Junk

Relatório pede medidas rigorosas para combater o ‘fardo crescente e insustentável’ dos problemas relacionados ao fígado na Europa Governos na Europa devem impor impostos muito mais altos sobre álcool e alimentos não saudáveis para enfrentar as 284.000 mortes anuais do continente por doenças hepáticas, dizem especialistas. Os impostos sobre esses produtos devem subir de forma acentuada o suficiente para que o dinheiro arrecadado cubra os enormes custos que eles impõem aos serviços de saúde, ao sistema de justiça criminal e aos serviços sociais. Continue lendo...

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...