I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas break. As I write this, I am still very much in that hazy, blissful state of purgatory between Christmas and New Year where days of the week have become utterly meaningless. However, I know that thoughts will soon turn to January, and with that, the inevitable deluge of resolutions. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with this – a new year can be a new start, and it also presents us with the perfect opportunity to assess how things have gone over the past 12 months. So, racked with post-festive gluttony […]
Should we ban fruit juice from our five a day?
My older brother sent me this article recently – it’s a revisiting of the old fruit juice / sugar debate. As I say, this is hardly a new area of disagreement, but is interesting nonetheless, and fits in nicely with some of my recent posts on sugar and the five a day message. I couldn’t help but notice one of the comments underneath the article, stating: ‘This disjointed approach to healthy eating is counterproductive. We are hit by isolated messages that say eat this, don’t eat that – and then every organisation wants to get their opportunity to gain some media attention […]
Be smart and look beyond the headlines!
Visitors to the BBC website this week may well have spotted an article with the following heading: ‘Any diet will do, say researchers, if you stick to it’. The article (which you can read here) was in fact a summary of work published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which itself was a meta-analysis (statistical combination of studies) of 48 individual trials. The primary finding, as the headline suggests, was that the specifics of any diet being followed is less important than the act of actually sticking to that diet. They go on to state that this is down to […]
Sugar, fat and the irresponsible media…
In recent months, there has been a spate of pieces about the great sugar versus fat debate: which is the bigger killer? I find these articles frustrating, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the reported ‘U-turns’ in evidence dilute public confidence in science, nutrition, and anyone who works in the sector. It gives the impression that we are constantly changing our minds, contradicting ourselves from one month to the next. This is simply not the case, but as ever, the media feel the need to present any new evidence in this manner. Secondly, I don’t understand why the debate must […]