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Today’s Health Upgrade
How your diet influences fertility
Are you the right age for a multivitamin?
Fact or fiction: processed foods
The food that supports healthy blood pressure
On Our Radar
The Diet Factor That Might Shape Your Reproductive Health
Many factors influence the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy, and new research suggests that what you eat could support the journey.
A diverse diet may be linked to better reproductive health and improved infant outcomes.
Researchers analyzed multiple studies to determine whether eating a broad range of nutrient-dense foods was associated with better health markers for fertility, pregnancy, and neonatal outcomes.
The findings suggested that women with higher diet diversity scores — meaning they consumed a wider variety of nutrient-rich foods — had better reproductive health outcomes, including improved fertility markers and healthier pregnancies. Additionally, infants born to mothers with diverse diets had better birth outcomes, including healthier birth weights and lower risks of complications.
The researchers believe that consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods helps optimize micronutrient intake, supporting hormonal balance, egg quality, and overall reproductive function. Certain vitamins and minerals — such as folate, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids — are particularly beneficial during pregnancy, and a diverse diet naturally increases the likelihood of adequate intake.
What does this mean for you? Whether you're planning for pregnancy or just aiming for better overall health, incorporating a variety of whole, nutrient-dense foods, such as vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats, may offer benefits. Instead of focusing on a single “perfect diet,” aim for balance and diversity in your meals.
Together With Momentous
Does A Daily Multivitamin Help Protect Your Brain?
For years, the knock on multivitamins was simple: healthy people don't need them, and most of what you swallow just passes through. That might still be true for some things. But when it comes to your brain as you get older, a recent study suggests the math might be different.
A study of more than 5,000 older adults found that those who took a daily multivitamin for two to three years had noticeably better memory than those who took a placebo. The researchers estimate that taking multivitamins led to the equivalent of a brain about two years younger.
The researchers took older adults and split them into two groups. One group took a daily multivitamin. The other took a sugar pill. Nobody knew what they were getting. After two to three years, both groups completed memory and cognitive tests. The multivitamin group was consistently better at recalling specific information, such as names, events, and things they'd learned. That gap held up across multiple rounds of testing and multiple groups of participants.
The researchers believe it comes down to nutritional gaps. As we get older, our bodies absorb certain vitamins and minerals less efficiently, and most people aren't eating perfectly to begin with.
Nutrients such as B vitamins, vitamin D, and zinc play well-known roles in how brain cells function and protect themselves. When those levels drop, cognitive function can slip. A daily multivitamin may be enough to fill in those gaps and keep things running better over time.
The benefits were real but modest. Multivitamins might help, but this isn't a cure for memory loss. And the research is most relevant to adults 60 and older, where nutritional shortfalls tend to widen.
But if you're already in that range, the math is hard to argue with. A daily multivitamin is one of the more cost-effective supplements, and it’s easy to take.
Momentous Essential Multi is built for exactly what this research suggests: filling real nutritional gaps without megadoses, gimmicks, or fairy dust. The formula uses bioavailable forms of key nutrients (such as B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium), modeled on how they occur in nutrient-dense foods rather than in lab extremes.
That matters because the benefit in these studies didn’t come from one “miracle” nutrient. It came from consistently getting enough of the basics.
Momentous makes one we trust because it’s designed to support long-term health, not short-term hype. Save 35% off your first subscription order or 14% off any non-subscription purchase with the code “PUMPCLUB.”
A multivitamin isn’t a treatment. It's a modest, consistent protective layer. The kind of thing that probably won't feel like it's working until one day it has.
Fact Or Fiction
Are Processed Foods Always Bad for You?
Every time you reach for food that comes in a bag, you might have felt a small pang of doubt. Processed. The word sits there like a warning label. Vague enough to apply to almost anything, specific enough to make you feel like you're making the wrong choice.
Here's the problem: that feeling is built on a false premise, and the science is starting to expose it.
While ultra-processed foods are associated with overeating, not all processed foods are bad. And research suggests that texture is one of the most powerful drivers of how much you eat.
And conflating "processed" with "ultra-processed" has been steering people away from nutritious, affordable foods for the wrong reasons. Start with the language, because this is where most people get lost. Not all processed food is the same.
Minimally processed foods — frozen vegetables, canned beans, Greek yogurt — have been modified to preserve or improve their nutritional value.
Ultra-processed foods are a different category entirely: packaged snacks, sugary drinks, and products engineered for maximum palatability with minimal nutritional payoff. When research links "processed food" to health problems, it's almost always referring to that second group. Lumping frozen spinach in with Doritos isn't just imprecise; it pushes people away from some of the cheapest, most convenient healthy options available.
Now here's where it gets more interesting. Even within the ultra-processed category, a randomized crossover trial found that texture matters more than most people realize. Researchers fed 50 healthy adults four different meals — soft minimally processed, hard minimally processed, soft ultra-processed, and hard ultra-processed — and tracked every bite, chew, and swallow on video. And then the participants were able to eat as much as they wanted until full.
The fewest calories came from the hard, minimally processed meal (483 calories). The most came from the soft ultra-processed meal (789 calories). That's a difference of roughly 300 calories from the same sitting.
But here's the part worth remembering: the hard ultra-processed meal produced nearly as low an intake as the hard minimally processed one. Texture was doing more work than the processing level.
The reason comes down to pace. Harder foods require more chewing, which forces you to eat more slowly. And your body's fullness signals take roughly 15 to 20 minutes to register. When you eat faster, you outrun them every time.
Another study confirmed the connection: participants consuming an ultra-processed diet chewed significantly fewer times per calorie and ate 813 more calories daily during that period compared to when they weren't eating ultra-processed foods.
None of this is a green light for ultra-processed foods. A 2025 meta-analysis found that higher intake of ultra-processed foods was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality. The evidence against that category is real and growing.
But the practical reframe matters: the problem isn't "processed." It's soft, hyper-palatable foods specifically engineered to make you eat faster and more than you intended.
If there’s anything to remember, it’s this: First, you don't need to avoid minimally processed foods out of a vague fear of processing. Frozen vegetables, canned beans, and plain Greek yogurt have a place in your kitchen.
Second, when you're choosing between options (especially snack foods) default to the crunchier, denser one.
Foods Are Super
Good Blood Pressure? Here's What Might Help You Keep It That Way
There's a category of health advice that sounds too good to be true and often is. "Eat more dark chocolate. It's good for your heart." You've probably heard some version of this, maybe even used it to justify the extra square after dinner.
The largest and longest cocoa trial ever conducted found that supplementation did not prevent hypertension in the general population. However, for adults who already had optimal blood pressure at baseline, it was linked to a 24% lower risk of developing high blood pressure over three-plus years.
Researchers studied nearly 9,000 older adults (men and women) who started the study with healthy blood pressure. Half received 500 mg of cocoa flavanols daily (via supplement capsule, not food) for a median of 3.4 years. The other half got a placebo.
In the full group, cocoa supplementation did not significantly reduce the risk of hypertension. Among participants who entered with ideal systolic blood pressure under 120 mmHg, though, the picture shifted: a 24% risk reduction that emerged after two years and held up through rigorous statistical testing.
Researchers believe the mechanism involves epicatechin, a flavanol compound that supports the inner lining of blood vessels in producing nitric oxide, which keeps them relaxed and pressure stable. The analogy: maintaining good pipes rather than trying to clear a clog that's already formed.
While we love getting our nutrients from whole foods, the 500 mg flavanol dose is substantially higher than what you'd get from dark chocolate, so this isn't a license to eat more of it.
If your blood pressure is currently in a healthy range, that's worth protecting. Flavanol supplementation is one option to consider, especially if you're thinking about health over the next few decades rather than the next few months.
Better Today
Take any of these tips from today’s email and put them into action:
1. Why Eating A Variety of Foods May Do More for Reproductive Health Than You Think
A systematic review found that women who ate a wider variety of nutrient-dense foods had better reproductive health outcomes, including improved fertility markers, healthier pregnancies, and higher infant birth weights, compared with women with lower dietary diversity scores. Scientists believe that optimizing micronutrients such as folate, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids helps support hormonal balance and egg quality. If you're thinking about pregnancy or building a long-term health foundation, the evidence points toward broadening your diet rather than narrowing your focus to any single food or supplement.
2. Multivitamins May Slow Cognitive Aging. But the Research Is Most Relevant to One Specific Group
A Harvard study of more than 5,000 older adults found that taking a daily multivitamin for two to three years was linked to meaningfully better memory, specifically, improved recall of names, events, and learned information. The researchers estimated that the cognitive benefit was equivalent to a brain functioning roughly two years younger. As your body ages, absorption efficiency for key micronutrients declines, and B vitamins, vitamin D, and zinc each play documented roles in how brain cells function and protect themselves; consistent shortfalls in these nutrients appear to accelerate the cognitive slip the multivitamin group avoided. The benefits were real but modest, and the research is most relevant to adults 60 and older — not a memory cure, but among the more cost-effective protective layers available for a demographic where nutritional shortfalls tend to widen over time.
3. Why Texture Might Predict Overeating More Than Whether Your Food Is Processed
A randomized crossover trial of 50 adults found that food texture had a stronger effect on calorie intake than processing level. Participants ate 482 calories during hard minimally processed meals versus 789 calories during soft ultra-processed meals, a gap of roughly 300 calories per sitting, while hard ultra-processed meals produced intake nearly as low as the whole-food option. The mechanism is pace: harder foods require more chewing, which slows eating enough for the body's 15-to-20-minute satiety signaling window to function before overeating occurs — a finding reinforced by a separate study showing ultra-processed diets produced about 815 more daily calories alongside significantly fewer chews per calorie. Frozen vegetables, canned beans, and Greek yogurt belong in your kitchen without apology, and when you're choosing between options, defaulting to the crunchier, denser one is working with your body's satiety system rather than against it.
4. Daily Cocoa Flavanols Reduced High Blood Pressure Risk by 24% (But Only for Adults With Optimal Baseline Blood Pressure)
Nearly 9,000 older adults receiving 500mg of cocoa flavanols daily for about 3.5 years found no significant reduction in hypertension risk for the general population, but adults who entered the study with ideal systolic blood pressure below 120 mmHg saw a 24% lower risk of developing high blood pressure, an effect that emerged after two years and held through rigorous statistical testing. The mechanism involves epicatechin, a flavanol compound that supports nitric oxide production in blood vessel walls, a process better suited to maintaining healthy vessels than to reversing already present damage. This explains why the benefit was observed only in the already-healthy subgroup. The 500mg dose used is well above what dark chocolate delivers, so this isn't a license for an extra square after dinner. But if your blood pressure is currently in a healthy range, the evidence supports a specific long-term supplementation strategy worth considering.
The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards
We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.
The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).
Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to review our interpretations of the research and ensure scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.
Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
