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.
Brain and Behaviour
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener which, once consumed, breaks down into three components ” aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Aspartame has been passed as fit to consume by more than 100 countries around the World, but there is evidence that each of aspartame’s chemical components can have toxic effects on health. See here and here […]
Brain and Behaviour
Over the last few weeks I have, as part of a book I am writing, embarked on a bit of an overhaul of my own diet. Apart from ‘tightening things up’ a bit, I’ve also decided (urged by my girlfriend) to slow my eating down and eat a bit more ‘mindfully’. I have generally been […]
Weight Loss
Variously on this site, most recently here, I have reported on studies which show that being ‘overweight’ is associated with a reduced risk of death compared to having what would be generally taken to be a ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ weight. The studies that show this association are based on the measurement known as the body […]
Healthy Eating
Cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease and stroke are a major cause of disability and death. For years we’ve been led to believe that fat is the major dietary offender here, but in reality the science shows that naturally occurring fats are not the issue. In fact, some fats (principally so-called omega-3 fats) actually help […]
Healthy Eating
For about 30 years we’ve had our Governments, health agencies, doctors and dieticians urging us to eat less fat and more carbohydrate. Yet, we now know that many of the fats in the diet, including saturated fat, appear harmless as worst. Some, including the omega-3 fats found in oily fish, look positively beneficial. And on […]
Food and Medical Politics
The standard way of assessing weight as it relates to health is the body mass index (BMI) – calculated by dividing an individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. According to conventional wisdom, a BMI of 18.5 ” 24.9 is to be regarded as ‘healthy’, while BMIs of 25.0-29.9 are […]
Healthy Eating
There are a number of ways of tackling excess weight, one of which is to eat less. What is important here is that food intake is cut without inducing much in the way of hunger. Why? Because for most of us, hunger is not something we will wilfully put up with in the long term. […]
Healthy Eating
Some individuals, hard as they try, may still fine it difficult to moderate the quantity of food they eat. At least one reason for this can be that they are eating foods that aren’t particularly satisfying. Two factors that affect the sating effects of food are the glycaemic index (the speed and extent to which […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Recently a couple of blogs have focused on the potential role that vitamin D may play in the regulation of body weight (see here and here). One of these blogs concerns a study which found that low. Levels of vitamin D were associated with increased body weight and waist circumference. This does not mean that […]
Healthy Eating
Weight control receives a lot of attention from doctors and other health professionals, scientists and the media, a reflection of the fact that there are burgeoning rates of obesity in industrialised countries around the world. While a number of dietary approaches have been advocated for weight loss, my preference is for diets that are relatively […]