Articles

Far from being the healthy drink implied by its sports sponsorships, Diet Coke is a worrying cocktail of neurotoxic and potentially carcinogenic chemicals. By Pat Thomas Diet Coke was first introduced in the US in July 1982 and today it is the fourth most commonly consumed carbonated beverage in the world. Apart from being the […]

Most of us try to avoid foods containing artificial colours, so why do we continue to buy bodycare products and cosmetics made with unnatural and potentially harmful colours and dyes? Pat Thomas reports. It starts when you get up in the morning. You grab a bar of soap or a bottle of shower foam and […]

Mix flour, water and yeast and you’ve got a tasty loaf of bread. But make your bread the industrial way and you’ll end up eating more than you bargained for. By Pat Thomas It’s the ultimate fast food, convenient and healthy and with genuine traditional appeal. Bread is one of the great staple foods and, […]

Despite the best efforts of the industry to rebrand and clean up incineration, the fact remains that today’s incinerators still permit pollution. Roughly 2 1/2 million tonnes of municipal waste are incinerated in the UK each year.  More efficient filters make emissions look clearer, but just because you don’t see the pollution, doesn’t mean it […]

If you really want younger-looking and healthier skin, you may do better to think more carefully about what you put inside your body than what you put on it. By Pat Thomas Moisturisers have one basic function: to maintain the water balance in the most superficial layers of the skin. This layer of the skin, […]

The human species has been breastfeeding for nearly half a million years. It’s only in the last 60 years that we have begun to give babies the highly processed convenience food called ‘formula’. The health consequences – twice the risk of dying in the first six weeks of life, five times the risk of gastroenteritis, […]

If you’re one of the millions of people using fake tan to look attractive and healthy, be wary: they are full of chemicals that can cause damage to your skin. By Pat Thomas. Fear is a great motivator – especially in cosmetics. The more you can make people afraid of something, the more stuff you […]

You don’t have to choose between looking good and being healthy. In our regular look at cosmetic ingredients, Pat Thomas gives you the information you need to identify safer cosmetic and bodycare products. Preservatives, by their very nature, are designed to kill things. Specifically they work by killing cells and preventing them from multiplying and […]

Over 1,000 juvenile delinquents showed a 44 per cent drop in antisocial behaviour when put on a low sugar diet. So why is the government completely ignoring what we are feeding our children, and yet is happy to spend £2,500 on administering each ASBO? In October 2003 the UK government launched the latest offensive in […]

If you ‘deskfast’ with sugary, fat-filled cereal bars instead of eating a good breakfast you could be doing untold damage to your body and mind. By Pat Thomas. Most of us have grown up with the mantra that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet 56 per cent of us skips breakfast. […]