Healthy Eating
I spent last week in Portugal, and while I was there my girlfriend and I had a lot of food given to us by local farmers. We were lucky enough to be given quite a stash of fresh produce including citrus fruit, onions, broad beans, fresh peas, lettuce and cabbages. We were also given a […]
Exercise and Activity
The poor reputation that saturated fat has led many to avoid consuming not just animal foods such as red meat and cheese, but certain plant foods that are rich in this brand of fat, notably coconut. However, the fact that there is no evidence that saturated fat causes heart disease (see here), not that fat […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
While diabetics are often advised to eat a diet rich in carbohydrate, common sense dictates that this is not likely to be the best dietary approach for managing their condition (seeing as diabetes is primarily a problem with carbohydrate regulation, specifically a tendency to raised blood sugar levels). In type 2 diabetes, the underlying issue […]
Exercise and Activity
When an individual is aiming to lose weight, the popular wisdom dictates they need to eat less and/or exercise more. Of these two main options, my general belief is that dietary change gets generally more rapid and significant results than exercise in this respect. The evidence suggests that exercise (say walking, running or swimming) is […]
Brain and Behaviour
Partly because I have never and am never going to breastfeed, I am wary about advocating it. I do genuinely believe that women who want to benefit should be given every available support and encouragement. On the other hand, if a woman chooses not to breastfeed or cannot breastfeed for some reason, then as a […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Our experience of health and disease will always be the result of an interplay between our genes and ‘environmental’ factors such as diet, exercise and exposure to potential toxins or health hazards. We hear a lot about the role of specific genes in specific conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. However, as Professor Steve […]
Healthy Eating
Last month I reported on a study which linked shorter sleep duration with an increased risk of diabetes. Other research has found an association between relatively curtailed sleep and an increased risk of overweight and obesity. Some of this research has found a potential explanation for this observation in the form of changes in appetite […]
Healthy Eating
The calorie principle has been a central theme in weight loss advice for some decades, and encourages individuals keen to lose weight or maintain their weight to avoid calorific foods. However, for a variety of reasons, calorific foods may not be fattening, and in fact might even promote weight loss. Some of the most important […]
Healthy Eating
On Monday I wrote about the nonsense of food labelling. Those entrusted to steer us to a healthier diet have contrived to propose and implement schemes which give, in my view, potentially distorted and misleading guidance regarding what is good and not-so-good to eat. Some of the comments that come after this blog post should […]
Food and Medical Politics
I’ve always thought that the health claims made by food manufacturers are largely meaningless. For example, a food product can be advertised as ‘low in saturated fat’ or ‘cholesterol free’ but there is no good evidence that eating less of these particular foodstuffs has broad benefits for health. The ‘benefits’ of eating a food low […]