Time to throw out the bread! A low-carb diet IS the most effective way to lose weight – and it cuts the risk of heart disease, too.

Zoë Harcombe, nutritionist-researcher-writer, has a no-nonsence approach to addressing obesity. Her personal insights and reviews of information published in main-stream media are always refreshing and challenging.

Zoë recently discovered some breaking news coming from the US on the back of a study looking at the effects of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets. My interest peaked when I noticed her surprise that the study was 'refreshingly void of conflict' giving opinion that it is a rare thing to find a drug or food study genuinely independent and run so well. The results are intriguing.

In this article I offer some insight about nutrition and what to eat during pregnancy to complement Lorraine's recent article - 10 Top Tips for Coping With Back & Pelvic Pain During Pregnancy.

Lorraine provided some insightful advice, some based on her own experience in dealing with the physical demands of pregnancy and also offered some realistic self-managing techniques.

Firstly, I feel compelled to point out that our food choices are personal and we all need to discover what works best for our own bodies which is not necessarily the easiest of tasks. Personally, my own journey of discovery is constantly aided, sometimes challenged, by picking up ideas and insights from other people. It is for this reason I 'follow' a number of health related websites, blogs, journals, etc. I recently came across two articles over on the primaldocs website related to the choices you can make about what to eat during pregnancy. These articles, referenced below, served as my inspiration for this blog post. I hope to inspire your curiosity on a topic that perhaps you may not have given important consideration to in preparation for your pregnancy.

Are you planning on making any New Year Resolutions for 2014? If you are then consider why it is necessary to spend more time considering how to keep your New Year Resolutions rather than what they are.

It is estimated that about half the population will commit to new year changes but maybe it is not so surprising to learn that most good intentions don't ever result in long lasting, positive change.

So why do we bother making such resolutions when we have such a high chance of being disappointed with ourselves when we break them? In fact, this raises a very important point about the habits we create in our lives. New Year Resolutions are usually about reforming old habits or achieving new goals. However, if we loosely create a whole bunch of unachievable or half-hearted resolutions that we fail to achieve then we are in fact creating a habit of failure. What started out as positive intentions for the new year actually end up causing longer term issues with feelings of self-doubt and lack of self-motivation.

In a recent article "Am I Exercising Enough To Lose Weight?" I spoke about the Paleo or otherwise called 'Primal' or 'Caveman' eating way. I recently came across this infographic outlining the Paleo concept and so thought it would be a good idea to offer it here as a useful resource for those of you who may be interested to know more about it. 

View the infographic below. Enjoy. 

Not long ago the news media was dominated by the horse meat scandal. Unless you followed closely you may be a little confused about how it started and where horse meat entered the consumer food chain.

I came across this handy infographic recently that displays a sort of time-line of events. Ireland features numerous times and it includes an interesting piece on where America sits within the global horse meat market.

Ireland is clearly not immune to the rising levels of chronic illness and health threatening lifestyle trends that are causing worldwide concern for current and future generations.

We are told that mortality rates have decreased significantly for circulatory diseases as well as cancers. But at the same time research suggests an increasing number of people being diagnosed with such chronic illnesses. If modern medicine is sustaining life despite decreasing levels of general health and wellbeing - then there is still much to be done.

In this article we share important news about

• The Irish government's new framework for improved health and wellbeing 2013 - 2025
• Some key health facts about our Irish community
• How we can influence our health dramatically by following certain lifestyle recommendations
• Which recommendation has the greatest potential impact for reducing our risk of death from disease

Coconut oil is one of those ingredients that got a bad rap for a long time because of its high saturated fat content. But as we are now learning not all saturated fats are created equally and in fact some of them (the good type) are essential for our health.

The oil of the tropical coconut is supposed to consist of the really good stuff. If you want to read the how's and why this is so - read this article

Before you do that however have a browse through the infographic below

What could stress, chocolate addiction and exercise have in common? The answer to this came to me while reviewing our six most popular tweets. If you are not sure what a tweet is - it is a 140 character (max) message shared on the Twitter social network. I find Twitter useful for quick health information updates, perhaps over a cup of coffee between clients.

It was fascinating to discover what topics captured the greatest interest across a wide audience. Although these were all separate stories from very different sources I noticed some common connections.

Is it really possible to become addicted to chocolate?

As if we needed more excuses to indulge in chocolate treats!? We know dark chocolate with a higher cocoa level is supposed to be better for our health but not everyone fancies the extra bitterness. In my experience it is possible to curb the sweet tooth and maybe this infographic will add that extra motivation needed for you to go dark.

Where cocoa comes from, how many beans go into a single bar and what is the recommended intake for the proposed blood pressure and blood flow benefits - take a look below for the answers.

There are not too many things I get evangelical about but as some of the people close to me know last year I made a few food decisions. During this past year I have watched (over the internet) this similar topic gain tremendous widespread attention and promotion.

The topic and points for consideration are broad but the one single item I want to mention here, simply because I feel so strongly about it.

Everything is a choice and we each have our own set of bias criteria, conscious of not, for deciding what and when something goes down our throat. But the one ingredient that most of us can't deny is not good for us and gaining a reputation as the deadliest substance on the planet - that little white sparkling powdery stuff, no not that class A drug but instead that simple ingredient that finds its way into almost everything we consume - sugar!