Why nuts are a great food for diabetics
Conventional wisdom and advice regarding the dietary control of diabetes is that meals should contain a good amount of starchy carbohydrate. I am vigorously opposed to this notion of two main counts. Firstly, science shows that reducing carbohydrate intake is generally highly beneficial in the management of diabetes (see here for some more detail on [...]
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High GI carbs again implicated in cardiovascular disease
A key underlying factor in cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease and stroke is a process known as atherosclerosis (also known as arteriosclerosis), which is essentially a furring up of arteries with a fatty ‘plaque’. For decades now, we’ve had it instilled in us that the chief dietary factor influencing atherosclerosis is fat, which saturated [...]
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Effective strategies for combating carb cravings
Yesterday in practice I saw a female patient who, among other things, was troubled by the fact that she craved sugar like you wouldn’t believe. It is my experience in practice that many individuals with sugar cravings view it as a sign of weakness on their part. However, food can have powerful addictive qualities, and [...]
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Vitamin D helps to combat tuberculosis, flu and other infections
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that continues to claim significant numbers of lives around the World. Before the advent of antibiotics, many tuberculosis sufferers were shipped off to ‘sanitoriums’: often rurally-located facilities where individuals would typically spend a year or more to rest, eat well, and hopefully overcome their illness. While rest and a healthy [...]
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How we eat appears to influence how much we eat
Some individuals, hard as they try, may still fine it difficult to moderate the quantity of food they eat. At least one reason for this can be that they are eating foods that aren’t particularly satisfying. Two factors that affect the sating effects of food are the glycaemic index (the speed and extent to which [...]
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Skin Cancer Foundation recognises value of vitamin D but still advises us to keep out of the sun
I was interested to read yesterday a report regarding a recommendation coming out of the Skin Cancer Foundation in the USA. The Foundation has recommended that adults increase their intake of vitamin D from 400 IU (the recommended daily amount) to 1000 IU. This is good news, I think, because there’s abundant and continuing to [...]
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Higher vitamin D levels linked with speedier weight loss
Recently a couple of blogs have focused on the potential role that vitamin D may play in the regulation of body weight (see here and here). One of these blogs concerns a study which found that low. Levels of vitamin D were associated with increased body weight and waist circumference. This does not mean that [...]
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Study finds lower-carb diet better for sating the appetite
Weight control receives a lot of attention from doctors and other health professionals, scientists and the media, a reflection of the fact that there are burgeoning rates of obesity in industrialised countries around the world. While a number of dietary approaches have been advocated for weight loss, my preference is for diets that are relatively [...]
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Doctors suggest that the ‘overweight’ need help, despite being at the lowest risk of death
The standard way of assessing body weight in Europe and the USA is the body mass index (BMI) which is calculated by dividing someone’s weight in kg by the square of their height in metres. It is generally accepted that BMIs of 18.5-24.9 are ‘healthy’, and that those of 25.0-29.9 mean someone is ‘overweight’, with [...]
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Low GI diet halves need for insulin in pregnancy-related diabetes
Gestational diabetes is diabetes that occurs during pregnancy in women who were not previously diabetic. If left uncontrolled, it can have adverse effects on the developing foetus. Its treatment depends on the severity of the condition, with diet, oral medication and insulin being the three mainstay options. Insulin therapy is generally seen as the last [...]
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