Food and Medical Politics
Burgeoning rates of obesity and chronic disease here in the UK have caused our Government to consider and then implement a number of initiatives designed, we are led to believe, to assist us in our attaining and maintaining of a healthy weight. It is considering, for instance, putting a tax on fatty foods. The idea […]
Healthy Eating
Earlier this week my eye was drawn to this report. It concerns the attempts of a professor of human nutrition at the Kansas State university in US to prove that weight management is down to caloric balance and nothing else. The experiment appears to counter the idea that low-carbohydrate diets have merit over those richer […]
Healthy Eating
Here in the UK, temperatures have dropped noticeably of late, which naturally leads people to seek out warmer, ‘heartier’ food than, say, summer salads. One option here is to eat a bog-standard ‘primal meal made up of meat, fish or eggs (e.g. omelette) with some vegetables. Such options are ‘doable’ for most in the evening, […]
Brain and Behaviour
A couple of weeks ago one of my blog posts focused on a study which suggests that getting adequate sleep can have beneficial effects on body composition. While the mechanism that may be responsible here is not known, I speculated that it might have something to do with cortisol – lack of sleep can cause […]
Healthy Eating
There’s no shortage of awareness about the burgeoning rates of overweight and obesity afflicting Westernised countries. There are two principle theories about what causes obesity: 1. It’s all about calories in/calories out Proponents of this theory state that body weight is simply a function of the calories we put into our body (food and drink) […]
Healthy Eating
I usually eat breakfast, but sometimes I drink it. If I’m short on time and it’s too early to eat I might whizz up a ‘smoothie’ with a range of ingredients that cover a number of nutritional bases. Typical ingredients include berries, plain, raw egg, full-fat yoghurt, coconut milk and/or cream, water and a little […]
Sleep
Many individuals contend that weight control is all about diet and exercise. Of these, the research suggests that dietary change is likely to bring the lion’s share of benefits. However, body weight and fatness are not determined only by these lifestyle factors. Hormonal issues can play a part too. For example, if the thyroid gland […]
Exercise and Activity
Earlier this month one of my posts focused on a study which tested the effect of exercise on weight loss in women. This year-long study found that, on average, the women needed to exercise for 77 hours to lose a kg of fat. Now, if I said I had pretty-much foolproof way of getting a […]
Healthy Eating
Conventional dictates that to lose weight we need to eat less and/or exercise more. Traditionally, this leads people to cutting back on what they eat and perhaps upping their exercise too. Studies show that exercise, however, is not particularly effective for the purposes of weight. See here for a recent blog post about this. And […]
Exercise and Activity
Although I am an advocate of exercise, I have more than once felt the urge to express the view that it’s not a particularly effective tool for weight loss. The view is partly based on my experience (the experience of a friend of mind that he recounted over dinner and you can read here is […]