289 articles
Rice pudding
Rice pudding, also kheer, fereni, or muhallebi, is a sweet dessert of rice cooked in milk and sugar, with Roman-era medicinal pottage origins, medieval Lenten forms, and modern baked, boiled, and vegan variants.
Saw palmetto extract
Saw palmetto extract (Serenoa repens, Sabal serrulata), from dwarf palm berries, is a dietary supplement promoted for BPH urinary symptoms, hair loss, and prostatitis; large trials and the 2023 Cochrane review find little to no benefit, with mild side effects.
Schilling test
Schilling test, a discontinued medical test for vitamin B12 absorption using oral radiolabeled cobalamin and 24-hour urine collection with a 1 mg flushing dose; introduced 1953, obsolete since the 2000s.
School meal programs in the United States
School meal programs in the United States: the National School Lunch Program (1946) and School Breakfast Program (1966), USDA-reimbursed meals with free/reduced tiers at 130%/185% poverty, plus the Community Eligibility Provision and eight state universal free meal programs.
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease caused by prolonged vitamin C deficiency, causing bleeding gums, skin hemorrhages, and fatigue; once the scourge of sailors, it is now rare but rising in restricted diets.
Seed oil misinformation
Seed oil misinformation: claims by influencers and politicians that canola, soybean, corn and similar oils cause inflammation and chronic disease, contradicted by Cochrane and AHA evidence, though repeated high-temperature frying concerns are partially supported.
Selenium deficiency
Selenium deficiency: insufficient intake of the essential trace element selenium, causing Keshan cardiomyopathy and Kashin-Beck disease in low-soil-selenium regions; RDA 55 mcg/day, treated with sodium selenite.
Sequelae of vitamin A deficiency
Sequelae of vitamin A deficiency: night blindness, xerophthalmia, Bitot spots, keratomalacia, blindness, anemia, infection susceptibility, and child mortality; leading preventable cause of childhood blindness.
Serving Size
Serving size, also called serving, is the amount of food on which a Nutrition Facts label's calories and nutrients are based. In the US it is set by FDA RACCs from NHANES data, based on what people typically consume, not a recommended amount.
Severe acute malnutrition
Severe acute malnutrition is the most dangerous form of child undernutrition, diagnosed in children aged 6 to 59 months by very low weight for height, arm circumference below 115 mm, or edema.
Small for gestational age
Small for gestational age (SGA) describes a fetus or newborn below the 10th weight percentile for gestational age and sex, distinguished from pathological fetal growth restriction, with elevated stillbirth risk and childhood growth follow-up.
Soy protein
Soy protein, also known as soybean proteins, is the protein obtained from soybeans, used in foods like tofu and soymilk, as refined ingredients, and in animal feed.
Sports nutrition
Sports nutrition: the evidence-based study and practice of diet, hydration, and supplements for athletic performance. Covers carbohydrate, protein, and fat guidance, energy availability (REDs), and supplement evidence from ACSM, ISSN, and IOC positions.
Staple food
A staple food, or dietary staple, is a food eaten regularly in quantities that make it the dominant part of a population's diet, such as rice, wheat, maize, or potatoes.
Starvation
Starvation: severe lack of food that can cause death. Covers IPC famine thresholds, global hunger figures (645 million in 2025), refeeding syndrome, the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, and long-term famine effects.
State and local food assistance programs in the United States
State and local food assistance programs are state, county, and municipal nutrition benefits beyond federal SNAP and WIC, including state aid for immigrants excluded from SNAP and produce incentives.
Steven Gundry
Steven Gundry, former Loma Linda cardiothoracic surgery chairman, promotes the lectin-free diet via The Plant Paradox and Gundry MD supplements; his lectin and mRNA vaccine claims lack peer-reviewed support and drew an AHA expression of concern.
Stunted growth
Stunted growth, also called growth retardation or child stunting, is impaired growth in children from chronic undernutrition and repeated infection; in 2024 an estimated 150.2 million children under 5 were stunted.
Sugar substitute
Sugar substitute: also called non-sugar or non-nutritive sweetener. Ingredients replacing sugar, including aspartame, sucralose, stevia, monk fruit, sugar alcohols, and allulose; regulated via ADIs, with WHO 2023 advising against NSS for weight control.
Susan Powter
Susan Powter is an Australian-born American fitness personality whose 1993 infomercial and book Stop the Insanity! made her a defining fitness celebrity of the 1990s.
Sylvester Graham
Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), Presbyterian minister and antebellum dietary reformer, 'prophet of bran bread'; advocated unbolted whole-wheat bread, vegetarianism, and sexual abstinence; namesake of the 1829 graham cracker; influenced Kellogg and Adventism.
Team Nutrition
Team Nutrition is a USDA program, launched in 1995, that supports child nutrition programs through training, nutrition education, and promotion of healthy eating in schools.
Tej Lalvani
Tej Lalvani, British CEO of Vitabiotics (founded 1971 by father Kartar Lalvani) and Dragons' Den investor; firm sold to Bain Capital in 2026 for about $1.2 billion.
Testicles as food
Testicles as food, known as Animelles or Donbalan, are animal testicles eaten as offal and prepared by peeling, boiling, slicing, and frying across the American West, the Balkans, the Middle East, and East Asia.
Thiamine
Thiamine (thiamin, vitamin B1) is a water-soluble B vitamin and TDP cofactor in energy metabolism; deficiency causes beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Isolated 1926, synthesized 1936; RDA 1.1–1.2 mg/day.
Thiamine deficiency
Thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1 deficiency) causes beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome; historically linked to polished-rice diets, it remains a public health problem in low-income countries and among people with alcoholism.
Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss (Timothy Ferriss, born 1977), American author of The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body, host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, and angel investor in Uber, Facebook, and Twitter; distinct from science writer Timothy Ferris.
Tocopherol
Tocopherol, the tocopherol family of vitamin E compounds (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-tocopherol), fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients; alpha-tocopherol is the only form meeting human requirements, RDA 15 mg/day, EU upper limit 300 mg/day.
Trans fat
Trans fat (trans-fatty acid, TFA): unsaturated fat with trans double bonds, from partial hydrogenation of oils or ruminant bacteria; raises LDL, lowers HDL, and is being eliminated by WHO REPLACE policies in 53 countries.
Transcobalamin II
Transcobalamin II, encoded by the TCN2 gene, is a 43 kDa plasma protein that binds newly absorbed vitamin B12 and delivers it into cells via the CD320 receptor.