Latest Posts

The addiction problem nobody is trying to fix

smart phone addiction

I have a serious question for you about your relationship. Not your romantic one… I mean the one with your phone! Or, more specifically, your relationship with the internet (and all its many platforms, tools and alerts) as it exists in a little black box you carry around with you. How much time do you spend on it? How distracted does it make you? How anxious, angry, irritated or inadequate does it make you feel? And how uncomfortable do you…
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Why Influencers Could Change the Way We Eat

I remember when I was at university, smoking was cool. Binge drinking too. Hanging out at the student union all day drinking cheap beer, then going to smoke-filled flats and shared houses to listen to punk records. Even the ‘healthier’ sporty groups (rugby players like me) would hit it hard in the bar afterwards. It was part of the culture – and those who didn’t want to do that stuff formed a smaller group, comparatively. Today it is a little…
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Another shocking study on obesity- the numbers are crazy

Easy dieting

In the health-writing game you come across a lot of studies. Research is carried out by university scientists into all kinds of topics…. from the effects of different diets to the healing power of certain foods. Some of them are animal studies – so they only suggest a potentiality for the same thing to be true in humans. Some of them are human studies – but they can number as few as 5-15 participants. Some are only carried out over…
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How Evil Nettles Swallowed My Best Friend

One day, when I was 9 years old, I hopped on my bike with my friend Simon. We cycled down the road, then took a shortcut through a gap in the fence. This took us on a winding trail on the edge of an old industrial area that had been reclaimed by nature. The path was hugely overgrown on either side, so we had to be careful of nettles and thorns. At one point, I remember stopping on my bike…
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Nestlé have got a nerve doing this

Is the food industry making us sick

I had to laugh when I read this… It was an article in The Times, with the headline: ‘Buy half your food locally, public bodies told’. It was about how schools, hospitals and councils should get at least half of their food from local and sustainable sources. And it included a call for the government to implement a strategy to shift people away from poor environmental farming practices and towards healthier, seasonal food. Nothing wrong with that – I’m all for…
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Why I disagree with this new Which report

which? report

There was a story that did the media rounds a few weeks back, based on a new report by consumer magazine, Which? I read it in The Times, but it was replicated elsewhere online, so you probably spotted it, too. The original report was headlined, ‘The health products you don’t need.’ As you can imagine, I was eager to find out what the verdict was! The Which? report begins, “From rosemary hair oil that suggests it can cure hair loss…
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