Food & Budget
Cooking skills that save the most money
A small number of techniques convert cheap ingredients into meals, and they are the ones nobody is taught.
Oliver Nkemdi
23 articles by Nkemdi
Fitness & Movement
What fitness trackers can and cannot tell you
They are accurate for some things, poor for others, and their main value is behavioural rather than physiological.
Food & Budget
Fibre, and why it is the nutrient that matters most
Intakes are below recommendations almost everywhere, the evidence is unusually strong, and the sources are cheap.
Fitness & Movement
Exercise with a long-term condition
For most chronic conditions, activity is treatment rather than a risk, and specific programmes exist that people are not referred to.
Food & Budget
Growing food and other ways to cut the bill
Some crops genuinely pay for themselves and most do not, and the other savings are larger than the garden.
Food & Budget
Ultra-processed food and what to make of it
The evidence is genuinely concerning, the definition is contested, and the practical advice is less dramatic than the debate.
Fitness & Movement
Getting active again after a long gap
The main risks are doing too much too soon and giving up, and both have straightforward countermeasures.
Fitness & Movement
Walking, steps and what the numbers mean
The ten thousand figure came from marketing, and the actual dose-response evidence is more encouraging.
Food & Budget
Protein, and how much you actually need
Requirements are higher than the minimum for some groups and far lower than the industry implies for most.
Fitness & Movement
Recovering from injury without losing everything
Complete rest is rarely the answer, and the fitness lost during a badly managed injury takes far longer to rebuild.
Fitness & Movement
Home gym equipment worth owning
A very short list covers almost everything, and the expensive items are the ones that end up storing clothes.
Food & Budget
Eating well when you have no time
Time poverty drives more poor eating than money does, and the solutions are different from budget solutions.
Food & Budget
Meal planning that survives a bad week
Elaborate plans collapse, and the version that works has slack built into it deliberately.
Fitness & Movement
Sleep, and what it costs to get it wrong
Sleep affects metabolic health, injury risk and decision quality, and the effective treatment for insomnia is not a product.
Fitness & Movement
Sitting, standing and moving at work
Prolonged sitting is a genuine risk factor, standing desks are not the answer, and the effective intervention is free.
Food & Budget
Supplements: what the evidence supports
A short list has genuine indications and the rest is a large industry selling reassurance at a premium.
Food & Budget
Reading a food label properly
The back of the pack contains the useful information and the front contains the marketing, and the difference is legally significant.
Fitness & Movement
Running: the cheapest sport with the most injuries
Almost all running injuries come from progressing too fast, and almost none of the prevention involves buying anything.
Fitness & Movement
Physiotherapy, and when it is worth paying for
The evidence is good for specific problems, the active components are exercises you do yourself, and the passive treatments are the expensive part.
Food & Budget
Batch cooking as a financial strategy
The saving comes from what it prevents rather than from the cooking itself — chiefly the expensive decision made at seven in the evening.
Food & Budget
Cost per nutrient rather than cost per meal
Some of the cheapest foods available are the most nutritionally dense, and the expensive diet is generally the processed one.
Fitness & Movement
Strength training and why it matters after forty
Muscle and bone decline predictably from midlife, and resistance training is the only intervention that reliably reverses it.
Fitness & Movement
Exercise that costs nothing
The gym membership is the least important variable, and the evidence for the free options is as good as for anything.