Dear Reader,

It has been exciting reading your comments and feedback and I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying the information and nutrition news.

Do let me know if you have any burning questions on nutrition or your health and especially if you read something in the news that seems to contradict the previous advice that the scientists have published. This is always frustrating and can leave people confused as to what to eat or drink particularly when even the researchers can’t agree amongst themselves.

If you have a favourite recipe that you think other women would enjoy, then do send it in, of course you will be mentioned, and I will do the Spotlight on one of the ingredients.

I wanted to publish Natural News because it means you can get nutrition and health information every month and also to highlight what is the latest research and news. Books are wonderful but by the time I do the research, then the writing, then the manuscript goes to the publisher and gets printed we are talking between one and two years before it gets published. So research and information which can be really exciting can take so long to get to reach the people who need to hear about it.

In December 2006, I had an article published in Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynaecology called ‘Nutritional Supplements in Pregnancy — commercial push or evidence based?’ and the article shows that taking certain vitamins, minerals and fatty acids in pregnancy can have a staggering effect on the health of  the mother and baby including prevention of pre-eclampsia, miscarriage, preterm birth, low birthweight, gestational diabetes, cleft palate and lip, post-natal depression and the long term health of the baby including intellectual development. But unfortunately, information like this can sometimes end up stuck in the academic world and not get to the women who need to know. Natural News is a way of remedying that.

Kind regards,

Marilyn Glenville PhD

People who are depressed, overly stressed, cynical and distrustful of others may have a greater risk of developing heart disease than those who have a more positive outlook, a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests.

Upbeat people have healthier hearts because they’re less likely to adopt unhealthy eating habits such as smoking and overeating, say researchers from the University of Michigan. People who were distrustful and cynical were at the greatest risk of becoming ill. Proof indeed that you should always look on the bright side of life!

Changing to a healthier diet and lifestyle and taking more exercise seems to be at least as effective at protecting people from diabetes as taking prescription drugs, a new study in the British Medical Journal shows.

Healthy lifestyle changes halved people’s risk of developing type two diabetes according to the researchers at the University of Leicester. They reviewed other research in which people who were at high risk of the disease had used different methods to reduce their risk.

The three methods were changing to a healthy lifestyle, taking drugs for diabetes and taking drugs to help with weight loss. Lifestyle changes were found to be  as effective as drugs and were not associated with bad side effects.