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.
Cholesterol and Statins
For something that hardly anyone had heard of 20 years ago, cholesterol has become something of a phenomenon. We are encouraged to keep a lid on our cholesterol levels the recommended amount of which in the blood seems to be in perpetual decline. And this is there is quite a lot of political pressure put […]
Food and Medical Politics
I make no secret of my general scepticism about the food industry, and it seemingly endless ability to serve up supposedly ‘healthy’ foods and foodstuffs that, I reckon, are best avoided by those that value their health and well-being. Compounds that I feel fits into this category include artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame (NutraSweet, […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Back in December, I wrote a blog post which focused on the habit drug companies have of causing the medical profession and the public at large to forget what medicine is for [1]. The point I made is that much of medical research is not focused on health itself, but what are known as ‘surrogate’ […]
Food and Medical Politics
A major thrust in nutritional science over the past few years has been to dissect the chemicals contained in food to, supposedly, glean the likely health effects of that food. This approach works to a point. It might, for instance, be useful for say determining that one fruit or vegetable is more nutrient-dense than another. […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
This week I was out and about and couldn’t help noticing the headline on one of the national newspapers here in the UK proclaiming ‘Ready meals increase cancer risk in women’. My interest was piqued, so I took a look. The story reported on a study published this week in the journal Diabetes Care. This […]
Food and Medical Politics
I was interested recently to read the results of the study which assessed the ‘antioxidant’ potential of several types of fruit juices and fruit drinks [1]. Of the 13 types of fruit juice tested, red grape juice came out on top with regard to antioxidant action, which appears to be related to its rich content […]
Food and Medical Politics
Along with saturated fat and salt, sugar is a dietary constituent which is often targeted as unhealthy and to be avoided. And rightly so, seeing as sugar consumption has been linked with an increased risk of a range of ills, most notably obesity. Some of the research that has examined the health effects of sugar […]
Food and Medical Politics
Last Tuesday evening I attended a debate organised by the Guild of Health Writers. The debate centred on the motion that ‘A treatment should have to be scientifically proven to be available on the NHS. The motion had two proposers and two opposers. The proposers were Dr Evan Harris (LibDem MP) and Dr Jonathan Ledermann […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s not like me to be lost for words, but I honestly am not sure where to begin. On Friday I posted a blog which was a response to an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal in which Dr Ben Goldacre took nutritionists to task. My response focused on the fundamental lack of evidence-base […]
Food and Medical Politics
A couple of weeks ago an opinion piece entitled ‘Tell us the truth about nutritionists’ appeared the British Medical Journal which asked serious questions of about ‘media nutritionists’. It’s author, Dr Ben Goldacre, is a practising doctor and man behind the website www.badscience.net, the aim of which is to expose ‘pseudoscience’ and those he feels […]