A 20% levy on cakes and sweets would be more effective than taxing sugary drinks

A snack tax of 20% on biscuits, cakes and sweets would have “a huge impact” on obesity levels in the UK and be more effective than the current levy on colas and other sugary drinks, say experts.

But the idea may struggle to get past the current government. Boris Johnson took a stand against “sin stealth taxes” in July, ordering a review and opposing plans to extend the sugary drinks tax to milkshakes, which he said “seems to me to clobber those who can least afford it”.

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What's behind the trend, and can vegan food be 'junk food'?

The TV host said that overweight women are "a burden on their families and the state".

An anonymous reader shares a report: "A picture is worth a thousand words." That saying leads us to believe that we can readily interpret a chart correctly. But charts are visual arguments, and they are easy to misunderstand if we do not pay close attention. Alberto Cairo, chair of visual journalism at the University of Miami, reveals pitfalls in an example diagrammed here. Learning how to better read graphics can help us navigate a world in which truth may be hidden or twisted. Say that you are obese, and you've grown tired of family, friends and your doctor telling you that obesity may increase your risk for diabetes, heart disease, even cancer -- all of which could shorten your life. One day you see this chart. Suddenly you feel better because it shows that, in general, the more obese people a country has (right side of chart), the higher the life expectancy (top of chart). Therefore, obese people must live longer, you think. After all, the correlation (red line) is quite strong. The chart itself is not incorrect. But it doesn't really show that the more obese people are, the longer they live. A more thorough description would be: "At the national level -- country by country -- there is a positive association between obesity rates and life expectancy at birth, and vice versa." Still, this does not mean that a positive association will hold at the local or individual level or that there is a causal link. Two fallacies are involved. First, a pattern in aggregated data can disappear or even reverse once you explore the numbers at different levels of detail. If the countries are split by income levels, the strong positive correlation becomes much weaker as income rises. In the highest-income nations (chart on bottom right), the association is negative (higher obesity rates mean lower life expectancy). The pattern remains negative when you look at the U.S., state by state: life expectancy at birth drops as obesity rises. Yet this hides the second fallacy: the negative association can be affected by many other factors. Exercise and access to health care, for example, are associated with life expectancy. So is income.

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TV chef’s group sets sights on joining global social and environmental movement

Jamie Oliver is to turn the remains of his business empire into an ethical “B Corporation” that officially gives equal weight to people, the planet and profit.

The former Naked Chef sees it as a way to knit his campaigning on issues such as childhood obesity and animal welfare into the fabric of the business which, following the collapse of the Jamie’s Italian chain, encompasses his successful publishing, broadcasting and licensing interests.

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Health groups want restrictions on multi-buy promotions in a bid to tackle obesity.