Gatorade claims its alkaline water will hydrate you into peak performance, but it's just pricey H2O bolstered by clever marketing. Save yourself a few bucks and drink the stuff from the tap instead.

During the recent battle over FDA's decision ban the use of Red No. 3 in food and ingested drugs, few commentators answered a fundamental question: why do food makers use dyes in the first place? The press framed the answer as a corporate ploy to sell more candy, but the story's a bit more complicated than that. Let's take a closer look.

The medical journal The Lancet recently published a detailed consensus statement classifying obesity as a disease. The statement has engendered both widespread support and criticism. Did the journal make the right call? Listen in to learn more.

Given that we're likely to be swimming in snake oil for the foreseeable future perhaps it's comforting to know that things could be worse. For example, during the early 1900s, quacks
– a hearty species indeed – abounded, but they were pushing junk worse than raw milk: Uranium.

USDA's Thrifty Food Plan aims to help low-income Americans eat well without breaking their modest budgets. It's an altruistic attempt to promote public health. But this bureaucratic project to promote nutrition lacks what so many other government programs do: the ability to incentivize healthy living at scale.

The latest CDC and FDA data shows that youth e-cigarette use (vaping) continues to decline. Oddly, leading anti-nicotine groups like The Truth Initiative are doing all they can to minimize the decline in youth use while ignoring adults who are trading their cigarettes for low-risk vapes by the millions.

It's at times like this that the *real* value of ACSH makes itself known. Where else could you 1) Learn about the vileness of fruitcakes and 2) Simultaneously get a lesson on carbon-14 radiolabeling, a technique used to determine the age of really old stuff? Like fruitcakes. Enjoy this annual tradition.

The science community is in an uproar over the probability that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the second Trump Administration. How worried should we be about his nomination? Is the public health truly in jeopardy? Let's take a closer look.

Federal agencies' recruiting based on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) – instead of competence – shortchanges taxpayers and endangers all Americans.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic recently published a study perpetuating the myth that opioid prescriptions launched the ongoing drug overdose epidemic. Two ACSH experts took the clinic to task for sloppy data analysis designed to justify a predetermined conclusion about the risks of painkillers. Let's take a closer look.