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.
Uncategorized
There is a phenomenon circulating on the web at the moment, known as ‘tagging’. Basically, this entails someone with a web presence (usually a blogger) reveals five little-known things about themselves on their site, and then ‘tags’ other individuals who may then do the same. Is this making sense? Anyway, I got tagged recently, and […]
Sleep
New Year is usually a time when individuals think about making resolutions. The thing is about adopting new behaviours is that they take time. Whether your ambition is to prepare healthier meals, take more exercise, adopt yoga, spend more time meditating or with your kids, space has to be created to accommodate that. I do […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Previously in this blog I have drawn attention to the fact that the body mass index (obtained by dividing one’s weight in kg by the square of one’s height in metres) is practically useless as an indicator of health. It seems that far more useful measurements are the waist circumference or what is known as […]
Healthy Eating
In previous blogs, I have reported on the apparent health-benefits of green tea, and in particular its apparent association with a reduced risk of cancer. This beverage is rich in phytochemicals (naturally-occurring plant substances) known as polyphenols that have what is known as ‘antioxidant’ activity. This means that they have the potential to quell disease-promoting […]
Healthy Eating
Merry Christmas everybody. In case you are visiting this site on Christmas day, let me reassure you that I didn’t get up especially early this morning to get this blog post written before the festivities could begin for me. There are limits! Through the wonders of technology I was able to write this entry a […]
Healthy Eating
While I may be passionate about nutrition, I’m equally passionate about food. So, one of the reasons I like this time of year is it gives me the opportunity to consuming things that don’t turn up too often on the menu during the rest of the year. Deep down in me there’s a bit of […]
Healthy Eating
For some years now, the ‘Mediterranean’ diet has been said to have broad advantages to health, particularly with regard to ‘cardiovascular’ diseases such as heart disease and stroke. A key element in the Mediterranean diet is olive oil, which is rich in ‘healthy’ monounsaturated fat. However, in recent times some scientists have begun to suggest […]
Healthy Eating
I was interested to read about a study published recently which charted the vast number of sick days taken off in Australia due to hangovers. A study published in Medical Journal of Australia found that 2.6 million ‘sickies’ were taken in 2001 because of booze. The estimated cost to employers is some 473 million Australian […]
Healthy Eating
Last week, I highlighted the importance, when assessing the effects of a diet or medical treatment, of focusing not so much on parameters such as blood cholesterol and blood pressure, but on health [click here]. And this week, one of my posts makes the point that it makes sense to concentrate on broad health effects […]
Food and Medical Politics
I make no secret of the fact that I think a lot of health information and advice that comes at us is not just unsupported by the science, but also seems to have been contrived with profit in mind. For example, despite the fact that taking dietary steps to reduce cholesterol have not been shown […]