Study finds that overweight children eat the LEAST fat and most sugar
While it is widely held in the medical and dietetic communities that eating fat is one sure way to become fat, there are for why this just ain’t so. Some of the key explanations for why fat is not necessarily fattening were covered in a previous blog [1]. Despite the dearth of evidence against fat [...]
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Drug companies charged with using money to influence treatment guidelines
Not uncommonly, I use drbriffa.com to draw attention to how conflict of interest might influence health advice. One of the areas that seems quite badly affected in this respect is the recommendations that we get regarding drug therapy. Only last week, I was writing about how it seems we have not been given the full [...]
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Why we need to run for cover when the food industry appears to ‘come to our rescue’
It’s a fundamental belief of mine that a ‘healthy’ diet is one made up of natural, unprocessed foods. Unfortunately, richer pickings for the food industry will generally be found in chemicalised, processed foods that have little or no place in the diet ” margarine springs readily to mind. After a half-century history of use, evidence [...]
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Should prison inmates be taking nutritional supplements?
It was announced this week that a study is about to get underway in which some UK prison inmates are to be given nutritional supplements to see what effect this has on mood and behaviour. This research has been masterminded by Professor John Stein of Oxford University, and comes on the back of a smaller [...]
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Statin drugs shown to be largely ineffective for the majority of people who take them, but why does this fact seem to have passed researchers by?
Over the last decade or two, it seems that increasing pressure has been put on us to have our cholesterol levels measured, and to do something about them if these turn out to be ‘raised’. Elevated cholesterol levels in the bloodstream is often said to be a potent risk factor for so-called ‘cardiovascular’ disease – [...]
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Why ‘slowing down’ can help those seeking to lose weight
My blog on Wednesday focused on research into exercise ” a pastime that traditionally sees a bit of an upsurge at this time of year. Of course, another focus for the attention of those undergoing a bit of a New Year overhaul will be to cut back on what passes our lips. For many, this [...]
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Why epidemiological studies don’t ‘prove’ anything
January is typically a time when individuals seek to adopt healthier habits, and activity and exercise often feature here as part of the plan. While it is often said that exercise is healthy, actually there is not as much evidence for this as you might think. The best test for any lifestyle factor is to [...]
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Why fructose needs to be consumed with caution
Last Friday’s blog was about the UK’s Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) ‘traffic light’ food labelling scheme, or more specifically, the idiocy of it. One of the anomalies I mentioned was the fact that fruit manages to ring up a red light according to the FSA scheme, on account of its sugar content. That got me [...]
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UK food labelling scheme gives oven chips a green light and why this makes me see red!
British individuals may be aware that food labelling schemes have been recently introduced in the UK which are designed, we are told, to help us make healthier and more informed choices about what we put into our mouths each day. The most widely implemented scheme has been cooked up by the Government’s Food Standards Agency, [...]
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Study reveals the potential for the food industry to pervert the course of science
In previous blogs I have highlighted the sometimes malign influence industry can have on scientific research and the publications that publish it. In my post of 17th October 2006, for instance, I reported on one piece of research which found that studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies were more than four times more likely to have [...]
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