3 d. ago It’s time to stop the great food heist powered by big business. That means taxation, regulation and healthy school meals | Stuart Gillespie

The global food system has been captured by a few rapacious companies that profit from public ill-health. We need a radical overhaulOur food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose – to mass produce cheap calories to prevent famine – it is now a source of jeopardy, destroying more than it creates. A quarter of all adult deaths globally – more than 12 million every year – are due to poor diets.Malnutrition in all its forms – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity – is by far the biggest cause of ill-health, affecting one in three people on the planet. Ultra-processed foods are implicated in as many as one in seven premature deaths in some countries. Continue reading...

Society

4 d. ago Eating this fruit while pregnant lowers your baby’s chance of developing food allergies

Food allergies impact one in every 13 children in the U.S.

Politics

1 week ago Cassie Ventura claims ‘physical abuse’ from ex Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in sex

Singer said on the stand there were ‘violent arguments’ and ‘dragging’ in former relationship with the hip-hop mogulThe singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and central character in the case against him, took the stand on Tuesday as the high-profile federal trial of Combs enters its second day in lower Manhattan.Visibly pregnant and in her third trimester, Ventura was asked to describe her relationship with Combs: “There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse. Dragging, different things of that nature.” Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago ‘A future on our terms’: how community energy is lighting up Latin America

Small-scale schemes are replacing dirty diesel with clean electricity in remote areas – and ensuring a just transitionWhen the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Roxana Borda Mamani had to leave Mexico, where she was studying for her degree in rural development and food security, and return to her remote village in the Peruvian Amazon.At the time, the Indigenous community in Alto Mishagua had neither an internet connection nor a reliable energy source. “How am I going to study?” Borda asked. “With energy from the sun,” replied her friend, a fellow member of the Latin American Observatory for Energy Geopolitics at the Brazil-based Federal University of Latin American Integration (Unila). Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump’s aid cuts blamed as food rations stopped for a million refugees in Uganda

UN World Food Programme says $50m is urgently needed amid fears that Uganda may now begin forced repatriationsFood rations for a million people in Uganda have been cut off completely this week amid a funding crisis at the United Nations World Food Programme, raising fears that refugees will now be pushed back into countries at war.The WFP in Uganda warned two weeks ago that $50m (£37m) was urgently needed to help refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Popular food now linked to PARKINSON'S disease as doctors issue urgent warning

Eating a popular food may raise the risk of developing early signs of Parkinson's, a progressive movement disorder diagnosed in 90,000 Americans every year, according to a new study.

Events

2 w. ago Eating this popular food just once a week could slash your risk of developing dementia

Dementia can be a distressing and debilitating condition, but a new study has suggested that increasing your intake of one particular food could help lower your risk.

Events

2 w. ago Baby food pouch hysteria? It’s just another way of making mothers feel guilty | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

We need a society that supports parents and makes good food choices achievable – not more lecturing of exhausted mumsLike many modern mothers, I have on occasion piped cold bolognese directly from a pouch into my small child’s open mouth and, radical though it may seem, I refuse to feel guilty about it. There is a lot of panic about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and baby food pouches, with their high sugar content and dubious nutritional value, are the latest targets. Researchers at the University of Leeds School of Food Science and Nutrition found that 41% of main meals marketed for children had sugar levels that were too high and that 21% of ready-to-eat fruit products, cereals and meals were too watery and not providing adequate nutrition.It’s not great. But is it news? No parent picks up something called “Heinz fruity banana custard” believing it a fantastic alternative to actual mashed banana, yet this is being treated as the Watergate of the under-4s sandpit crowd. I’m startin...

Politics

3 w. ago RFK Jr likes to think his views on food dyes are pioneering. In fact, he’s way behind the curve | Devi Sridhar

Britain and the EU identified the risks and clamped down on them long ago – Trump’s health guru is just playing catch-upOne of my favourite memories as a child growing up in Miami was going to the local fair and having bright-blue cotton candy – candy floss, as you’d call it in Britain. My siblings and I would stick out our tongues to compare how blue they were. Sometimes as blue as the milk in our Lucky Charms cereal bowls, where the marshmallows shaped like blue moons, horseshoes and rainbows coloured anything that got in contact with them. Candy corn was a staple on Halloween, and corn syrup jugs were ubiquitous at Thanksgiving to bake pumpkin and pecan pies. These were rare treats – we were an immigrant family who largely ate traditional Indian food – and for that caution, I’m grateful.We now know how artificial food colourings affect the cognitive, behavioural, metabolic and nutritional development of children, and how they are linked to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder...

Politics

3 w. ago The UK and EU cracked down on food dyes long ago – Maga is way behind the curve | Devi Sridhar

For years, artificial dyes have been linked to health issues and even ADHD in children, but the US is only now looking at banning themOne of my favourite memories as a child growing up in Miami was going to the local fair and having bright-blue cotton candy – candy floss, as you’d call it in Britain. My siblings and I would stick out our tongues to compare how blue they were. Sometimes as blue as the milk in our Lucky Charms cereal bowls, where the marshmallows shaped like blue moons, horseshoes and rainbows coloured anything that got in contact with them. Candy corn was a staple on Halloween, and corn syrup jugs were ubiquitous at Thanksgiving to bake pumpkin and pecan pies. These were rare treats – we were an immigrant family who largely ate traditional Indian food – and for that caution, I’m grateful.We now know how artificial food colourings affect the cognitive, behavioural, metabolic and nutritional development of children, and how they are linked to attention deficit hyperact...

Politics

3 w. ago Drinking white wine and champagne could reduce risk of cardiac arrest, new study finds

Eating more fruit and staying positive may also help lower risk, researchers find

Events

3 w. ago Drinking white wine and eating more fruit ‘could reduce risk of cardiac arrest’

A cardiac arrest is an emergency medical situation that usually happens without warning.

Events

3 w. ago Drinking champagne could reduce risk of sudden cardiac arrest, study suggests

Maintaining a positive mood and eating more fruit may also help lower risk, researchers findDrinking champagne, eating more fruit, staying slim and maintaining a positive outlook on life could help reduce the risk of a sudden cardiac arrest, the world’s first study of its kind suggests.Millions of people worldwide die every year after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), when the heart stops pumping blood around the body without warning. They are caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, when the electrical system in the heart is not working properly. Without immediate treatment such as CPR, those affected will die. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago ‘Now we have options’: the scientists trying to cure our allergies

This week’s oral immunotherapy breakthrough is part of wider surge of interest in developing treatmentsA severe food allergy is among the few conditions that can propel a person from robust health to unconsciousness within minutes, and the risk of accidental exposure often casts a shadow of anxiety over those affected.But change is afoot, with a groundbreaking trial this week showing that two-thirds of adults with severe peanut allergies can be desensitised through clinically supervised daily exposure. The approach – oral immunotherapy – is already successfully used in children and is among a wave of treatments on the horizon aimed at reducing the burden of allergies – and potentially curing them. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Baby dies after eating 'poisoned' granola delivered to family home by mystery figure

Eight-month-old Yohana Maitê Filgueira Costa died after eating granola and fruit that was delivered as a gift to the family home in Brazil while a relative is also seriously ill in hospital

Society