B.C. recently began taxing sugary drinks. Examples from Europe show the scientific basis for taxing unhealthy foods may have little impact on whether these taxes are adopted or remain in place.
Obesity intervention programs tend to focus on healthy food and physical activity. But is that enough?
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A study of over 1,000 children in rural Oklahoma found that social and emotional health may be just as important as diet and exercise in reducing child obesity.
Early detection of diabetes is important in setting treatment targets
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Targets for diabetes would improve healthy lives, reduce deaths, and be cost effective. But they should not be for managing diabetes alone; they must include treating hypertension.
A human rights-based approach to food production will have environmental, social and economic benefits.
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The hidden costs of industrial food production include immense health and environmental impacts. These include millions of deaths, climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
Don’t blame your metabolism for middle age weight gain.
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During the pandemic, Australians have been using food delivery apps more than ever. We’ve assessed how healthy the options available to us are — and the news isn’t good.
People have been gaining weight during the pandemic.
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We developed a healthy lunchbox program. Here, we provide parents with ideas for swapping unhealthy foods kids might like to healthier ones comparable on cost, taste, texture and preparation time.
Healthcare worker, Boitsholo Mfolo, inside the digital x-ray truck at one of Africa Health Research Institute’s mobile screening camps in rural KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
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Emily B. Wong, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)
South Africa needs a public health response that expands the successes of the country’s HIV testing and treatment programme to provide care for multiple diseases.
The evidence is clear: a tax on sugary drinks would reduce consumption. All that’s needed is political leadership that prioritises health above the profits.
Negative attitudes about people with larger body sizes or higher weight are consistent across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the US.
Our ancestors’ environment and diets, and the limits of our biology, have led to adaptations that have improved human survival through natural selection. But we remain prone to illness and disease anyway.
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Evolutionary medicine uses our ancestral history to explain disease prevalence and inform care for conditions like Type 2 diabetes. It also challenges the bio-ethnocentrism of western medicine.
White River Primary school in South Africa, sponsored by Coca Cola.
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A ban on sugary drinks sale and advertisements in schools is likely to hold more promise in improving the diets of children and help prevent obesity in children than voluntary actions.
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand