If you’re familiar with the low carbohydrate, Atkins-type diet – variously known as the paleo diet, the Zone diet, the South Beach diet or the ketogenic diet- you are probably also aware that it is pretty controversial. So is it a great way to lose weight and improve your metabolism or is it lacking in […]
Cardiologist: time to stop demonising saturated fat
October 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At first sight geology and nutrition have little in common but a major shift in thinking about the surface of earth is a handy way of highlighting a major change in ideas about how to cut the risk of heart disease with diet. Back in the 1920’s a meteorologist called Alfred Wegener came up with […]
Could cutting carbs boost cancer treatment?
October 21, 2013 by 2 Comments
Could you improve your cancer treatment by following a very low carbohydrate diet? Do statin studies really show they are more likely to harm than help you, if you haven’t already had a heart attack? These are just two of the questions raised by two articles in a new blog I’ve helped to create, which has just […]
Silver Bullet Awards: the winners
March 31, 2013 by 7 Comments
OK the judges have finished their deliberations, all the votes are in and it is time to roll out the blushing red carpet of shame and announce the worthy winner of this year’s Silver Bullet for the most egregious medical quackery. Many thanks to all of you who took time out from your busy on-line […]
Treating disease with diet – new possibilities
March 19, 2013 by 3 Comments
There were several reasons I got interested in the low-calorie liquid diet I’ve written about in today’s Daily Mail – mainly the fact that evidence is mounting that it can reverse diabetes and other conditions such as arthritic knees. But also because together with the alternate day diet I think it holds out possibility of […]
The link between South Staffs hospital scandal and losing weight
February 10, 2013 by 2 Comments
The Francis report on the dreadful doings at the Mid Staffordshire hospital can only be welcomed. The events were horrific, something went terribly wrong and heads should roll. But could what happened be a symptom of a wider problem? Does it tell us anything about the way medicine is practised in general? The most common explanation for […]
Big oil and big pharma: brothers in harms
January 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I got to thinking about big pharma’s similarities with big oil reading Fred Pearce’s article in New Scientist this week. It was about plans for a massive pipeline – Keystone XL – to deliver Canadian tar sands to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. There were the obvious and familiar dangers – the large carbon […]
The link between hurricane Sandy and junk food
November 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
The bitterness of US the election and the damage wrought by hurricane Sandy don’t have an obvious connection. But in the Guardian last week author and activist Naomi Klein argued that one thread linking them was the ability of large corporations to avoid paying for their mistakes. It’s an analysis that also provides a useful […]
Put patients on drug company boards
November 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Your risk of developing Alzheimer’s could be increased by having high levels of glucose and insulin in your blood – one of the results of a diet high in sugar and refined carbs that’s linked with insulin – see my feature in the Daily Mail on Tuesday. But how likely is that to be the subject of […]
How to get slim and healthy and stay that way
August 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
OK the title is a bit of a come-on but this week’s BBC2 investigation into the benefits of fasting by the Horizon team, actually entitled “Eat, fast and live longer “, did become very enthusiastic towards the end. Understandably. It wouldn’t be over-egging it too much to say that if you were looking for a single thing that […]
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