March 25, 2009
A while back when I checked my carbon footprint I was surprised to see that my eating habits are one of the biggest factors in the 1.8 planets it would take if everyone lived like me. And this is despite the fact that we eat hardly any processed foods. Nevertheless, I do want to live more sustainably and this means making some changes.
The good news is that foods which are good for the planet are also the healthiest for us! Here are some guidelines to eating sustainably. (more…)
March 20, 2009
A friend, Simon Kerr (also an awesome musician) has been reading Michael Polan’s In Defence of Food, which seems to bring some much needed common sense to the whole question of what we should be eating in order to be healthy.
Polan criticizes the attempt to deconstruct food – to break it down into it’s constituent ‘nutrients’ in order to then re-constitute those nutrients as manufactured food. As usual, when we attemtp to reduce things to their components we miss something vital. As an illustration, there is a big difference between my wife and the bag of different chemicals (mostly water) that she is made of. However this “reductionism” is the way that science often works. (more…)
July 31, 2008
Fresh strawberries
The benefits of antioxidants are becoming well known. By absorbing free-radicals, they can slow down the aging process, help prevent and fight cancer and heart conditions, and generally promote vibrant health and well-being.
Why do we need antioxidants?
Our body’s cells are constantly being damaged by free-radicals (sometimes called ‘oxygen-free radicals’) which are produced naturally as a by-product of metabolism and also from exposure to radiation from the sun and pollutants. These are highly reactive molecules which trigger oxidation. Damage from free-radicals is linked to cancer, cardio-vascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue and other age-related diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease. Antioxidants work by binding to the free-radicals, effectively mopping them up before they cause any damage. (more…)
