‘Food for Thought’ – nutritional advice for those preparing for and taking exams
My girlfriend and I have had a guest staying this week. He is Swiss and is in London for an exam which has something to do with international tax law (it’s all a bit above my head, I’m afraid). Last night the three of us were eating together – our last supper before our guest [...]
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Psychiatrist blows the lid on the psychiatric profession
While I am fan of certain aspects of orthodox medicine, I think overall it’s less effective and more hazardous than we generally imagine. As I wrote recently here, there is some thought that less medicine can result in improved outcomes. There is certainly some evidence that less can be more, where conventional medical care is [...]
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Research unearths another reason why exercise is not particularly effective for the purposes of weight loss
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 [...]
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For better brain function, just add water
The body is mainly water, and I believe maintaining hydration is an important component of optimal health. I wrote most recently about this back in February (see here). This blog piece details some of the major roles that water has in the body (e.g. as a temperature regulator, carrier and building material). In practice, I [...]
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Low-GI diet helps women with PCOS, but is there something that might work better?
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 [...]
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Beware low-carb propaganda
There was a nice piece in The Times here in the UK on Saturday about my latest book Waist Disposal (see here). This piece, and a small piece that ran in another publication did seem to have some impact: Waist Disposal ended up rocketing up the amazon.co.uk ranking and spent a couple of days in [...]
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Antidepressant effect of omega-3 fat appears to depend on the specific type of omega-3 fat used
Fish is sometimes described as ‘brain food’ – why? Well, at least part of the explanation may rest in the fact the certain types of fish are rich in so-called omega-3 fats that appear to have benefits for the brain. There is some evidence, for instance, which suggests that omega-3 fats can normalise brain function [...]
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With medicine, it seems less can be more
Sometimes when I’m lecturing, I talk a bit about conventional medicine. There are undoubtedly parts of orthodox medicine I am hugely enthusiastic about including, for instance, hip replacements and cataract surgery. The problem is, however, much of medicine is stunningly ineffective. And it’s not without risks either. It’s perhaps a personal view, but my opinion [...]
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For weight loss, does ‘slow and steady’ really win the day?
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 [...]
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Higher-protein diet with resistance exercise best for fat loss
There are a myriad of ways to lose weight, but I lean generally towards diets relatively low in carbohydrate and rich in fat. This is on the basis that such diets consistently out-perform diets explicitly low in fat in terms of weight loss. Also, such diets tend to, generally speaking, bring about desirable changes in [...]
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