Eating Well
You may not be able to do anything about the genes you received from your parents; it can be difficult to make changes to the environment you live and work in; but the one area of your health and well-being where you can make a big difference very easily is in your diet.
The importance of eating well is increasingly being recognised by the medical profession. Almost on a daily basis, more is discovered about the benefits (and adverse effects) of different foods.
To help with unscrambling some of the often contradictory advice about food which comes our way from various different directions, we have a series of articles written by retired NHS dietitian, Mary Farmer, which you can access from the descriptive links below. The first article explains what a dietitian does, and how you can consult one, if you need to. Others cover an extensive range of topics, from allergies and food intolerances to diet and dementia, super foods and fasting. Please note that Mary can’t give individual advice about your specific dietary requirements.
• Click to read What Do Dietitians Do?
• Diabetes affects more people than cancer and dementia combined, and threatens to bankrupt the NHS. Honey-Tasting Urine is Mary Farmer’s article about the effects of this condition.
• Disability Or Obesity? Is obesity really a disability? Our intrepid nutrition expert, Mary Farmer, suggests that we have become perhaps too reluctant to criticise those who overeat.
• Don’t Shun the Sun! The second part of Mary Farmer’s article about vitamin D looks at the pandemic of immune system disease, and the risk of deficiency that varies according to the season when babies are born.
• Bring Me Sunshine Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, keeps revealing more positive benefits as scientists dig deeper into the way it works, and the contribution it makes to preventing disease and maintaining health. The first of two articles about this most popular vitamin.
• A Bitter Sugar Pill For decades, excessive fat consumption has been blamed for the obesity epidemic. A pioneering nutritionist flagged the dangers of sugar back in the early 1970s – widely ridiculed at the time, his work has now been re-evaluated, and restored to its proper position.
• Who’s Been Adding Things to my Porridge? Porridge oats feature in pole position as a breakfast choice in many slimming regimes, and dietitians actively endorse it as a healthy food; filling and full of the “right kind” of starch and fibre. But dieters who start customising their bowl may be undermining the effect!
• Bread – The Staff of Life Mary Farmer, our resident nutrition guru, shares her love of breadmaking, and some fascinating facts about this staple foodstuff.
• Dietary Guidelines: Part Two How much is too much when it comes to our favourite tipple, and just where did the idea of eight glasses of water a day come from? As for eggs – from hero to zero and back again, all within a couple of decades… Mary Farmer completes her look dietary guidelines.
• Guiding Stars or Murky Fog: Making Sense of Dietary Guidelines Five fruit and veg a day; 14 units of alcohol a week for women, 21 for men; eight glasses of water a day… where do all these numbers come from? Should we take notice? Mary Farmer looks at dietary guidance and uncovers the science (or lack of it) behind some of those recommendations.
• One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison Allergies, food intolerances, adverse reactions and autoimmune disease. In the last 40 years or so, we have moved from a situation where allergic reactions to foodstuffs were extremely rare to one where some 20 percent of the British population claim some sort of allergy or intolerance. Just what is going on?
• Tempting The Properly Poorly Patient Much sympathy to Mary, whose personal experience provided the subject matter for her latest Nutrition Blogspot. We know how important it is to eat when you have been ill, to build your strength up, but that is sometimes easier said than done…
• Winds of Change Fashions in nutrition and healthy eating advice change over time – new research sometimes turns accepted wisdom on its head. And sometimes it turns out that granny was right all along!
• The Food/Drug Warzone Read Mary Farmer’s article about how drugs and nutrients can interact with each other – not in a good way! Some common medications can change the way your body digests food, preventing you from getting the benefits you might expect.
• Vegetable Voodoo Mary Farmer’s latest blog looks at the magical powers of fruit and veg, including speedy beetroot and anti-hangover asparagus!
• The 5:2 or Fast Diet Read about the diet that has been sweeping the media recently – the Fasting Diet. Two days of denial and five days eating as you please. Sounds interesting, but does it work?
• The Rock of Ages Bowel movements and constipation. All you need to know about the subject that sends most of us into paroxysms of embarrassment.
• Full of Beans Peas and beans have long been the protein mainstay of the diet of poorer people, while affluent populations have grown them not as food for humans, but for their cattle and other livestock.
• The zoo in your guts – the good, the bad and the ugly! The “mini beasts” that reside in your digestive system have a major impact on your health. How to tell the good guys from the baddies!
• Food supplements: too much of a good thing? Do you wonder whether you should be taking vitamin or mineral supplements? How much is too much? Find out who should be taking supplements, and who shouldn’t!
• Mix and Match to maximise nutrition Ever wondered if old-fashioned and conventional food pairings have more to them than a good combination of tastes, colours and textures?
• Water, not bread, is the staff of life! Read about the importance of proper hydration, and the risks you run if you don’t get enough to drink each day.
• Getting the best from your food – a great article about how to prepare and cook food, and make good food choices, to make the most of what you eat
• Professionals often refer to BMI, when talking about being over or underweight. But what is it, and how useful is it as a tool? Read all about BMI, including its shortcomings
• If you are caring for someone, it can be very upsetting if they can’t or won’t eat. More Questions Than Answers might help you solve the puzzle and help the person to enjoy food once more.
• Dementia brings many challenges, food and nutrition often featuring strongly. Read the latest research and lots of first-hand tips to make mealtimes less stressful.
• “Cold Tea and Tears – it DID happen to a dietitian!” Read our editor’s review of Mary Farmer’s fascinating account of life as a dietitian in the NHS
• Find out about essential vitamins and minerals
• “Pernicious Anaemia – The Forgotten Disease” Read Mary Farmer’s review of Martyn Hooper’s book about this debilitating illness
Please note that information offered on this site is offered without guarantees or any acceptance of liability. We do our best to verify accuracy, but any advice should be used as a signpost rather than final authority!