Food and Medical Politics
My blog last Friday questioned the wisdom of recent advice dished out to us on how to prevent cancer. The crux of this issue is that such recommendations are based on so-called ‘epidemiological’ studies which may show associations between things (e.g. obesity and cancer) but cannot be used to prove that one is causing the […]
Food and Medical Politics
While there is a general move to have us lose some of our collective weight, regular readers may have noticed that I’m a less exercised regarding this than most health professionals. Just last week, one of my posts included several links to articles which appear to show that individuals in the ‘overweight’ category have health […]
Food and Medical Politics
When I’m lecturing, one of the most common questions that comes up is whether organic food is better than food produced non-organically. There is actually some evidence that organic food tends to offer more in the way of what the body needs (e.g. nutrients). And of course, it offers less of what the body most […]
Healthy Eating
Earlier this month I focused one of my blogs on the apparently beneficial role of fish/omega-3 consumption during pregnancy [1]. The omega-3 fats found abundantly in certain fish have been linked with a variety of potential benefits including better neurological development of the foetus and reduced risk of post-natal depression. Other research has linked inadequate […]
Brain and Behaviour
I’m often asked about my attitude to nutrient supplementation. Do we ‘need’ to supplement, is how it’s often put to me. My answer is that it is probably entirely possible to get all what we need to prevent overt nutritional deficiency diseases such as scurvy and beri-beri. However, less obvious deficiency states may occur quite […]
Healthy Eating
‘Eat fewer calories than you burn’ has been the weight loss mantra for decades now. The problem is, cutting back on food and taking more exercise almost inevitably makes people hungry, which can make changes quite unsustainable in the long term. In this article, I offer some practical solutions to this, by outlining several approaches […]
Children's Health
Today in the UK, the news is awash with a story about how we appear to be sleep-walking into an obesity epidemic. The recently-completed largest ever study into the obesity in the UK, compiled by 250 experts in the field, has concluded that obesity is not rooted in individual gluttony and laziness, but in our […]
Healthy Eating
While I think it’s possible to give nutrition advice that can be applied broadly to a population, there is no doubt in my mind that fine-tuning is required for those who are seeking to consume something close to their ideal diet. That’s because, are nutritional needs differ. Physiological studies show, for instance, that some individuals […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s a basic nutritional belief of mine that eating healthily means, at least in part, not eating too much in the way of foods that disrupt blood sugar and insulin levels. Gluts of insulin are known to have the capacity to cause fat accumulation in the body, and likely increase the risk of chronic conditions […]
Brain and Behaviour
One of the burgeoning fields in nutrition concerns the influence that maternal diet can have on the health and development of her unborn child. Every baby starts out as an egg and a sperm, and ends up, say, 6 or 7 pounds in weight. The vast majority of a baby is composed of what the […]