There have been a couple of studies that have hit the headlines lately which have shown that wholegrains are protective against cancer and heart disease. Grains such as wheat, rye and barley are fibre dense and contribute to a large percentage of many people’s wholegrain intake, however they also contain the protein gluten. Therefore, some journalists have made the assumption that gluten free diets are bad for your health (see links below). The truth is that while wholegrains do have health benefits, gluten is a problem for many people. In this week’s blog we are going to take a look at both sides of the issue.
Category Archives: Probiotics & Prebiotics
If you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), you are certainly not alone – with a worldwide prevalence of between 9% and 23%, it is considered to affect around 1 in 5 people in the United Kingdom at some point in their lives.
The gut is often referred to as a foundation pillar of health for the body, and the digestive system as ‘the mother’ of the body, as it feeds all of the other organs and provides the first line of defence against ‘foreign’ substances.
There are times when medication is essential and we are in no doubt about their efficacy in certain conditions. But it is important to realise that many drugs, particularly those taken over the longer term, can deplete levels of certain nutrients in the body, or increase our needs for the same.
“With health claims unproven and scientists divided on the benefits: Are Probiotics Just a Waste of Money?” ran the Daily Mail headline in December 2014 for a story that seemed to largely pour scorn on the supplements and certain foods that contain ‘live native bacteria’.
“The danger posed by growing resistance to antibiotics should be ranked along with terrorism on a list of threats to the nation, the government’s chief medical officer for England has said. Professor Dame Sally Davies described it as a “ticking time bomb”. She warned that routine operations could become deadly in just 20 years if we lose the ability to fight infection.” Continue reading