When you quit smoking, your body begins to function differently. In the short term, your heart rate and blood pressure adjust themselves. As the years go by, your risks for cancer and heart disease get closer to those of non-smokers. This calculator can give you specific dates for when all these things happen if you were to quit right now.

Omega-3s were supposed to protect us all from heart disease and other health problems, but it's taken some time for the evidence to catch up with the hype around these supplements. Based on a large and important study published earlier this year in JAMA Cardiology, that evidence is here: fish oil or omega-3 supplements won't help people with heart disease.

A recent headline in the Australian newspaper claimed “A short black a day can keep heart attack at bay”. Is this more good news for coffee lovers, or a case of be careful what you read?

Sugar has detrimental effects on our health, and not just because sweet foods tend to have a lot of kilojoules. Plenty of research has shown that the same kilojoules of sugar versus other foods do very different things to our bodies. And new research shows how the sugar industry has tried to hide those findings.

A study released this month in The Lancet found a link between high carbohydrate intake and risk of death. The resulting headlines had dedicated low-carb dieters celebrating and low-fat vegans spoiling for a fight. But as with most dietary studies, there is more to it than the headlines claim.

If you eat a plant-based diet, you don't get an automatic get-out-of-heart-disease-free card. (There's definitely such a thing as vegan junk food.) But a new study that supposedly confirms some plant-based diets are better than others... actually wasn't comparing plant-based diets to each other at all.