The 2012 Atherosclerosis egg study: More smoking is associated with more plaque, unless you eat more eggs

var citeN=0;I blogged before about the study by David Spence and colleagues, published online in July 2012 in the journal Atherosclerosis (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). This study attracted a lot of media attention (e.g., citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))2). The article is titled: “Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque”. The study argues that “regular consumption of egg yolk should be avoided by persons at risk of cardiovascular disease”. It hints at egg yolks being unhealthy in general, possibly even more so than cigarettes. I used the numbers in Table 2 of the article (only 5 rows of data, one per quintile; i.e.,...

Read more »

Does tallness cause heart disease? No, but sex does

var citeN=0;Popular beliefs about medical issues are sometimes motivated by a statistical phenomenon known as “spurious relationship”, among other names. Two variables X and Y are influenced by a third variable C, which leads to X and Y being correlated and thus the impression that X and Y are causally associated. Take a look at the table below, which I blogged about in a previous post (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). This table shows that there is a strong unadjusted correlation between height and arterial stiffness, a marker of heart disease. The likelihood that the correlation is due to chance is lower than one tenth of a percentage...

Read more »

No fat gain while eating well during the Holiday Season: Palatability isolines, the 14-percent advantage, and nature’s special spice

var citeN=0;Like most animals, our Paleolithic ancestors had to regularly undergo short periods of low calorie intake. If they were successful at procuring food, those ancestors alternated between periods of mild famine and feast. As a result, nature allowed them to survive and leave offspring. The periods of feast likely involved higher-than-average consumption of animal foods, with the opposite probably being true in periods of mild famine. Almost anyone who adopted a low carbohydrate diet for a while will tell you that they find foods previously perceived as bland, such as carrots or walnuts, to taste very sweet – meaning, to taste very good....

Read more »

Zero Waste Europe - my top 10 favourite blogposts

So, did you know it's the European Week for Waste Reduction?  I guess it's not the most snappy of names to roll off the tongue, but I love the fact there is one week in the year that's dedicated towards bringing our diverse continent together in the fight against waste.It also makes me feel that my dusty old degree in Modern European Studies from (cough) the 1980s, still has some relevance to my life today.  The concluding motto in 1989 was that 'Europe is a unity through its diversity'.  I can't remember what I made of that back then, but when it comes to tackling our mountain of waste, it's certainly relevant to today's range of initiatives - diverse yet united towards the same goal, that of waste minimisation.So for EWWR, (a much snappier title), I thought I'd kick off with...

Read more »

The Rubbish Diet could be coming to a town near you!

The Rubbish Diet team visiting Nesta!Please excuse my tardiness in sharing this VERY EXCITING news with you. I should have done it last week, but with news of my mum falling ill, then rushing to Wales to see her, then losing my laptop en route, and continued worries about her health, understandably this blog has had to take a back seat.However, I can't keep it quiet any longer!  What's happening with The Rubbish Diet is far too exciting to keep tucked away in my desk drawers and if you follow me on Twitter, you may have indeed caught a few snippets of the news.So to the sound of an imaginary drum-roll, I am chuffed to pieces to announce...

Read more »

The bipolar disorder pendulum: Depression as a compensatory adaptation

var citeN=0;As far as explaining natural phenomena, Darwin was one of the best theoretical researchers of all time. Yet, there were a few phenomena that puzzled him for many years. One was the evolution of survival-impairing traits such as the peacock’s train, the large and brightly colored tail appendage observed in males. Tha male peacock’s train is detrimental to the animal’s survival, and yet it is clearly an evolved trait (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). This type of trait is known as a “costly” trait – a trait that enhances biological fitness (or reproductive success, not to be confused with “gym fitness”), and yet is detrimental...

Read more »

The man who ate 25 eggs per day: What does this case really tell us?

var citeN=0;Many readers of this blog have probably heard about the case of the man who ate approximately 25 eggs (20 to 30) per day for over 15 years (probably well over), was almost 90 years old (88) when the case was published in the prestigious The New England Journal of Medicine, and was in surprisingly good health (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). The case was authored by the late Dr. Fred Kern, Jr., a widely published lipid researcher after whom the Kern Lipid Conference is named (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))2). One of Kern’s research interests was bile, a bitter-tasting fluid produced by the liver (and stored...

Read more »

Celebrating the launch of The Rubbish Diet in Shropshire

Meet Ali, my new partner in grime from Shrewsbury. Well, I say 'grime' what I really mean is striving for lighter, cleaner bins throughout Shropshire. Ali Thomas is the driving force behind the launch of the Rubbish Diet challenge in Shropshire. Organised by Ali and Katy Anderson, as a Transition Shrewsbury project, the challenge was announced on Thursday to a room full of local residents who are now set to slim their bins before Christmas.The Shropshire project will be based on the Internet-based Rubbish Diet 2012 challenge, which I ran earlier this year and I will be working closely with Ali to develop resources and processes that can be...

Read more »

The Rubbish Diet Challenge goes on tour!

I am immensely excited to announce that the Rubbish Diet Challenge, which until now has been kept to the confines of the Internet, is, for the very first time, being launched as a community based initiative in a number of locations around the UK.Inspired by my online challenge, which took eight households through slimming their bins at the beginning of the year, two organisations are now taking the concept into their local communities and are seeking volunteers who want to reduce their waste for an 8 week challenge, set to start in the new year.Transition Town Shrewsbury in Shropshire is launching its Rubbish Diet Challenge next week, to an audience...

Read more »

The steep obesity increase in the USA in the 1980s: In a sense, it reflects a major success story

var citeN=0;Obesity rates have increased in the USA over the years, but the steep increase starting around the 1980s is unusual. Wang and Beydoun do a good job at discussing this puzzling phenomenon (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1), and a blog post by Discover Magazine provides a graph (see below) that clear illustrates it (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))2).What is the reason for this? You may be tempted to point at increases in calorie intake and/or changes in macronutrient composition, but neither can explain this sharp increase in obesity in the 1980s. The differences in calorie intake and macronutrient composition...

Read more »

Talking biogas & green heroes with Kevin McCloud at Grand Designs Live

Kevin McCloud at Grand Designs Live. (photo copyright GDL)If there's one event that's fast becoming a highlight of my annual calendar, it's Grand Designs Live and the opportunity to a have a peek at Kevin's Green Heroes. a collection of ten designers who have been handpicked by Kevin McCloud for their commitment to both sustainability and innovative ideas.And this year didn't disappoint. From sustainably produced wallpaper to tiles, reclaimed wood furniture to rainwater harvesting, there is something to appeal to everyone who is interested in great eco-design.For instance I love this gorgeous wallpaper by MissPrint, an Essex based business,...

Read more »

Trashed! An evening in London with Jeremy Irons.

Jeremy Irons and producer Candida Brady introducing Trashed at London's Raindance FestivalMy passion for waste reduction has taken me to many places, but Saturday was the first time it's ever landed me in a movie premiere in the heart of London.But you can forget the red carpet on this occasion, even if the leading man was Jeremy Irons. For Saturday's movie was not some glitzy affair in Leicester Square,but an independent documentary, being screened as part of an independent film festival.Trashed, featuring Jeremy Irons and produced by Blenheim Films, takes us on a journey around the world highlighting the issues with how our waste is managed. ...

Read more »

The anatomy of a VAP test report

var citeN=0;The vertical auto profile (VAP) test is an enhanced lipid profile test. It has been proposed, chiefly by the company Atherotech (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1), as a more complete test that relies on direct measurement of previously calculated lipid measures. The VAP test is particularly known for providing direct measurements of LDL cholesterol, instead of calculating them through equations (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))2). At the time of this writing, a typical VAP test report would provide direct measures of the cholesterol content of LDL, Lp(a), IDL, HDL, and VLDL particles. It would also provide...

Read more »

Beyond our bins: An inside peek at the UK's largest waste exhibition 'RWM with CIWM'

Having delivered a presentation last year at the country's largest waste management exhibition, I was keen to revisit RWM with CIWM and have a decent peek at what's really happening beyond our bins.It looks like I wasn't the only one!.The star attraction was not quite the latest wheelie bin that teleports your waste to the nearest recycling centre, but the rather marvellous Professor Brian Cox, who, thinking about it, could surely one day make that kind of magic happen.He was, unsurprisingly, a teeny bit popular, so I tried another route in......but for want of a pair of stilts and an invisibility cloak, I failed, like a balloon that had popped...

Read more »