The Thin End

As we come out of COVID-19 lockdown, many of us are looking to change our eating habits. Aubergines can be a great substitute for meat if you are adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet. Aubergine curry can also be great to have with a picnic, served hot or cold. Perhaps the tastiest takeaway meal I have had from a supermarket was an aubergine curry from Waitrose. My daughter also makes the most exquisitely tasty aubergine curry. Aubergines are a great source of nutrition and the essential fibre we need in our diet, and they taste great in a curry. One serving of aubergine can provide at least 5% of our daily requirement of fibre, but also vitamins and minerals. They are also a great source of phenolic compounds that act as antioxidants to eliminate those harmful free radicals that can damage cells. Food with antioxidants, such as tomatoes and aubergines, can help prevent a range of diseases. Staying healthy to be healthy is the best way of being healthy. Our diet and lifestyle comb...

Consuming a diet high in fibre has been linked with a reduced incidence of breast cancer in an analysis of all relevant prospective studies.  The findings are published early online in CANCER , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Because studies have generated inconsistent results regarding the potential relationship between fibre intake and breast cancer,  Dr Maryam Farvid of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her colleagues searched for all relevant prospective studies published through July 2019. By pooling data from the 20 observational studies they identified, individuals with the highest consumption of fibre had an eight per cent lower risk of breast cancer. Soluble fibre was associated with lower risks of breast cancer, and higher total fibre intake was associated with a lower risk in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.  Dr Farvid says that the study “contributes to the evidence that lifestyle factors...

When I was growing up in the 1950s we didn't have Television. One or two of my school friends had one, and we would go round to their house after school and watch a bit of television with a tea of bread and jam. It was just a bit of TV. Mostly we played outdoors - running around playing cowboys, or reenacting exploits in WW2. The more I think back, I realise just how much more active we were as children in all types of weather. We never seemed to do things standing still. We now know that our lifestyles at an early age impact on our health and wellbeing in later life. Adhering to a healthy lifestyle at age 4 years is associated with a decreased risk of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity at 7 years, according to a study published in Pediatric Obesity . The study assessed five lifestyle behaviours—physical activity, sleep duration, television watching, ultra-processed food consumption, and plant-based food consumption—in 1,480 children when they were 4 years of age. Limi...