“I don’t want that in my healthy body!”
These words came straight out of the mouth of a client whom I’ll call Sandra, as we were discussing an amazing experience she’d had that week. Sandra and I had been working for several months on her self-esteem, body image, eating behaviour and weight. Like so many women, Sandra had experienced the benefits of looking…
Does fruit make you fat?
Back when I was a naturopathy student in the early 1990s, no one I was acquainted with would have taken this question seriously. At that time, everybody ‘knew’ that being overweight was due to eating too much fat. End of story. But then the Atkins diet – which exonerates fat, and vilifies carbohydrates as the…
Rewiring the ‘obese brain’
As discussed in my article How to make an ‘obese brain’; just add saturated fat, researchers believe that a diet high in saturated fat may cause permanent changes in the brain, driving cravings for high-kilojoule foods that sabotage the efforts of overweight people to lose weight and keep it off for good. That’s a depressing…
How to make an ‘obese brain’; just add saturated fat
The latest diet craze, the Paleo Diet, urges its followers to load up on saturated fat, found in animal flesh, eggs and dairy products, and a handful of plant products such as coconut oil. Paleo writers extol the virtues of saturated fat, claiming that its consumption is absolutely necessary for good health and weight loss.…
Top 10 tips for healthy eating – Part 1
Recently I was asked by food blogger, home cook and photographer extraordinaire, Megan Young of Veggies and Me, for my top 10 tips on healthy eating. (Read the whole post here.) In this post and the next one, I’m going to elaborate on these tips, so you can fully grasp the profound impact that implementing…
Winning the ‘food war’ with love
Many of the clients I see feel as if they are at war with food and with their bodies. Every day, their ‘logical brains’ are locked in mortal combat with their ’emotional brains’, the former telling them they should be making healthy food choices, while the latter constantly screams out for unhealthy ‘comfort foods’. If…
Inflammation: why you’re fat, sick, tired, depressed and in pain… and what to do about it
You may never have stopped to think about it, but every time you become unwell in any way, inflammation plays a key role. That role is obvious in diseases like arthritis – inflammation of the joints, but perhaps less obvious in, for example, the common cold – major symptoms of which are rhinitis, or inflammation…
Beautifully healthy
Ok, so you know eating fruits and vegetables is good for you. But if that hasn’t been enough to get you eating more of them, maybe I can appeal to your vanity: a new study has found that people who have the skin colouration typical of those with a high intake of carotenoids from fresh…
The pleasure trap – or how your brain gets tricked into thinking BAD is GOOD
The human brain and body are both adapted to live in a very different world than the one we inhabit today. Many of the health problems that are so prevalent in developed countries, and among the wealthy in developing countries – such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer of the breast, bowel and prostate…
Researchers find junk food is as addictive as nicotine and cocaine…
… so now you know why you can’t eat just one!! Many of my clients tell me they’re chocoholics (especially around that time of the month, for the ladies ;-)). But it’s no laughing matter! Addictions researchers have found that junk food triggers exactly the same responses in the brains of overweight people, as nicotine…