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Nutrition

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Nutrition

The Lunchbox Rule That Matters Is Not the One About Sugar

New dietary guidance sets a hard number for added sugar in a school meal. The harder problem is a box that comes home full, because a nutritious lunch that goes uneaten is not a lunch.

Aug 16, 2026/3 min read

An open school lunchbox packed with fruit, sandwiches and snacks

Nutrition

A Diet Trial Was Stopped Early Because the Control Group Was Doing Measurably Worse

PREDIMED tested a Mediterranean diet with added olive oil or nuts against low-fat advice. Diabetes incidence was 6.9 per cent with olive oil against 8.8 per cent on the low-fat arm, and the follow-up trial did considerably better.

Aug 15, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

Watermelon Has a High Glycaemic Index and It Does Not Matter, Which Tells You What Is Wrong With the Number

Glycaemic index measures the quality of a carbohydrate in a standardised portion nobody eats. Glycaemic load multiplies it by the amount actually on the plate, and the two frequently disagree.

Aug 14, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

People With Diabetes Are Still Being Told to Avoid Fruit, and the Evidence Points the Other Way

Fruit contains sugar, so the advice writes itself and it is wrong. The relevant distinction is not sweet versus not sweet. It is whether the sugar is still inside a structure that has to be dismantled before it can be absorbed.

Aug 13, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

Somebody Actually Measured What Five Varieties of Dates Do to Blood Sugar, in the UAE, in People With Diabetes

Dates are sweet, so the assumption is that people with diabetes should avoid them. A study of Fara'd, Lulu, Bo ma'an, Dabbas and Khalas found low glycaemic indices and no significant glucose excursions in the diabetic group.

Aug 12, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

The WHO Advised Against Sweeteners, and Then Made One Exception That Nobody Reported

The 2023 guideline told people not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control. It explicitly does not apply to people who already have diabetes, which is precisely the group that read the headline and threw them out.

Aug 11, 2026/3 min read

Sweetener tablets and a dispenser beside a cup of tea

Nutrition

The Gluten-Free Flour Guide: What Each One Does and What It Cannot Do

Rice flour is not a replacement for wheat, and no single flour is. Here is what each alternative actually contributes, which combinations work, and why psyllium and xanthan are not interchangeable.

Aug 11, 2026/4 min read

Small bowls of different gluten-free flours arranged on a wooden surface

Nutrition

Brown Bread Is Usually White Bread With Colouring, and the Label Is Allowed to Say So Quietly

Wholemeal, wholegrain, multigrain, brown, granary and wheat all sound like the same promise. Only one of them reliably means the whole grain is in there, and the difference shows up in your glucose two hours later.

Aug 9, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

You Do Not Have to Give Up Rice. You Do Have to Change Which One, How Much, and What Is On It

Telling a household built around rice to stop eating rice is advice that gets nodded at and ignored. Four changes to the same plate do more for post-meal glucose than an instruction nobody will follow.

Aug 8, 2026/3 min read

Nutrition

Lactose Intolerance Is Normal, and Most People Do Not Need to Quit Dairy

Losing the ability to digest lactose in adulthood is the human default rather than a disorder. It is also a dose problem, which is why total avoidance is usually the wrong response.

Aug 8, 2026/3 min read

Milk being poured into a glass on a marble counter

Nutrition

Coeliac, Wheat Allergy or Gluten Sensitivity: They Are Not the Same Thing

Three different conditions get flattened into one phrase. One is autoimmune, one is an allergy and one is a diagnosis of exclusion, and the testing order matters more than most people realise.

Aug 8, 2026/4 min read

Golden ears of wheat backlit by low evening sun