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....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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