Diets heavy on snack foods linked to undernutrition and stunting, say researchers

Children under the age of two in Nepal are getting a quarter of their calories from junk food, according to groundbreaking research that warns their diet is linked to stunting and undernutrition.

Biscuits, crisps, instant noodles and sugary drinks appear to be displacing foods with the vitamins, minerals and other vital nutrients babies need to grow well, say the researchers. The work, published in the Journal of Nutrition, illustrates that the 21st-century junk food diet spreading around the globe is linked not just to obesity but also to poor growth in children.

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High sugar content may be threat to first teeth and affect food preferences in adulthood

Commercial baby foods contain too much sugar – even when they are labelled as savoury meals, says the World Health Organization, which is seeking a ban on added sugars in foods for children under 36 months old.

WHO Europe is calling for a crackdown on the high levels of sugar in the diet of babies fed on commercially available foods, warning that their first teeth may suffer and they are at risk of developing a preference for sweet foods, which may lead to overweight and obesity-related disease in adulthood.

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Yes, we must tackle obesity: but let’s do it without the kind of heartless reporting and hurtful language that held me back

The debate around obesity has been rekindled recently following proclamations by Tory leadership candidates, but many commentators who speak on the subject seem to have no sensitivity to how the language or imagery they use fuels hurtful perceptions that obese people are lazy, inhuman or a burden. The mass of statistics being thrown around dehumanises individuals, many of whom already know what to do and are trying their best to do it.

Related: Cancer, obesity and Boris Johnson’s ‘sin tax’ error | Letters

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Excessive consumption of sugary drinks – including juice – associated with the disease

Drinking large amounts of fruit juice may raise your risk of cancer, according to a big study which has found a link between the regular consumption of all kinds of sugary drinks and the likelihood of developing the disease.

The study, carried out in France, is the first substantial piece of research to find a specific association between sugar and cancer. Sugary drinks such as colas, lemonade and energy drinks have been linked to obesity, which is a cause of cancer, but the French researchers suggest there could also be other reasons sugar could trigger it.

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The money will go towards a target of halving the number of overweight under-18s in Scotland by 2030.

Link to product in Australia comes as business partner runs Boris Johnson campaign

The firm run by Lynton Crosby, whose business partner is helping Boris Johnson run his Tory leadership bid, lobbies in Australia on behalf of a major flavoured milk brand that contains more sugar than Coca-Cola, it has emerged.

Last week Johnson announced that as prime minister he would reconsider a tax introduced last year that places a levy on high-sugar drinks. The tax does not cover sugary milk-based drinks but the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has suggested this could happen as a way of tackling childhood obesity.

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Tom Watson says scrapping levy while UK in grip of obesity crisis ‘gravely irresponsible’

• ‘Sin taxes’: Boris Johnson vows to review sugar levy

Labour has written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, urging him to repudiate Boris Johnson’s plan for halting the expansion of “sin taxes” on unhealthy foods.

Hancock, who is supporting Johnson’s leadership bid, had been expected to confirm plans to extend the soft drinks levy to milkshakes, as part of a Department of Health strategy to tackle obesity.

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The Tory leadership favourite likes to talk about representing the poorest while filling the coffers of the powerful

Here’s a thing they teach in campaign school. If you’re about to make a political promise, first check the calendar. Just to avoid a clash that could make your policy proposal look utterly wrong-headed, inept and at odds with the available evidence.

Boris Johnson must have bunked off that day, because he clearly missed that lesson. Instead, he’s issued what he doubtless hoped would be a crowd-pleasing promise to halt any new “sin taxes” on sugary drinks on the very day obesity was named as causing more cases of four common cancers than smoking.

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including May and Corbyn at PMQs and the latest from the Tory leadership contest

• Boris Johnson vows to review whether sugar tax improves health

10.02am BST

The Times’ Matt Chorley says Boris Johnson used to favour sugar taxes.

This is the same Boris Johnson who as London Mayor introduced a sugar tax in City Hall, declaring: “I hope this initiative will allow us to raise awareness of the problem and encourage people to think about their diets.”https://t.co/Ae2DvsdSm8 2/7

This is the same Boris Johnson who said in 2015 that tackling obesity was "a matter of social justice".
"Overwhelmingly people most affected by an obesity problem will be those on the lowest incomes. That’s why I’m thinking about sugar taxes."https://t.co/9oWB0g9I8B 3/7

Will Walden, Johnson's key adviser and former director of comms at City Hall, is employed by Edelman and has advised Coca-Cola on lobbying against the sugar tax. (Team Johnson insist Walden was not involved in new policy) 4/7

Revealed:

Sir Lynton Crosby’s business partner Mark Textor condemned sugar taxes in 2016 article.

CTF running the Boris Johnson campaign https://t.co/Dz0jxTFHHH… pic.twitter.com/SoGQLyfsz8

9.42am BST

On the Today programme Camilla Cavendish, who used to be director at policy at Downing Street for David Cameron, said that she used to share Boris Johnson’s scepticism about “sin taxes” like the sugar levy but that she changed her mind. She told the programme:

I think [Johnson] is wrong. I used to think we shouldn’t use government to influence people’s choices. But I changed my mind, really for three reasons.

First of all I became a parent and I saw how much junk manufacturers are pushing down or children’s throats.

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‘Urgent’ intervention needed ‘to end epidemic’ … Google’s ‘contempt’ for law in Grace Millane murder … and why ear piercings are the new tattoos

Obesity rivals smoking as a cause of cancer, responsible for more cases of bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver cancer than cigarettes, according to Cancer Research UK, Britain’s leading cancer charity. While smoking is still the biggest cause of cancer, the charity has warned the government to take action, as obese people outnumber smokers by two to one. “As smoking rates fall and obesity rates rise, we can clearly see the impact on a national health crisis when the government puts policies in place – and when it puts its head in the sand,” said Michelle Mitchell, the charity’s chief executive. She said Britain needs “urgent government intervention to end the epidemic” and save lives.

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Cancer Research UK calls for government intervention ‘to end the epidemic’

Obesity is rivalling smoking as a cause of cancer, responsible for more cases of bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver cancer than cigarettes, according to the UK’s leading cancer charity.

Smoking is still the biggest cause of cancer, but Cancer Research UK (CRUK) has warned that government action to tackle obesity is vital, because it is a significant factor in 13 different types of cancer. Obese people now outnumber smokers by two to one.

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Some common cancers are now more likely to be caused by obesity than tobacco, a charity is warning.

Photographer Gregg Segal travelled the world to document children and the food they eat in a week. Partly inspired by the increasing problems of childhood obesity, he tracked traditional regional diets as yet unaffected by globalisation, and ironically, found that the healthiest diets were often eaten by the least well off. Daily Bread: What Kids Around the World Eat is published by powerHouse Books.

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London’s blanket ban on ‘junk food’ advertising is not only ineffective, inconsistent and impractical, it’s going to cost a fortune too! Estimated at a whopping £35 million, it will deprive dilapidated public services of desperately needed investment. Who’s decided that chicken burgers are not junk food but olive oil is? And no mince pies allowed […]

The post ‘Junk Food’ Ad Bans Don’t Work appeared first on Guido Fawkes.

Slow progress is being made on junk food advertising restrictions and calories labelling, it is claimed.

A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food. From a report: "To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it's useful," says Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist. "And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful -- what some may call idle curiosity." The paper, "Common neural code for reward and information value," was published this month by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Authored by Hsu and graduate student Kenji Kobayashi, now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, it demonstrates that the brain converts information into the same common scale as it does for money. It also lays the groundwork for unraveling the neuroscience behind how we consume information -- and perhaps even digital addiction.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lifestyle advice helps, but the government must tackle the root causes of poor health to improve life expectancy

Media coverage of the relentless advice to eat less, eat better, and do more gives the impression that the growing problem of health inequalities could largely be solved simply by badgering enough people into laying off fried chicken.

The excitement around the Henry programme (Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young) in Leeds, which claimed to have reduced childhood obesity by helping parents give children choices while maintaining boundaries, shows how seductive this narrative can be (and it should be noted that there is a lively debate in the British Medical Journal about exactly what the programme achieved).

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