Healthy Eating
In my practice I see significant numbers of women who find that the presence of cellulite on their buttocks and thighs really gets under their skin. While it may not be their primary concern, many women are keen to do what they can to rid themselves of the puckered, orange-peely dermal distortion that is characteristic […]
Healthy Eating
We’ve had a spate of bad news stories about the health of the nation of late, so it is gratifying to read recent reports that deaths due to some forms of cancer (such as those of the breast and colon) are on the wane. However, these glad tidings are somewhat tempered by data which shows […]
Observer Archive
I have recently returned from a lecture stint in southern Ireland, where the recent ban on smoking in pubs, bars and restaurants was a hot topic of conversation. While I am generally resistant to the idea of Government’s interference in our personal habits, there is actually more than a whiff of evidence that forbidding smoking […]
Healthy Eating
The Government has recently come under considerable criticism for its flabby attitude to the ballooning rates of obesity in the UK. However, even if the politicians weigh into this area, my sense is that reversing our growing epidemic will be akin to turning the Titanic: the situation that we have taken a few decades to […]
Healthy Eating
The last decade or so has seen me undergo considerable nutritional rehabilitation. The diet pervaded by utter shite that I subsisted on as a student has given way to one consisting largely of natural and unprocessed foods. In recent times I have also become inclined to be more choosy not just about what food I […]
Children's Health
The food conglomerate Nestlé has for some time attracted some criticism for its marketing of baby milk formulas in the third world, where the diarrhoeal diseases caused by the making up of such feeds with contaminated water are believed to be a significant cause of infant mortality. Recent news reports have suggested that it is […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s a widely held belief that high cholesterol poses significant hazards to our health, and that trimming the level of this fat in the bloodstream can only help to ensure that life goes on. Food companies seem to have been particularly keen to feed this notion, and offer us an ever-expanding range of spreads, milks, […]
Brain and Behaviour
Recent years have seen medical journal editors become increasingly critical of certain goings-on in the world of pharmaceutical research. One dubious practice that has received some attention of late is the tendency for drug companies to publish and publicise positive studies on their products, while at the same time ‘burying’ less encouraging data. An example […]
Brain and Behaviour
I quite often see individuals in my practice who, despite the best of intentions, find themselves irresistibly drawn to eat none-too-healthy foods such as chocolate cake. I was therefore interested to read a recent study in which the additive nature of this oft-favoured food was assessed. Sophisticated scans revealed that the sight and taste of […]
Healthy Eating
Like a lot of people, I have seen a fair few fad diets come and go over the years. One flavour of the month that I encountered early on in my nutritional career was the food combining diet. Also known as the Hay diet, this way of eating advocated keeping certain foods separate at meal […]