Topic description and stories

Brown mouse

Unborn babies use ‘greedy’ gene from dads to ‘remote-control’ mums into feeding them extra food

11 Jul 2023

A study in mice has found that fetuses use a copy of a gene inherited from their dad to force their mum to release as much nutrition as possible...

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Patient receiving a COVID-19 vaccination

Obesity accelerates loss of COVID-19 vaccination immunity, study finds

11 May 2023

The protection offered by COVID-19 vaccination declines more rapidly in people with severe obesity than in those with normal weight, scientists at...

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Child's hands pouring a drink into a glass

Sugary drinks tax may have prevented over 5,000 cases of obesity a year in year six girls alone

26 Jan 2023

The introduction of the soft drinks industry levy – the ‘sugary drinks tax’ – in England was followed by a drop in the number of cases of obesity...

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PACE labels alongside menus

No evidence that physical activity calorie-equivalent labelling changes food purchasing – study

09 Nov 2022

An experiment carried out across ten workplace cafeterias found no significant change in the overall number of calories purchased when food and drink...

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Young girl

Scientists discover how our brain uses nutritional state to regulate growth and age at puberty

03 Nov 2021

Cambridge scientists have discovered how a receptor in the brain, called MC3R, detects the nutritional state of the body and regulates the timing of...

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Changes to workplace cafeteria menus nudge workers to consume fewer calories

14 Sep 2021

A study carried out at 19 workplace cafeterias has shown that reducing portion sizes and replacing higher calorie food and drinks with lower calorie...

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Fish and chips

British consumers complicit in forty-year ‘healthy eating’ failure, new study suggests

01 Jul 2021

‘Healthy eating’ campaigns have largely failed in Britain for the last four decades because consumers have adapted confusing advice, and incorporated...

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Weighing scales and tape measure

Many of us could carry up to 17kg of fat due to a change in a single gene

27 May 2021

New research has found that one in every 340 people might carry a mutation in a single gene that makes them more likely to have a greater weight from...

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Bottles of soft drink

Sugar purchased in soft drinks fell 10% following introduction of industry levy

10 Mar 2021

The amount of sugar purchased by households through soft drinks fell by 10% in the year following the introduction of the UK Soft Drinks Industry...

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Silhouettes of three women running

Successive governments’ approaches to obesity policies have destined them to fail, say researchers

19 Jan 2021

Government obesity policies in England over the past three decades have largely failed because of problems with implementation, lack of learning from...

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Children sitting on park bench

High insulin levels during childhood a risk for mental health problems later in life, study suggests

13 Jan 2021

Researchers have shown that the link between physical and mental illness is closer than previously thought. Certain changes in physical health, which...

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Set up for life

25 Nov 2020

We’re used to the idea that as adults we have some control over our destiny: what we eat and drink and how much we exercise can affect our health...

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