Children's Health
Today in the UK, the news is awash with a story about how we appear to be sleep-walking into an obesity epidemic. The recently-completed largest ever study into the obesity in the UK, compiled by 250 experts in the field, has concluded that obesity is not rooted in individual gluttony and laziness, but in our […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s a basic nutritional belief of mine that eating healthily means, at least in part, not eating too much in the way of foods that disrupt blood sugar and insulin levels. Gluts of insulin are known to have the capacity to cause fat accumulation in the body, and likely increase the risk of chronic conditions […]
Children's Health
I’m not really one for anecdotes, but feel compelled to share one with you. In my practice on Monday I saw a small boy, whose parents were seeking nutritional advice. Less than three weeks ago their son had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which for him right now necessitates him having insulin injected 2-3 […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Recently, in an effort to clarify what healthy eating is all about, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) have launched its ‘eatwell plate’, which the FSA describes as ‘ a visual tool that illustrates the types and proportions of foods that make up a balanced diet’. You can see the eatwell plate here. When I […]
Healthy Eating
While the ‘calorie principle’ has underpinned nutritional and weight loss advice over the last few decades, the fact is that different types of calorie are ‘burned’ differently in the body. What this means is that it’s not just the amount of calories we consume, but the form that they come in that dictates the impact […]
Healthy Eating
Earlier this month I provided a round-up of the evidence which suggests that carbohydrate control is generally more effective for the purposes of weight loss than the more traditionally-advised low-fat diet. Not long after this, on the 18th July to be precise, the research group known as the Cochrane Collaboration published its own assessment of […]
Brain and Behaviour
Throughout this site you will find various references to the ‘glycaemic index’ or ‘GI’ – essentially a measure of the speed an extent to which a food disrupts blood sugar levels. Relatively high GI foods will tend to cause surges in the hormone insulin which, in time, can predispose to a range of ill effects […]
Food and Medical Politics
Last Friday’s blog featured a study presented recently at an American Diabetes Association symposium. It found that in a group of individuals with type 2 diabetes, a low-carb diet led to statistically significant reductions in weight, as well as blood sugar and triglyceride levels compared to a low-fat diet. In this blog, I also attempted […]
Healthy Eating
While in conventional medicine skin conditions are generally seen as a problem in the, err, skin, in natural medicine they are generally seen a sign of something deeper within the body. Eczema, for instance, is often found to be related to internal imbalances which may include factors such as food sensitivity and a lack of […]
Healthy Eating
While some doubt the benefits of controlling carbohydrate intake, the fact of the matter is that there is now abundant scientific evidence that this approach is generally effective for the purposes of weight loss, while at the same time helping to improve biochemical markers of chronic disease such as blood sugar levels and levels of […]