Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Conventional nutritional wisdom dictates that heart disease risk can be influenced through our intake of fat. Specifically, saturated fat (found in foods such as meat, dairy products, eggs and coconut) promotes heart disease, while certain foods (for example, omega-3 fats found in oily fish) do the reverse. I do think there’s a good deal of […]
Children's Health
Short-sightedness (the medical term for which is ‘myopia’) is a common condition in industrialised countries. This condition probably has many potential underlying causes. Some of these were reviewed in a recent paper published in the journal Optometry and Vision Science [1]. One quite clear finding from this review was that spending time outdoors is linked […]
Healthy Eating
Of the many different dietary strategies that can be used to lose weight, I favour a relatively low-carbohydrate, protein-rich diet. Some of the rationale about the low-carb element of such a regime is that carbohydrate (say from sugary and starchy foods) is the dietary element that most disrupts blood sugar, which tends to knock on […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
A year ago I reported on some research which had found a link between elevated levels of a substance called C-reactive protein (CRP) and worse outcomes for women with breast cancer. CRP levels tend to be higher in individuals with insulin resistance (where insulin levels tend to be high but the tissues in the body […]
Healthy Eating
The British Medical Journal has a reputation for publishing serious science, but its Christmas edition is traditionally a lighter-hearted affair, comprising articles and studies that would generally be considered too frivolous to make it into regular editions of the journal. One of this year’s offerings comes from Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, assistant professor and […]
Brain and Behaviour
I was talking to a husband and wife yesterday about what they might do to tidy up their diets a bit in order to improve general levels of energy and vitality. One of the most important things here, I think, is for individuals to ensure that they maintain relatively stable levels of blood sugar throughout […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a term used to describe a constellation of supposed risk factors for disease including excess weight around the midriff (abdominal obesity), raised blood pressure, raised levels of blood fats known as triglycerides and raised blood sugar. The condition is associated with an enhanced risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) as […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Accumulated weight around the mid-riff (abdominal fat) is associated with an increased risk of chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. One of the mechanisms that may cause the build-up of fat around the middle concerns secretion of the hormone insulin, which is produced principally in response to rising levels of sugar in […]
Healthy Eating
The focus that the medical and scientific establishments put on cholesterol as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (e.g. heart disease and stroke) can means that other risk factors may not the attention they might deserve. For example, blood fats known as triglycerides have been linked with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Just a couple of weeks […]
Healthy Eating
I was lecturing today and at one point was exploring some of the adverse effects on health the artificial sweetener aspartame may have with regard to human health (for more about this, see here). One of the attendees was lamenting the fact that she had, for several years, drunk one and a half litres of […]