Archive | Healthy Eating RSS feed for this section

Do the RDA’s (recommended daily allowances) have any relevance?

Whilst I am an ardent advocate of nutritional medicine, my career in the area was almost snuffed out before it began. Just as my interest in the subject was burgeoning, I found myself aghast at what seemed to be the excessive quantities of nutrients recommended by many natural health experts. Compared to the gold standard […]

Continue Reading

Using diet to protect yourself from macular degeneration

I was never very interested in food as a child, but I do remember being encouraged to eat plenty of carrots to help me see in the dark. Not all nutritional folklore is supported by sound science, but this one is: carrots are loaded with the nutrient beta-carotene, and the vitamin A this may convert […]

Continue Reading

Caffeine caution – even a little may be enough to cause upset in the brain

For me, eating healthily doesn’t necessarily mean giving up all our little treats. My personal dietary vice is coffee, and I indulge myself with a cafetière of organic Guatemalan brew most mornings. From a purist’s point of view, drinking coffee is nutritional heresy: there’s a stack of research linking caffeine consumption with all manner of […]

Continue Reading

The many benefits of garlic

Last week garlic was thrust into the spotlight following the publication of a study which suggests that regular consumption of this herb could halve the risk of stomach cancer and cut the incidence of colon cancer by two-thirds. Actually, garlic has long had a reputation as a bit of a cure-all. With references to its […]

Continue Reading

The hazards of too consuming too much salt

For centuries, salt has been revered as a flavour-enhancer and food preservative across the globe. Our appetite for salt has not diminished either: many of us add salt during cooking or at the table, and salt has a ubuiquitous presence in pretty much every processed food. Some salt in the diet appears to be important […]

Continue Reading

What should diabetics really eat?

Diabetes is not the most sexy of conditions, but it’s an important one. Characterised by raised levels of sugar in the blood stream, it can ultimately lead to diverse problems including blindness, gangrene, kidney disease, nerve damage and impotence, and is the third leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease and cancer. What is more, […]

Continue Reading

Preserving our mental faculities as we age

My big brother Joe has a famously bad memory. At a relatively youthful 38, he often forgets conversations I have had with him only a few days before. Regularly, he regales me with stories and anecdotes that I find very amusing, but only the first time round. A couple of months ago, I was recounting […]

Continue Reading