You exercise聽you feel sore. Eight-to-24 hours later, when soreness lessens, you exercise some more. For any athlete in training, delayed onset muscle soreness is a familiar companion. It happens because micro-trauma in the muscle聽causes an inflammatory response that鈥檚 sometimes maddeningly painful. Ice baths or other types of cold therapy (like cryotherapy) done after training promise to speed recovery鈥攁nd dull the pain鈥攕o athletes can get back to doing hard workouts faster. But an increasing body of evidence suggests that cold聽can quash performance gains.

As early as , exercise physiologist Motoi Yamane and researchers at Chukyo University in Aichi, in Japan, found that icing leg muscles after cycling or forearm handgrip exercises interfered with performance gains. Recently Yamane published a follow-up at Aichi Mizuho College鈥攁gain, using weighted handgrip exercises鈥攖hat corroborates his earlier results: RICE is disadvantageous after training and messes with both muscular and vascular adaptations of resistance training.

Exercise physiologist Jonathan Peake and his colleagues at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia agree. They鈥檙e among the latest researchers to test ice baths on athletes. In a recent presented as an abstract at the 2014 American College of Sports Medicine conference, the researchers put two groups of young men on a bi-weekly resistance-training program. The first group took ice baths after each training session (ten聽minutes in water at around 50 degrees), while the other group did a low-intensity active warm-down on a bicycle. It turned out that icing suppressed the cell-signaling response that regulates muscle growth. Three months later, the scientists found that the ice-bath group didn鈥檛 gain nearly as much muscle as the bicycle warm-down group.

Peake concluded that it鈥檚 probably not a good idea to be using ice baths after every training session, particularly when athletes are in season. In a parallel presented March 30 at the Experimental Biology meeting, Peake also looked at muscle biopsies in a rat contusion injury model (researchers dropped weights on rats鈥� leg muscles to cause bruising). An ice bath on the bruised muscles was enough to suppress inflammation and delay muscle fiber regeneration. For the minor muscle injuries, icing was detrimental rather beneficial, prolonging the healing process that inflammation brings.

The two new studies hammer a couple more nails in the RICE coffin, according to Dr. Gabe Mirkin. He was the sports medicine doctor who originally coined the acronym, which stands for rest, ice, compression, elevation,聽in 1978, and has since quit recommending it to athletes. 鈥淲e never rest or ice athletes anymore. RICE is fine for someone who doesn鈥檛 need to get back to training quickly, but it鈥檚 terrible for competitive athletes.鈥� he said.

More movement, Dr. Mirkin says, as shown in Peake鈥檚 research, is the best way to speed up muscle recovery. The new research is an extension of a growing body of evidence over the last several years that now makes clear that the only advantage of icing muscles is for temporarily pain relief. 鈥淎bout all icing is good for is a placebo effect,鈥� Dr. Mirkin says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no evidence that icing speeds healing or makes you stronger; in fact, it makes you weaker so you can鈥檛 do your next hard workout.鈥�

Still the mounting evidence is not enough to nix icing altogether, says David Pascoe, a distinguished professor of exercise science of Auburn University. The decision to ice is a matter of balancing priorities and really situational, he explains.

鈥淲hat is your workout goal? If you鈥檙e trying to develop muscle strength, then the answer is 鈥榥o.鈥� But if it makes you feel good and you鈥檙e going to perform better the next day because of it, well, the answer is 鈥榶es,鈥欌�� Pascoe says.

Furthermore most ice bath studies have only evaluated use in resistance-training regimens, so findings may not apply to endurance gains. In fact, in a recent , Shona Halson and colleagues of Australian Institute of Sport found that ice baths didn鈥檛 hinder adaptation and improved some aspects of performance, including mean and sprint power output, in endurance-trained competitive cyclists.

If athletes feel pretty sore, then get into a tub, and come out feeling great, they鈥檙e going to have a better workout, Pascoe says. That might be enough to consider icing if you aren鈥檛 worried about muscle and strength gains. And if you suffer from injuries like shin splints or sprained ankles, your doctor might still recommend using RICE therapy for pain management.聽

But Peake cautions athletes to carefully consider how and when they use ice. 鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be used after every training session. If you鈥檙e trying to get maximum adaptation, cold water immersion is not going to be beneficial,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut if you鈥檙e in a playoff phase of the season, icing or cryotherapy isn鈥檛 going to be too harmful and might have some psychological benefits.鈥� Even if it鈥檚 all just placebo effect.聽

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All diet fads have a few things in common: hyped-up names like 鈥渞aw鈥� or 鈥渨arrior,鈥� a basis on dodgy science,聽the demonization of an ingredient or an entire food group,聽and a promise that you鈥檒l easily achieve your weight loss goals. Nevertheless, diet fads keep coming and we keep falling for them.

But one doesn鈥檛 simply get over a diet fad and welcome another like a new fashion trend; diet fads can come with serious risks including nutritional imbalances, metabolic problems, or even disordered eating. All of this has lasting effects on physical and emotional health, experts warn, that can lead to a condition one doctor has dubbed post-traumatic dieting disorder, or PTDD.

According to obesity expert Dr. Yoni Freedhoff of the University of Ottawa and author of , the hallmarks of emotional trauma caused by PTDD include feelings of shame, guilt, a loss of healthy body image, social withdrawal, and feeling of constant threat by food.

Athletes can suffer from PTDD as much as anybody else. But athletes, in particular, also run a special risk of crossing the line into what might be described as a type of obsessive-compulsive 鈥渃lean eating鈥� behavior.

Orthorexia nervosa, while not yet officially recognized as a psychiatric disorder, is a psychopathological condition involving an obsessive preoccupation of eating 鈥渉ealthy food鈥� and avoiding foods that are believed to 鈥渂e unhealthy or impure鈥� that is more frequently seen in athletes, according to sports medical psychologist Dr. Cristina Segura-Garcia of the University Magna Graecia, Catanzaro, Italy, who published her in 2012.

According to Segura-Garcia鈥檚 research on about 600 Italian athletes, about 30 percent of females and 27 percent of males showed symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. Diagnostic criteria included obsessive categorizing of foods into 鈥榞ood or 鈥榖ad,鈥� thinking excessively about calories and sugar content, fear of eating certain types of food, or fear of eating in front of people.

Earlier this year psychologists Nancy Koven and Alexandra Abry of Bates College to the聽diagnostic criteria: 鈥渟pending considerable time scrutinizing the source, processing, and packaging of foods,鈥� 鈥済uilty feelings and worries after transgressions in which 鈥榰nhealthy鈥� or 鈥榠mpure鈥� foods are consumed,鈥� and 鈥渟pending excessive amounts of money relative to one鈥檚 income on foods because of their perceived quality and composition.鈥澛�

Eating issues like orthorexia nervosa can be medically concerning, cause mental anguish, and even be potentially devastating, but Dr. Freedhoff warns against arriving at the conclusion that an athlete you know might have a medical problem too hastily.聽If a diet fad were to 鈥渋nterfere with the ability to meet nutritional needs,鈥� then certainly it would be a concern, he said, but if all it does is 鈥渓ead someone to being ridiculously challenging to have as a dinner guest鈥� then it鈥檚 probably not really a disorder.

The key to avoiding the fad-diet cycle, orthorexia nervosa, and PTDD is to avoid striving for perfection, making unreasonable restrictions, and being overly self-critical. Instead, be flexible鈥攖hat means indulging in chocolate and ice cream once in a while.

Easier said than done, right? Thankfully there are new technologies that seek to help everyone鈥攊ncluding athletes鈥攅at healthfully without fad dieting. Smartphone apps like allow users to more easily track their calories and adjust macronutrients like protein, fat, and carbohydrates.聽

Athletes of all types might, in fact, may benefit from looking at food as macronutrients rather than through a diet lens. Take a movement currently going on in the world of bodybuilding called IIFYM, or 鈥渋f it fits your macros.鈥�

The story goes that IIFYM was born when people posting on bodybuilding.com discussion forums kept asking: 鈥淚s this food OK? Is that food OK?鈥� In response others kept answering with, 鈥淪ure, as long as it fits your macros,鈥� and finally it was shortened to the acronym.

IIFYM now exists as a kind of counter movement against fad diets鈥攊ncluding聽鈥渃lean eating.鈥� It involves tracking food intake on apps like , and not restricting any foods so long as it meets macronutrient requirements, says , a pro bodybuilder and who received his Ph.D. in nutritional sciences from the University of Illinois.聽 聽

Fitting your macros shouldn鈥檛 be confused with having permission to eat nothing but junk food.聽But it does allow athletes to find spots for including pizza, ice cream, and beer in their diets as long the amounts stay within their protein-carb-fats and total energy requirements. IIFYM is 鈥渇ar more sustainable鈥� than diet fads, Norton says. 鈥淎nything that allows people to be more consistent and have a better handle on their nutrient intake is going to lead to improved performance over time, especially if it helps them with sustainable fat loss.鈥�

Norton says he鈥檚 been focusing on macronutrients for more than a decade. 鈥淲hen people ask me when the last time it was I had a 鈥榗heat meal鈥� I tell them I can鈥檛 remember, because I鈥檓 always mindfully tracking my macronutrient intake.鈥�

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Mate has had a long history of use among athletes鈥攊ncluding runners, triathletes, rugby players, and footballers鈥攊n Argentina, Uruguay, and southern parts of Brazil. In those countries,聽it鈥檚 consumed at least as much as coffee. That makes sense, considering it's an infusion of the dried caffeinated leaves and stems of a shrub native to South America, where it's traditionally聽served out of a dry gourd and drunk through a metal straw.聽

But more recently, mate has been powdered, packaged into聽, bottled, and canned, all in an effort to give folks鈥攊ncluding athletes鈥攁 performance-enhancing buzz that鈥檚 similar to coffee鈥檚. Experts, however, say there are a few things to consider before making the switch.

The two drinks have similar caffeine content. The first two cups of hot water imbibed from a typical Argentine-style small gourd containing about 20 grams of yerba will extract about 220 milligrams of caffeine, says University of Buenos Aires sports nutritionist Marcia Onzari, while the same amount of water in a larger Uruguayan-style gourd full of about 50 grams of yerba will extract about twice that much at 440 milligrams. In comparison, a cup of brewed coffee can contain anywhere from 95 to 200 milligrams caffeine depending on its preparation.

Mate in tea bags has about one to three grams of yerba, providing only about 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine for a mellower buzz similar to that of green tea. Shots, cans and bottles range from 70 to 140 milligrams caffeine per serving.

But there鈥檚 evidence that mate may serve as more than just as a caffeine fix for athletes. When consumed before exercise, mate may also improve fat metabolism during light and medium intensity exercise without affecting performance, according to published in Nutrition and Metabolism. The dose of caffeine in the study was low at only 80 milligrams, suggesting that the extra fat-loss advantages might be from other components of the plant, such as its saponins, according to study author Ahmad Alkhatib, an exercise physiologist an at Sheffield Hallam University.

But the beverage鈥檚 potent mixture of other plant components can cause gut distress in athletes who aren鈥檛 used to it. For that reason, even in South America, mate isn鈥檛 usually thought of as an ergogenic aid, Onzari says.

You must also consider possible health risks associated with mate. While coffee is used worldwide by athletes, and has been all but exonerated of any health concerns (it鈥檚 now being as a health drink even by the U.S. government's ), the situation for mate hasn鈥檛 been so clear-cut.

Yes, yerba mate does offer a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds, including quercetin and saponins, associated with health benefits that might even give credence to the drink鈥檚 reputation as a 鈥渓iquid vegetable,鈥� according to Elvira de Mejia, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But process by which the herb is prepared for consumption has raised health alarms in the past.

In the 1990s, studies showed associations between drinking large amounts and risk of esophageal cancer and other cancers in South America, particularly when drunk at scalding hot temperatures, according to nutritional epidemiologist Dr. Sanford Dawsey, a senior investigator of the National Cancer Institute.聽

Dawsey and his colleagues later found, when assaying samples of brands of yerba mate, that mate had large quantities of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including benzopyrene, a known carcinogen. The carcinogens weren鈥檛 found in the yerba mate plant itself, but as a result of contamination from a drying process that usually involved smoking the leaves and stems over an open fire. (PAH compounds are also found in tobacco smoke, charred meats, and, to a lesser degree, in coffee.)

DeMejia reminds that that, as with studies linking coffee to health concerns like cancers early on, epidemiological studies on yerba mate have several limitations in that they can鈥檛 distinguish from correlation and causation. In the South American populations studied, frequent smoking, drinking and eating large quantities of charred meat could have confounded findings, she said.

In her last visits to manufacturing plants in Argentina and Uruguay, De Mejia also says the industry has come a long way at improving the quality of their product by using air-drying processes that no longer involve smoke, thereby reducing the amount of PAH compounds considerably. is a well-recognized brand that has got their act together, she says.

Dawsey remains skeptical of product purity, suggesting that local South American government should step in and require mate producers to regularly test for PAH compounds. He also thinks that mate companies ought to let consumers know when they鈥檝e had third-party labs do these tests. Guayaki, for instance, a company based in Sebastopol, Calif., marketing to athletes in the U.S., sends their product out to labs for testing and claims their air-dried yerba has lower PAH compounds than green tea.

Despite the sourcing issues, some big-name athletes are choosing mate over coffee for its buzz and potential聽health benefits, including ultra-marathoner 聽and聽women鈥檚 U.S. ski racer .

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We are not alone. Our bodies are home to trillions of tiny tenants, the majority of which live inside our intestines. These beneficial microorganisms, or microbes, are the gatekeepers of our guts; they break down our food and are thought to help regulate immunity.

Probiotics are 鈥済ood bugs.鈥� Countless products now advertise that they contain probiotics, whether in capsules, yogurts, or kombucha. The $1.5 billion industry has grown 23 percent since 2013, . And now probiotic products are being marketed to athletes. , for example, claims to have 鈥渢he first probiotic engineered for the competitive athlete鈥� that will do everything from prevent sickness and speed up recovery, to help athletes win their next race.

But scientists who study microbes warn those claims are overhyped.

鈥淚鈥檓 not aware of any products on the market with mechanistic support for increased athletic performance or immune function,鈥� says Peter Turnbaugh, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at University of California, San Francisco. 鈥淭he former claim is controversial to even link to the microbiome at all, whereas the latter has been well studied, but is in early stages of clinical development.鈥�

There are a few studies, however, that suggest probiotics may lend an athletic advantage. from the University of Otago, New Zealand, reported that rugby players taking daily probiotics tended to have a lower number of sick days compared to athletes on a placebo.

鈥淭he results are interesting,鈥� Turnbaugh says. But there are a lot of caveats: 鈥渟mall sample size, small magnitude of effect, and just one measurement that reached statistical significance. It鈥檚 also not clear what the possible mechanism might be, and why those strains in particular (Lactobacillus gasseri, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and B. longum) would impact immunity.鈥�

Even some of the claims made by 鈥済erm experts鈥� are bogus, says Jonathan Eisen, a professor of microbiology at the University of California, Davis. Scientists, he adds, often 鈥渙versell鈥� their results by making misleading or unsupported claims.

Take a from University of Cork in Ireland that found professional rugby players had a greater diversity in microbes compared to healthy controls. The study鈥檚 authors wrongly interpreted their results as evidence that exercise boosts diversity of gut bacteria. It was a mistake of mixing up correlation and causation, and the media followed suit, as Eisen wrote on his blog 鈥�.鈥�

The biggest issue scientists currently have with probiotics, however, doesn鈥檛 have to do with athletes. Instead, it has to do with the initial hypothesis that we need them in the first place, says Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Because there鈥檚 still no real understanding of what makes 鈥渉ealthy鈥� or 鈥減oor鈥� microbiomes, there鈥檚 no real understanding of how or if we should cultivate them.

鈥淲e’re dealing with organisms that are intimately involved in our own function. What鈥檚 healthy for you may not be healthy for me,鈥� she says. There also exists huge variability between individuals; each of our microbiomes is as unique as a fingerprint.

She鈥檚 also skeptical that a mere few billion live bacteria in a probiotic product is enough to cause any significant or permanent change鈥攖hat is, if they live long enough to stomach acid and stick to intestinal walls.

A mature microbiome is pretty resilient, having grown with us over time like our immune systems, and, unless you鈥檙e a newborn, contains trillions of bacteria of hundreds of different species, Silbergeld explains. 鈥淎s you might expect, after taking antibiotics, the microbiome bounces back,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you push on that system, unless you really push (like a ), it鈥檚 going to come back to a place where it鈥檚 happy.鈥�

The bottom line is that popping probiotics probably won鈥檛 give you a stronger gut or help you win any medals, Silbergeld says. We do know, however, that our microbiomes deserve as much respect as any organ. So she warns against overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobials, such as in drinking water or in soaps and toothpaste, which can temporarily decimate good microbes along with the bad.

That said, go ahead and enjoy your favorite 鈥渇oods rich in microbes鈥濃�攕uch as fermented foods including cheese, kimchi, and kefir鈥攐r 鈥渄ecent food for microbes鈥� like fibrous fruits and vegetables. They may not make you a better athlete, but they’re still very nutritious.

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University of Copenhagen sports physiologists first developed the 鈥溾�� protocol in 2005 for athletes looking for a performance edge. It encouraged the idea of double workouts every second day. In practice, athletes would eat breakfast to fuel their morning session, then skip lunch prior to their evening session, leaving muscles depleted of their glycogen stores.

The benefits were thought to be pretty straightforward: you force muscles into using glycogen stores more resourcefully by tricking them into becoming fat-burning machines. Dipping into fat reserves would prevent glycogen stores from depleting completely, so you鈥檇 lower your chance of 鈥渂onking,鈥� or running out of fuel, during a long endurance race.

But the dietary protocol hasn鈥檛 stood up to the hype. 鈥淎fter over a decade of scientific research on 鈥榯rain low鈥� protocols, there have been no clear demonstrations of improved performance with competitive athletes at an elite level,鈥� says Louise Burke, a professor of sports nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Quite the opposite, Burke has found evidence that chronically training low on carbs for an extended period can hamper our muscles鈥� ability to use carbs eaten before competition. 鈥淲hat we thought was 鈥榞lycogen sparing鈥� may have been 鈥榞lycogen impairing,鈥欌�� according to Burke, who wrote about her concerns in a in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science and Sports.

Most competitive athletes鈥攊ncluding those in team sports who train low on carbs鈥攅nd up 鈥渇eeling terrible,鈥� especially when they see themselves losing performance gains, adds John Hawley, a professor and head of the Exercise and Nutrition Research Group at Australian Catholic University, and Burke鈥檚 husband. Carbs are crucial for the intense movements often required of competitive athletes, he said. Most athletes are at their best and train hardest in the evening generally, so to withhold carbs before their evening practice can crush their progress.

Enter the concept of sleeping low, a new strategy under current study at Hawley鈥檚 lab and in Europe. Sleeping low promises to succeed where training low has failed. The new protocol works just as it sounds: Athletes train hard in the evening and go to bed fasted. (Or without eating carbs at dinner鈥攖hat means no pasta or dessert.) So their muscle glycogen stores stay depleted throughout the night. The next morning, athletes train lightly on an empty stomach鈥攖hat鈥檚 where they force their muscles to adapt to burning fat. Then, it鈥檚 just refuel and repeat.

The underlying rationale is to not compromise power and intensity during the evening training session, Hawley says. The sleep-low protocol allows athletes to spend only their non-waking and early morning hours in a glycogen-depleted state. That way they won鈥檛 feel awful all day and during their evening workouts. Skipping breakfast to train lightly in the morning should be easier for most athletes and can teach muscles to use fat as fuel as needed, while the new protocol still allows for use of fast-acting sugars in the evening to avoid sacrifices in form and performance.

Competitive athletes should know better than to risk avoiding carbs completely, Burke says, adding that she鈥檚 frustrated that some popular authors, or 鈥渓ow-carb exercise gurus,鈥� as she calls them, profess to know better than what the current research supports. After all, when muscles need fast fuel for quick, powerful movements, they need carbohydrates. When nerves are shot over an intense competition, they need carbohydrates to recover. And when the immune system is in a vulnerable state after a hard workout, it prefers carbs for rehab.

Sleeping low, researchers hope, might be an ideal way for endurance and team-sport athletes to balance their carb and fat needs, while improving performance. The goal here is 鈥渕etabolic flexibility,鈥� Burke says. 鈥淚t shouldn鈥檛 be carb team versus fat team, because there are no blacks and whites.鈥�

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For more than a decade, National Park Service scientists Kurt Fristrup and Dan Mennit, along with Colorado State University researchers, have been monitoring background noise levels at around 600 sites across more than 90 national U.S. parks. The researchers feared that human-made noise鈥攍ike the doubling and tripling of cars and airplanes in the U.S. since the 鈥�70s鈥攚as spoiling the parks鈥� natural soundscapes and disturbing wildlife. Turns out they were right. The growing noise is even affecting human health.

The link between noise pollution and human health issues is . Effects include high blood pressure, poor sleep, and cardiovascular disease. In large cities, sound can often exceed 65 decibels鈥攖he threshold where it becomes annoying and can affect our hearing and our hearts. In nature, sound rarely exceeds 40 decibels. That鈥檚 where our bodies appear to be most comfortable. But, the researchers found, it鈥檚 becoming nearly impossible to find such serenity.

By feeding more than 1.5 million hours of collected acoustic data into a computer algorithm, the National Park Service created a set of maps to give a better picture of average sound levels across the U.S. The first map shows average background sound levels for locations during the summer and looks similar to satellite photo taken of the continent at night:

The second map shows artificial noises set to minimum values as if human activity never had existed:

And the third predicts the difference between the first and second to measure impact of human-made noise on areas around the country:

The first map鈥檚 sound scale runs from a low of 20 decibels (the lowest limit that a sound meter can measure) in areas of the West to a high of 67 decibels in some larger cities. Put into context, a typical quiet classroom where no one is speaking registers at about 35 decibels. According to Fristrup, there are many national park settings that are 15 decibels below that.

鈥淭hose are the deepest blues on the maps, while the brightest colors are high enough to have a measurable impact on cardiovascular health,鈥� Fristrup said at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California.

But those sites are dwindling. Every site Fistrup and his colleagues studied鈥攊ncluding the remote backcountry鈥攚as affected by aircraft noise at the least. Propeller planes flying overhead can create noise at 70 decibels or greater. That鈥檚 making it hard for us humans to chill out in the wilderness.

Social scientist Derrick Taff of Penn State University conducted an experiment in which he had folks give impromptu speeches, which expectedly raised subjects鈥� heart rates and cortisol levels. Then the subjects watched a scene in Yosemite where their heart rates noticeably dropped, only to speed up again at the sound of a motorcycle or propeller airplane.

It鈥檚 not just our serenity at stake. According to biologist Clint Francis of California Polytechnic State, the noise including reptiles, marine mammals and birds. In combination with artificial light, like that from road lights, it can reduce diversity of a given area鈥檚 species by a third or more.

(It must be noted that the noise hasn鈥檛 been bad for all species. In some areas, black-chinned hummingbirds have benefitted from better nesting environments absent of predators.)

If the objective is to give national park visitors a restorative setting that benefits their minds, stress levels, and cardiovascular health, Taff said, then the we need to work harder to manage sound levels. 鈥淭hey hear human-caused noise, it鈥檚 unacceptable, and annoying,鈥� he said.

Some efforts are already underway, including and in Yellowstone, reduce aircraft flyovers in areas over the and National Parks, as well as all around.

But it鈥檚 also up to individual park-goers. We need to learn to appreciate natural sounds like bird song and rushing water, Fristrup said. He鈥檚 concerned that young people immersed in technology may suffer from a 鈥渓ost auditory awareness.鈥� So take off those earphones and listen while in the park, he suggests.

Another way to help: assisting in citizen science projects such as monitoring noise levels on an iPhone with or . Your collected data can help researchers study and establish methods to reduce sound and light.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e learning is that sound and dark skies are becoming more appreciated as part of the experience of national parks. Visitors seek natural sounds, natural quiet, wind, water and bird song,鈥� Taff said. But we all have to do our part to ensure parks stay quiet, so we hear.

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You鈥檙e wrong about breakfast. And so is everyone else. Despite years of hype, two new studies point to a startling conclusion: skipping breakfast doesn鈥檛 necessarily lead to weight gain. Nor does eating breakfast boost your metabolism, suppress appetite, or reduce overeating later in the day. But it still might be one of the most important meals of the day (more on that later).

鈥淥ur findings are a bit of a reality check,鈥� said nutritionist Emily Dhurandhar, an assistant professor in the (UAB), lead author of one of the studies. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a broader question we鈥檙e trying to answer. As a message interpreted by the general public, just recommending people eat breakfast is not sufficient.鈥�

While years of observational research have shown associations between eating breakfast and being leaner, none of the studies reach the gold-standard level of evidence of showing causation鈥攔andomized controlled trials鈥攖o show that breakfast was indeed responsible for weight loss, says James O. Hill, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the , and co-author on Dhurandhar鈥檚 .

At last, gold-standard research on breakfast has arrived. And the findings subvert years of nutritional advice while highlighting one often underestimated and under-hyped benefit of the morning meal. Dhurandhar鈥檚 trial randomized 309 overweight or obese adults who were given healthy eating advice to two groups. One group ate breakfast and the other skipped. Both groups lost a little weight, but there was no greater weight loss in the breakfast eaters as compared to the skippers. The researchers are careful to note that the study was not a controlled feeding trial and the subjects were not told what to eat at breakfast.

Another , led by James Betts, a senior lecturer in nutrition from the University of Bath, randomized 33 lean adults to either eat or skip breakfast for six weeks. The study found no appreciable difference in metabolic or cardiovascular health markers. 鈥淚t is commonly stated that breakfast kick-starts metabolism and/or reduces snacking, etc. We saw little or no evidence of these things,鈥� Betts said.

Insofar as testing has gone, the evidence hasn鈥檛 boded well for breakfast. But it wasn鈥檛 all bad news, Betts said. His study was also one of the first to measure how a feeding pattern influenced physical activity levels throughout the day using combined heart rate and accelerometry (think: sophisticated wearable tech, not just pedometers).

Betts sums up the results: 鈥淪pecifically, the breakfast group was much more physically active than the fasting group, with significant differences particularly noted during light-intensity activities during the morning.鈥�

In this case, this was causal evidence (not just correlation) that breakfast gets people moving鈥攇ood reason to keep enjoying the most important meal of the day.

Our near-sacred regard for 鈥渄on鈥檛 skip breakfast鈥� is one of the most fundamental but oversold nutritional guidelines, and as we鈥檙e now discovering, there are plenty of other flawed recommendations in the nutrition world. So the problem isn鈥檛 with breakfast. It鈥檚 with a failure of skepticism, says the study鈥檚 senior investigator whose began the attack on the conventional thinking, David Allison, director of UAB鈥檚 .

鈥淭his goes back to the idea that we need to be more skeptical鈥攚e as scientists, as journalists, we as public health officials,鈥� Allison said. 鈥淭hese platitudes sound good. You tend to believe them, but some might not be true.鈥�

The perpetuation of pro-breakfast bias could be said to come in part by lobbying and funding of research by food companies keen on selling breakfast cereals and packaged breakfast foods. But diet myths are also often spread through shoddy reporting and writing. And they frequently come from public figures at the intersection of health and pop-culture. Take this line from the polarizing . His site reads, 鈥淭he fact is, when you鈥檙e trying to lose body fat, you can鈥檛 skip breakfast鈥︹�� and 鈥淏oost your metabolic rate by 25%.鈥�

Don鈥檛 trust Dr. Oz? How about this line from the Mayo Clinic鈥檚 site, 鈥淚n fact, skipping breakfast actually increases your risk of obesity鈥� or this quote from a researcher on Yahoo! Health, 鈥淪kipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time.鈥�

Not only is the Internet rife with this kind of language, but so too is the scientific literature, Allison points out. And it鈥檚 not always in research that has received food industry funding, he says. There鈥檚 what he calls 鈥渨hite hat bias鈥� largely found in observational or short-term trials that also suggest breakfast produces beneficial effects on metabolism and satiety. But, once again, these types of studies cannot demonstrate causation. These limitations are rarely addressed in the research or in the media hype. Plus, not all breakfasts should be considered equal; the timing and nutritional content (think: sugary cereal versus eggs) are both key.

鈥淚t鈥檚 tempting to assume that if something shows promise in a short-term study, or if it has some aspect on insulin or fat metabolism, that we can extrapolate from these. But I think that it鈥檚 important that we test these things,鈥� Dhurandhar said.

If there鈥檚 one underlying message these researchers are giving, it鈥檚 just this: beware oft-repeated diet advice not rooted in evidence. Additional vague platitudes that perhaps deserve equal attention are 鈥渆at everything in moderation鈥� and 鈥渆at only when you鈥檙e hungry.鈥�

As made clear with the rigorously designed tests on breakfast, our presumptions don鈥檛 always hold true. But breakfast now has one new thing going for it: increasing physical activity.

鈥淲hether or not you have breakfast can dictate how much activity you engage in, which directly impacts energy balance but also holds implications for health via the independent benefits of living a more active lifestyle,鈥� Betts said.

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There are grown men who drink breast milk. For some, it鈥檚 undoubtedly a kink. But for others, it鈥檚 something else: a 鈥淕od-given鈥� performance-enhancing elixir鈥攁nd believers are paying top dollar for it online. Once a fringe gym-rat movement, now athletes of various stripes are chugging the stuff in search of a high-energy protein fix.

Far away from government oversight or official scrutiny, hundreds of gallons of breast milk flow through online classifieds, according to one of the leading online facilitators, . The site officially caters to mothers who want to sell their 鈥渓iquid gold鈥� (their language, not ours) to other women, but about a third of the requests for milk on the site are posted by men. The demand has set off an arms race among the 10 percent of women willing to sell their milk to the other sex. One St. Louis provider catering to athletes boasts that her milk is best because she adheres to a 鈥�,鈥� only organic foods, and a daily regimen of supplements including charcoal and probiotics.

The 鈥渂reast is best鈥� believers drink this stuff up. They say that the milk is more nutritious than anything you can get from a cow, best for body building, the secret to fighting off disease, and a sure-fire way to boost energy levels. It鈥檚 the energy drink of the future, .

It鈥檚 too bad it鈥檚 soggy logic鈥攐n all counts, says , a professor of nutrition and internal medicine at University of California at Davis. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see much sense in it all,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 provide more energy than other drinks with the same energy content.鈥�

Which brings us to protein. of 60-to-40, compared to nearly the inverse 20-to-80 of cow鈥檚 milk. But a liter of breast milk has only one-third the total protein of cow鈥檚 milk. And it contains nearly twice as much lactose sugar, making it sweeter than cow鈥檚 milk and a poor choice for those who are lactose intolerant. Then there鈥檚 breast milk鈥檚 fat content, which varies widely based on the donor鈥檚 diet.

More souring is that the heralded bioactive components within breast milk are unlikely to make it through your stomach鈥攑recisely because adult men aren鈥檛 at all like children. 鈥淲e highly likely would break down bioactive components like lactoferrin and immunoglobulins long before they could have any potential function,鈥� Lonnerdal says.

It鈥檚 just wrongheaded to think that what works for baby boys and girls will be best for grown men, says , assistant professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, who tracks advances in milk research on her 鈥溾�� blog.聽

鈥淏reast milk is nature鈥檚 magical elixir for those particular infants at a particular time, but the benefits for adults are less clear. There鈥檚 still too little we know about what it does even in infants,鈥� she says.

Then why all the fanfare? Adherents are committing a naturalistic fallacy, says , a professor of genetics and biology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the evolution of lactose tolerance. They believe that people evolved to drink breast milk, not cow鈥檚 milk. They鈥檙e wrong. 鈥淣o humans have evolved to drink breast milk after weaning,鈥� Tishkoff says. Most human populations whose ancestors practiced dairy farming have actually adapted to drinking cow鈥檚 milk.

But would it really hurt to give breast milk a try? That鈥檚 not a good idea, particularly if it is purchased online versus milked from a willing wife or girlfriend. 鈥淭he biggest issue is that breast milk can contain live viruses and bacteria,鈥� says registered dietitian nutritionist , former president of the American Society for Nutrition and a professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

When moms donate to a hospital milk bank, they are screened before being approved, Donovan explains. But men buying from strangers could result in transmission of diseases including HIV, syphilis, or hepatitis. Most milk bought online also comes contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, as at Cincinnati Children鈥檚 Hospital Medical Center reported last year. Granted, OnlyTheBreast.com has explicit instructions about home pasteurization.

Plus, there鈥檚 the issue of cost鈥攁t $2.50 to $4.00 per ounce, a gallon of breast milk is priced at $320 to $512, versus just $4 a gallon of cow鈥檚 milk, Donovan says. And what really sucks? 聽There鈥檚 a chance you might not even get what you鈥檙e paying for. Because it鈥檚 sold by volume without any oversight, the milk could be cut with water or cow鈥檚 milk, Hinde warns. These aren鈥檛 problems you find with hospital milk bank donations where no monetary gain is involved.

Getting beyond the ick factor, athletes commanding high prices for breast milk could inadvertently encourage disadvantaged women to sell their milk instead of feeding their own infants. It may also discourage women from donating to milk banks, which are crucial for supporting the needs of premature infants.

The 鈥渋nvisible breasts of the free market鈥� selling their products online comes with lots of questions, Hinde says.

If you鈥檙e still convinced that breast milk is best, take heart: , The Telegraph reports.

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Gluten-free diets shouldn鈥檛 work. The science, as shown by recent research, isn鈥檛 on their side. But talk to the athletes who willingly deprive themselves of gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye and barley) and they鈥檙e likely to respond with miraculous tales: gone are their days of feeling bloated and fatigued. They鈥檝e lost weight. They recover faster. And they鈥檝e never felt better. Can they really all be deluding themselves?

As often is the case with nutrition, yes but also no. Gluten-free diets are indeed making people feel and perform better. But it likely has little to do with gluten. Instead, researchers from Australia believe they鈥檝e found the true culprit in the form of fermentable sugar components, otherwise known as FODMAPs (fermentable oligo-di-monosaccharides and polyols, in case you were wondering). One of the most potent kinds, fructans, are poorly absorbed in the gut鈥攁nd they just happen to be found in the same culprit foods that contain gluten: wheat, rye and barley.

Originally developed to help irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients in the late 1990s, a diet low in FODMAPs has increasingly proven itself effective in managing symptoms of the disorder, if not widely known among the general population, says Susan Shepherd, an advanced accredited practicing dietician, senior lecturer at LaTrobe University, Melbourne, and one of the original proponents of the diet.

And this is where things get interesting. 鈥淭he low-FODMAP diet has also been shown to be more effective than a gluten-free diet in improving gastrointestinal symptoms in people without celiac disease,鈥� Shepherd said.

In other words, going low-FODMAP鈥攚hich, in practice, also means essentially going gluten-free鈥攃an eliminate the worst symptoms people associate with gluten intolerance: abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, and/or constipation.

This is huge for athletes who鈥檝e previously benefited from 鈥済luten free,鈥� Shepherd said. For one, by adopting a low-FODMAP diet athletes can decrease any gastrointestinal symptoms on training and competition days, which affect nearly one in seven people and up to 80 percent of athletes. For two, it can help decrease fatigue and lethargy and improve concentration. FODMAPs cause tiredness and lethargy in up to 73 percent of people.

鈥淎chieving one and two has the potential to have a very significant positive impact on sports performance,鈥� Shepherd said.

That鈥檚 certainly a provocative stance, but it鈥檚 gaining credibility鈥攁nd attention. Dr. Peter Gibson and Jessica Biesiekierski of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, who are often credited with starting the whole gluten-free craze are now saying FODMAPs are the more likely cause of symptoms in those who have self-reported non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).

In 2011, it was their that provided evidence for the 1980s-proposed existence of NCGS. Another from Dr. Alessio Fasano, founder of Massachusetts General Hospital鈥檚 Center for Celiac Research, corroborated their findings. Then, the word spread rapidly that 鈥済luten free鈥� could improve the health of others beyond those diagnosed with celiac, a notion further popularized by low-carb and 鈥減aleo diet鈥� followers and the publication of a few diet books. Soon enough, food marketers took notice. Mintel, a global marketing research firm, reports that the U.S. market for 鈥済luten free鈥� foods had 44 percent growth between 2011 and 2013 with no signs of slowing down despite only 1 percent of the population having celiac disease.

But as journalist Ross Pomeroy recently , Dr. Gibson and Biesiekierski performed more research that appears to have overturned initial findings. In 2013, their evaluated gluten versus other potential dietary triggers like FODMAPs in NCGS and IBS patients that all but obliterated the conclusions of the first study. In published just last month, they found that one in four people who claimed they had gluten sensitivity actually had symptoms that were more likely related to FODMAPS.

That doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that NCGS doesn鈥檛 exist at all, but that many people have misattributed their symptoms to the syndrome. There鈥檚 a major difference between the food intolerance symptoms of FODMAPs (gas and bloating) and gluten sensitivity, according to Dr. Fasano. 鈥淐omparing a reaction to FODMAPS and gluten sensitivity is like comparing apples to oranges,鈥� he said.

Food intolerances (think: lactose or FODMAP), he explains, is caused when the body lacks the proper digestive enzymes or when they are too abundant to be fully absorbed. In contrast, a food insensitivity (think: gluten) is an immune reaction to a component in food, typically proteins, which cause both symptoms in the gut and elsewhere in the body.

鈥淲ith gluten sensitivity, we are at the same point where we were with celiac disease 20 years ago. That is, we have many more questions than answers and, as our colleagues from Australia state, much more research is needed,鈥� he said.

But for athletes and others who鈥檝e noticed an improvement while going 鈥済luten free,鈥� the Australian research clearly points to what鈥檚 affecting their guts on a broader scale: FODMAPs.

Monash University has to help with avoiding high-FODMAP foods. Shepherd is also behind a new certification logo 鈥淔ODMAP Friendly,” which is registered internationally, including in the U.S.

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Since its release in theaters on May 2, the anti-鈥淏ig Food鈥� documentary has received plenty of media attention and praise. Through stories and expert commentary, the film, narrated by Katie Couric, strives to bring attention to the underlying causes of youth obesity鈥攁nd places the blame squarely on added sugars. For this reason, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman 聽鈥減robably the most important movie to be made since An Inconvenient Truth.鈥�

Given the accolades, it鈥檚 hard to imagine detractors, but remarks of disapproval keep coming, including from spokespeople at both the (ASN) and (AND), who focus on the documentary鈥檚 one-sided and sugar-obsessed take on obesity. Beyond stigmatizing a nutrient that鈥檚 critical to fueling exercise鈥攁nd has repeatedly been shown to enhance athletic performance鈥�Fed Up falls short on emphasizing the role of other calorie sources in weight gain, and it discounts one of the most powerful tools in the war on obesity: physical activity.

While added sugars are a significant part of the problem because they are widely used to make food appetizing, they are far from the whole problem, says Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University鈥檚 and listed as a member of the scientific advisory board for Fed Up. 鈥淚n terms of overall health outcomes, the evidence overwhelmingly indicates the conjoined importance of what we do with our forks and what we do with our feet,鈥� he says.

If Dr. Katz is straightforward in his criticism, he is joined by many other nutrition experts and organizations who have taken a harder line against the film. Angela Lemond, a registered dietitian nutritionist and AND spokesperson, says that the film鈥檚 minimizing of the benefits of exercise is 鈥渢ruly unfortunate鈥� and 鈥渋rresponsible,鈥� noting that sugar is a quickly absorbed source of carbohydrate that is crucial for exercise performance. Moreover, the film鈥檚 focus on sugar as a major factor in contributing to obesity is a 鈥渂iased view鈥� not shared by the majority of objective scientists, says James O. Hill, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver and an ASN spokesperson.

鈥淩esearch is clear now that adding sugar to a diet and taking away the same number of calories does not cause weight gain or any other of the outcomes attributed to sugar in this film,鈥� Hill says.

But Hill鈥檚 chief criticism of the film is the absence of any expert on physical activity. Based on his own research at the , which he founded, an hour or more of physical activity per day is key for long-term weight management success. The registry follows more than 6,000 formerly obese people who have succeeded in keeping weight off permanently. Regardless of how many calories that activity burns, the reason an hour or more of daily exercise works may be due to a change in the body鈥檚 biology that helps control appetite and food intake, Hill explains.

While Fed Up blames rising obesity rates on sugar, consumption of added sugars has actually fallen by a quarter over the past decade, with most of the reduction coming from a decline in sugar-sweetened beverages, according to national survey data, says ASN spokesperson Dr. Roger Clemens, chief science officer for specialty ingredient supplier . He also served on the USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Dr. Clemens says that Fed Up 鈥渕isconstrues the evidence from many studies and confuses customers鈥� about the role of sugar and processed foods in promoting obesity.

As an avid cyclist who enjoys a regular 50-mile ride, Dr. Clemens stresses the role of sugars in fueling exercise. His own sports drink and exercise fuel of choice: orange juice plus peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He also says the film doesn鈥檛 take into account that exercise will help improve the way sugar is handled in the body through improved insulin sensitivity. Guidelines on sugar intake for active versus nonactive people should not be the same, he says.

While Fed Up has done much to reignite the national debate on obesity and sugar, it鈥檚 crucial to separate fact from narrative function. Active people and athletes need sugar to perform. When it comes to obesity, no single nutrient should take all the blame. When it comes to weight loss, a focus on the whole diet is necessary and exercise remains key.

鈥淔or health, [exercise is] essential鈥攅lemental. The importance cannot be overstated,鈥� says Dr. Katz. 鈥淔or weight maintenance, also vital; for weight loss per se, diet matters more just because it is so much easier to out-eat exercise than to out-exercise an unregulated intake of calories.鈥�

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