Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
It’s funny how things seem to come in threes, and this week was an example of this maxim in that I saw three patients all of whom had deranged liver function tests. All of them had raised levels of at least two liver ‘enzymes’. This, in medicine, is generally taken as a sign of damage […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Variously on the site in the past I have attempted to highlight the science (never mind the common sense) that if you have diabetes and want to control it (or don’t want to get this condition in the first place), the part of the diet that generally needs reigning in comes in the form of […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
When it comes to cholesterol and blood sugar levels and blood pressure, the general principle in medicine is ‘the lower the better’. The idea here is that the more suppressed these parameters are, the lower (supposedly) the risk of complications such as heart disease and stroke. However, as with everything in life, it’s not necessarily […]
Healthy Eating
You don’t have to wait too long before reading some statistic or other that tells us about how rates of obesity are soaring left, right and centre. As ever, though, the advice to ‘eat less and exercise more’ remains the same. That’s a shame, seeing as there is abundant evidence that neither of these approaches […]
Healthy Eating
For many of us, this time of year will bring with it an increased risk of us consuming more than is strictly needed. A few additional pounds can quite easily find their way onto our frames and scales, which can lead us to feel in need of a serious overhaul come the New Year. I […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in October, I wrote about some recently-published research which linked the eating of a high carbohydrate (actually, high glycaemic index and load diets) with an increased risk of breast cancer. One way that fast sugar-releasing foods may promote cancerous growth is through the activity of a compound known as insulin-like growth factor (IGF), which […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
My dislike of many starchy carbs like bread, potato, rice, pasta and breakfast cereals is based on a body of evidence which suggests that the gluts of insulin their eating induces can speed our path to conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. And, despite all this talk about their ‘nutritious’ nature, the fact […]
Cholesterol and Statins
The glycaemic index (GI) is a measure of the extent to which a food raises blood sugar. Generally speaking, the higher the GI, the unhealthier the food is. Lots of sugar generally means lots of insulin ” and excess of which can promote of a slew of unhealthy biochemical processes including increased fat-making and reduced […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Previously, for instance here, I have attempted to point out that the conventional dietary advice so often given to diabetics is nonsensical and likely to be positively damaging to their health. Why diabetics should be advised to ‘include starch with every meal’ and therefore almost certainly ensure they’re going to get quite a shot of […]
Healthy Eating
‘Eat fewer calories than you burn’ has been the weight loss mantra for decades now. The problem is, cutting back on food and taking more exercise almost inevitably makes people hungry, which can make changes quite unsustainable in the long term. In this article, I offer some practical solutions to this, by outlining several approaches […]