There is a wealth of evidence about the beneficial role that our intestinal bacteria play in keeping us healthy. Not only do they play a vital role in digestion, they also produce essential enzymes and vitamins, help us to fight infections, they can even create chemicals like serotonin which support our mental wellbeing. Some studies have suggested that the increased prevalence of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, irritable bowl syndrome, […]
A recently published study has confirmed a link between the consumption of sugary drinks and increased risk of bowel cancer. The study involved a cohort of over 95,000 women, whose diet and health were monitored between 1991 and 2015. It found that women under the age of fifty who regularly consume more than a pint of sugary drinks per day have double the risk of developing bowel cancer compared to […]
Carbohydrates, which now make up the bulk of most of what we eat, only became a significant part of the human diet after we began practising agriculture some 10-12,000 years ago. Before then, our ancestors would have had a much higher protein and much lower carbohydrate intake than we do. They would also have had much more active (if considerably shorter) lives than us. The one thing they did not […]
The benefits of gardening in respect of mental health and well-being are now well documented. Indeed, garden therapy is increasingly prescribed by doctors to help tackle anxiety, loneliness and depression. But research from the University of California suggests that gardening can also help tackle the growing problem of obesity, especially amongst children. We now know that being overweight puts us at greater risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19. […]
A recent report by the UK’s House of Lords Food, Poverty, Health and Environment Committee has looked, amongst other things, at the disproportionate rates of obesity amongst poorer families. The report has concluded that our current food production and pricing systems conspire to make unhealthy food much cheaper than it should be. Obesity is one of the so-called underlying health conditions that increases vulnerability to Covid-19, as well as a […]
We are witnessing a strange political contest here in the UK. The Conservative Party is in the process of electing a new leader, and the successful candidate will automatically become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The voters in this election are a tiny, unrepresentative group. Demographically, they are predominantly white, male, well off, based in the south of England and with an average age approaching 60. They are, of […]
A couple of years ago the World Health Organisation predicted that all nations in the European Union would continue to see increases in the proportion of their population that are obese, with one exception: the Netherlands. More on the Netherlands later, but an interesting piece of news closer to home caught my eye recently: the city of Leeds in the UK has managed to reduce the rate of obesity amongst […]
There have been three recent surveys into the impact of what are termed “ultra-processed foods” on human health. I must admit that until quite recently I had not come across this term, having tended to mentally divide foods into two simple groups – “processed” and “not processed”. “Ultra-processed foods”, it transpires, are foods which have incorporated multiple additives, in the form of preservatives, sweeteners, colourants and processing aids, but which […]
I do hope I can tempt you to try my new recipe, a wonderfully tasty vegan comfort food dish – bean and vegetable casserole with pistou. On the subject of succumbing to temptation, I believe it was Oscar Wilde who first said, “I can resist anything apart from temptation”. A recently published study suggests that this is a human failing we all share. Our inability to resist temptation is also […]
A recent study entitled “What are the barriers to eating healthily in the UK?”, led by the Social Market Foundation, concluded that 10.2 million people resident in the UK are living in what the report calls a “food desert”. It defines a food desert as an area where residents have severely limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables, usually in the form of a local supermarket. The findings of this […]
Fewer and fewer of us are cooking our food from scratch. In some cases this may be due to a lack of skills or confidence. In many cases, however, it is down to a distorted attitude to time. We are in the grip of the “convenience” food industry, which encourages us to regard any time we spend preparing and cooking food as time wasted. Anything, it seems, which short-circuits time […]
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver attracted criticism recently over his claim that poor people “eat crap” because they “think in a different gear” to the middle classes. His remarks were made in the context of figures revealing that poor children are twice as likely to become obese as rich children, and were themselves taken out of context. He had gone on to say, “what you see is parents who aren’t even […]