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Category: Food and Medical Politics

Blog posts from the drbriffa.com archive — same writing, same categories, on the same domain.

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Category: Food and Medical Politics

Scientist claims margarine manufacturers are misleading us on omega-3 claims (and that’s not all…) Cholesterol and Statins

Scientist claims margarine manufacturers are misleading us on omega-3 claims (and that’s not all…)

BBC Radio 4 this morning had a brief item about margarine. The item focused on the fact that margarine manufacturers can trumpet the presence of ‘heart-healthy’ omega-3 fats on the label. Professor Jack Winkler, Professor of Nutrition Policy at London Metropolitan University made the claim that such labelling is misleading. It seems that margarine manufacturers […]

October 1, 2009· 5 min read
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Evidence that there is still lots of potential for study researchers and their sponsors to only let you see what they want you to see Food and Medical Politics

Evidence that there is still lots of potential for study researchers and their sponsors to only let you see what they want you to see

While some people put a lot of faith in published scientific and medical research, there are a number of reasons why we sometimes need to be a bit sceptical about what we read in scientific journals. One fundamental issue here concerns what is known as ‘publication bias’ ” the tendency for favourable results to be […]

September 2, 2009· 4 min read
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Is aspartame about to be banned? (I hope so) Brain and Behaviour

Is aspartame about to be banned? (I hope so)

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener which, once consumed, breaks down into three components ” aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Aspartame has been passed as fit to consume by more than 100 countries around the World, but there is evidence that each of aspartame’s chemical components can have toxic effects on health. See here and here […]

August 7, 2009· 3 min read
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My vitamin D results are in… Food and Medical Politics

My vitamin D results are in…

Over the last couple of years or so I have developed quite an interest in vitamin D. It seems like a week doesn’t go by when some study or other has unearthed a potential new benefit for this substance, or some research turns up results that strengthen and support previous work. The evidence as it […]

July 16, 2009· 4 min read
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More evidence that the ‘overweight’ are at the lowest risk of death Food and Medical Politics

More evidence that the ‘overweight’ are at the lowest risk of death

The standard way of assessing weight as it relates to health is the body mass index (BMI) – calculated by dividing an individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. According to conventional wisdom, a BMI of 18.5 ” 24.9 is to be regarded as ‘healthy’, while BMIs of 25.0-29.9 are […]

July 10, 2009· 4 min read
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Another study attests to the value of low-carb eating in diabetes Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome

Another study attests to the value of low-carb eating in diabetes

While diabetics are often advised to eat a diet rich in carbohydrate, common sense dictates that this is not likely to be the best dietary approach for managing their condition (seeing as diabetes is primarily a problem with carbohydrate regulation, specifically a tendency to raised blood sugar levels). In type 2 diabetes, the underlying issue […]

May 16, 2009· 3 min read
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The nonsense of food labeling Food and Medical Politics

The nonsense of food labeling

I’ve always thought that the health claims made by food manufacturers are largely meaningless. For example, a food product can be advertised as ‘low in saturated fat’ or ‘cholesterol free’ but there is no good evidence that eating less of these particular foodstuffs has broad benefits for health. The ‘benefits’ of eating a food low […]

April 27, 2009· 4 min read
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Letter from FDA insiders accuses it of corruption, wrongdoing and intimidation Food and Medical Politics

Letter from FDA insiders accuses it of corruption, wrongdoing and intimidation

Last week I had the radio on in the background and listened to an interview with Margaret  Haywood, who was formerly a UK-based nurse, but has recently been ‘struck off’ as a result of apparent breaches of the nursing code of practice. Ms Haywood had participated in some undercover filming on behalf of the BBC […]

April 20, 2009· 4 min read
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