Nutrition/Health Science

In order to end global hunger and malnutrition in this lifetime, the UK government needs to increase investment in agriculture, urges members of the UK parliament in a new report released today. Home Grown Nutrition, produced by the the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development, outlines the key challenges facing food security, and recommendations for overcoming these challenges based on the series of […]

I told you so.I'm talking about the paper by Pu and colleagues* who meta-analysed the currently available literature looking at two SNPs in everyone's favourite Scrabble classic gene, MTHFR in relation to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Said gene controls production of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) which fits very snugly into the whole one carbon metabolism cycle (see here).Love at first sight? @ Wikipedia  Regular readers might know that I have a […]

While many of us strive to live healthy lives, the task can be daunting and the information overwhelming. Should we be more concerned with our diet or with keeping our weight down? How important is exercise? What kinds of diseases should we really be worried about? In this eBook, “Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy,” we’ve [...]

That naturopathy is a veritable cornucopia of quackery mixed with the odd sensible, science-based suggestion here and there is not in doubt, at least not to supporters of science-based medicine (SBM). However, what naturopaths are very good at doing is representing their pseudoscience as somehow being scientific and thus on par with conventional SBM. So [...]

All right, folks, this will be a whirlwind of links, but if you missed any health or science news this week related to parenting, I’ve hopefully included it below. First there’s been a bunch of news about ADHD, and none of it really that good. First, it’s hard to tell which is worse: that we [...]

The patients had undergone workups and appointments with hematology experts. Most of them did not have sickle cell disease or other exotic red blood cell problems. What they had was the usual, run-of-the-mill iron deficiency—the kind most pregnant women exhibit in a mild form. But their iron deficiency was so profound, and of such long [...]

When the Human Genome Project wrapped in 2003, we assumed this ginormous data set would provide the much needed parts-list to fill in the blanks of human health and disease. But in the last ten years it’s become exceedingly clear that things are just not that simple. Yes, our genes are obviously more than a [...]

Products that are marketed as being free from GM, aspartame, MSG and parabens perpetuate myths and ignore evidenceWe have all found ourselves standing in a supermarket aisle, staring at packets and cans, struggling to choose between different versions of the same thing: Do I choose the product that is "free from artificial sweetener" or has "no MSG"? What about the one that "contains no GM" or is "paraben-free"?But these are false choices: supermarkets are misinforming their customers about […]