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| Dear Kelley Blogger sues dietetic organisation for 'attempting to curtail his freedom of speech' Steeve Cooksey is a blogger who appears to have cured himself of type 2 diabetes with a low-carb/primal diet and exercise. Recently, the North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutrition contacted Steve to tell him he could not give nutritional advice because he is not 'licensed'. Rather than take this lying down, Steve has decided to sue the Board, claiming that his right to freedom of speech is being contravened. I can understand why the dietetic establishment feels compelled to protect its patch, but as I explain in a blog post this week, it's the abject failure of modern dietetics that causes people like Steve to exist in the first place. For more on this, click this link. A brief guide to healthy snacking Professor Brian Wansink is a psychologist and has a special interest in the often-unconscious factors which determine what we eat and how much we eat of it. In his most recent piece of research, Professor Wansink discovered that interspersing regular Pringle-type chips with red ones reduced the amount people ate of them. In one of my blog posts this week I offer a few tips for constructive snacking without the risk of over-eating. For more on this, click this link. Not all doctors are suckered into drug company marketing hype We often heat that statins 'reduce the risk of heart disease by a third', but in people at low risk, this does not mean much. A better way of expressing the benefits of a drug is known as the 'number needed to treat' (e.g. how many people need to be treated for 5 years to preven one heart attack?) We can do the same with side effects too ('number needed to harm'). A group of US physicians has crunched the numbers and concluded that, for the great majority of people wh take statins, the benefits do not outweigh the harms. For more on this, click this link. To your good health! Dr John Briffa www.drbriffa.com | | |
