Why Alpro (and Provamel) are not a healthy choice

Some time ago Iris hospitals organized the “week of dietetics”. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness for healthy eating among patients and to help them make better food choices. The first thing that caught my eye was the line-up of Alpro products on the information table: different sorts of vegetable drinks (from […]

Why I am not in favor of supplementing with isolated vitamin D

During autumn and winter, it is more difficult to get our vitamin D needs met through sunshine. We would have to expose at least our arms and face to 30min of unprotected sunshine every day to cover our basic needs – and that simply is not going to happen during those colder times. So we […]

Saturated Fat and Cholesterol are good for you

The biggest myth surviving in the world of nutrition is probably that foods rich in saturated fat and/or cholesterol are bad for you. This myth stems from the 1950’s, when Ancel Keys published a study linking saturated fats to high cholesterol and heart disease. Although the study turned out to be severely flawed afterwards, it has ever since […]

Liver Detox – myth or truth?

It’s spring and all across the health world, you see liver detoxes or spring cleanses being announced. From juice fasting and taking certain herbs or supplements over coffee enemas, to liver flushes… you can find all kinds ofprotocols, some free, some costing several hundreds of Euros. While it’s true that according to Chinese Medicine spring […]

How sugar messes up your hormones

You’ve probably heard that excess sugar (especially if it comes from refined white sugar) is “bad” because it can cause caries and supplies only “empty” calories. However, these reasons don’t seem to prevent most people from continuing to eat it. Just brush your teeth and make sure you exercise enough to burn off those extra […]

All you need to know about gluten

What is gluten? Gluten is an insoluble protein in wheat and other cereals, like spelt, rye, barley and kamut.  It provides the flour with visco-elastic properties and allows the dough to rise.It consists mainly of two proteins: gliadin and glutenin. There are alpha, beta, gamma and omega types of gliadin. Enzymes called transglutaminase (tTG) help to digest […]

4 ways how excessive cardio can do more harm than good

Running and other kinds of endurance training are increasingly popular nowadays. It’s said that they help to prevent cardio-vascular disease, keep you healthy and in shape. Unfortunately quite the opposite may be true. Too frequent and/or too intense endurance exercise, especially when combined with a stressful work/study schedule, and malnourishment (either due to a “junk food” […]

Forgotten Superfoods: Lactofermented Vegetables

Lacto-fermented or cultured foods are another of THE forgotten, traditional Superfoods.  Fermentation is a process in which bacteria (lacto-fermentation) or yeast (beer, wine) cause sugar and starches to break down into alcohol or organic acids (such as lactic acid)Lacto-fermentation: Starches and sugars are converted into lactic acid by many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria (lactobacilli) naturally present on […]