The World Medical Association has lent its weight in support of tough new policies to curb obesity, including taxes on junk food and sugary drinks as well as bans on advertising to children.
The chances that a child will become obese in later life are largely determined before they are even conceived, as researchers believe parent’s health is key to tackling obesity in future generations.
Around 268 million children aged 5-17 years may be overweight by 2025, according to a report, which identifies 91 million of these individuals as clinically obese.
A tax on sugary drinks is being considered by the Irish government as part of the upcoming budget, a measure condemned by the Irish Beverage Council (IBC) as “costly political posturing”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified obesity as more of a risk factor for cancer than previously thought as a report identifies more cancer types linked to excess weight.
Saudi Arabia is now recognised as the third most obese nation in the world, while more than one-third of children in the country have been found to be overweight.
The UK food industry, the government and health campaigners are locked in a bitter battle to determine the country’s plan to tackle obesity. At its heart is the proposed sugar tax on soft drinks.
Protein pacing and calorie restriction can result in significant short-term fat loss, and compared to a 'heart-healthy' low cholesterol diet can significantly improve longer term weight management, a study suggests.
A higher body mass index (BMI) does not necessarily equate to an increased risk of heart attack or mortality, a study claims, although it is a reliable indicator for the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Text messages committing obese teenagers to eat smaller portions each day or fruit for dessert saw them eight times less likely to pile on the pounds again.
Concentrating health advice only on sugar is likely to misinform consumers and downscale the urgent need to also reduce fat-derived calories, a paper has suggested.
A study by Cancer Research UK has found … wait for it … kids like sweets, crisps and fast food. The adverts for these products are also far too funny, addictive and tempting, so they should be banned before 9pm.
The global discourse on obesity is full of people saying it's a complex problem but offering simple solutions - it's time we put in place a bottom-up and top-down approach, says food and health expert Dr Mike Gibney.
European children are ‘in crisis’ over the risk of gut disease and obesity, according to a new report that calls for renewed focus on pediatric digestive health.
The Coca-Cola Company could face a bill as high as £226M a year under the sugar tax, if it doesn’t pass on the increased charge for its sugary drinks to consumers, according to market research firm Euromonitor.
The National Obesity Forum's advice to shun processed foods such as low-fat yoghurts and cheeses for whole foods this week has provoked mixed reactions – but consumers are already turning away from foods labelled as low-fat, diet or light, according...
Artificial sweeteners may help obese individuals cut calories and lose weight but a new study has suggested that these sugar substitutes impair how glucose is utilised in the body.
Low-fat, light and diet versions of products may actually contribute to rising obesity rates by encouraging over consumption compared to regular products both in the short- and long-term, Dutch scientists have found.
The UK is considering banning the advertising of junk foods to kids in any medium. Restrictions on using characters could however be relaxed provided they are used to push "healthier” products.
Consumption of artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy could double the risk infants being overweight one year after birth, according to new research in mothers.
Levels of obesity in the UK have almost doubled since the early 1990s, with 58% of women and 65% of men overweight or obese. Obesity-related hospital admissions for children have almost doubled in the past 10 years, which makes the government’s failure...
A high-fructose diet during pregnancy may lead to the foetus developing hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and obesity in later life, a study reports.
A high-protein diet can help obese older adults lose weight and improve physical function compared with a regular weight loss regimen, according to a new study.
Food should be labelled with how much exercise is required to expend its calories in order to help promote an active lifestyle, said a leading health expert.
Around 20% of adults worldwide will be obese by 2025, if policies designed to slow down and stop the worldwide increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) are not revised and implemented, according to a study.
Children from families who participated in lifestyle counselling ate more vegetables and had a higher intake of important nutrients, a two-year follow-up study has shown.
Inhaling polluted air could raise the risk of gaining weight, elevate cholesterol levels and increase insulin resistance, a precursor of Type 2 diabetes, a new study has claimed.
The soft drink industry has slammed claims that a 20% tax on sugary drinks would cut UK obesity rates by 5% within nine years – resulting in 3.7M fewer obese people.
The interaction between genes linked with obesity and environmental upbringing is likely to determine healthy or unhealthy food choices in adult life, Canadian researchers have stated.
The number of obese adults in the six biggest Asean economies increased at a faster rate than that of Britain and America from 2010 to 2014, according to data gathered by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
A mother’s high-fat diet during pregnancy can override offspring’s genes and cause weight gain and insulin resistance, according to a new animal study in the journal Diabetes.
Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Integrated Research and Treatment Centre (IFB) at the University Hospital of Leipzig, Germany, claim plasticisers (phthalates) can cause weight gain.
A link between obesity and the formation of blood clots in the veins of children and adolescents has been established by researchers for the first time.
Food and drink manufacturers should adopt ‘activity equivalent’ calorie labelling on their products which show how much activity is needed to burn off the calories in them, according to the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).
The impact of obesity on cancer rates across the world – and how many cases could have been prevented – is made clear with an online data tool, launched by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) last month.
It makes simple economic sense to reduce levels of obesity and overweight because if current rates continue it will cause 700,000 new cases of cancer in the next twenty years, says a report by Cancer Research UK.
Reducing the amount of sugar in sugar-sweetened beverages by 40% over five years could prevent 300,000 cases of type 2 diabetes in the UK over the next two decades, according to a study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
A newly published review in Nutrition Research Reviews details how adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction can contribute to diabetes and gives more strength to the view that AT is able to produce, store, and send out hormones that can regulate metabolism.
Exclusive interview with FAO’s director for nutrition
After years of battling undernutrition, Africa is now facing an emerging threat of obesity and the two must be considered simultaneously, according to the director of nutrition at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
