Food and Medical Politics
It’s a fundamental belief of mine that a ‘healthy’ diet is one made up of natural, unprocessed foods. Unfortunately, richer pickings for the food industry will generally be found in chemicalised, processed foods that have little or no place in the diet ” margarine springs readily to mind. After a half-century history of use, evidence […]
Brain and Behaviour
It was announced this week that a study is about to get underway in which some UK prison inmates are to be given nutritional supplements to see what effect this has on mood and behaviour. This research has been masterminded by Professor John Stein of Oxford University, and comes on the back of a smaller […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Over the last decade or two, it seems that increasing pressure has been put on us to have our cholesterol levels measured, and to do something about them if these turn out to be ‘raised’. Elevated cholesterol levels in the bloodstream is often said to be a potent risk factor for so-called ‘cardiovascular’ disease – […]
Healthy Eating
My blog on Wednesday focused on research into exercise ” a pastime that traditionally sees a bit of an upsurge at this time of year. Of course, another focus for the attention of those undergoing a bit of a New Year overhaul will be to cut back on what passes our lips. For many, this […]
Exercise and Activity
January is typically a time when individuals seek to adopt healthier habits, and activity and exercise often feature here as part of the plan. While it is often said that exercise is healthy, actually there is not as much evidence for this as you might think. The best test for any lifestyle factor is to […]
Food and Medical Politics
Last Friday’s blog was about the UK’s Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) ‘traffic light’ food labelling scheme, or more specifically, the idiocy of it. One of the anomalies I mentioned was the fact that fruit manages to ring up a red light according to the FSA scheme, on account of its sugar content. That got me […]
Food and Medical Politics
British individuals may be aware that food labelling schemes have been recently introduced in the UK which are designed, we are told, to help us make healthier and more informed choices about what we put into our mouths each day. The most widely implemented scheme has been cooked up by the Government’s Food Standards Agency, […]
Food and Medical Politics
In previous blogs I have highlighted the sometimes malign influence industry can have on scientific research and the publications that publish it. In my post of 17th October 2006, for instance, I reported on one piece of research which found that studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies were more than four times more likely to have […]
Food and Medical Politics
My blog of 6th December last year lamented the fact that much medical research focuses not on health itself, but supposed ‘markers’ for health such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The main point I was aiming to make here was that in assessing a medical treatment or drug, we all (doctors included) need to […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
In recent years there has been increasing awareness regarding a condition known a ‘metabolic syndrome’. While its precise definition varies a bit, the main feature of metabolic syndrome is excess weight around the midriff (abdominal obesity), coupled with other unwanted findings such as raised levels of sugar and/or blood fats known as triglycerides, raised blood […]