Articles

Let’s face it, when it comes to kids, it’s usually the mother who gets the blame when things go wrong. There is a wealth of information to show that a woman’s health before conception and during pregnancy is influential to both the short- and long-term health of her children. Moreover, we now know more about potential […]

Sometimes scientific research is used in a way that seems to deliberately obscure the truth of things. This may not come as a surprise to some of our readers. But a recent study on dietary diversity caught my eye as a good example of this. A diverse diet means that we eat a greater variety […]

You know the old joke. When a doctor doesn’t know what to do he or she says “take two aspirin and call me in the morning”. The very act of prescribing something simple is thought to be, at the very least, benign and at best may produce a placebo effect that makes the patient’s problem […]

The global food system is a dominant force in shaping our planet and its ecosystems. But it’s a system based faulty foundations, and with every passing year it becomes clearer that conversations about sustainability and biocapacity must begin with how we feed ourselves. Modern agriculture is built on exploitation – the notion that we can […]

If anyone ever doubted that our world is changing – and with it the risks that we face as individuals and as a society – then a recent global study on causes of death provides a sober reminder. In 1990, the things most likely to kill us were child and maternal malnutrition and unsafe water, […]

If you want to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ there are worse places to start than by looking at what we eat, why we eat it and what effect our eating has on the global community that extends well beyond the doors of the local supermarket. A recent US study […]

Last month the British Medical Association called on the UK government to introduce a 20% tax on sugary drinks. The bold step, said the BMA, could be a useful first step by the government in tackling poor eating habits which are increasing prevalence of obesity and diet-related health problems in the UK. The money raised […]

Sometimes we need to see the big picture. Most of us instinctively know that human health and wellbeing depends on the health and wellbeing of the planet. We accept the idea often without really going into the depths of how and why this is true. We also accept the inevitable rolling of eyes when we […]

Science is supposed to make our life better. It’s supposed to help us understand more about the world around us and many of us trust that the ‘scientific method’ has been so well thought-out that it cannot possibly mislead us. But guess what? That’s not always the case and a new study into what might […]

In the face of uncertainty we often look to science to help us make sense of things. This is particularly true in complex areas such as GMOs where adverse effects may be difficult to predict or may even be masked by other aspects of our lives and diets. The potential link between GMOs and cancer […]