A team of American researchers have shown that people who take photographs of their meals stick more carefully to their healthy eating plan than those who do not take a photo. It seems that with pictorial evidence of what they are eating, people are more aware of the quality and quantity of what they put on their plate.

Food diaries – where daily consumption is recorded in a notebook – is often recommended to help people avoid overeating and snacking on unhealthy foods. Past studies have shown that dieters who write down what they eat lose more weight than those who simply try to eat more healthily. In one University of Pennsylvania study dieters were given a healthy eating plan and told to exercise for 30 minutes a day and monitored for a year. Those who kept a faithful note of what they ate lost around 16 to 19 pounds but those who did not keep a diary lost only 6 pounds on average.

 

Writing down what you eat is clearly an effective self-help tool if you have weight to lose, but this latest research published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies clearly shows that photo diaries may be a more accurate, effective and powerful way to avoid unhealthy eating. This may be because written diaries are often completed long after a meal and do not provide as powerful a reminder of the size and quality of the meals and snacks as a photo. Overall this latest study has revealed that dieters demonstrate greater awareness of their diet when they take and then look at the photos of what they have eaten than when they reflect on their written notes.

More than 16 million Britons have high blood pressure – also called hypertension – and an even larger number are thought to suffer from the condition without knowing it. Without effective treatment, either medication or healthy lifestyle changes, such as cutting salt, losing weight and getting fit, the condition can trigger heart attacks and strokes.  New research pubished in the scientific journal BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, shows, however, that a daily dose of garlic can help to lower blood pressure naturally and can be as effective as drugs. In fact, the higher a participent’s blood pressure at the beginning of the study the more it was reduced by garlic.

In this latest research scientists looked at 11 international studies in which patients were given a daily garlic supplement for between three and five months. They found significant blood pressure falls among participants and in some cases, the drop was as much as that seen in patients taking drugs such as betablockers and ACE inhibitors. The 600mg to 900mg dosage used in the studies was equivalent to 3.6mg to 5.4mg of garlic’s active ingredient, allicin. A fresh clove of garlic contains 5mg to 9mg of allicin.  (The Aged Garlic I use in the clinic is made from organically grown garlic and there is 1000mg in just one tablet – see Resources Page X).

Although this research is exciting it is important not to assume that taking garlic supplements is all you need to do to reduce high blood pressure. It is also important to manage your weight, take regular exercise, cut down on hidden salt in processed foods and to eat a healthy diet.

New research published in the medical Journal Neurology suggests that eating oily fish three times a week can cut the risk of memory loss and stroke by up to a quarter. Scientists found that eating fish three times a week led to a reduction in harmful brain lesions that can trigger Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. They also found that baking or steaming fish is more beneficial for brain health than fried fish and chips.

The omega 3 fatty acids found in fish oils may help reduce inflammation of the brain and play a vital part in brain development and nerve cell regeneration. In the study  3,660 volunteers aged 65 and older were given brain scans to determine whether their brains had small lesions, known as silent infarcts, that can cause loss of thinking skills, stroke or dementia. Five years later scans were performed again on 2,313 of the participants who were also given questionnaires about the amount of fish in their diets. Researchers discovered that it was the people who ate steamed, grilled or baked oily fish three times or more a week that had a reduced risk of brain lesions, but even eating only one serving of fish per week led to a 13 per cent lower risk. Although eating steamed, grilled and baked fish seemed to protect against memory loss and stroke the same results were not found in people who ate traditional fried fish.

It is thought the oily fish seems to have a more protective effect because of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA that they contain. The types of fish that contain high levels of DHA and EPA nutrients include tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies.  (Also see Resources Page X for a high level EPA/DHA supplement called Omega 3 Plus)