This week’s research covers everything from how we absorb nutrients to how the brain clears waste, how food environments influence health, and why some people can’t mentally “switch off” at night. Here’s what the science is telling us.
1. Kale’s Nutrients Are Locked - And Oil Is the Key
Kale is often treated as a guaranteed superfood: raw in salads, baked into chips, stirred into soups. But new research from the University of Missouri suggests that kale only delivers its full nutritional value when paired with oil-based dressings or sauces. Without that addition, your body may be absorbing only a fraction of the nutrients you think you’re getting.
Kale contains carotenoids like lutein, α-carotene and β-carotene, compounds linked to improved vision, immune support and long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health. The catch? These nutrients are fat-soluble, meaning the body cannot efficiently absorb them without the presence of fat.
Researchers at Mizzou’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources tested kale in several forms - raw, cooked, raw with dressing, cooked with dressing, and cooked directly in sauce. Whether kale was steamed, sautéed, or eaten straight from the chopping board, the findings were consistent: oil unlocks kale’s nutrients. Raw kale alone led to very low carotenoid absorption. Cooking it alone made absorption even lower. But when oil-based dressings or sauces were added, carotenoid uptake increased significantly.
The team also explored nanoemulsion-based dressings, highly stable emulsions created with food nanotechnology. These enhanced carotenoid absorption even further, regardless of whether the kale was raw or cooked.
This matters for everyday longevity habits because it highlights how food preparation choices can dramatically affect nutrient bioavailability. A nutrient-dense vegetable only becomes truly beneficial when the body can process and absorb what it contains. In other words: you don’t need more kale - you need more olive oil on your kale.
2. Repeated Head Impacts May Overload the Brain’s Waste-Clearing System
A second major study this week focuses on the glymphatic system, the brain’s waste-disposal network responsible for clearing toxins, maintaining fluid balance and delivering nutrients. Researchers studying professional fighters have found evidence that repeated head impacts may first accelerate, and later suppress, glymphatic function. The result may be an increased risk of cognitive decline.
The investigation, coming from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Cleveland Clinic Nevada, examined athletes in the Professional Athletes Brain Health Study, a long-term project tracking nearly 900 fighters. Using diffusion tensor imaging along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS), a specialised MRI technique, researchers evaluated how well fighters’ glymphatic systems were functioning.
The results were surprising. Instead of showing low glymphatic activity from the beginning, cognitively impaired fighters displayed unusually high activity at first, suggesting the brain was overcompensating in response to injury. Over time, however, this activity collapsed, especially among fighters with more knockouts. This decline may accelerate the buildup of harmful proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases.
The findings offer new insight into why repeated trauma - even subconcussive blows - may increase the long-term risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. They also highlight an emerging biomarker (ALPS index) that could help detect risk earlier in athletes, military personnel and others exposed to repeated impacts.
Understanding glymphatic overload could open the door to new strategies aimed at protecting or restoring the brain’s clearing system, especially during the early, compensatory phase before long-term decline begins.
3. Supermarket Tactics Can Improve Nutrition in Food Relief Settings
Most people assume that improving diet quality requires education or income, but new research from the University of Adelaide suggests that environmental design can be just as powerful. By adopting simple supermarket-style strategies, food relief pantries may help clients make healthier choices without removing autonomy or dignity.
The eight-month study, conducted in collaboration with Foodbank SA & NT, tested whether product placement, promotional cues and strategic pricing could influence the food choices of people experiencing food insecurity.
Foods were categorised from “red” (least nutritious) to “greener green” (most nutritious), and shelves were reorganised to give healthier items the most visible, accessible placement. Promotional prompts reinforced these cues, and in some cases, pricing adjustments further encouraged nutritious selections.
The results were clear: turnover of fresh fruits and vegetables increased, while discretionary snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages declined. For a population where chronic health conditions are disproportionately common, even modest shifts in daily choices can have meaningful long-term effects.
The intervention also improved stock management. Instead of filling shelf gaps with whatever was available, staff restocked according to what was actually being used, just like in a traditional supermarket, improving consistency and reducing waste.
Because food insecurity affects around one in three households in Australia, and many rely on food relief services, small environmental changes like these may play a meaningful role in improving population-level nutrition.
4. New Study Suggests Insomnia May Be a Circadian Problem, Not Just a “Racing Mind”
A study from the University of South Australia offers one of the clearest explanations yet for why some people struggle to mentally “power down” at night. The research suggests that insomnia may stem from a shifted and weakened 24-hour rhythm of thought activity, rather than just cognitive hyperarousal.
Under controlled laboratory conditions, scientists monitored 32 older adults - half with chronic insomnia, half healthy sleepers - over a 24-hour period of wakeful bedrest. Food, light, posture and behaviour were tightly controlled to isolate the brain’s internal rhythms. Each participant completed hourly assessments describing the tone, intensity and controllability of their thoughts.
Both groups showed a predictable daily pattern: mental activity tended to peak in the afternoon and quieten in the early morning. But participants with insomnia had delayed peaks, and, most importantly, they failed to fully transition into a calmer cognitive state at night.
Their brains continued producing daytime-like, task-oriented thinking even when the internal clock should signal disengagement. This blunted downshift may explain why so many people with insomnia report lying awake with an “always-on” mind.
The findings point to targeted circadian interventions, like timed light exposure, consistent routines, behavioural wind-down rituals, as potential tools for strengthening the natural day-night shift in cognitive activity.
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