The Scientific Guide to a Healthier You

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THE SCIENTIFIC GUIDE TO A

H E A LTH I E R YO U

How to fight fat with science

Is Dry January worth it?

The truth about superfoods

How to beat the burnout

Why sleep can make you smarter

The science behind food addiction

Herbal remedies put to the test

Exercise secrets to make you fitter

CONTENTS Eye opener 06

Incredible images

Diet & exercise How to fight fat with science The science of superfoods 10 reasons why chocolate is good for you Is Dry January worth it?

Is anything good for you any more?

Are cookies as addictive as cocaine?

Exercise: a cure for all ills 14 ways to boost your microbiome The allergy fallacy Health hack or quack

14 20 28 30 36 44 50 58 60 64

Sleep 74 80 84 86

How to beat the burnout Treating insomnia 15 things you didn’t know about sleep How sleep can make you smarter

Q&A What causes middle-age spread?

How do Inuits get their ‘five a day’?

Is there any truth to the ‘five second rule’?

92 96 96

14

The science behind beating obesity

44 Does food addiction really exist?

80

How scientists are treating insomnia

74

58

14 ways to boost your gut bacteria

How science can help you kick fatigue

28

10 reasons why chocolate is good for you

50 The secret benefits of exercise

20

Do superfoods deserve their ‘super’ status?

84

15 surprising facts about sleep

60

The truth about gluten-free food

30 Dr Michael Mosley ditches the booze for science

64

Herbal remedies put to the test

BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION 5

Discover how genes affect your relationship with food in The Science of Obesity bbc.n/2B07HPD

THE SCIENCE OF FIGHTING

Worried about your waistline? Looking to lose weight? We navigate through the minefield of misinformation to discover which diets really work‌ according to the experts words by S I M O N C RO M P T O N

DIET

WHAT IS THE BEST DIET, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE? When it comes down to it, the science of dieting is simple: eat less. You can do it with a low-fat diet (like the raw food diet), or a low-carb diet (like the Atkins or paleo diet). But the problem with diets is not so much losing weight, but finding a way to do it that is effective, safe, fits in with your lifestyle and is sustainable so that you don’t put the weight back on again.

Diet academics (as opposed to product pushers) avoid prescriptive advice because different diets fit different people’s lifestyles and personalities. But recent research indicates that one particular group of diets is most effective for the greatest number of people. These are the supervised diet programmes, like the Cambridge Weight Plan, LighterLife and Optifast diets, consisting entirely of prepared snack bars, shakes and other food products. You might assume these fast-acting diets would be condemned by scientists as drastic, unhealthy and gimmicky. Yet research is finding that these very low-calorie

Verdict: Try a supervised diet to safely shed excess weight.

5

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T

he statistics tell their own story.

One in four people in England are now classified as obese, compared with one in six in the 1990s. Fifty-eight per cent of women and 68 per cent of men are now overweight.

Being overweight makes us less healthy: a study published in Lancet Public Health in 2017 showed a clear relationship between hospital admissions and body weight. But it isn’t just physical problems that are the issue, because being overweight also makes many people unhappy.

A British Social Attitudes sur vey revealed that people who are overweight suffer significant stigma and t hat 53 per cent of the British public believe that most overweight people could lose the extra pounds if they tried. But the science shows that it’s not simply a matter of being weak-willed.

“There are clear reward pathways for food in the brain and so, if something is rewarding and constantly available, why wouldn’t you [seek more of it]?” says Prof Susan Jebb, a nutrition scientist at Oxford University. “You have to make a constant conscious effort to say no.”

Fortunately, science is providing some answers to the questions about weight control. A decade ago, there weren’t enough scientific trials to allow experts to provide evidence-backed advice. Now, there are clear scientific pointers on how to fight fat, and what the studies find may surprise you.

diets – also known as total food replacement diets – are effective and safe if applied correctly. A major analysis of trials in 2017, headed by Birmingham University’s Centre for Obesity Research, showed that these diets brought an average weight loss of 10kg after 12 months. This compares with research showing that behavioural programmes (focused on changing eating habits and exercising), such as Slimming World and Weight Watchers, bring a weight loss of 4kg after one year.

Prof Jebb says that, although research indicates that all dieters gain weight afterwards (no matter which regime they follow), the more weight they lose the longer they stay beneath the ‘obese and unhealthy’ bar. And although food replacement diets may look extreme, they do contain a balance of nutrients that some do-it-yourself diets might not.

BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION 15

Trust Me, I’m A Doctor See two experts interviewed about alcohol and health. bbc.in/35kdyxj

DIET

After an alcohol-infused festive season, many people try to stay off the booze throughout January. But can you really see any health benefits after just a month of sobriety? words by D R M I C H A E L M O S L E Y

PHOTOGRAPHY: NICK BALLON WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO THE HEREFORD ARMS KENSINGTON LONDON

IS DRY JANUARY WORTH IT?

D

oing a ‘Dry January’ has become increasingly popular over the last few years and I’ve known quite a few people who have done it. Dry January is an idea being driven, among others, by a charity called Alcohol Concern. Alcohol Concern’s website states that the reasons for doing a Dry January include: “enabling you to take control of your relationship with alcohol” and “driving a conversation about alcohol: why do we drink it, what does it do and how can we reduce the harm it can cause?”

It says that the potential benefits include better sleep, improved sk in, weight loss, having “an amazing sense of achievement at the end” and saving money (according to Alcohol Concern the average person spends £50,000 on booze in their lifetime).

This all sounds ter rific. So when BBC Science Focus asked me if I fancied getting ahead of the game and giving ‘Dry November’ a go, I thought, “why not?”. I enjoy a bit of selfexperimenting and one of the advantages of doing it in November is that there are only 30 days in that month, so that’s one less day of total abstinence.

I’m not, and have never been, a heavy drinker.

Even at medical school, where there was a culture of heavy drinking among certain groups, I hardly ever drank more than two or three pints in a single session. Once alcohol hits my brain I have about an hour of uninhibited fun before I go into a slump. Drinking doesn’t make me good company. Nonetheless I have got into the habit of drinking most evenings, mainly red wine, so I thought it would be an interesting challenge.

I started by logging everything I drank for a couple of weeks in the lead up to November, and it worked out at around 20 units a week. 5

BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION 31

HOW TO BEAT THE BURNOUT Hectic lives don’t have to go hand-in-hand with feeling drained. Discover what the latest research reveals about how to eliminate tiredness for good words by S I M O N C RO M P T O N

SLEEP

ILLUSTRATION: MAITÉ FRANCHI

C

an you keep your eyes open long enough to read t his article? No offence taken if you can’t. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says that one in five of us feels unusually tired at any one time, and one in 10 feels permanently fatigued.

Tiredness and fatigue are behind 20 per cent of UK doctor consultations, according to a recent survey of GPs. No wonder doctors are often jotting down a handy new acronym – TATT (Tired All The Time) – in patient notes. Or that UK sales of energy drinks shot up by 155 per cent between 2006 and 2014. We are, it seems, an exhausted nation.

Tiredness is no joke. Sleep deprivation brings a heavy mental and physical toll. Around 20 per cent of accidents on major roads are sleeprelated. Plus, people who are sleep-deprived lose the ability to be positive-minded, which researchers from the University of Pennsylvania say is likely to increase the likelihood of depression. There’s also evidence that sleep deprivation increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Even if you’re getting enough sleep, feeling constantly fatigued can be bad for you. Research from the University of Alabama has found that working hard while fatigued increases blood pressure. This is because tired people increase their effort to make up for their diminished capability. And for those of us with conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) and cancer, it severely restricts quality of life.

For millions of others, unexplained tiredness regula rly rumbles in t he background. 5

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PART OF THE

COLLECTION

THE SCIENTIFIC GUIDE TO A

H E A LTHIE R YO U collection

THE SCIENTIFIC GUIDE TO A

H E A LT H I E R Y O U

Everyone’s lives are busy, making it all too easy to fill up on unhealthy snacks or skip a sensible bedtime. But it can be hard to track down truly useful health advice. In this special edition of BBC Science Focus Magazine, experts reveal the best ways to ensure you stay in top shape.

IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION… In-depth articles on the latest discoveries Interviews with scientists and doctors Top tips from experts on how to stay healthy Q&A special: health questions answered

Is Dry January worth it?

How to fight fat with science The truth about superfoods Why sleep can make you smarter Herbal remedies put to the test

Fight fat with science – find out which diets work and which don’t

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How to beat the burnout The science behind food addiction Exercise secrets to make you fitter

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The truth about superfoods. Experts separate the fact from fiction

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