News

12 July 2013 - Gov UK - The School Food Plan

A plan of action designed to improve the quality and take-up of school food and put the kitchen at the heart of school life is published.

8 July 2013 - Daily Mail - Do new mums REALLY need a £99 test on the quality of their breast milk? University offers to report levels of omega 3

Breastfeeding will not only provide your baby with all the nutrients it needs, but could also boost their social mobility, as reported recently in the British Medical Journal.

3 July 2013 - The Telegraph - Scurvy returns among children with diets 'worse than in the war'

Wartime diseases are returning to Britain because some children are living on junk food diets that are worse for them than rationing was 70 years ago, officials have claimed.

3 July 2013 - Nutraingredients - Sweetened milk consumption 'undermines' child diet quality, says Harvard expert

The industry-encouraged consumption of sweetened, reduced-fat, flavoured milk by children as an alternative to plain whole milk 'undermines diet quality', a Harvard paediatric health expert has claimed.

3 July 2013 - Nutraingredients - Autism linked to decreased microbe diversity in the gut: Study

The diversity of beneficial bacteria in our guts may be associated with the development of autism, according to the first comprehensive analysis of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

2 July 2013 - Nutraingredients - Breast is better? EU project finds infant nutrition can affect later obesity

Long term EU-funded research with 1000+ EU-based children has found 'early nutrition programming' can deliver significant benefits later in life - including big reductions in obesity.

2 July 2013 - Medscape - Refined carbs may trigger food addiction

Consumption of a meal that has a high glycemic index (GI) appears to stimulate key brain regions related to craving and reward, a finding that supports the controversial hypothesis of food addiction, new research suggests.

2 July 2013 - Eating Healthy Fats During Pregnancy Linked to Decreased Autism Rates; Omega-3 Fatty Acid Beneficial Until Threshold

Healthy fats, which can be found in fish, seeds, nuts, and vegetable oils, may reduce a woman's risk of having a child with autism.

27 June 2013 - Oxford University - ‘Low Omega-3 in children could help to explain poor learning and behaviour’

Air pollution raises autism risk

Pregnant women exposed to high levels of air pollution are twice as likely to have a child with autism compared to women exposed to low levels, scientists from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) reported in Environmental Health Perspectives (June 18th edition)

13 June 2013 - BBC News - Hospitals treat more child obesity

There has been a four-fold increase in the number of children and teenagers admitted to hospital for obesity-related conditions in the last decade, doctors in England and Wales warn.

28th May 2013 - New York Times - Some of My Best Friends are Germs

26 May 2013 - BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme - Sugar: Pure, White and Deadly?

Sheila Dillon finds out why the debate about the role of sugar in our lives is hotting up. Recent books and news stories have re-awoken a forty year debate about what makes us fat.

26 May 2013 - The Sunday Times - Heads plead for lessons on serving pupils better lunches

NINE out of 10 head teachers believe that giving children healthy meals boosts their academic performance — but many admit needing help to improve dinners in their own schools.

Large UK study finds that iodine deficiency during pregnancy adversely affects children's mental development

A study of around 1000 UK mothers and their children, published in The Lancet, has revealed that iodine deficiency in pregnancy may have an adverse effect on children's mental development. The research raises concerns that the iodine status of pregnant women is an important public-health issue that needs to be addressed.

BBC News - Iodine deficiency may lower UK children's IQ

Mild iodine deficiency during pregnancy could be dimming the intellect of some babies born in the UK, say researchers.

High dose B vitamins help prevent Alzheimer's say researchers

A new study is suggesting that a high dose of B vitamins could stop the onset of Alzheimer's by preventing shrinkage of the medial temporal lobe, the area of the brain that defines the disease.

21 May 2013 - Food Navigator - UK children's foods often higher in fat and sugar, study finds

A significant number of foods marketed to children in the UK are higher in fat and sugar than foods marketed to adults, suggests new research published in Public Health Nutrition

21 May 2013 - Food Navigator - Obesity during pregnancy poses lifetime health risk for babies

A woman's diet and lifestyle before and during pregnancy, and her baby's diet in early life, can affect the infant's risk of succumbing to disease later on and this will have important implications for the food industry, a new scientific report has concluded.

19 May 2013 - Cancer and diet: Why is nutrition overlooked?

Thousands of scientific papers have been published on the link between diet and the treatment and prevention of cancer. But in practice food is still considered a marginal aspect of cancer care.