Does it really matter how I breathe when I lift weights? — Shannon via Twitter

Breathing is such a ridiculously easy thing to do, even new born babies get the hang of it in seconds. Why would anyone need explicit instructions on how to breathe during any sort of activity? Because in the case of weight lifting good breathing makes a difference. How you suck air into your lungs and push it out again is a matter of safety.

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Is spinach more nutritious raw or cooked?

Cooked! Cooking your vegetables can actually boost their antioxidant content. Heating vegetables releases antioxidants by breaking down cell walls. Studies have found that eating cooked spinach and carrots – versus raw – results in much higher blood levels of beta-carotene, an antioxidant thought to guard against heart disease and lung cancer.

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Doctors at a Berlin hospital have made a medical breakthrough after capturing live MRI images of the miracle of birth.

The pictures, taken after a German mother agreed to give birth inside a magnetic-resonance imaging machine, could provide valuable new insights into the birthing process and save lives in the future.

Gynaecologist Ernst Beinder at Berlin’s Charité Hospital said the birth proceeded normally and the machine filmed all the movements and processes that went on inside the womb.They were even able to use the machine to monitor the baby’s heart beat.

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Heart disease could be cut by almost a fifth if food companies were banned from adding too much salt to their products, research has found.

Banning manufacturers from adding salt to ready meals, cereals, crisps and sandwiches would save tens of thousands of lives a year by lowering the number of heart attacks and strokes.

A major study has found such laws would be 20 times more effective in improving health than offering dietary advice.

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What does Jennifer ­Aniston really eat? Some claim she curbs carbs on the Atkins diet, others say she ­follows the Zone Diet, which involves eating a 40:30:30 ratio of carbs to fat to protein.

Well, ladies, now her personal chefs, sisters Jewels and Jill Elmore, have released a ­cookbook, which finally lifts the lid on the ­contents of Jennifer’s saucepans.

The introduction to this work has been penned by Aniston herself, who reveals that in a time she refers to as ‘BJ: Before ­Jewels’, she lived on an ­assortment of ­‘prepackaged Zone meals, overcooked takeout and…the ­occasional piece of cheese’.
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It’s well known that cutting saturated fat, found in meat and dairy products, can help lower elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood, a risk factor for heart disease.

And if your daily diet also includes foods such as oats, almonds, soybeans and plant-sterol enriched margarine you’ll lower your LDL cholesterol even more.

This cholesterol-busting food combo – known as a diet portfolio – has been well studied by David Jenkins, professor and Canada Research Chair in metabolism and nutrition at the University of Toronto and director of the Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

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Tape measures and scales could soon be replaced in GPs’ surgeries with a 3D body scanner, according to its British designers.

The body volume index (BVI) takes a ‘photocopy’ of a patient’s body in just six seconds.

The seven-foot booth has 16 sensors and 32 cameras and analyses a person’s body fat distribution section by section.

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There have been a lot of reports recently that, contrary to popular belief, exercise does not always help melt away the pounds to reveal the stick-thin super model hiding beneath. Losing weight, the theory goes, almost always involves zipping your mouth and consuming fewer KFC Double Downs.

What? That’s like saying that chocolate can be good for you (it is to a certain extent) or that you will have fewer athletic injuries if you wear cheaper shoes (quite likely). Believe it or not, I support the theory that working out will probably not help you lose weight — if you are not realistic and sensible about both your eating and workout strategies.

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It’s long been suggested that drinking water can help with weight loss, but now a small scientific study lends some credence to the claim.

Researchers presented a paper Monday at the American Chemical Society conference in Boston on a randomized controlled trial involving obese people aged 55 to 75 who were put on a diet.

One group drank two cups of water before their meals, and the other group did not.

Over a 12-week period, the water drinkers lost about 15.5 pounds, while the other group lost about 11 pounds.

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Leafy vegetables could help cut the risk of Type 2 diabetes, research suggests.

Eating greens every day such as broccoli, kale, spinach, sprouts and cabbage can reduce your risk of developing the condition by 14 per cent.

The vegetables are rich in antioxidants and magnesium, which has been linked to lower levels of diabetes.

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