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.
Healthy Eating
I suspect there’s always going to be a raging debate about the best way to go about losing weight. From a dietary perspective, a myriad of suggested approaches exist, though within these the two most popular and well-known ‘diets’ are those low in carbohydrate and fat respectively. Both of these approaches have their advocates. I’m […]
Healthy Eating
In recent years omega-3 fats (found, for instance in ‘oily’ fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel and herring) have become famous for supposed health-giving properties, particularly with regard to cardiovascular system and brain. This week saw the publication of a study which links omega-3 fats with a slowing of the ageing process [1]. The study, […]
Food and Medical Politics
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that the commonly-held belief that saturated fat cause heart disease appears to be waning. In the last few weeks alone we have seen the publication of two significant and weighty studies which have found no link between sat fat and heart disease. These come hot on the heels of another […]
Healthy Eating
I was attempting to give a friend and colleague some writing advice on Friday. Here it is in a nutshell: don’t be flowery and literary with your writing ” keep is short and simple. Because when communicating information of any sort (including health information), I believe the chances of someone acting on it (in the […]
Cholesterol and Statins
One of things I try and do on this blog is right what I see as nutritional wrongs. So, if there’s a common perception that artificial sweeteners are better than sugar for weight loss, but there’s really no evidence for that, then I’m inclined to write about it. If the evidence suggests that margarine is […]
Brain and Behaviour
I’ve been attempting to catch up on some reading over the last few days, and this included skimming through the last couple of copies of New Scientist magazine. One article that caught my eye from the late December/early January issue concerned the effect of artificial sweeteners. In particular, the piece (by San Francisco-based writer Douglas […]
Healthy Eating
I came across this report here of a study recently published in the British Medical Journal [1]. It concerns a device known as a ‘Mandometer’ ” which has been developed as an aid to weight loss. The Mandometer, a Swedish invention, is essentially a set of weighing scales connected to a small computer. A plate […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
My last post here detailed just a few relatively easy-to-apply lifestyle changes that might make good New Year resolutions. One of them, was to eat a ‘primal’ diet ” essentially a diet based on the foods we’ve been eating the longest in terms of our time on this planet. The record suggests that for the […]
Exercise and Activity
I read a report in the last week regarding New Year resolutions, the thrust of which was that setting the bar too high is more likely to lead to us not keeping to whatever resolutions we have made. In other words, opting for smaller, more manageable changes might be a better long-term strategy. I agree […]
Healthy Eating
At this time of year many of us will come across messages which warn of the hazards of consuming excessive quantities of food and drink. For example, a week or so ago I read a report which maintained that children can get through 6000-odd calories on Christmas day. And last week I wrote a piece […]