Cooking vegetables

The message that we need to consume our 5-a-day (about 800g of fruit and vegetables in total) is one that appears to be making a positive impact on people’s food choices.  By eating fruits and vegetables that are of a variety of different colours, you can get the best all-around health benefits.  Fruit and vegetables … [Read more…]

Food as a source of nutrients

How do we ensure our diets are providing the key nutrients for ‘normal everyday’ functioning? For a food to deliver optimal nutrients it must be nutritionally rich when consumed.  The issue here is that health benefits derived from consuming food will be compromised by any time gap that arises between the moment a food is … [Read more…]

EPA reduces inflammation in recurrent depression

Approximately 40–50% of people who experience depression suffer from more than one episode and are therefore categorised as experiencing the recurrent type of this disorder.   Identifying predictors for recurrence in these patients is important for a better understanding of its course and for providing opportunities to improve preventive interventions (1). The link between diet and … [Read more…]

Avoiding depression; is it really possible?

Whilst many forms of depression can be easily treated in primary care, many people chose not to undertake, or are certainly reluctant to begin, the journey that takes them on this route of self-help. Whilst there is a high prevalence of mental health problems and disorders that develop in adolescence and early adulthood, pharmaceutical intervention … [Read more…]

Ritalin in the headlines again.

Yet another Ritalin horror story hits the headlines! It seems that every week I can open a newspaper, or magazine, or turn on my PC, and be faced with another story, or article, or news headline, in which I am informed of the the increasing trend in incidence of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (autism, dyslexia, … [Read more…]

Obesity: don’t feed the problem

The National Obesity Forum (NOF) has announced that National Obesity Week (NOW) kicks off on the 23rd January 2011. Originally established by medical practitioners in May 2000, NOF aims to raise awareness of the growing health impact that being overweight or obese is having on patients and the National Health Service (NHS). Given that obesity … [Read more…]