Baby Lia Ryley - born 30th April

We are excited to announce the arrival of Simon and Lorraine's second child. Lorraine and baby are in great health and resting well. Thank you for all the kind wishes we have received. 

Lorraine will be on maternity leave until November 2013 and until her return Simon, Katie and Paula will be taking very good care of Lorraine's clients. 

May 2013 Dublin Events

Dublin City Soul Festival May 23rd – 26th

This is Ireland’s feel-good festival, raising funds for the Musical Youth Foundation children’s charity. If you fancy a mood uplifting and vibrant place to be this might be the perfect choice later this month.
Visit the official website here

Bloom 2013 in Phoenix Park May 30th - June 3rd

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?

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!

I have just read an intriguing insight into the obesity dilemma by Mike Gibney, Director of the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin.

Mike addresses the question - why do some people get fat? Is it our differing levels of self control and self discipline? Is the more appropriate query between genetic factors and our modern environment? Mike sniffs out any nonsense verdicts with his acute ability to read between the lines.

An intriguing title that certainly caught my attention. Dr Alessandro Demaio, a fellow at the Copenhagen School of Global Health and Harvard Medical School, writes an interesting article putting these two major global challenges into the same pot - based on a view that they are caused and solved by the same determining factors.

Read on to see how our carbon-intensive and labour-conserving lifestyles bring obesity and global warming together for a mutual response.

At the end of last year we hinted towards some changes to our practice that we wanted to announce.

Here are the highlights...

When faced with the task of losing weight the standard response has been for as long as I can remember to reduce fat intake. Someone got that advice wrong because it hasn't worked.

Read this interesting article explaining what happened in the 70's when the fat in our foods got replaced with sugar. Doc's vision for the future isn't so bright, sadly.