Hello Reader! For years, we've been hearing that we need more protein—especially as we get older. I’ve definitely spread this advice around. It’s certainly helped me feel and look better. Then a recent headline announced: Eating less protein could slow aging. Damn. Hello, health confusion, my old friend. This is the problem with trying to eat according to nutrition headlines. Headlines are designed to tell us what's new. Your body doesn't particularly care what's new. Also—new isn't...

Hello Reader! I spend a lot of time thinking about health. Call it an occupational hazard, but I regularly read exercise and nutrition research, pay attention to my habits, and wonder how you could design affordable, space-saving, fitness equipment that actually looks good (this is my personal holy grail). And yet there's a question that keeps sneaking into my mind: Is getting healthy actually the goal? This isn't an argument against taking care of yourself, but for stepping back and asking...

Hello Reader! I wonder if Sudoku would've become my habit (minor obsession?) if I hadn't believed it was helping keep my brain sharp. For decades we've been told to protect our brains by doing brain things—crossword puzzles, Sudoku, brain-training apps, and learning another language. Not only do they help, I’ll admit to enjoying all of them (except Lumosity’s spatial orientation game—my poor penguin spends most of its time shuffling in a corner). But what if we've been thinking about brain...