Cooking on television after WWII mainly addressed ‘the housewife’ audience, while women themselves were presenting cooking programmes. History has largely forgotten the presenter Joan Robins, who appeared alongside Philip Harben and Marguerite Patten BBC broadcasts of late 1940s 1950s. Robins specialised in ‘common-sense’ cookery, nutrition, health, including a controversial slimming programme ...

BACKGROUND Adolescence is a vital part of child development, where acquired eating/dietary behaviour is often associated with ones' perception of body shape. OBJECTIVES To assess eating habits in relation to body shape perception and esteem in middle-school (junior-high) pupils. MATERIALS AND METHODS Surveyed subjects were 170 middle-school pupils from Warsaw; 101 girls and 69 boys aged 15 ...

Herbal medicines are being increasingly used for treatment of variety of disorders. Herbal medicines are generally thought to lack severe side effects. Despite of the general belief, herbal medicines are known to cause serious side effects and toxicities. On the other hand, physicians’ knowledge of herbal medicines and their potential toxicities are generally limited. Neurotoxicity, cardiac tox...

This Technical Report compiles and analyzes the current scientific knowledge on herbal medicine and highlights the practical ways for ensuring the safety of herbal preparations and evaluating their claimed efficacy. Emphasis has been given to the methods for standardization of herbal medicine and the ways and means for moving forward to achieve the difficult goal of preparing herbal medicines o...

BACKGROUND Traditional herbal therapies have been used for a long time to treat gastrointestinal disorders including irritable bowel syndrome, and their effectiveness from clinical research evidence needs to be systematically reviewed. OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicines in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the following el...

The significance of herbals and herbal products is gaining worldwide recognition. The concept of complementary or alternative medicine is becoming much more widely accepted, and there is an increasing belief in the efficacy of herbal remedies. Recently, the role of herbal drugs, herbal products and certain phytochemicals in the control of ageing has been documented using modern scientific appro...

BACKGROUND There is a growing public interest in complementary and alternative treatments. The attitudes and perceptions regarding herbal therapies have not been evaluated amongst physicians-in-training. OBJECTIVE This pilot study aimed to assess the self-perceived competence and attitudes of physicians-in-training in dealing with herbal medicines in clinical practice. METHODS A survey was ...

The prevalence of herbal medicine use during pregnancy is between 7% and 55%, depending upon the geographic area surveyed and the surveyed group's socio-cultural aspects and ethnicity. Why are women taking natural health products (NHPs) in pregnancy? Women who learn they are pregnant are concerned about the safety of their fetus and may turn to NHPs rather than prescription medication. Use of N...

Owing to the increase in price of cigarettes in Korea, herbal cigarettes have received increasing attention as a non-smoking aid; however, its safety has hardly been studied. We analyzed some of the toxic components in the mainstream smoke of herbal cigarettes, performed a mutagenicity test on smoke condensates for safety assessment, and compared the results with the corresponding values of a g...