Healthy Eating
While I am interested in many aspects of health, and in particular providing information that individuals can use to exert more control over their health and wellbeing, I do confess to having a particular interest in weight loss. One reason for this is that its an issue that is quite commonly on people’s mind. As […]
Children's Health
Of all the foodstuffs that have limited nutritional value and the potential to cause harm, I put soft drinks near the top of the list. The sugar contained in regular beverages has been linked with a range of adverse effects on health including weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And artificial […]
Brain and Behaviour
Post natal depression or PND – sometimes referred to as post-partum depression – affects about 10 per cent of women after having a baby. You can read more about the condition here. From a nutritional perspective, one of the things that has been shown to help protect against PND are the so-called omega-3 fats found […]
Nutrients and Supplements
I was giving a talk last week to a group that was exclusively female (well, apart from the ‘sound man’). In addition to talking about some general nutritional principles designed to enhance health and energy, I thought I’d talk about some things that tend affect women more than men. Naturally, it occurred to me to […]
Exercise and Activity
Despite repeated calls for us to be more active in order to counter rising rates of overweight and obesity, the evidence suggests that activity has, generally speaking, very modest effects on body weight. I wrote quite recently about this here and here. Generally, two main reasons for why exercise does not promote significant weight loss […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a condition characterised by multiples cysts in the ovaries, but also other symptoms such as hirsutism (abnormal hairiness) and acne that may result from higher than normal levels of androgens (‘male’ hormones) in the female body. I wrote about this condition back in 2003 (see here), where I made the […]
Weight Loss
Where weight loss is concerned, the maxim has traditionally be ‘slow and steady wins the day’. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard that rapid weight loss generally leads to rapid weight regain too. Like a lot of nutritional ‘truths’ though, a recent study suggest that this meme is wildly misleading. If […]
Unhealthy Eating!
When it comes to weight (specifically fat) loss, I’m not into counting or consciously restricting them. I’ll come onto why in a moment. But before I do, I want to share the results of a recent study in which women ate in one or four ways [1]: 1. where individuals ate a diet which restricted […]
Nutrients and Supplements
There’s an old adage in medicine: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I couldn’t agree more. The problem with a lot of truly preventive medicine is this: there’s not much money in it. The real money (for, say, drug companies) is in treatment. To an extent there can be money too […]
Brain and Behaviour
What we eat and drink can have a profound influence on our health. Not just of the body, but of the brain too. For example, certain foodstuffs (e.g. the artificial sweetener aspartame) can have toxic effects on the brain. Other foodstuffs appear to ‘feed the brain’ and help optimise its function. For example, so-called omega-3 […]