Obesity in the news

Showing news from about

Researchers found that encouraging babies to finish off milk may lead to overeating in adulthood
Click headline to see full story (New window) Overeating may be learned in infancy (May 22, 2013)
The study involving 251 young Mexicans aged 18-25yrs found that 20% of those studied had inherited risk from one parent and 15% had inherited risk from both parents. The lead author Margarita Teran-Garcia suggested that "The students who inherited genetic risk factors from both parents were already 15½ pounds heavier and 2 inches bigger around the waist than those who hadn’t. They also had slightly higher fasting glucose levels,”
Click headline to see full story (New window) Young Mexicans may be at risk of obesity through genes (May 21, 2013)
In a letter published in the BMJ Dr Ian Lake has suggested that tax incentives rather than taxation may be a more successful way to get supermarkets to encourage healthy eating. He believes that the use of loyalty cards by most supermarket shoppers would allow tracking of consumer purchasing behaviour and as a result supermarkets could be rewarded with tax breaks when achieving high levels of health food sales.
Click headline to see full story (New window) UK: Supermarket incentives for promoting healthy eating (May 21, 2013)
In a stunt coordinated by Consumers International, Tony the Tiger and Ronald McDonald appeared at the 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) this week. As part of the stunt the two children’s food characters have been giving out CVs, claiming to have seen the “error of their ways” with their marketing of food to children and are in search of new jobs.

At the 66th WHA, non-communicable diseases feature highly on the agenda and it is expected that the NCD action plan, monitoring framework and targets will be formally signed off by the 194 member states as an omnibus resolution. IASO is leading a group of NGOs making a statement in support of the targets. The statement is available here: http://www.iaso.org/site_media/uploads/Nutrition_Statement.pdf

Click headline to see full story (New window) Tony the Tiger and Ronald McDonald join World Health Assembly (May 20, 2013)
A new law, designed to reduce childhood obesity, regulating advertising of fatty food and soft drinks in schools has been passed in Peru. President Ollanta Humala said "We cannot view our children as simply a market to generate sales and maximize profits”.
Click headline to see full story (New window) Peru: New law bans advertising of junk food in schools (May 20, 2013)
ConAgra Foods, Heinz, Kellogg, Nestle and General Mills aim to give frozen foods a positive image in a $50million advertising campaign. The campaign comes as frozen food sales stall and aims to change consumer perceptions that frozen meals are high in fat.
Click headline to see full story (New window) USA: Food companies join forces to position frozen foods as healthy (May 20, 2013)
The Australian National Preventive Health Agency (ANPHA) is providing $463,000 to research the feasibility and implications of fast food taxes. The project is considering the cost effectiveness and consumer acceptability of such a strategy to reduce childhood overweight and obesity.

Click headline to see full story (New window) Australia: Health group fund research into feasibility of food tax strategies (May 20, 2013)
Researchers investigated self-reported sleep duration and associated risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD), The authors of this study believe that previous studies have been inconsistent in their findings. Nearly 87,000 postmenopausal women participated in the study. They found that sleep duration and insomnia significantly increased the risk of CVD and CHD. The authors suggest that further research should be conducted to investigate how sleep quality effects CVD risk.
Click headline to see full story (New window) USA: Sleep duration and risk of cardiovascular disease (May 20, 2013)
The study of 222 males with and without ADHD found that adult males with ADHD were on average 19lb’s heavier than those males who did not have ADHD in childhood.
Click headline to see full story (New window) ADHD in boyhood linked with obesity in adult hood (May 20, 2013)
Australia: Government response on ‘Weighing It Up Report’ (May 20, 2013)
Samoa has had to lift the ban on the unhealthy high fat ‘turkey tails’ to gain access to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Click headline to see full story (New window) Samoa lifts ban on unhealthy foods to access WTO (May 20, 2013)


The press links are provided for information only, their inclusion is not indicative of IASO/HOPE endorsement.

If you have any comments or articles for inclusion please email: HOPEnet@iaso.org.

Website by Joe Short