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Daily Edition • Wednesday, May 27

Childhood Junk Food May Rewire Appetite Into Adulthood

Two metal baskets containing fried chicken tenders and French fries, with a child's hand reaching for a fry.

Ryan Collins/Unsplash

A Whole Lotta Junk: We know that eating junk food at any age isn’t great for your health — but indulging in lots of it early in life could cause lasting changes to appetite and eating behavior, according to a new study from researchers at University College Cork. The impact of an early high-fat, high-sugar (HFHS) diet can continue well into adulthood, even with a healthier diet and weight later. But there’s good news: Certain pre- and probiotic strains can minimize these effects.

The Study: When young mice were fed a HFHS diet, they took significantly more food from the food hopper compared to the control mice. After being put on their regular diet, these mice still preferred HFHS food to the control food. But supplementation with the probiotic strain Bifidobacterium longum and prebiotic fibers counteracted these effects. The HFHS mice reduced their food intake, their food preferences were normalized, and the males’ preference for sweetness was lessened.

The Takeaway: Early exposure to unhealthy foods disrupted the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates appetite and energy balance, and lasted long afterward. Changes to the gut microbiome from the specific pre- and probiotic combo minimized this dysregulation.

Keep in Mind: This was an animal study, so the exact effect on humans isn’t totally clear.

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What if You Could Actually Watch Yourself Get Younger?

A focused athlete in a sports bra prepares to sprint, with a bright blue sky in the background.

Courtesy: Hume Health

Your biological age isn't fixed. It moves with your sleep, stress, movement, and recovery, and the Hume Band 2.0 lets you see it happening in real time.

Track your pace of aging, metabolic momentum, and the daily habits driving both. Hume members report feeling more energy day to day, and 71% see measurable drops in biological age within three months. Pair the Band with the Hume Pod, and you connect body composition to the full longevity picture.

Use BAND20 for an extra 20% off your Band 2.0.

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Fitness

This Quick Trick Can Boost Your Endurance by 20%

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Jamming Out: We don’t need science to tell us that good music makes exercise more enjoyable — but we have the proof, anyway. Plenty of studies show links between music types, tempo, and listening patterns on workout performance. But one 2025 study suggests that reaping the benefits of music is far simpler than matching your fitness setlist to your workout intensity.

How to Do It: Per research out of the University of Jyväskylä, it’s easy: Turn on your favorite tunes. In the study, cyclists who listened to “self-selected” tunes lasted nearly 20% longer in the “pain zone” than cyclists in the control group, who rode in silence.

In need of some inspo, or tired of the same old playlists? To discover new songs you love or rediscover old favorites, try this trick: Choose a song that gets you going every time, click “create station” on Apple Music or “go to radio” on Spotify, and enjoy an effortless stream of songs in your favorite genre — no manual playlist creation required. (We've also been loving this new disco-inspired album during workouts.)

The Benefits: Broadly, music makes exercise more enjoyable. Studies have shown that listening to music during exercise can reduce feelings of pain and fatigue, as well as make exercise a recurring habit.

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SPOTLIGHT

Sitting Still With Uncertainty

A smiling elderly woman in a dark robe, seated against a decorative background.

PEMA CHÖDRÖN
Buddhist Nun, Author

Courtesy: The Pema Chödrön Foundation

Pema Chödrön (born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) was a divorced mother of two working as an elementary school teacher when her second husband revealed he was having an affair. She spent the following year trying to make sense of the collapse of that marriage, working through therapy and taking various spiritual detours.

Then she came across an article by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, who proposed that anxiety and grief were sensations to befriend instead of fix. For someone who had just exhausted every available remedy for her emotional pain, that struck a chord. Chödrön then trained under Trungpa, receiving full monastic ordination in 1981 and spending the ensuing decades translating Buddhist philosophy for Western readers.

Her newest book, Another Kind of Freedom, returns to Trungpa’s foundational teachings by focusing on sitting with uncomfortable feelings, such as anxiety, rather than running from them. Meditation, in her framing, trains the mind to notice when it has started following a worried thought and simply return to center. Decades later, she's still exploring the very same feeling that sent her searching for solutions in the first place.

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Quick Picks

Burning Up — Are you applying your sunscreen incorrectly?

Strong Foundation — Strengthening your feet comes with surprising benefits.

Good Vibes — Neuroscience explains how raves offer spiritual transcendence.

Going Viral — Could researchers be onto an antiviral drug that works against measles?

Poopmaxxing — Behind TikTok's obsession with staying regular.

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What We're Cooking

Dawali

A plate of savory lamb chops and vine leaves garnished with tomatoes, alongside bowls of sauce and lemon wedges.

Courtesy: Serious Eats

Serves: 6-8 | Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

These Palestinian stuffed grape leaves are the more slender cousin to Greek dolmas. Rice, ground meat, tomato paste, and warm spices are wrapped in soft grape leaves, then layered over lamb chops and sliced tomatoes to create a rich, deeply savory broth as they cook. As the dawali simmer low and slow, the grape leaves’ acidity also helps break down the meat, leaving it fall-off-the-bone tender by the time everything is done.

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This, Not That

Warm Wind Down

Showerhead with water cascading down, sparkling droplets against a blurred green background.

THIS

A hand holding a remote control in front of a television displaying colorful app icons.

NOT THAT

Chandler Cruttenden/Unsplash, Glenn Carstens Peters/Unsplash

This: A warm shower before bed
Not That: One more episode to “wind down”

A warm shower can help signal that the day is ending, especially when you keep the lights low afterward. The show might feel relaxing in the moment, but the screen, cliffhanger, and “next episode” button are not exactly designed for sleep.

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The Longevity Tracker Everyone’s Actually Excited About

The Hume Band 2.0 isn't another step counter. It tracks the signals most wearables miss, like metabolic momentum, recovery, HRV, sleep stages, and continuous blood pressure trends, no cuff required.

Then it shows you what to do with it. See whether your habits are adding years or draining them, catch strain before it becomes a problem, and watch your health trend in the right direction. Everything lives in one free app, you own your data, and there's no subscription to see it.

Use code BAND20 for an extra 20% off. Launch pricing won't last.

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HEALTHY HABIT

The First Step Outside

Before checking your phone in the morning, take one step outside — porch, sidewalk, backyard. Even 30 seconds of fresh air and light can help wake up your system. It’s a small shift that keeps your morning from starting on someone else’s timeline.

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Final Thought

A monarch butterfly rests atop a flower in a vibrant, blooming garden with a wooden fence in the background.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

– Maya Angelou, Rainbow in the Cloud

Aaron Burden/Unsplash