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
Type 2 diabetes is a condition characterised by generally raised levels of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. One of the issues here is the ability of glucose to bind to and damage proteins in the body (glycation), which can increase the risk of a range of complications including nerve damage, eye damage, kidney disease and […]
Exercise and Activity
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a lady who expressed the wish to lose weight. By her own account she was some 20 kgs heavier than she was many years ago when she was a competitive athlete. She worked full time, had a family and little time for exercise. Her view seemed […]
Healthy Eating
I had an email from someone asking me about the blood type diet. The ‘Eat Right for your Type’ diet was hugely popular in the US and also here in the UK from the mid 90s. The diet is based on the ‘ABO’ system of typing blood. This system gives us four blood groups depending […]
Healthy Eating
When I was medical school, I noticed one of my friends had lost a bit of weight (intentionally). Even though I was not really interested in things like weight control and diet in those days, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked him how he did it. Had he cut back on […]
Healthy Eating
With rates of overweight and obesity generally on the up, it’s perhaps no surprise that many of us will seek to lose weight at one time or another. My experience is that the great majority of people who want to lose weight will be able to, but the issue can be the sustainability of that […]
Brain and Behaviour
Binge eating is a phenomenon where someone may start eating but then find it difficult to stop. I actually think that binge eating is more common than perhaps is recognised. Lots of lots of people will, for instance, find that what started as ‘just one biscuit’ turns into half a packet or that a few […]
Brain and Behaviour
I came across this report recently of a study which found that stopping men sleeping for a night led to them choosing bigger portions of ‘energy-dense’ food at a buffet [1]. Previous work from the same group at Uppsala University in Sweden found that sleep deprivation caused greater activity in the parts of the brain […]
Food and Medical Politics
I noticed yesterday that a certain study [1] concerning artificial sweeteners had got some press. In the study, overweight and obese adults were randomized to one of three dietary interventions: 1. advice to replace more than 200 calories a day of calorific beverages (softs drinks/soda) with water 2. advice to replace more than 200 calories […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
In one of my blog posts last week I reported on a study which suggested that obesity is a potential cause of vitamin D deficiency, but that vitamin D deficiency is unlikely to have a big role in driving obesity. However, even if this conclusion is utterly correct, it does not mean that boosting vitamin […]
Specific conditions
Previous research has found a link between lower levels of vitamin D and higher body weight, causing some to speculate that vitamin D deficiency may be a factor in obesity. The problem with this sort of evidence is that while it can show a link between vitamin D deficiency and, say, obesity, we can’t tell […]