Brain and Behaviour
I’ve written before about the fact that many people in the area of obesity research have the opinion that obesity is simply the result of eating more calories than the body burns through metabolism and activity. My position, and that of a growing number of researchers, is that there’s more to obesity than calorie balance, […]
Healthy Eating
Yesterday my blog focused on some recent research which showed cholesterol levels had little or no relationship with what is known as ‘ischaemic stroke’ – essentially ‘heart attacks of the brain’. On the other hand, a strong relationship was found between this most common form of stroke and levels of blood fats known as triglycerides. […]
Exercise and Activity
Earlier this month I wrote a blog about a study which found that supplementation with protein (whey protein) and the amino acid leucine resulted in increased muscle mass and muscle strength over an 8-week period. I was particularly interested in this because I sometimes recommend whey protein supplementation to individuals looking to maximise muscle gains […]
Healthy Eating
When glucose (a sugar) is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, a healthy pancreas will secrete the hormone insulin in response. One chief effect of insulin is to reduce blood sugar levels by facilitating the transfer of sugar into the body’s cells. This is a critically important function, and without it sugar levels can […]
Healthy Eating
Yesterday, the Weekend magazine of The Times newspaper here in the UK were kind enough to run a piece I wrote for them about weight loss. It went into a special feature they’d put together on matters male. The piece is, essentially, a precis of my book Waist Disposal – the Ultimate Fat Loss Manual […]
Cholesterol and Statins
I came across this story this morning. It concerns the fact that there are plans afoot in the US to label meat products with nutritional information including calorie counts, levels of fat and specifically (and inevitably), saturated fat content. According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, “More and more, busy American families want nutrition information that […]
Healthy Eating
For many of us, this time of year brings with it generally greater opportunity to eat more than is strictly necessary. While I do not particularly believe in sacrifice or deprivation, I do think it’s useful to be aware of strategies that can be used to prevent over-consumption of food and drink with ease and, […]
Healthy Eating
I was giving a presentation yesterday, during which the subject of mindless eating came up. The fact is, some of us can find ourselves eating food without thinking. Particularly when distracted, we can end up eating more than we need to, and we may not make the greatest choices either. I wrote about mindless eating […]
Healthy Eating
The big diet news of the week surely has to be the publication of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine comparing the effect of different types of diet on weight regain [1]. In this study, 938 ‘obese’ (average body mass index – 34) adults (average age – 41) were put on an […]
Food and Medical Politics
Who decides what we should eat? Usually Government departments advised by scientists and researchers. Here in the UK, that job was entrusted to the Food Standards Agency until recently. And what a mess this body made of giving us science-based information and advice. See here, here, here and here for some examples of the sort […]