Damage control

If you want to lose weight, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. (At least, not literally.) But according to one new study, a daily dose of fish oil could offer the next best thing. As part of their recent analysis, researchers cited emerging evidence that junk food--high in refined sugar and saturated fat--can hijack your brain and disrupt its ability to regulate food intake and metabolism. The good news? It looks like omega-3s can short circuit these changes to your brain... and ward off weight gain in the process. This review included more than 180 research papers. According to the study's lead author, fish oil buffers the neurological effects of a bad diet by lowering inflammation and triglycerides. And this, in turn, seems to mimic the effects of calorie restriction. These results appeared in the British Journal of Nutrition. And they aren't a blank check for a junk food binge. But they do a pretty good job of illustrating why fish oil is one of my favorite supplements. And why everyone should take at least 3,000 mg of DHA/EPA every single day.