Famous, Pg 66: Face the Facts

Subtitled 10 health tips every woman should know, this is a surprisingly useful article. Including advice on eating after exercise, dieting, which includes a smart precis on the effect of low carb diets on your body, and muscle versus fat. It’s often easy to brush off a magazine like this as just being gossipy and fluffy, but this is a really smart double page spread. At the very least, read it in the checkout queue. ****

New Idea, Pg 66: Sonia’s Dance Body Secrets

Sonia Kruger from Dancing with the Stars has the kind of body you can only achieve through years and years of really hard work. It’s interesting to read her take on eating - she lost ten kilos in four months on the Atkins Diet (one of my most despised and unhealthy eating plans), but admits it’s not a long term solution. Obviously she hasn’t completely thrown off the shackles of Dr Atkins, because she talks a lot about limiting carbs, but it’s good to see she eats a couple of slices of bread for breakfast. Read this more for interest’s sake, rather than something to replicate yourself. Unless you’re doing hours and hours of dancing of course. **

Pg 72, Get Fit With Guy

Interesting article on energy density of food, or the number of kJ’s per gram. As a rule, if the number is more than 12.5 kJ per gram, it should be avoided. Interestingly, on the high energy density list (to be avoided) is popcorn, even with no added fat (14.8g), natural brown rice cake (15.6g), and cornflakes (15.6g). Also surprisingly, on the low energy density scale are custard, chocolate dairy dessert, and made up jelly. Surely though you have to ask how good a choice is one of these things, which are full of crap, versus a piece of fruit with nothing added to it, and has the added benefit of fibre to help you feel full for longer. The subtitle on the table with low density foods is “all good for you”, which I have to disagree with. ** Still interesting - steer clear of that popcorn.

OK, Pg 90: Body talk with Billie Piper

This feature used to be one of my favorites, but over the last couple of weeks, the celebs they’ve been featuring are far from A-list. That’s not always a bad thing, but when someone like Billie Piper, who used to be known for her underage drinking binges and marriage to a nerdy UK DJ is talking about how she doesn’t eat carbs anymore, I can only turn the page and yawn. As the cop on South Park likes to say “Nothing to see here, people”. No rating.