Nutrition and diet

Oily Fish and Omega-3 Fats – Making Sense of the Latest Evidence

What’s on the Menu? Eating Out with Diabetes and Heart Disease

Learning to accept and live with a chronic condition such as diabetes or coronary heart disease (CHD) is as crucial a part of treatment as medications. As eating outside the home is increasingly a feature of today’s society, it is important that patients with diabetes or CHD feel able to enjoy meals out without any feelings of guilt. In this article, we suggest practical tips for helping patients with diabetes and heart disease to eat out healthily.

Functional Foods: More Than Just Good To Eat

There has been a flurry of interest in functional foods over the past few months. Health claims range from lowering cholesterol to improving vitality. Functional foods have been popular in the Far East for many years but only arrived in the UK six years ago. They are now the most rapidly growing sector of the food industry, with estimates suggesting we currently spend around £1 million on them every day. To make informed choices, consumers and health professionals need to know the truth behind the hype. In this article we review the range of functional foods now available, take a look at the evidence for their claims and explore the pros and cons of using them.

The role of dietary fibre in optimising health

The gastrointestinal tract plays a vital – and sometimes overlooked – role in maintaining overall health. Dietary fibre, eaten as part of a balanced diet, helps to ensure effective functioning of the intestines and can offer benefit in terms of the prevention and treatment of a number of health problems. As levels of obesity in the population continue to escalate, research has shown that dietary fibre has an important role in satisfying appetite and in weight management, in addition to playing a potential role in controlling insulin levels.

Plant Sterols and Stanols: Further Options in Lowering Cholesterol

It is now 10 years since the introduction of the first cholesterol-lowering spread in the UK. There is now an expanding range of products including yoghurts, spreads and milk which include the active ingredients – plant sterols and stanols. With the increasing media focus and advertising spent on these so-called ‘functional food’ products, what advice should we be giving to our patients?

Facing up to the Challenge of Childhood Obesity

In a recent report on childhood obesity, the British Medical Association described the significant increase in levels of childhood obesity as a ’cause for great concern’ and stated that healthcare professionals have a pivotal role to play in tackling this epidemic. It is estimated that there are now approximately 1 million obese children under the age of 16 in the UK and numbers are increasing annually. In this article, we review the impact of this growing epidemic, the underlying causes and how healthcare professionals can help.

Faddy diets: fact or fiction?

An estimated two-thirds of the population are thinking about, or trying to lose weight at any time. To meet this demand, there is a growing range of commercial and ‘fad’ diets available but, unfortunately, very little research to indicate what works and what doesn’t. This article looks at some of the more popular fad and commercial diets you may be asked about in clinic, giving you the information you need to have a discussion about the pros and cons of different weight loss methods with your patients, to help them lose weight and keep it off. The key finding seems to be – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Portion size: how much is enough?

The prevalence of obesity in the UK continues to rise. The Health Survey for England 2003 reported that nearly one in four (23%) of men and women were obese, compared to only 13% and 16%, respectively, in 1993. Obesity increases the risk of developing diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD) and some cancers, and can adversely affect the management of these conditions. So there is obviously a major incentive for primary healthcare professionals to support patients in dealing with this important risk factor. In this article, we look at the simple step of encouraging people to control the size of the portions of food that they eat.

Chewing the fat

Some fat is essential for maintaining good health, in order to provide essential fatty acids and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Essential fatty acids can only be derived from foods because they cannot be synthesised by the body. However, the hard truth is that essential fatty acids represent only a very small amount of total energy needs and most people still consume too much fat. How much fat should we be eating? What is the difference between different types of fats and what advice should we be giving patients about fats to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease?

Healthy eating for type 2 diabetes: let’s go shopping

People with diabetes used to be advised to watch their carbohydrate – particularly sugar – intake. But dietary recommendations have developed over the past few years so that they are now similar to the healthy diet that we should all be eating. Are there any remaining differences in what we should be telling patients with diabetes about their diet? Fewer than you might think. In this article we take a ‘supermarket tour’ that explains what patients with diabetes should be putting in their trolleys and what they should be leaving on the shelves.

Oily fish and cardiovascular disease

The management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in primary care has been transformed in recent years, particularly with extensive use of statins in secondary prevention. But what about the less high-tech approach of getting patients to eat more healthily? Dietary advice has traditionally been offered primarily to those needing to lose weight or lower their lipid levels. But more recently, systematic reviews have shown good evidence that dietary changes can reduce mortality and morbidity in addition to modifying some risk factors in patients with coronary heart disease. Evidence to date suggests similar benefits of healthier eating are likely in primary prevention. In this new series – Food for Thought – we sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to dietary advice for patients with cardiovascular disease. This article will focus on the benefits of oily fish, with the good news that simply increasing oily fish intake achieves major benefits.

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