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Cholesterol and depression: What’s bad for the heart is bad for the brain
16 December 2024 N.B. I hate those stupid trigger warnings that encourage grown adults to believe that they’ll be permanently psychologically harmed by reading about upsetting topics. But yeah, this post discusses suicide – a lot – so if you find that triggering, consider yourself warned. Anyhow… In the last post, I laid out the…
What is high cholesterol, what is low, and why should you care?
9 December 2024 Positive psychology researchers – not to mention philosophers and religious sages – tell us that consciously cultivating gratitude is one of the best ways to enhance happiness. Well, here’s one thing I’m grateful for: my wonderful readers, who often provide me with topics for my posts, and whose thoughtful comments frequently stimulate…
Is low cholesterol bad for you?
2 December 2024 I’ve been doing a bit of debunking lately, haven’t I? From deconstructing the everyone-should-be-taking-vitamin-D argument, to critiquing the ketogenic-diet-cures-cancer narrative, to blowing up the phytates-and-lectins-are-dangerous-antinutrients fables, I’ve spilled a whole lot of digital ink on debunking bad ideas that originate from the weird world of online health and nutrition ‘influencers’. In case…
Lectin, schmectin
Is there no end to the idiocy of the ‘wellness’ movement? 25 November 2024 In response to my article on phytates and bone health, I’ve had a couple of requests to write about the other big scary ‘antinutrient’ that oNLinE nUtRItIoN gURus love to hyperventilate about: lectins. TheLastBattleStation asked me, “Is there really a concern…
Lessons in critical thinking: Reader feedback from last week’s post
18 November 2024 Last week’s post, Academia and the new dark age: Part 11 – Nature’s Trump meltdown, generated some thought-provoking comments which are well worth your while to read (particularly the excerpts posted by Freedom Fox from Walter Berns’ essay, ‘Law and Behavioral Science’, which “presciently speaks to what science applied as law might…
Academia and the new dark age: Part 11 – Nature’s Trump meltdown
11 November 2024 I have a general policy of steering clear of political discussion in my posts (although my paying subscriber-only open threads are a different matter!). But when one of the two most prestigious interdisciplinary science journals in the world, Nature, publishes an article about how scientists all over the world are on the…
Antinutrient villain or bone health superhero? The secret life of phytate.
4 November 2024 Recently, a friend reached out for advice after suffering a wrist fracture. She is very health-conscious and had already been doing the single most important thing that one can do to prevent osteosarcopenia – low bone mass and micro-architectural deterioration of bone, combined with loss of muscle mass, strength and function –…
Unpacking the ‘ketogenic diet cures cancer’ myth: Part 2
28 October 2024 In last week’s post, I dissected the claims made by Boston College professor of biochemistry, Dr Thomas Seyfried, in the first 22 minutes of his interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast. I’ve skipped over a fairly lengthy section of the interview because it contains multiple repetitions of Seyfried’s claim that…
Unpacking the ‘ketogenic diet cures cancer’ myth: Part 1
21 October 2024 Just as I was putting the finishing touches to last week’s post, The astonishing rise of cancer in Generation X, I received the following email from a reader (amazing timing, huh?): “Are you familiar with Diary of a CEO podcast/YouTube channel? The channel has a large following (7m+ on YouTube alone) and…
The astonishing rise of cancer in Generation X
14 October 2024 As a child of the 1970s, I take great delight in sharing Gen X memes with my two Gen Z kids. Yes, we Gen Xers were the kids who walked or rode our bikes to school by ourselves, and let ourselves into our empty homes after school when both our parents were…