Bacon, red meat and white bread: the foods cancer experts want to cancel from your diet
As scientists caution against a sweetener in sugar-free chewing gum and Diet Coke, we investigate so-called ‘risky’ meal choices.
Think you know all about ‘heart healthy’ foods? It’s time to get your fats straight
Low-fat eating is no longer the order of the day. Discover how some dietary fats play a key role in maintaining a healthy heart.
For decades official advice was to follow a low-fat diet to guard against heart disease, but more recent research has highlighted the key role some dietary fats play in maintaining good health.
A recent study by Harvard researchers, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that people who consumed higher amounts of olive oil had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and premature death.
The surprising foods that contain your daily intake of sugar
A “sugary treat” usually means indulgence: a chocolate biscuit, or a sticky pastry loaded with custard. You’re right in thinking these contribute to your daily limit of “free sugars”, which, according to the NHS, is 30g. But if you think the smoothies you blend in your kitchen and the teaspoon of honey drizzled on your porridge don’t count, you’re fooling yourself.
“We often think that the sugar we need to watch only exists in high-sugar processed foods like chocolate and sweets,” says Dr Somi Igbene, a biomedical scientist. “But foods we categorise as being healthier – fruit, dairy, carbohydrates – still contain sugar and we can still eat too much of them,” she says.
Fruit sugar, known as fructose, doesn’t count as “free sugar” when it’s contained as a whole fruit – but you still want to be mindful of how much you’re eating.
Here’s what to look out for.
Despite about 2.2 million people in Britain using artificial sweeteners four times a day or more, the World Health Organisation has released new guidance suggesting that we should find other ways to reduce sugar intake (those with diabetes should stick with artificial sweeteners).
How good eating habits can reduce cholesterol without drugs
This couple’s surprise diagnosis led them to completely overhaul their diet. Find out how to lower your cholesterol naturally.
In England, high cholesterol leads to more than 7 per cent of all deaths and affects up to 60 per cent of adults.
Blood cholesterol levels rise with age and after the menopause in women. Most young people fail to realise that a diet too high in refined and processed foods – and therefore too much hidden saturated fat – alongside inactivity or smoking and alcohol use will also increase levels of LDL or “bad cholesterol”. Currently, it is normal to get a cholesterol test as part of the NHS midlife health check, every five years from the age of 40.
“Statins might be effective for lowering cholesterol but we would always advise making lifestyle changes first, at least for a few months, as this can bring down cholesterol levels, and there can be side effects with statins such as muscle pains that need to be taken into account,”
says Ruth Goss, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation.
10 simple lifestyle changes that can reduce your blood pressure
Almost half of heart attacks and strokes are associated with high blood pressure.
Here’s how to lower your risk.
It is the often-overlooked stealth killer behind 10 million deaths a year globally. The cause of 60 per cent of all strokes and half of all heart disease. If you weigh yourself regularly, ask yourself, when did you last check your blood pressure?
And yet only a handful of us will reach the end of our lives without experiencing hypertension. At age 20 there is a 20 per cent chance of raised blood pressure, at 50, a fifty per cent chance and at 80 an eighty per cent chance. “If you haven’t got it now, you’re going to have it later,” says Prof Graham MacGregor, chair of Blood Pressure UK.
Salt, stress and sitting down; our unhealthy modern lifestyles are hard wired to raise blood pressure.
For people with diabetes, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) has been a life-changing invention, allowing them to monitor blood sugar without the need for a finger prick. But something interesting has happened with this seemingly unsexy medical device. It’s become a wellness flex for the non-diabetic; a status symbol to show that the wearer is optimising their health by managing blood sugar spikes.
“Metabolic health is crucial to our immune system,”
Dr Jenna Macciochi, an immunologist and author of Your Blueprint for Strong Immunity, explains. “Chronically high blood sugar levels can lead to chronic inflammation, which impairs your ability to fight infections and is a proxy for numerous conditions of poor health. Obesity and metabolic syndrome can also negatively impact immune function by causing chronic low-grade inflammation, which can impair the ability of immune cells to respond to pathogens.”
White bread and bacon, not at all good for health
White bread and nine other foods experts want to cancel from our diets
As a new study suggests that a highly processed diet could be linked to cancer, we reveal the foods to strike off your shopping list
It seems we must rethink our relationships with our most beloved breakfast food and our guilty-secret suppers too. So what other common ingredients would the experts cancel from our diets?
The latest study, led by Imperial College London, examined the diets of 200,000 people and tracked their health for a decade. It uncovered an association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased risk of both developing and dying from cancer.
From instant noodles, sweets and biscuits to mass-produced bread, The National Food Survey reports that purchase of ready meals and convenience foods has increased five-fold over the last 40 years.
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| Though unpasteurised milk may hold a sea of exotic bacteria, it can also help to build a steely immune system which provides protections against all sorts of illness. |
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| Of all the foods revered for their health benefits, the humble beetroot might just be the most impactful of them all, at least according to one gastroenterologist. |
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The real reasons you’re not losing weight
From nodding off in front of the TV to your smartwatch addiction, here are the surprising habits sabotaging your diet goals.
How healthy fats can help you lose weight
With a new study suggesting that abandoning butter and cheese may have caused the obesity epidemic, here’s the truth about fat in your food.
Meat does have a place in a healthy diet – but there is a catch
Our relationship with meat is complicated, but reducing our intake could make all the difference.
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