Anti-obesity programmes in primary schools 'don't work'
A recent study in the British Medical Journal suggests that school programmes encouraging children to take up more exercise and eat healthier are ‘unlikely to have any real effect on childhood obesity’. Over 600 primary school pupils in the West Midlands took part in the 12-month anti-obesity programme but no improvements were found in the children’s diet or activity levels. Dr Emma Lancashire, who co-ordinated the trial said schools were only “one layer” in the effort to tackle childhood obesity, with ‘families, the media and the food industry’ all needing to be considered.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42976971
UK 'could adopt' Norway bottle recycling system
A Scandinavian ‘deposit-based system for recycling bottles’, which recycles 97% of bottles, could be adopted in the UK. Currently figures show that ‘only around half of all plastic bottles get recycled’ in the UK. However, politicians in Westminster have been ‘cautious’ amid lobbying by drinks manufactures and ‘fears from small shops about the administrative burden’.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-4295...
E-cigarettes 'should be on prescription'
Public Health England (PHE) has stated that e-cigarettes should be available on prescription due to ‘how successful they have been in helping people give up smoking’. According to an independent review of the latest evidence, published by PHE, suggests ’20,000 people a year are quitting with the help of e-cigarettes’. The report also states that e-cigarettes are ‘at least 95% less harmful than smoking’.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42950607
YouTube CEO says Facebook should 'get back to baby pictures'
Susan Wojcicki has stated that Facebook should continue ‘further down the path it started on’ when they announced they would begin de-prioritising news content from January 2018 onwards. These comments were joined by various other high-ranking executives criticising Facebook for its various business practices. However, this all comes soon after Wokcicki’s own platform, YouTube, coming under fire over its handling of the recent Logan Paul controversy.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/13...
Eating slowly may help prevent obesity, say researchers
A recent study focusing on type 2 diabetics, has revealed that eating slowly could help prevent obesity. The journal published by BMJ Open looked at data from over 59,700 individuals from 2008 to mid-2013. However, some academic individuals such as Ian MacDonald, a professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Nottingham, has expressed doubts about the findings, stating it ‘is not clear that such changes were behind a change in BMI’.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/12/ea...