Illustration of a bowl of rice with a spoon to the side.

Single-food ‘mono diets’: are they effective, pointless, or just plain dangerous?

With summer in full swing, many people will be tempted by supposedly miraculous dieting tricks to lose those excess kilos that prevent them from enjoying the perfect physique. Among them are so-called “mono diets”: restrictive regimes that consist of exclusively eating one type of food for a period of time, with the aim of quickly losing weight and “detoxing”.

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Forming new habits can take longer than you think. Here are 8 tips to help you stick with them

You may have heard the popular claim that it only takes 21 days to form a habit.

It’s a neat idea. Short, encouraging and full of promise. But there’s just one problem: it’s not true.

Studies that measured time to reach automaticity (when a behaviour becomes second nature) found that habit formation took between 59 and 154 days. Some people developed a habit in as few as four days. Others took nearly a year.

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Dall·e 2025 04 28 06.39.24 a claymation style illustration of an older woman lifting herself out of a cushy, comfortable easy chair in a cozy living room. the woman has short gr

Why sitting down – and getting back up – might be the most important health test you do today

If you or someone you love finds it difficult to stand up without using your hands, it might seem like a small issue. But in health and ageing, this movement – known as the “sit-to-stand” – can be a red flag. It’s one of the strongest indicators of frailty, a condition that can threaten independence and quality of life.

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