Abstract: Does the potato hold a clue to obesity in South Africa?...
Outside of a daily dose of aspirin, few things we pop into our mouths have vacillated so much in their fortunes as the humble potato. One minute it's a staple food source packed with goodness, the other it's nothing more than a lump of carbohydrates heralding all sorts of maladies.
In South Africa, a recent event in the media reinvigorated the debate. Tim Noakes, the Professor of Sports Science at UCT, appeared on Carte Blanche passionately presenting the benefits of a high-protein low-carbohydrate diet. More importantly, he suggested that guidelines recommending carbohydrates should form the basis of a healthy diet could in fact be behind the high levels of obesity and other lifestyle health problems that are evident in South Africa.
He has since emphasised a point made in the interview that his
The humble potato – villain or victim?
Whip out your moral muscle!
Abstract: There's a 'muscle' in your body that could make you healthier...and wealthier...
What's long and hard and brings a smile to the face of many a woman? You're right: it's the decision of whether or not to have another piece of chocolate cake; and if decades of research are anything to go by, it's what makes us successful in life. No, not the chocolate cake...the other thing.
If there's something that separates us humans from our fellow animals, it's the capacity for higher thought. A wild animal never really ponders whether or not to eat something. It never struggles with the greater philosophical question surrounding the morality of consuming another living thing. It just chomps it.
There are of course many examples in the animal kingdom where food, instead of being eaten immediately, is stored for later, or transported to a mate or offspring;
Cost of medicines a killer in developing countries
Abstract: Even essential medicines are not finding their way to developing countries...
Every seven years, hundreds of people from all over the world - academics and people involved in health administration - meet to evaluate and discuss ways in which essential medicines can be used more effectively in non-industrialised, lower and middle-income countries. The third ICIUM (International Conference for Improving Use of Medicines) was held last month in Antalya, Turkey.
Speaking on 8th December at a feedback session from ICIUM 2011, Dr Hans Hogerzeil, Professor of Global Health at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and the former Director for Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies for the World Health Organisation (WHO), presented an appeal for government regulation to address two of the major problems identified at the conference: the highly inflated costs of essential medicines for some of the world's poorest communities -