Q: How can I stay away from sweets when I have a really big sweet tooth? I’m finding it really hard.

A: The reason you have a sugar addiction in the first place is because you eat too much sugar. When you eat sugar your body tends to overproduce insulin. This excess insulin causes your blood sugar to drop. Your body then craves more sugar in order to raise your blood sugar level back to normal. You find yourself caught in a vicious circle.

The only way out of this never-ending sugar addiction roller coaster is to break the cycle — that means eliminating sugar from your diet, or at least cutting down on it dramatically. The less you eat, the less you will crave.

Now as you said, it’s not all that easy. The first steps are to eliminate foods containing sugar from your diet, anything with an —ose on the end of the word is a sugar e.g. sucrose, dextrose, maltose, so read the ingredient list carefully. There can be sugar in savoury foods such as tomato ketchup and baked beans.

At the same time, make sure that you eat little and often, not leaving more than three hours without eating as this will stop the roller coaster of blood sugar and reduce the cravings. In order to help your body while you get your blood sugar under control add in a chromium supplement as this mineral is needed for the metabolism of sugar. Avoid chromium in the form of picolinate as this is a synthetic form of chromium and has been linked to DNA damage, liver dysfunction, skin blisters and anaemia (see my book ‘Fat around the Middle’). Chromium polynicotinate is fine.

Q: I keep getting dry, itchy and sore skin on my face, around my lips and on my hands. What can I do?

A: You need to rehydrate your skin and keep it that way. Use moisturisers containing cocoa or shea butter which are great for use on the hands and elbows. Always use a lip balm containing soothing aloe vera, apply calendula cream to painful areas and keep yourself hydrated with six large glasses of water a day.

You might be reacting to something you are eating so keep a diary to see if there is a food trigger. You can also do a mini detox over two weeks by avoiding wheat, dairy, alcohol, sugar and caffeine and adding in the herb milk thistle to improve liver function. Adding in a good Omega 3 oil supplement like fish oil, not cod liver oil, could be really helpful as the dryness could be an indication of an essential fatty acid deficiency.

Q: What is the healthiest oil to
cook with?

– Rebecca, Sheffield

A: Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats — the kind that help reduce “unhealthy” LDL cholesterol and boost “healthy” HDL cholesterol. And new research suggests that virgin (and extra-virgin) olive oils — those produced purely by mechanically pressing the oil from olives, with no chemical processing — have an edge: antioxidants called polyphenols. Naturally found in olives (in red wine and green tea too), polyphenols mop up free radicals before they can oxidize LDL (oxidation makes LDL even more damaging to arteries).

In a three-week study of 200 men published recently in Annals of Internal Medicine, those who consumed just under two tablespoons a day of high-polyphenol virgin olive oil in place of other dietary fats registered larger increases in “good” HDL cholesterol and fewer markers of oxidative stress than men who consumed the same amount of “ordinary” olive oil, which had a very low polyphenol content. Chemical refining processes remove some polyphenols from “ordinary” olive oils (often labeled as “pure” in the U.S.) and other cooking oils, say researchers at the Municipal Institute for Medical Research in Barcelona, Spain.

Virgin olive oil doesn’t just taste better than plain old “olive oil,” it’s better for you too. Buy organic virgin olive oil where possible.