Public health professionals are calling on the prime minister to do more to help the many families in the UK who cannot afford a decent diet. Contrary to popular belief, people who are experiencing food…
I am always amazed by the wide range of sports nutrition products on sale in gyms and sports centres. No matter the time of day, it seems gym goers are always drinking nutrient shakes. The sports nutrition…
Vitamin jubes contain quite small doses of vitamins and up to 50% sugar.
Ethan Hurd/Flickr
Australian parents spend $40 million each year on vitamin supplements for their children. It’s a big number; much smaller is the number of children who actually need them. In 2009, a large American research…
Working out what are the healthiest options in the supermarket can be a difficult job, especially when food labels are often designed to trick you into thinking they’re healthier than they are. We asked…
The findings of a study from researchers at UCL suggested we should be eating seven different portions of vegetables and fruit a day, rather than the five as currently recommended. But it’s clear that…
“The optimist”, wrote American fantasy fiction writer James Branch Cabell, “proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.” Reading about the global food…
In the past, when infections were the dominant form of disease and death, and humans didn’t understand how they spread, an epidemic ended when enough people had died that there were no more potential victims…
Buying fresh and cooking from scratch is a struggle for some.
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When it comes to food, we’re told to eat what’s in season, buy locally and avoid “food miles” – for good reason. But not everyone has access to grower’s markets, or the time and resources to source and…
People failing to lose weight frequently blame themselves but their physiology is working against them.
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Almost everyone who has tried to lose weight has tasted the bitter pill of failure. That feeling you get when, despite all your desires to be healthier, to fit into sassier clothes or to shimmy through…
“Eat your five-a-day” is a health slogan that has been kicking around since the 1980s. The UK government made it an official campaign in 2003. But understanding the exact benefits (and harms) that our…
The debate over saturated fat is hotting up: new scientists, intelligent laypeople, anthropological observers, and clinical practitioners, have all noticed that eating fat seems to do little harm – and…
Sometimes vegetables end up everywhere except where they’d do most good.
Evan Long/Flickr
So little Harry won’t eat his vegetables? Well, he’s not alone. Poor Harry is just protecting himself from the danger of alkaloid toxins – although he doesn’t actually know this. At the tender age of four…
Choosing an exclusively raw-food diet can potentially put a person at a small disadvantage.
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Eating only raw foods has emerged as a popular dietary trend. Proclaiming an emotive health message, it is enough to make you think twice before next adding heat to your food. But fear not – on the scales…
This could have been such a yawn. Is sugar the “toxic drug” or fat “the deadly ingredient”? Is it yet more popularised quasi-science, claiming life-threatening consequences from foods we eat every day…
It can be exhausting to come up with tasty treats every day.
Image from shutterstock.com
School starts across most of Australia this week, so parents and carers are breaking out the lunch boxes once again. For some, preparing food that kids will want to eat can become something of a dreaded…
A diet high in particular saturated fatty acids can increase your body’s cholesterol production.
Penn State/Flickr
Dietary guidelines cite the fact that saturated fats can increase LDL cholesterol, which is also known as bad cholesterol because it’s a major risk factor for heart disease. Others claim saturated fats…
When Jamie’s School Dinners first aired in early 2005, it launched Britain’s secondary schools as a key battle ground for politicians, professionals and campaigners keen to improve young people’s diet…
Over the previous weekend the morning magazine shows I have on during lazy mornings had 2 glamorous nutritionist types breathlessly discussing the latest ‘superfoods’ that would be big in 2014. It’s difficult…