Healthy Eating
Conventional nutritional advice varies a bit depending on who you ask, but there are a few constants. One is the importance of limiting saturated fat in favour of polyunsaturated fat. Most Governments, doctors and dieticians would therefore have us eschew foods such as red meat, dairy products and butter in favour of vegetable oils, oily […]
Children's Health
In a meeting today, my companion asked me about my views on fruit and fruit juice. In short, my reply was that I think fruit is over-rated, and that fruit juice should generally be avoided. Many of the reasons for my ambivalence about fruit (and why much fruit is anything but some sort of nutritional […]
Food and Medical Politics
There are reports of a study doing the round in the UK press this week that warn us that eating a protein-rich diet is ‘as bad for us a smoking’. See here and here for examples of stories appearing in the ‘respected’ broadsheets the Telegraph and Guardian respectively. Reading the headlines of these pieces gives […]
Exercise and Activity
I sometimes think that some people imagine I live some perfectly healthy existence. While my lifestyle might be tons better than it was when I was a young adult, say, at least some of my lifestyle habits vary a bit depending on things like environment (I travel quite a lot), workload and priorities. There is […]
Healthy Eating
I came across this on-line piece today, which highlights a poll conducted by people from a campaign called ‘Seasonal Berries’. It purports to show that a major reason individuals fail to stick to a new ‘healthier’ dietary regime is that they succumb to none-too-healthy snacks, particularly in the mid-late afternoon. I have to say, my […]
Food and Medical Politics
Last night a BBC documentary aired called ‘Sugar v Fat’. If you’re in the UK, you can watch it here. The show charted the experiences of identical twin doctors in their (I think) mid-30s, who were put on very different diets for a period of 30 days. One ate a very fat-rich diet, while the […]
Healthy Eating
I am a regular coffee drinker. In fact, I honestly cannot remember the last time I went a day without coffee. I have loved the taste of coffee since childhood, and I expect I do get something from the caffeine too. I appreciate that coffee-drinking does not have a particularly healthy reputation, though there is […]
Exercise and Activity
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m not particularly one for endorsement, though I do sometimes recommend specific products that I believe have particular merit, including books. Recently, I became aware of a book which I think is a valuable contribution to the area of nutrition and weight control. Entitled The Calorie Myth, […]
Healthy Eating
On twitter, someone recently drew my attention to this article on the UK’s NHS (National Health Service) Choices website regarding dietary carbohydrate. Entitled ‘The Truth About Carbs’ it starts: “Carbs” has become a dirty word in recent times, especially in the weight loss world, due in no small part to the popularity of low-carb diets […]
Healthy Eating
How much we eat is a factor of many different factors including how hungry we are, how palatable food is, how much ‘reward’ we get from food and social setting. The body has complex systems in place that, when functioning well, help ensure that we eat enough food but not too much. Some of this […]