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.
Exercise and Activity
Earlier this month I wrote a blog about a study which found that supplementation with protein (whey protein) and the amino acid leucine resulted in increased muscle mass and muscle strength over an 8-week period. I was particularly interested in this because I sometimes recommend whey protein supplementation to individuals looking to maximise muscle gains […]
Healthy Eating
Red meat is one of the foods that, on the whole, tends not to get a vote of confidence from health agencies and health professionals. The case against this food is mainly based on the (I think, misguided) belief that eating saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. After this, we have the idea that […]
Healthy Eating
When glucose (a sugar) is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, a healthy pancreas will secrete the hormone insulin in response. One chief effect of insulin is to reduce blood sugar levels by facilitating the transfer of sugar into the body’s cells. This is a critically important function, and without it sugar levels can […]
Exercise and Activity
In my life and work I commonly come across men who are keen on being stronger and more muscular, and will ask about the sort of diet that might help them achieve their ends. Perhaps not surprisingly, I recommend a diet relatively rich in protein, seeing as protein is a major component in muscle. For […]
Healthy Eating
I was talking with a lady on Monday who told me that she had a ‘gluten intolerance’. Many doctors would assume this meant that the women had coeliac disease (a sensitivity to gluten in foodstuffs like wheat, rye and barley that causes bowel changes, bowel and abdominal symptoms, and may lead to malnourishment if left […]
Healthy Eating
Generally in practice we’re able to make significant headway with all sorts of people with all sorts of health issues be they a 57 year-old man with type 2 diabetes or a 23 year-old woman with irritable bowel syndrome. And yet, I do inevitably come across patients I don’t seem to be able to help […]
Healthy Eating
Yesterday, the Weekend magazine of The Times newspaper here in the UK were kind enough to run a piece I wrote for them about weight loss. It went into a special feature they’d put together on matters male. The piece is, essentially, a precis of my book Waist Disposal – the Ultimate Fat Loss Manual […]
Healthy Eating
Last week I wrote a piece which attempted to highlight the nutritional attributes of meat (and there are many). I appreciate that not everyone want to eat meat. Some don’t like to eat it, and some will not eat it on moral, ethical, animal welfare or religious grounds. Let me state here that I have […]
Cholesterol and Statins
I came across this story this morning. It concerns the fact that there are plans afoot in the US to label meat products with nutritional information including calorie counts, levels of fat and specifically (and inevitably), saturated fat content. According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, “More and more, busy American families want nutrition information that […]
Healthy Eating
It’s a widely recognised idea in nutrition that moderate drinking is ‘healthy’. This advice is based on evidence which links moderate drinking with improved health outcomes (notably a reduced risk of death from heart disease) compared to not drinking at all. However, I remember more than 10 years ago sitting in a presentation given by […]