Food and Medical Politics
The UK Government is broke, and is doing it’s best to spend as little money as possible, including on pensions. It’s offered state-employed doctors here a pension deal, but the doctors are not happy about it and now there’s talk of strike action. The situation may seem dire for patients who will not have as […]
Food and Medical Politics
News broke last week (see here for an example) that a University of Connecticut researcher had be found to have falsified data concerning his research into the antioxidant resveratrol (found in, among other things, red wine and red grapes). This week the British Medical Journal reports on the fact that a doctor and flu vaccine […]
Specific conditions
Aspirin is a commonly used painkiller, but it has other purported benefits too. One thing it does is reduce the tendency for blood particles called platelets to stick together. This reduces the tendency for blood clots to form. Many ‘cardiovascular events’ such as heart attacks and strokes are finally provoked by the formation of tiny […]
Healthy Eating
I get occasional emails from vegetarians who: 1. object to ‘my meat-based’ ‘diet and/or 2. ask how they can apply the sort of dietary principles I espouse in the context of a vegetarian diet First off, I don’t advocate a ‘meat-based’ diet. I advocate a diet with meat (and/or fish) in it (if you don’t […]
Low-Carbohydrate
This time of year will generally see a lot of people embarking on changes designed to shed some excess weight. The problem is that although many people will lose weight successfully, almost as many will regain that weight. Why? Well, a big part of the answer appears to be that when we lose weight, the […]
Cholesterol and Statins
I came across this short video today (below). It mainly concerns some research just out which found that in a huge group of postmenopausal women, statin use was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes [1]. I saw ‘associated’ because this study was ‘epidemilogical’ in nature, meaning that it’s only good for looking […]
Healthy Eating
There’s a general notion in nutrition that, as far as body weight is concerned, ‘a calorie is a calorie’. In other words, the impact that food has on body weight is ultimately down to the number of calories we consume, and has nothing to do with the form that they come in. However, as I […]
Exercise and Activity
In the podcast below, my friend Carl Munson and I discuss my new book Escape the Diet Trap – lose weight for good without calorie-counting, extensive exercise or hunger. More details about the book can be found here. To purchase the book on amazon click here: To purchase the kindle version of the book click […]
Healthy Eating
This time of year will generally see an upsurge in the number of people looking to lose some weight, often on account of the extra body baggage they’ve accumulated over the festive season. Many people will be tempted to take the oft-touted approach of ‘eating less and exercising more’. Here’s what we know from the […]
Brain and Behaviour
I sat down two days ago with some ambition to write a blog post (or two). In the end I did not write a word. Why? As I explained to my girlfriend, ‘my brain wasn’t working’. Try as I might, I found the whole idea of writing anything cogent too much. I did a quick […]