A Western-style diet can be characterised by the consumption of highly #processed and #refined foods, with high contents of #sugars, #salt, and #fat and #protein from red meat. This type of diet has been associated with poor health outcomes as a major contributor to the development of obesity-related diseases as well as an increased incidence of chronic kidney disease. Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney have now published a new study in the Royal Society Open Science journal linking a western diet to poor #appetite control as well as reduced #cognitive skills.

When compared with participants who drank less than one glass of either sugar or artificially sweetened soft drinks per month, those consuming two or more glasses a day had a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Participants were given questionnaires at the start of the process to gain knowledge of their general lifestyles, and asked to

Encapsulating relevant, informative information into a humorous and well structured presentation is a real art. In this unusual Clinical Education team recommendation I have selected the work of comedian Simon Evans, who on the 29th July 2015 (radio 4) gave a half hour or so summary on the consequences of eating too much sugar, how that happened and why it is so difficult to stop, despite its miserable health consequences. His witty, articulate and informative summary is one of the best I have heard and suggest that you pod cast it, or save it for a car journey or activity, where you have chance to enjoy and share the experience.

Unless you have been living in a far flung part of the world where access to data is limited most people are aware that sugar has finally been determined to be a far more problematic part of human health decline and disease risk that the much trumpeted but now derided role of fats. Recently poularised opinions, driven by scientists such as Robert Lustig and communicated via films such as Fed Up have in the minds of many made sugar the new tobacco.

Scientists are gearing up for a battle with the food industry after the World Health Organization (WHO) moved to halve its recommendation on sugar intake. Nutrition researchers fear a backlash similar to that seen in 2003, when the WHO released its current guidelines stating that no more than 10% of an adult’s daily calories should

An editorial article out in the New England Journal of medicine has raised some interesting revisits to the questions concerning beverage selection and risk for obesity.[1] In particular the depressing increase in adolescent obesity not only in developed but developing countries because of the significant future health complications that spill out from these issues.

Sugars contained in soft drinks represent a substantial source of caloric intake in the USA and are likely to be similar here in the UK – that is almost 15% of daily calories are derived from soft drinks sweetened with sugar.