A berry used in traditional folk medicine holds a remarkable power to restore healthy fat metabolism as well as insulin sensitivity in a diabetes model in mice. These tiny red fruit come from a little-known shrub called Nitraria roborowskii Kom. (NRK), which grows in the dry temperate regions of Western and Northern China, Mongolia, and Iran. They have a long history in local folk medicine, and scientists suspected that modern pharmacology could explain why. A plant from the same genus,