Take a slower route in regard to food

Sometimes fast is good: Ashley Henderson, 22, of San Diego State University recently ran the 100-meter dash in 10.98 seconds, making her the fastest woman on the planet in 2018. (She did it in 10.96 in 2016, but Florence Griffith Joyner’s 1988 world record of 10.49 still stands.)

But sometimes fast isn’t good, like when it’s fast food that delivers high saturated fat with low nutrition, or meals and snacks crammed with processed ingredients, sugars (in Mcdonald’s buns, for example) and additives (like gut-disrupting emulsifiers).

Those empty calories and health disruptors don’t just increase your risk for obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart woes, they also ding your reproductive system and make it more difficult to get pregnant.

A study in the journal Human Reproduction found that women who eat fast food four or more times weekly take an extra month to become pregnant. In contrast, those who eat fruit three or more times a day (a berry, banana, kiwi smoothie qualifies) became pregnant more quickly than those who eat fruit fewer than three times a month.

How do you like your garlic?

Onthebigislandofhawaii, the Kilauea volcano is spewing toxic sulfur dioxide gas, creating what’s known as “vog” (volcanic fog). That toxic yellow cloud not only reduces visibility, irritates the skin and stings the eyes and throat, but, say recent evacuees, it also leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

That’s not always the case with sulfur. Take the delicious-tasting garlic bulb. It’s loaded with sulfur compounds that are essential and convey many health benefits. (It shouldn’t be confused with sulfa drugs or sulfites, both of which people can be allergic to.)

As garlic grows, it builds its store of potential allicin, an antibacterial compound that fights off pathogens in the soil.

Atthesametime,sulfate in soil is absorbed and packed into sulfur storage molecules (SSMS) within the individual cloves. Depending on whether you chop, roast, saute or press garlic for oil, you’ll release the allicin-scented aroma that you associate with garlic, as well as various sulfur compounds from those SSMS, many of which are super-good for you.

In fact, garlic contains around 50 sulfur-containing compounds. That explains why there’s such a wide range of results from studies looking at garlic’s health benefits.

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.