You are reading our weekly Well+Being newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
This week’s must-reads:
- Cancer patients often want ‘one more round.’ Should doctors say no?
- Your body makes melatonin. Here’s how to use it for better sleep.
- More than one alcoholic drink a day raises heart disease risk for women
- How flotation therapy may help your mental health
- High-fat keto diet may help people with serious mental illness
What you need to know about the solar eclipse
A total solar eclipse is just days away. On April 8, afternoon will morph into night for about four minutes from northern Mexico to New England, writes Kasha Patel, deputy weather editor for The Washington Post and author of the Hidden Planet column.
She notes that the air will suddenly become colder by around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Birds and insects will fall silent in the darkness. Confused plants will ramp down their food production. Nocturnal animals such as owls and bats will begin to stir.
The Post’s climate team has compiled everything you need to know about this rare event. Start with our 2024 Total Solar Eclipse page for the latest updates. And check out the following articles for more insights.
Test your knowledge. If you’re in the dark about the eclipse, our quiz can help.
It’s dangerous to view the sun with a naked eye — you’ll need special glasses for the total solar eclipse. Here’s how to buy eclipse glasses and avoid fakes.
Are you in the path of totality? See how close to a total eclipse you’ll get in your city.
Do the bees look confused? Birds, insects and even plants might start acting strange.
Taking pictures of this year’s stunning total eclipse shouldn’t be too hard — as long as you’re prepared. Here’s what you need to do.
Big Food and dietitians push ‘anti-diet’ advice
Jaye Rochon struggled to lose weight for years. But she felt as if a burden had lifted when she discovered YouTube influencers advocating “health at every size” — urging her to stop dieting and start listening to her “mental hunger.”
She stopped avoiding favorite foods such as cupcakes and Nutella. “They made me feel like I was safe eating whatever the hell I wanted,” said Rochon, 51, a video editor in Wausau, Wis. In two months, she regained 50 pounds. As her weight neared 300 pounds, she began to worry about her health.
The videos that Rochon encountered are part of the “anti-diet” movement, a social media juggernaut that began as an effort to combat weight stigma and an unhealthy obsession with thinness. But now global food marketers are seeking to cash in on the trend.
One company in particular, General Mills, maker of Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms cereals, has launched a multipronged campaign that capitalizes on the teachings of the anti-diet movement, an investigation by The Post and the Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that covers global public health, has found.
Online dietitians — many of them backed by food makers — also are building lucrative followings by co-opting anti-diet messages. The Post and the Examination analyzed more than 6,000 social media posts by 68 registered dietitians with at least 10,000 followers. The analysis showed that roughly 40 percent of these influencers, with a combined reach of more than 9 million followers, repeatedly used anti-diet language.
The rapid spread of anti-diet messaging — and the alliance between some of the country’s registered dietitians and the food industry — has alarmed some in the public health community at a time when obesity is on the rise. To learn more about the trend, read our full investigation. And if you would like to know more about the work of our partner the Examination, you can sign up for their newsletter.
Should you take a multivitamin?
What are the benefits of taking a multivitamin? Should I take one even if I’m healthy?
About one-third of Americans take multivitamins regularly. Many purchase the supplement because they think it can affect broad health outcomes — help them live longer, decrease cancer risk and reduce cardiovascular disease. Otherwise-healthy people also take it to fill gaps in their diets.
Though there’s some encouraging data on the benefits of multivitamins for healthy adults, the supplement isn’t a cure-all.
A study called COSMOS examining multivitamin use over a median of about 3½ years in more than 21,000 older adults found no improvement for men or women in cancer risk, mortality or cardiovascular disease. An ancillary study did find that certain aspects of cognition significantly improved for men and women over age 60.
To learn more about multivitamins, read the full article from our Ask a Doctor columnist, Trisha S. Pasricha. Use our Ask a Doctor form to submit a question, and we may answer it in a future column.
Find your joy snack!
Here are a few things that brought us joy this week.
- Kites, rockets and sheep. Enjoy some of this week’s best photographs from The Post.
- How to iron better and faster
- Fear of missing out? Find the joy in saying ‘no.’
- At age 11, his passion is Pearl Harbor. He’s raised nearly $100,000.
- Nonalcoholic beer is better than ever. These are our top picks.
- Are walking pads worth it? Why I’m never leaving my desk treadmill.
Want to know more about “joy” snacks? Our Brain Matters columnist Richard Sima explains. You can also read this story as a comic.
Please let us know how we are doing. Email me at wellbeing@washpost.com. You can also find us on TikTok.
