Junk

Un informe pide medidas contundentes para combatir la «carga creciente e insostenible» de los problemas relacionados con el hígado en Europa Los gobiernos de Europa deberían imponer impuestos mucho más elevados al alcohol y a los alimentos poco saludables para hacer frente a las 284.000 muertes anuales por enfermedades hepáticas en el continente, afirman los expertos. Los impuestos sobre estos productos deberían aumentar lo suficiente como para que lo recaudado cubra los enormes costes que suponen para los servicios sanitarios, el sistema de justicia penal y los servicios sociales. Continúa leyendo...

Macaques have learned to eat soil to avert gut irritation caused by salty and sugary snacks, researchers believeTroops of monkeys living on the Rock of Gibraltar have learned to eat soil in what scientists believe is an effort to settle their stomachs after all the junk food they receive – and sometimes steal – from crowds of tourists.Researchers spotted the intentional mud eating, known as geophagy, while observing groups of Barbary macaques in the territory. Monkeys that had the most contact with tourists ate the most soil and consumption peaked in the holiday season, they found. Continue reading...

ASA rules ads on Instagram and Daily Mail website broke ban on promoting items high in fat, salt and sugarLidl and Iceland have become the first companies to have ads banned after the introduction of rules cracking down on the marketing of junk food in the UK.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been policing the ban on ads featuring junk food on TV before 9pm, and in paid online advertising at any time of the day, since 5 January. Continue reading...

School food has suffered at the hands of politics and economics for almost 50 yearsAlmost a generation has passed since Jamie Oliver’s four-part Channel 4 documentary series Jamie’s School Dinners exposed the unhealthy reality of the food served to pupils at lunchtime, including – notoriously – fat-heavy, meat-light Turkey Twizzlers. It proved a shaming and effective intervention. His ensuing Feed Me Better campaign led the then prime minister, Tony Blair, to pledge to make school lunches more nutritious and hand schools more money to do that, given the average lunch at that time cost just 45p to make.Problem solved? Unfortunately not. Continue reading...