There are many opinions on what a healthy diet should comprise of – unfortunately, the only common denominator is food.  Precisely what we should eat and in what proportions is the bit that nobody can agree on.

Does Going Vegetarian Mean a Healthy diet?

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: there may be moral and ethical reasons for becoming a vegetarian, but that is a matter for individuals to decide.  The fact is that humans are carnivores and meat or fish is what we have evolved to eat.  Many argue against this, but they are simply ignoring the facts to suit their beliefs.

So, is it a Healthy Diet if I Eat Five a Day?

We are told to eat five or more a day, but 5 what?  In the UK for example, you may find banana plants growing for decorative purposes but it’s rare for them to produce edible fruit – this is not their natural home.  We have imported bananas for centuries and, apart from their high sugar content, they are a useful food in terms of vitamins and trace elements.  They are not indigenous to the UK and therefore it’s doubtful we actually need them in our diet.  They are very likely to cause a surge in blood glucose in diabeteics.

Other everyday food items are not indigenous.  For example, the Romans introduced celery, cabbages, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, broad beans and walnuts to the UK.  Prior to this, a whole population thrived without them  The whole point of this is to indicate that we survived without these comparatively new foods before their introduction.  Just try to work out where primitive man would have obtained oranges etc.

So, if we ignore the comparatively recent introductions, what are we supposed to eat?  Firstly, don’t think for one moment we are saying ‘you shouldn’t eat fruit and veg’, far from it.  What we are saying is if you ignore the advertising and food giant backed hype about “wonder foods”, you’ll be in a better position to choose wisely.  Armed with a little knowledge you can avoid spending money on foods where the claims of health benefits are not matched by their performance.

There’s a mountain of “scientific” research indicating we must eat this and that, whilst avoiding, at all costs, this, that and the other.  To add to the fun, you”ll find foods that are on the “must eat” list also appear on the “this will kill you” list.  So what does the average person do?

The Media is Always Going on about Healthy Eating, Can we believe Them?

Firstly, ignore the media headlines.  These are usually reports generated by scientific studies funded by food or drug companies.  If you read that pomegranates are a lifesaver, you can bet the research was funded by some association of pomegranate growers.  Yes, it seems the research budget is part of the marketing budget.

If a particular fruit or vegetable is being lauded as the panacea for all ills, you can bet your life big business is behind it.  The media, of course, love a good headline.  Let’s face it, selling papers or advertising slots is of more importance to them than supplying helpful facts to the public.  What they term a healthy diet is often the sell more papers diet!

It has been said many times we should eat only what our Grandmother would have eaten. Time has slipped by and perhaps we should substitute Great Grandmother, or even cavemen. Although perhaps debatable, there are elements of truth in it.  Particularly when it comes to fats such as butter and other animal fats.  The increase in the diseases that concern us is in inverse proportion to the decrease in animal fats – yes, saturated fat consumption went down and the disease incidence went up!!  Conversely,  the increase in the consumption of low fat spreads follows almost exactly the increase in ill health.  Regarding the caveman, he/she didn’t wake up and say “What shall I have today to maintain my healthy diet?”.  The family were hungry and grabbed what was available!  Homo Sapiens of course continued to evolve, survive and, indeed thrive, on the food that was available.

So, What Should we eat on a Healthy Diet?

A healthy diet requires some thought about what we have evolved to eat. Obviously protein foods such as meat, offal, fish and dairy fit the bill here.  We need fat in the diet and this can be supplied by the meat we eat – provided the “low fat police” haven’t cut it all off: an increasing impediment to true healthy eating.  We need to supplement our fat intake with healthy oils such as olive and coconut.  Vegetables should have a role, but mainly those grown above ground such as leafy green veg, broccoli, cauliflower etc.  But not sweetcorn. Healthy fruits are berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc.

Whilst, in principle, apples are a healthy choice, you must bear in mind the sugar content.  Apples have been developed to have a far higher sugar content than they used to.  Try to develop a liking for the sharper varieties

In spite of the hectoring we receive from all quarters about whole grains, these are not
required in the diet.  All too many well meaning voices will scream “the body needs
carbohydrate!” This is true, but these people don’t, or won’t, accept that any carb requirement is manufactured by the liver from protein.  To prove the point, many people, especially diabetics, keep their blood glucose under control by cutting out carb consumption entirely, or at least, keeping it extremely low.  That is apart from the minuscule quantities found in green vegetables.  In this way they manage to maintain normal blood sugar readings.  If it was essential to consume carbs then it stands to reason these individuals would lapse into unconsciousness through low blood sugar.  This does not happen as the liver helpfully supplies all that’s required.

It is clear from the increase in coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes that far too many of us are not having a truly healthy diet.  The problem is, due to vested interests and ignorance, we are not being given all the facts needed to make a healthy lifestyle choice.

Health websites have proliferated over the years so that, today, there are millions of them. This seems like a great situation in terms of the variety of topics covered. Closer examination however reveals a disturbing number of pseudo-scientific “quack” sites promoting all sorts of nonsense.

A number of websites debunking pseudo-scientific health websites have also been spawned, but they in turn, have, on occasion, thrown the baby out with the bathwater. For example one well regarded site has lost some credibility by rubbishing the Atkins diet. By doing so, some doubt is cast upon their knowledge and motives. Mainstream medical opinion is very slowly beginning to accept the benefits of a low carb/high fat diet and many diabetics are symptom free as a result of Dr Atkins et al.

Another problem is best summed up as “guilt by association”. If someone is extolling the virtues of some esoteric detoxing product which is generally known to be junk,, readers are likely to doubt the veracity of their other recommendations.

Health Websites can be Dangerous.

The greatest problem with health websites is simply their ability to confuse and mislead. All too often a quirky treatment for a common problem is lauded as a wonder cure. This is usually founded on some half baked notion of the human body’s operation and functions, or magical properties claimed for some substance or other. Add in mystical undertones, a few quotes from some new age nut’s website and you’re done. Not forgetting of course the link to the sales page where the, usually useless, overpriced product is sold!

This may seem an overly cynical view to some, but bear in mind we’re speaking of peoples health and lives here!

So how does one determine whether or not they’re reading the ramblings of a nut case, or the pronouncements of a maverick who’s possibly saving lives? Often a close look at what is being said is all that’s needed.

Health Websites and Forums.

A low carb forum that recently closed down was very quiet and largely dominated by the pronouncements of a poster who, whilst often offering sound advice, took things too far and started getting carried away with “new age” ramblings about antibiotics and how they were destroying us.  This is typical of the way otherwise great health websites can be damaged.

Give it just a little thought and you can see how preposterous this. Yes, antibiotics were over prescribed in the 60s and 70s, but eventually, common sense prevailed and their use was restricted. This persons opinion was that bacteria were needed to detox and therefore “heal” the body we therefore should not interfere with them.  She went on to postulate that as we consume so many toxins in our diet, the bacteria were working away to remove them!  You couldn’t make it up!

Again, there’s a grain of truth in what she says as there are indeed an awful lot of essential bacteria in the body.  However, anyone who has had a brush with meningococcal meningitis or some other life threatening infection knows the value of treatment with antibiotics. The point about this story is that with a bit of thought one can often distinguish between the crackpot ideas and the valid.

The saddest aspect of it is the way many people have come to distrust the health websites. After all is so many of them are rubbish, why not stay away altogether? This approach means one would be blissfully unaware of many of the aforementioned mavericks who have a valid argument that’s not yet accepted in the mainstream.

Health Websites, examples of What Goes Wrong

The carbohydrate/fat issue is a case in point, but there are a multitude of others. You can find a number of websites run by medical professionals who have seen the light and decided to to come out and write about the appalling advice given to diabetics. For one reason or another diabetics cannot handle sugars, Carbohydrates are converted into sugar (glucose) in the body so why foist a diet loaded with carbs on someone who can’t process them? Mad as it seems, this is the situation and many diabetics and their loved ones suffer because of it. All over the web you’ll find forums loaded with pompous posts from diabetics, who in many instances are experiencing less than perfect blood glucose levels, warning of the dangers of a low carb diet! Others who have suffered for years with pain and eye damage, post that they’ve found a dramatic improvement since cutting down or largely eliminating carbs from their diet, are labelled extremist troublemakers! It’s hard to defy the Zeitgeist especially when most of the medical profession are guided by government agencies that are funded by food and pharmaceutical companies.

Members of a UK diabetes forum were recently protesting about the sacking of a moderator who had banned a internationally known authority on low carbing. It seems they trusted a hard drinking ex police officer rather than a highly respected Doctor who had the temerity to point out that the claimed low carb/low fat diet of the individual concerned was not sustainable. It was under 1,000 calories a day and yet he says he maintains his weight!

Health Websites – A minefield for the unwary.

Again, all this is to illustrate that you have to be very wary of health websites, read them carefully and look at other opinions before committing yourself to something. The decision is made more difficult by the seriously bad information you may receive from your doctor in some instances. That’s not to say doctors are always wrong, just that they’re not always right!

It’s your body and your life so tread carefully when looking at health websites.

“5 a day” has become a mantra in the media and among health, fitness, diet gurus and, it must be said, total charlatans.  Having said that, moderate amounts of fruit and vegetables are fine and many enjoy them but they’re not the life saver the farmers and retailers would have you believe.

Some research has shown, ostensibly, remarkabe differences between the health and mortality of those who eat five a day and those who don’t.  No account was taken of the type of people involved or their lifestyles.  Just think about it for a moment.  A person who makes sure they have the recommended 5 , or more, is unlikely to risk undoing all the (supposed) good work by smoking, drinking alcohol to excess and living on junk food.  In other words they were more health conscious anyway and, it follows, doing their best to take care of themselves.  Those unwilling or too stupid to take care of themselve in a sensible manner, would be unlikely to consume anything like 5 a day and, very likely, think chips or french fries all the vegetable matter they need.  On the other hand, those who strive for a healthy lifestyle are the ideal target for any marketing hype such as eat 5 a day.

Do the 5 a Day Statistics Lie?

Yes.  To illustrate the point, there was a rash of headlines recently proclaiming that a certain number of hours a week of television was linked to a 125% increase in risk of cardiovascular events.  Again, just think about it for a moment.  Those watching television for extended periods would obviously include the very ill, the dying, alcoholics and the already obese!  These “studies are nothing short of alarmist nonsense.

Just one more example of statistical nonsense.

It has been shown in “studies” – the media love that word – that teetotallers have a greater risk of premature death than those who drink a little each day.  No mention of the fact that those apparently blameless souls who do not indulge, include those who are already extremely ill or even dying from damage resulting from alcoholism.  In fact, those with any form of life threatening disease would be under strict instructions not to drink alcohol and would be much more likely to die prematurely than moderate drinkers.

Back to 5 a Day.

So why are we being bullied into eating food many don’t like and we possibly don’t need?  It all goes back to 1991 and started as a marketing campaign by 25 fruit and vegetable companies who managed to get the American National Cancer Institute on board.  Isn’t that a dream come true for fruit and vegetable farmers!  There’s no real evidence that eating 5 a day is of benefit to one’s health.

Is there a Downside to Eating 5 a day?

There’s most definately a downside to eating 5 a day, particularly fruit.  Fruit is full of sugar and to make matters worse, it’s fructose which happens to be just about the unhealthiest sugar around!

We never used to eat as much fruit as we do today and in those days obesity and type 2 diabetes were rare.  After world war 2 people reeived oranges as christmas presents.  We ate apples but they were nowhere near as sweet as the varieties available today.  Skilful marketing has created a demand for sweet things and then produced the products to satisfy the cravings.

In healthier times, fruit was seasonal and, apart from preserves, we just did not have a vast array of fruit and vegetables on offer in shops so it was difficult, to say the least to eat 5 a day.

Low carb diets are becoming popular, albeit in an underground, alternative sort of way.  They might be seen as the antithesis of veganism as they usually stress the consumption of protein and fat, normally found in meat, eggs and fish.  But many people still have grave reservations about the health properties of low carb diets.  They have their detractors in the mainstream nutritional community.  Some have doubts about the long-term effectiveness and safety of these Atkins-style diets.  Although vociferous in their condemnation of low carbing, they have yet to produce any scientific back-up for their viewpoint.  Generally, they parrot what they have read somewhere else and know little about what benefits a low carb diet can bring.

As in all things, low carb means different things to different people, and some people feel the need to eat very low carb, virtually no carbs at all, and others find they can consume quite a quantity of carbohydrate and still lose weight.

Why do some criticise low carb diets?

Critics of very low carb diets, consisting of eggs, fish, meat and a little green veg, claim that this misses out vital micronutrients and vitamins.  However it is of course possible to get these in supplement form.  Some claim that that fruit, for example, is essential due to antioxidants and other minerals, although low-carb advocates believe that fruits other than berries, for example bananas or apples, are nothing more than sugar bombs.

Some proponents of low carb just concentrate on eliminating the more refined sugars and starches, such as white bread, table sugar, biscuits, white flour, cookies and the like.  Others remove almost all carboydrate from their diets, so that they eat no pasta, rice, potatoes, bread of any kind, and no confectionary.

Low carb diets and weight loss.

If weight loss is the goal, a number of individuals, mainly men, find that just cutting down on carbs can lead to a dramatic weight loss.  Women tend to find it harder, probably for hormonal reasons, and may find they have to cut their carbs very strictly in order to lose weight, particularly as they get older and pass the menopause.  Although on a low carb diet you are not encouraged to count calories, portion control is still important for many.  It is a common misconception that low carb means gorging yourself on fat, drinking cream and slathering butter on everything.  Saturated fat is not despised in low carb, it is the main fuel source for the body, but for some individuals over-indulgence does pile on the calories and inhibits weight loss.

The main argument about low carb dieting is that it usually involves the consumption of saturated fat.  Saturated fat has been demonized in recent decades but the evidence is shaky.  The low-carb advocates argue that in the absence of excessive carbohydrates and insulin response, saturated fat is made safe.  This can be difficult for the mainstream diet industry to accept, as we have been so indoctrinated with the concept that low fat is the only way to go.  It would be hard for low-fat proponents to make a complete u-turn now.

So we end up with a compromise, where the diet experts recommend cutting out the more refined carbohydrates (the “white death” of table sugar and white flour), ending up with a diet – excuse the pun – which is neither fish nor fowl.  You have to study the research (or books by people like Gary Taubes who have studied it for you) and make up your own mind whether to go low-carb or low-fat in your diet.  One thing is for sure: low-fat diets seem to be failing us in the long run.  Low-carb takes a leap of faith in some ways.  But something inbetween, where abundant fat and carbohydrate (whole grain or whatever) are consumed together might be the most dangerous of all.

One fact alone is worth noting.  Huge numbers of diabetics have found they can control their blood sugar with a low carb diet and in many cases, stop taking drugs that are less effective.

The fat/cholesterol hypothesis, which states that the consumption of saturated fat leads to build-up of cholesterol, which clogs the arteries leading to coronary heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, has been accepted as the norm for many years.  But there is a wealth of research that suggests that this may be barking up the wrong tree.

Saturated fat is harmless don't waste the skin!

This research, which concludes that saturated fat is not the culprit, but the over-consumption of carbohydrates and sugars is, has been suppressed and ignored for many years.

Saturated Fat & Cholesterol.

There are many facts about saturated fat and cholesterol which may surprise you.  The lions share of cholesterol is produced by the body, and if you eat less saturated fat, your body will compensate by producing more internally.  Cholesterol is a very valuable substance in the body and it is essential to all the cells.  In many cases, heart attack victims have not eaten any more saturated fat than more fortunate individuals.  Low cholesterol often causes more problems with the heart than high.

Also, high cholesterol is just not an issue for women, it makes no difference to their risk of heart attack or stroke. The same applies to people over 65 years of age.  Even though the majority of heart problems occur in the elderly age group, cholesterol is not a risk factor in old age.

Statin drugs are pushed by Drug Companies and Doctors, who believe that their cholesterol-lowering properties decrease the risk of heart attack, but actually the benefits of Statins are due to something else, not their ability to lower cholesterol.  Statins also come with many more side-effects affecting many more people than the Drug Companies would have us believe.  These include mental confusion and loss of memory, muscle wastage, aches and pains, impotence and even increased cancer risks.  Therefore they may not decrease overall mortality from all causes, and can make the life you do have left to be of lesser quality, and frankly miserable, as they make you feel in many ways old before your time.

The Saturated Fat-Cholesterol-Heart Hypothesis

Unfortunately scientific journals have carried papers loaded with information like this for decades, but because they argue against the prevalent zeitgeist of the saturated fat-cholesterol-heart hypothesis, these papers are not shared with the public.  Most of us get our information on health matters from popular media such as magazines, newspapers and television, and these studies don’t often make it as far out into the world as this.  So the public carries on believing that saturated fat is bad news, and they should fill up on wholewheat bread and pasta.

To make a fatty liver on a goose, you don’t feed it fat, you feed it grain and lots of it, producing foie gras.  It is thought that it is grain – carbohydrate – which leads to the rapid buildup of body fat, and without this, one can consume pure, saturated fats such as butter without having to worry about putting on weight or increasing heart risks. Despite low-fat eating becoming an obsession over the last 30 years or more, heart disease is on the increase.  Perhaps what we are doing is not working…. food for thought?

Health gurus frequently tell us to adopt a natural diet, but what is natural.  If you go right back to the early days of mankind, the diet would be very different from today’s.  Game – once he’d worked out how to catch it and kill it – nuts, berries and leaves would have been the mainstay.  No doubt a few brave souls would have perished whilst the poisonous berries were tested and a mental note made of the safe edible varieties.

Natural Diet - Wild Cabbage

The early flora and fauna were very different from what’s available today.  Centuries of selective breeding has produced creatures that would be unrecognisable to our ancestors.  Similarly, our caveman would probably recoil in horror if presented with a head of broccoli or cauliflower; both members of the mustard family,.  The Brassica family of which broccoli is a member have been traced back to the wild cabbage that still grows on chalky coasts in Europe. This vegetable was being cultivated 8,000 years ago and found it’s way to the Mediterranean region via Persia.  The wild cabbage is a very different vegetable from the present day broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, turnips etc.  The range of nutrients would be totally different from the original and even vary according to the cultivar and even the region in which they’re grown.  In terms of diet and nutrition – who knows what was being eaten?

This is a layman’s look at just one vegetable and the mind boggles at the variety and complexity of today’s food intake.

These arguments also apply to the meat we consume today.

Any thoughts of a “natural diet” are pure fantasy.

What we can do is look at what is available in our part of the world and make the best choices we can, based on present day knowledge.  Here again we hit a snag as the differing ideas about what’s good for us and what isn’t cause at the very least frustration and at worst, a danger to health.

We are told fruit is good for us but diabetics who care about their blood glucose levels, know that today’s varieties of super sweet fruit create havoc with their blood sugar levels and by no stretch of the imagination are part of a natural diet.  Going back to the distant past, fruit was nowhere near as sweet as the modern varieties.  It’s simply marketing.  A market has been created for sweet things and the fruit has been selectively cultivated to satisfy the demand.  This inevitably followed by the cultivation of even sweeter fruit to grab a bigger share of the market.  The modern apple has been described as a “Sugar bomb” and it’s unfortunately true.  A sharp tasting apple would be much healthier.  All of this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the problems facing those trying to stay alive and healthy.

We are being misled in so many ways.

The advice given to the obese and type 2 diabetics is a prime example.  How can it be right to be told to eat more fruit and cut down on sugar?  Especially as the fructose in fruit is one of the most damaging.  We’ll look at this in greater depth elsewhere.

So, how do we find an approximation of the natural diet?

All we can do is avoid processed food as much as possible – tinned and ready-made items in particular.  Fast food such as burgers etc. is not as bad as you may think provided you eat the burger and salad but dump the bun!  Yes, the bun is full of sugar and has no nutritional value.

What about fat in a natural diet?

Avoid artificial spreads at all costs.  They are have an unbalanced fat content – high Omega 6 and low Omega 3 -  and contain substances with a known association with cancer and coronary heart disease.

Stick to natural fats.  Animal fat, butter, olive oil, coconut oil and rape seed oil contain a balanced selection of nutrients and are healthy.  It should be noted that although rape seed oil is safe, this was not always so as it naturally contained high levels of erucic acid which is thought to have health implications.  All of the Brassica contain this substance at varying levels this is the reason mustard oil is banned for food use in Europe.  Other brassica contain small amount that are totally harmless.  The evidence for a health risk was assembled from experiments on rats so it isn’t certain if there are risks for humans.  The prime reason for cultivating a low erucic acid varieties was palatability and the aim was to reduce glucosinolates by accident, erucic acid was reduced as well.

A totally natural diet requires natural food which is not available from you local store.  All you can do is eat a variety of ingredients that are fresh or frozen to try to emulate a natural diet.

In other words, detox diets are a solution to a problem that needn’t really exist.  So, you may ask, what about all the toxins we take in each day in the form of atmospheric pollution, insecticides in food, and additives?  Let’s look at it properly.

Detox Diets and Pollution

If you have to go into city centres and are affected by the pollution, there’s very little you can do about it and detox diets won’t help.  However, your body will soon set to work removing pollutants from the bloodstream – provided you drink sufficient water – and inhaled particles will stimulate mucous creation to clear the respiratory tract.  This is not to say that pollution is harmless, far from it, but no amount of whacky drinks or special diets will improve things.  It’s unfortunate that overcrowded cities are not very healthy environments.  Stay away if possible and try to eat and drink healthily and think about your diet and nutrition in general.  More on that later.

When it comes to food, excluding junk food is the obvious basis of detox diets.

It’s obvious junk food should be avoided.  Unfortunately, the definition of junk food is so woolly it’s quite meaningless.

We’ll go into details elsewhere, but our diet is appalling, the greatest toxin being sugar and it’s partner in crime carbohydrate.  Sorry, we did not evolve to eat cereals!  It’s hard for many to take but the high carb/low fat fad of the last 35 years has seen an explosion in the incidence of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  This is a fact, but in spite of this, governments bow to the food and drug giants and keep on promoting the current “death diet”.  An explanation and more information on the scientific evidence for these statements will appear shortly.  For now, please accept there are better ways of eating.

Detox diets means eating expensive organic food.

The danger from pesticides is somewhat over-rated and it’s been mooted that pyrethrum, a known carcinogenic, has been traced on some “organic” apples!

Detox diets - are all apples safe?

Pyrethrum is an organic pesticide and therefore, in the minds of some, quite safe!  This is no real surprise if you think about it.  Before the boom and hype machine started rolling to promote organic food it mast be said it was pretty sorry looking stuff.

Apples were often damaged and, in some instances, contained holes from  burrowing creatures.  How strange that fresh organic fruit and vegetables are now pristine!  One has to wonder how on earth the growers managed to prevent pest attacks?

Reducing carbohydrates is the first step to a healthy diet.

If we remove the main culprit (sugar and it’s precursors) from our diet, what else causes trouble?  Generally, processed food is a problem.  We really should eat as much fresh food as possible.  Failing that, frozen food is as good, or in some instancess better than fresh.  After all frozen veg have been prepared at a blinding speed and haven’t sat around deteriorating on shelves for days.

Food additives get a bad press and there’s little doubt they don’t provide anything useful to the body.  However, if the consumer insists on demanding quickly prepared ready-meals, then they’ll just have to put up with them along with the undesirable fats they contain!  By the way, all is not as it seems on the fat front, but we’ll go into the issue of fats elsewhere. Let’s face it, the choice often comes down to food poisoning or the possibility of consuming toxins.  Use fresh, or frozen, ingredients and you can avoid both risks.

So, do we need detox diets at all?

If we avoid sugar and junk from the diet, what’s left to detox?  There should be very little, after all, if it doesn’t go in, it can’t really come out whatever weird detox diet you undertake.

The simple fact is if we pump a load of rubbish into our sytems, then we will experience deteriorating health.  There’s therefore little point in embarking on a detox diet as a short term fix for a problem that shouldn’t arise in the first place.  It’s bit like not doing any housework and then having a blitz once a year!  One week of normal messing up and you’re back to normal!  Detox diets seem to work because if you go on one, it’s inevitable you will not be consuming the foods that detox diet claim to eliminate.

Your liver and kidneys will cope very well with the stuff that’s thrown at them and perform a body detox but it makes sense to minimise the work thay have to do.

We all want to live forever but abandoning self destruction for a week whilst going on detox diets consuming an organic lemon juice and water diet or some other barmy scheme is not going to help long term.

By the way, detox diets do seem to work, but that’s an illusion.  If whilst on the diet you cut out the rubbish, you’re halfway there. After all a healthy diet is a detox diet plan so why not forget detox diets per se and just eat properly in the first place?

Every day the mainstream media carries headlines about health, diet and nutrition issues. How is the average person to know if they’re killing themselves or doing the right thing to maintain a long and healthy life? We aim to clarify matters wherever possible.

Diet and nutrition confusion.

We’ve been given guidelines on the consumption of fat, tea, coffee, fruit, vegetables, nutrients and just about anything else you can eat in a healthy diet.

Living in an age where there’s an overwhelming stream of information it’s easy to get confused and give up trying to fathom out what’s going on.  This is especially difficult when there is so much hype and sales promotion.  After all, the diet and nutrition market is gigantic.

What is diet and nutrition?

Put simply, diet is what you eat and nutrition is, loosely speaking, an assessment of the actual requirements and the value, to the body, of what you do eat.

Our diet has been shaped by the availability and advertising of foodstuff we haven’t evolved to consume.  These factors in combination with the hectic pace of real life, have led us into bad ways.  For the hardpressed consumer diet or nutrition are the last things on their minds – they just want something to eat.  If some diet guru was on the news or in the newspaper headlines suggesting pastry was a “superfood” that might stir something in the mind and send them dashing to the (in)appropriate store!  It’s most likely they’ll forget nutritient values and grab something tasty and filling.

What about the diet and nutrition experts?

Compounding the problem is the surfeit of “health gurus” who have set themselves up as “experts” often with dubious “qualifications”.  Make no mistake, these people aim to get the highest profile in the media and are to be found presenting TV programs or appearing in news programs as experts.  They sometimes gain cult status and make a fortune selling supplements etc.  Does their advice help or hinder your attempts to maintain good health?  Therein lies the problem: who knows?

Nutrition is a current buzzword and forms the wheels of the bandwagon that’s making fortunes for many.  Unfortunately, it’s an inexact science and and so it’s easy to sound as though you know what you’re talking about.  This enables people to set themselves up as bona fide experts on various aspects of diet and nutition with no real scientific knowledge of the subject.  Frankly, most of them recycle articles that appear on other websites about diet and nutrition with sometimes dangerous and often laughable results!  Regrettably, it’s a case of “in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king”.

You may say “But surely my doctor knows about these matters?”.  Again, why should he?  Doctors only know what they have been taught, sometimes many years ago.  Certainly most try to keep abreast of developments and new findings.  Unfortunately, they are, to some extent. under the same handicap as consumers.  They obtain their information from government guidelines which is assembled from input by quasi-autonomous, non-governmental organisations – the infamous “Quangos”.  They in turn, obtain data from research papers usually financed by the food giants and pharmaceutical companies.  The other diet and nutrition information comes from pharmaceutical and food manufacturers who cleverly publish information sheets and leaflets for patients, usually extolling the virtues of their cholesterol-lowering spreads and suchlike.

Yes, the whole area of health, alternative medicine, diet and nutrition is awash with hype, danger and misinformation which we will try to clarify.