Each year, scientists who study physiology and other biomedical research fields—including anatomy, biochemistry, pathology and pharmacology—gather at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting. Scientific meetings such as EB provide a platform to present and learn about new and cutting-edge research and form collaborations with colleagues that can lead to advances in science and medicine. This year’s EB meeting in San Diego featured studies ranging in topics from nutrition and exercise to mental well-being and women’s health. Read on for more about how the food we eat—and when we eat it—affects the body.

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You may already know that probiotics—live bacteria found in yogurt and nutritional supplements—are good for digestive health. Now researchers from Auburn University in Alabama have found that drinking kefir, a fermented milk-based beverage, may help lower blood pressure. Their study suggests that probiotic-rich kefir restores balance to bacteria in the intestines and an enzyme in the brain that controls nervous system function. It seems the gut and brain are working together to regulate blood pressure.

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Have you replaced the sugar in your morning coffee with a no-calorie artificial sweetener? This approach may help you cut calories, but according to researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin, it may not reduce your risk of obesity or diabetes. Their data suggest that zero-calorie sweeteners change how the body processes fat and gets energy. Moderation with any type of sweetener, artificial or natural, seems to be the key.

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Breakfast skippers: New research from the Mayo Clinic suggests that passing on breakfast may be a cause of weight gain. Adult volunteers were found to gain less weight when they ate breakfast at least five days a week when compared to those who broke their fast later in the day. The results appear to confirm what your mother always told you: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

If you’re considering becoming pregnant, make sure your prenatal multivitamin includes zinc. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University found zinc is crucial for the health of a woman’s eggs. Zinc deficiency seemed to impair the development of eggs very early on, months before they are ready for release (ovulation) and fertilization. Zinc-deficient eggs were smaller and had problems with cell division, which can prevent fertilization from occurring.

Alternate-day fasting is a weight loss method that’s recently become more popular—but does it work? A research team from Kent State University in Ohio found that obesity-prone mice lost more weight when their calories were restricted every other day than lean mice did. This was the case even though the mice burned the same amount of calories on fasting and non-fasting days. The results suggest that alternate-day fasting may be effective in some people, but not as much in others.

Interested in learning about more research presented at the meeting? Read Meditation, Stress and Mental Fatigue: Research from Experimental Biology 2018.

– Erica Roth