The holiday season with its flood of party invitations to celebrate is upon us. Think good cheer and parties with those we like and want to catch up with. But parties mean alcohol! And of course who does not enjoy a drink in good company! Often we are not aware of just how much our […]
Vitamins. Are they always a good thing?
To understand why we need vitamins, it is better to figure out what vitamins really are. Vitamins are small molecules that our body requires to perform certain biochemical reactions in our cells. The human body has no way to produce vitamin molecules itself, so the vitamins must come from the food that we eat. Inside […]
What we need to know about avocados
Rich, creamy and tasty, the avocado is a real wonder fruit, packed full of nutrients. This fruit of the tall evergreen tree Persea americana is normally considered a vegetable from a culinary perspective, enjoyed in salads and dips such as guacamole. There are more than 80 varieties of avocado, the most common of which is […]
Swiss health vote on knife-edge
When Swiss voters go to the polls in a national referendum on 28 September, the critical issue of private versus public health insurance will likely be decided along the Röstigraben line, the famous psychological divide between German and Latin language cantons. At least this is according to recent opinion polls, which indicate that German-speaking voters […]
A tomato a day keeps the doctor away!
Tomatoes! Juicy, colourful and delicious. We all know that tomatoes are good for us and we should include them more in our diet. But what are tomatoes and why, specifically, are they such a healthy food? The tomato is the fruit of the Lycopersicon esculentum plant.Although tomatoes are closely associated with Italian cuisine, they are […]
Why eating fibre is so important
We’ve all heard about the need to include fibre in our diets, but why is it so important? Dietary fibre refers to nutrients in the diet that are not digested by gastrointestinal enzymes. They are derived from the indigestible portion of plant food that pushes through our digestive system, absorbing water along the way and […]
Slow down ageing with these foods
We have all been encouraged to eat foods rich in antioxidants for optimal health and wellness. But what are antioxidants? Oxidation is a natural process that occurs in our body when we convert what we eat into energy. When oxygen is metabolized, it creates highly unstable molecules called “free radicals”. Free radicals can attack and […]
Health spending reaches 11.5% of Swiss GDP
Swiss medical care costs rose from 11% of GDP in 2011 to 11.5% in 2012 due largely to an unprecedented increase of CHF 2.3 billion in hospital spending. With the average healthcare spend per person reaching CHF 709, the nation’s total 2012 health bill reached a record CHF 68 billion.
Record Pollen Levels
GENEVA Allergy sufferers in the Lake Geneva region can expect a significant aggravation of their predicament because of record pollen counts predicted for the weeks leading up to summer. An estimated 15–20% of residents suffer from hay fever and related ailments on a regular basis, but health specialists maintain that even normally resistant individuals may […]
