseases like cancer and obesity, hurting lungs, and possibly helping cancer to thrive in the body.

A new evidence roundup from researchers at UCSF analyzed 22 studies that compared microplastic exposure to health problems in mice and people, and found that all of them showed some harm.

"We basically saw this continuous effect that the more you get exposed to it, so in our environment, the more it gets produced, the greater the health harm," Nicholas Chartres, one of the study's authors and a former head of the science and policy team at UCSF's program on reproductive health and the environment, told BI.

Chartres says the time is now to act to reduce our microplastic exposure, and it must be done at a policy level. At home, Chartres runs around the house throwing out his kids' plastic toys, but he knows he's playing a losing game of environmental whack-a-mole.

"We don't need to have specific quantification of the level of harm, there's enough here to show that they're certainly contributing," he said.

3. What your parents were exposed to

Lenz is conducting research that aims to unravel why so many Hispanic patients in Southern California seem to be especially at risk of developing early colon cancer.

His team is studying cancer patients' blood, DNA damage, lifestyles, and ZIP codes to pinpoint where their exposure risks might be coming from, whether it be overuse of antibiotics, pollution that families are exposed to, or something else.

"It could be an epigenetic event, not only from the patient itself but from the family, from the parents and their exposure," he said. "Epigenetics can be influenced by lifestyle and by exposure to chemicals, or whatever it is that will actually react."

4. Antibiotics

It is well established that antibiotics disrupt the gut microbiome, killing off some beneficial bacteria. And humans aren't the only antibiotic consumers.

Most of the antibiotics (73%) in use worldwide are for meat production, recent research suggests. Some meat advertised as antibiotic-free has failed independent testing.

Red meat consumption ups a person's colon cancer risk, and so does antibiotic use, but these two factors aren't necessarily separate.

5. C-section

Newborns are exposed to trillions of their mother's microbes as they travel through the birth canal, giving an infant's microbiome an initial boost. Kids who are delivered through the abdomen via cesarean section don't get those same health benefits.

Recent research from Sweden suggests girls who are born via c-section have a higher risk of developing young colon cancer than those born vaginally.

Major colon cancer discoveries coming in 2025-2026

In 2024, a group of international researchers mapped 1.6 million cells in the gut to create the most comprehensive picture to date — the "gut atlas."

"It's rare that any one study squeezes out all the relevant biological insights," Ivan Vujkovic-Cvijin, a professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, told Business Insider.

"By identifying which components of tissue function are dysregulated in disease, the scientific community can design drugs to restore those functions," he said.

There's more to come. Multiple big, well-funded multinational studies are underway, including a US-UK collaboration that's giving out interdisciplinary cancer grants to teams around the world. The studies are expected to release results this year and next.

2 ways to reduce your risk today

Until we know better what's going on, researchers and clinicians say there are two steps you can take to reduce colon cancer risk.

First, control what you can control.

"Let's focus on the stuff we can change," Dr. Cassandra Fritz, a gastroenterologist and colon cancer researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, tells her patients.

That means no smoking, regular exercise, less alcohol, reducing your intake of ultra-processed snacks and processed meats, and no sugary beverages — factors directly linked with colon cancer risk. You could also consider microwaving food in glass or ceramic instead of plastic.

Second, know the signs of colon cancer and do not be complacent about them. Many young cases are diagnosed too late, making treatment complicated.

These four symptoms can occur up to 18 months before a colon cancer diagnosis:

• Abnormal diarrhea that lasts for weeks
• Persistent abdominal pain
• Bloody stool (red, magenta, or black)
• Iron deficiency anemia (determined by a blood test)

Don't fear the process of getting checked, experts told BI. Anyone dealing with these persistent symptoms can ask their doctor for a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) that is noninvasive and costs just a few dollars.

"If there are symptoms which could be associated with colon cancer, make sure you get the screening and don't just accept that they're saying 'It's unlikely' or 'I've never seen it,'" Lenz said.

When it's spotted early, colon cancer is a very survivable disease.

• Personal trainer Harry King is 82 and said lifting weights has helped him manage arthritis pain.
• King works out five days a week doing bench presses, leg presses, and cardio on the elliptical.
• He said exercise allowed him to get back to an active lifestyle and makes everyday tasks easier.

When Harry King was in his 50s, a doctor told him the arthritis in his knees had gotten so bad, he needed to stop taking the stairs, and even limit walking whenever possible.

Now 82, King is not only walking, hiking, and working out regularly — he works at his local Planet Fitness as a personal trainer, leading others through their workouts.

"Weight training is the best thing I can do for my arthritis," he told Business Insider. "By exercising and weight training I've built up the muscles around the knee to strengthen it."

King said strength training has helped him get back to an active lifestyle. Over the years, he's earned a second-degree black belt and won two championships in karate, as well as kayaked and hiked across his home state of South Carolina.

"I realize I do more than most 82-year-olds," he said. "It's just a way of life for me. To get into it, you just have to take the first step and go to the gym."

He works out up to five days a week

King spent most of his younger years being active in sports. He started basketball in high school and kept up with it until about age 50,

It wasn't until he was diagnosed with arthritis that he slowed down and started to feel out of shape. But being sedentary worsened his aches and pains and started to limit what he could do. King said he knew it was time for a change when he had an opportunity to hike the Matterhorn in the Alps, but wasn't physically ready.

"I vowed to let that never happen again, to let being out of shape stop me from doing things," he said.

King found a new doctor who could help him get back to physical activity, and found going to the gym helped him feel stronger and more capable in everyday life.

When King saw an opening for a personal trainer a few years ago, he applied, hoping to pass on his enthusiasm for strength training to help other people get stronger and live longer.

He said his approach isn't necessary about seeking out intense challenges (although he'll take them, when the opportunity arises), but making sure he can keep moving.

"I don't need to push through pain to be at the level I want to be. I just want to be fit enough to do something everyday," he said.

His workouts include bench presses, leg presses, and low-impact cardio

King said his exercise routine aims to include heart-healthy cardio as well as strength training for both upper and lower body.

For cardio, King prefers the elliptical or a bike for a low-impact workout that's easier on the joints.

"I used to run a lot but my feet can't take the pounding anymore," he said.

His weightlifting workouts include lower body movements like leg presses or modified squats to protect his knees, and upper body exercises like lat pull-downs and bench presses.

King isn't lifting light weight, either. While he doesn't try to max out his weight, a typical session might involve three sets of 12 reps. On the bench press, he could be hitting as much as 140 pounds.

The goal is progressive overload, gradually increasing the challenge to continue building muscle and strength while preventing injury.

"I don't try to lift as heavy a weight as I used to, just as heavy as I need to improve my strength," he said.

• Fiber is essential for a healthy gut, and boosts your natural energy levels.
• Federica Amati is the head nutritionist for nutrition app ZOE.
• Amati shared her favorites gut health recipes with probiotics and omega-3 fatty acids.

Eating more gut-healthy foods like beans and nuts not only nurtures your digestive system, it can help you ditch the afternoon slump.

"We know a high fiber diet helps with energy levels," Federica Amati, medical scientist and head nutritionist at the nutrition app ZOE, told Business Insider.

If you often feel a drowsiness or brain fog after eating, you may not be getting the right balance of nutrients like fiber, probiotics, and healthy fats.

For a lasting boost, Amati recommends loading up on complex carbs like beans and veggies, fermented foods, and healthy fats, and swapping other drinks for alcohol, which can be hard on the gut.

Here are her favorite ways to eat for better gut health.

Make crispy potatoes healthier with olive oil and chickpea flour

Potatoes are a starchy staple to round out a meal, but instead of reaching for fries or chips, trying roasting potatoes in the oven for a healthier choice.

Amati makes her roasted potatoes with heart-healthy olive oil and coats them in chickpea flour for extra fiber while making them crispy.

"You're adding a layer of better fat, the taste is delicious, but it's just slightly more nutritious," she said.

Eat more beans

Beans have been called a longevity superfood because they're a good source of fiber as well as protein for healthy, filling side dishes, soups and stews.

In fact, this may soon be a federal recommendation. A recent report from USDA advisors said new dietary guidelines should encourage Americans to eat more beans to reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Amati said she likes to make a side of homemade Boston baked beans for dinner gatherings. Ingredients like apple cider vinegar bring tangy, savory notes to a pot of beans along with a little bit of probiotics — good bacteria that support healthy digestion.

Try fish with olive oil, veggies, and fresh herbs for a high-protein meal

For dinner, Amati said fish is a good protein source that also provides healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which support gut health.

She said she makes fish drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with a handful of fresh parsley, a generous portion of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of lemon zest.

This approach is in line with the Mediterranean diet which has been ranked one of the healthiest for the gut and for overall wellness.

Fresh, zesty ingredients like citrus, rosemary, parsley, garlic, and other seasonings can support your metabolism by making you more likely to slow down and appreciate your food and avoid overeating.

"Herbs and spices can be quite revitalizing," Amati said. "You're less likely to just continue to eat mindlessly because it helps you to connect with the food more when it's a good, varied flavor experience."

For fiber at dinner, fill a big portion of your plate with produce. One of Amati's go-to veggie recipes in the winter is cauliflower with a cheese sauce made using milk, Parmesan and chickpea flour, instead of a store-bought sauce which is an ultra-processed food.

"It doesn't have to be high lift, but it reduces the amount of additives that I use," she said.

Sip on sparkling water or kombucha to cut back on alcohol

Drinking to wind down in the evening can be tempting, but there's growing evidence that alcohol can derail gut health and may increase the risk of cancer. The safest approach is to practice drinking in moderation (if at all), such having a glass of wine with dinner.

Amati said refreshing alcohol-free drinks can make it easier to cut back, such as sparkling water flavored with fruit or cucumber.

Kombucha is another healthy alternative with some probiotic benefits — Amati recommends looking for low-sugar varieties.

Snack on olives, nuts, and fermented foods

Between meals, Amati said she often has olives and nuts, both a good source of healthy fats and some fiber.

You don't have to completely give up on your favorite snacks like chips, but mixing in nutritious snacks can help you enjoy them in moderation and improve your gut health at the same time.

"It's more flavor, which is nice, and it means that you have an option to add some foods to your plate that are actually really great for you," Amati said.

Adding in fermented foods like kimchi or sauerkraut to a snack plate or cheese board offer more flavorful choices as well as probiotics for a healthy gut, she said.

Don't restrict your diet — add more gut-healthy foods instead

Amati's overall approach to healthier eating focuses on positive nutrition, or eating more nutrient-dense foods instead of restricting.

"It's much more about the food you do eat than the food that you avoid," Amati said.

Including more gut-friendly foods like beans to your diet can help you manage your appetite and reduce the amount of room on your plate for less nutritious options like processed foods.

As you work to include more fiber and probiotics in your diet, it's also helpful to be patient and make slow, sustainable changes over time instead of trying to overhaul your diet all at once.

"One of the biggest takeaways is consistency over perfection," Amati said.

• Growing evidence has linked alcohol to a higher risk of cancer. Can it be part of a healthy diet?
• The Mediterranean diet and Blue Zones diet, linked to longevity, both include wine in moderation.
• Wine's role in a healthy diet may be related to factors like stress relief and social connection.

Doctors, including the US Surgeon General, are sounding the alarm that drinking alcohol is linked to cancer — but some of the longest-living people in the world enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.

The Mediterranean diet, based on eating traditions in countries like Spain, Italy, and Turkey, is widely acknowledged as the healthiest way to eat.

Along with olive oil and whole grains, it includes wine in moderation — typically defined as one daily drink or less for women, two or less for men.

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Longevity "Blue Zones," areas of the world where people reportedly live longer, healthier lives, are home to rich wine-drinking cultures like Ikaria, Greece and Sardinia, Italy.

While some researchers say there are clear benefits of drinking wine — including a social outlet and a boost of antioxidants — others say there's no safe amount of alcohol.

So how come wine features in the healthiest diet? Here's what we know.

Can wine be good for you?

Some people live into their 90s or past 100 while enjoying wine, beer, or even whiskey.

One clear benefit is socializing.

Blue Zones are known for being hubs of community and support, and research suggests those strong social bonds contribute to longevity.

Drinking wine brings people together, which can relieve stress, reduce loneliness, and positively stimulate the nervous system. Plus, people who eat with friends and family tend to eat more moderately and mindfully.

The second factor is sustainability.

The healthiest diet is one you'll follow, and dietitians routinely emphasize that an all-or-nothing approach to eating (and drinking) can lead to cycles of restriction and binging, which damages your metabolism.

While that's no reason to start drinking, if you don't already, flexible habits make it easier to stick to a healthier lifestyle overall with a little indulgence in things you enjoy.

Several studies over the years have found some benefit to drinking in moderation such as lower risk of heart disease and dying early.

A 2023 study found light drinking was linked to lower risk of heart attack, especially in people with anxiety, suggesting it may have a benefit for reducing stress.

The risks of drinking wine, even in moderation

Alcohol is a known carcinogen (cancer-causing substance).

International agencies like the World Health Organization have warned that any alcohol consumption can increase cancer risk.

Heavy drinking — more than four drinks per session for women and five for men, or more than eight to 15 drinks per week — can lead to high blood pressure, liver disease, and higher risk of stroke, according to the CDC.

Cardiologists, oncologists, and gastroenterologists generally agree that drinking less is one of the biggest ways to reduce your risk of illnesses like heart disease and cancer.

Is natural wine better for you?

Natural wines are popular in the Mediterranean and Blue Zones like Sardinia, Italy, said researcher Dan Buettner in a 2023 docuseries on longevity.

Natural wines carry the same health risks as any alcohol, but they tend to have less sugar, fewer additives, and lower alcohol content.

As a result, natural wines may be a healthier drink option, helping to lower the risks associated with too much alcohol and sugar, and may offer more antioxidants than conventional wines.

Polyphenols, plant-based compounds found in berries, grapes, and wine, offer benefits such as improved gut health, research suggests.

However, wine by itself doesn't contain high enough amounts to back up the benefits seen from some polyphenols like resveratrol in health and longevity studies.

How to get the benefits of alcohol without drinking

If you're interested in cutting down your drinking, it's a good idea to talk to a doctor.

You can cut back on drinking by limiting the number of drinks you have per day or week and planning alcohol-free days.

You could also harness the social benefits of alcohol while drinking alcohol-free alternatives like kombucha or non-alcoholic beer.

• The Mediterranean diet holds an eight-year streak of being the healthiest diet per doctors and dietitians.
• Along with similar diets like DASH, it's rich in whole, plant-based foods like legumes and veggies.
• Weight loss drugs have shaken up the diet industry, but healthy eating is still key for longevity.

The Mediterranean diet has been named the healthiest way to eat for the eighth year in a row.

Based on traditions in countries like Italy, Greece, and Turkey, the eating style swept the top spot in 12 categories (out of 21 total) for healthy eating in 2025, including Best Diet Overall, according to annual rankings from US News & World Report.

The Mediterranean diet earned a 4.8 rating out of 5 in the rankings.

It's rich in foods like whole grains, legumes, and leafy greens with fewer processed foods and refined sugars and a flexible approach to eating.

Rounding out the top four, the DASH diet, flexitarian diet, and MIND diet offer a similarly relaxed approach to eating nutrient-dense whole foods. They also align with simple, affordable ways to eat for a longer life, research suggests.

While it's not news that eating more veggies is good for us, the new insights offer a road map on using the latest research to find the diet that might work best for you — and how to avoid pitfalls in the diet industry, even as popular meds like Ozempic have shaken up how we think about eating and weight loss.

Healthy diets that are easy to follow

The top diets for healthy eating focus on whole, unprocessed foods, typically plenty of plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, and grains, along with some seafood and lean proteins. They also don't follow a strict meal plan or rules, offering a lot of options and flexibility, although they discourage generally ultra-processed foods with a lot of added sugar, salt, and fat.

These were the top picks from the experts, listed in order from highest-rated to fourth place overall:

1. The Mediterranean diet is known for flavorful dishes full of herbs and olive oil, along with whole grains like farro, lots of legumes like chickpeas and beans, and fatty fish such as salmon and sardines. It's similar to eating habits in Blue Zones where people live longer, healthier lives on average.
2. The DASH diet is short for "dietary approaches to stop hypertension" and ranked number one for heart health. It's designed to reduce blood pressure and lower heart disease risk through eating more produce, whole grains, and lean proteins, and less saturated fat, salt, sugar, and alcohol without cutting out foods completely.
3. The Flexitarian diet is mostly plant-based with room for some lean meats, low-fat dairy, and eggs in moderation. It aims to make whole foods like veggies, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds the main focus of meals and snacks.
4. The MIND diet was developed with the help of Harvard researchers to incorporate elements of Mediterranean and DASH eating specifically for brain health. It focuses on incorporating more servings of berries, nuts, and whole grains to your diet while cutting back on red meat, fried food, and sweets.

Diets to avoid

While there was no single worst diet across all categories, short-term or quick-fix plans ranked lower along with more restrictive eating plans that eliminate many food options, as did plans with big claims not backed by strong scientific evidence.

Diets that ranked low on the list were:

• The Body Reset diet is a 15-day plan from a celebrity trainer. It includes three phases, a lot of smoothies, and major calorie restriction.
• The Autoimmune Protocol diet is an elimination plan that involves avoiding foods that might cause irritation. However, it can be tough to follow because of the long list of foods to restrict, which includes cutting out tomatoes, beans, potatoes, grains, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs, and caffeine.
• The SlimFast diet is a weight loss program based on meal-replacement shakes and bars, which can be expensive, restrictive, and difficult to maintain.
• The Optavia diet is a low-carbohydrate weight loss program based on pre-packaged foods, which may be helpful short-term but can be hard to follow over time since it relies on specific products and cuts out many foods.

How to find the best diet for you

To compile the rankings, a panel of medical doctors, registered dietitians, and researchers evaluated 38 diets on factors like sustainability, nutritional completeness, and potential health benefits and risks.

This year's report rated each diet from 0 (worst) to 5 (best) across a range of categories, from overall best diet to best diets for gut health or mental health, and for managing specific conditions such as menopause, inflammation, high cholesterol, and IBS.

A key point is that none of the diets achieved a perfect score — not even the Mediterranean diet.

That's because personal details play a huge role in how well a diet can work, Gretel Schueller, managing editor of health at U.S. News, previously told Business Insider.

"There's no one-size-fits-all," she said. "You have to consider lifestyle and preferences."

Factors to consider include:

• which grocery staples you can reliably access on your budget
• how much time you have to cook
• which cooking skills you can realistically use on a regular basis
• foods that you and your family enjoy eating

"At the end of the day, it's about 'can I do this in the long term,'" Schueller said.

• Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, is no longer in short supply, the FDA says.
• Cheaper versions of the drug, known as compounded tirzepatide, might be restricted in 2025.
• Patients could face higher costs and tougher access, and telehealth is racing to adapt.

The FDA has announced that popular weight loss medication tirzepatide is no longer in shortage, potentially removing cheaper versions of the drug from the market by early 2025.

Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, branded to treat diabetes and obesity, respectively.

They're part of a class of medications called GLP-1 agonists, including semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy), which have transformed obesity treatment in recent years. These injections work by mimicking hormones in the body that regulate appetite and blood sugar, helping patients lose as much as 25% of their body weight.

Manufacturers have struggled to meet the intense demand for these drugs. This opened the door for pharmacies to offer custom-made versions with the same active ingredient, known as compounded GLP-1 medication, at a significantly lower cost — around $250 to $350 per month for tirzepatide, compared to Zepbound's list price of $1,059.

With the official shortage over, the FDA has signaled it will crack down on compounded tirzepatide, affecting patients who've relied on the lower-priced medication.

"People are concerned. They're saying, 'This has been life changing but I don't have $1000 to pay out of pocket and my insurance isn't going to cover it," Ted Kyle, a health professional with decades of experience in policy, marketing, and obesity care, told Business Insider.

Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Most compounded versions of tirzepatide won't be allowed without an official shortage

The FDA's annoucement on December 19 to officially remove tirzepatide from the shortage list means compounding pharmacies will be restricted from making what are essentially copies of the brand-name version. These copies use the same active ingredient — in this case tirzepatide — but are not FDA-approved, although the manufacturers are held to other regulatory standards.

Compounding pharmacies have staunchly disagreed with the decision.

"The drugs they are advertising are not yet available in quantities to meet demand. Until they are, state-licensed pharmacies will continue to prepare compounded copies, operating within FDA guidance to provide patients access to life-changing medications during this period when the drugmakers cannot," Scott Brunner, CEO of the industry trade group Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, wrote in a statement on LinkedIn.

The FDA had previously moved to end the shortage in October, but delayed the decision after a compounding industry organization filed a lawsuit alleged it hadn't given proper notice. An update on that case is expected in early January 2025.

As it stands now, the FDA's decision will give makers of compounded tirzepatide up to 90 days before enforcement to "avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment," per the announcement.

Companies are racing to adapt

The FDA decision also raises questions for the booming telehealth industry that connects patients with weight loss drugs, as companies like Henry Meds and Hims offer compounded GLP-1s — some have removed compounded tirzepatide from their websites.

For now, businesses will still be able to offer some lower-cost medications for weight loss since semaglutide, better known as Wegovy and Ozempic, is still considered to be in shortage.

In some cases, telehealth execs are pivoting to strike a deal with pharmaceutical companies.

Earlier in December, telehealth company Ro announced a partnership with Eli Lilly to offer a half-price version of Zepbound, Lilly's brand-name tirzepatide product. The cheaper option is sold in vials in an effort to sidestep supply-chain issues with the prefilled pens and compete with compounded drugs.

More brand-name GLP-1 drugs are on the horizon

More FDA news could continue to change the trajectory of GLP-1 drugs in the coming months.

The FDA also announced the approval of the first generic version of a once-daily GLP-1 injection for Type 2 diabetes on December 24. It could pave the way for similar generic medications, including those for weight loss.

And more brand name GLP-1s are in the works as biotech startups and pharmaceutical companies race to find the next blockbuster medication.

For now, access to weight loss drugs is out of reach for many people who could benefit from them.

"This is going to be a continuing tension for years to come," Kyle said. "Maybe compounding will go away but the issue won't go away because the pricing does not match the scale of need."