Dr John Briffa's blog, A Good Look at Good Health — writing on food, cholesterol, weight, energy and the science behind everyday health, from the drbriffa.com archive. Filter by topic, browse by category, or search the library.
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Previously, for instance here, I have attempted to point out that the conventional dietary advice so often given to diabetics is nonsensical and likely to be positively damaging to their health. Why diabetics should be advised to ‘include starch with every meal’ and therefore almost certainly ensure they’re going to get quite a shot of […]
Food and Medical Politics
Previously, like here, here and here, I have highlighted the way that the pharmaceutical industry appears to use its financial muscle to ensure its products end up in a favourable result. Earlier this month, the British Medical Journal published another study on this theme. The particular focus of this review were studies known as ‘meta-analyses’ […]
Food and Medical Politics
Earlier this month I blogged about some research which suggests that being overweight is not the dire threat to our health and longevity it is so often assumed to be. One reason why the risk of being overweight may be somewhat overstated has to do with the fact there’s a lot of money in persuading […]
Food and Medical Politics
Recently, a report published by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) made a number of recommendations designed to ward off cancer, the most trumpeted of which is the need to maintain a ‘healthy’ weight. Specifically, we are encouraged to keep our body mass index (BMI) between 21-23 […]
Food and Medical Politics
My blog last Friday questioned the wisdom of recent advice dished out to us on how to prevent cancer. The crux of this issue is that such recommendations are based on so-called ‘epidemiological’ studies which may show associations between things (e.g. obesity and cancer) but cannot be used to prove that one is causing the […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in September I blogged about some research which found that poor bedside manner is associated with an increased likelihood of a doctor having a complaint made against them [1]. To me, this research highlights the very personal and human nature of medicine. I do believe that having a good grasp of the science-based and […]
Food and Medical Politics
While there is a general move to have us lose some of our collective weight, regular readers may have noticed that I’m a less exercised regarding this than most health professionals. Just last week, one of my posts included several links to articles which appear to show that individuals in the ‘overweight’ category have health […]
Food and Medical Politics
When I’m lecturing, one of the most common questions that comes up is whether organic food is better than food produced non-organically. There is actually some evidence that organic food tends to offer more in the way of what the body needs (e.g. nutrients). And of course, it offers less of what the body most […]
Brain and Behaviour
I’m often asked about my attitude to nutrient supplementation. Do we ‘need’ to supplement, is how it’s often put to me. My answer is that it is probably entirely possible to get all what we need to prevent overt nutritional deficiency diseases such as scurvy and beri-beri. However, less obvious deficiency states may occur quite […]
Food and Medical Politics
Perhaps more than any other disease, breast cancer has received a helluva lot of social and political attention over the last decade. And a big part of the trust around raising awareness of the disease is the ‘need’ for women to be screened for breast cancer. The most commonly used technique for this is mammography […]