On 10 November 2020, the UK government launched a consultation for a total ban on online adverts for ‘junk’ food. The proposed rules, following on from a broader antiobesity strategy published earlier in the year, surprised many for being far tougher than expected. All of this sound and fury, after years of relative inaction, was thought to have resulted from Prime Minister Boris Johnson experiencing a Damascene conversion after he caught COVID-19. He blamed the severity of his symptoms on his elevated weight.
Obesity is indeed one of the biggest public health crises the UK faces, with almost two-thirds of adults either overweight or living with obesity. Crucially, one-third of children leave primary school overweight or with obesity, making them more likely to become adults carrying excess weight.
What the pandemic has crystallised for many, including our PM, is that living with obesity increases your risk of a number of different diseases, infectious or otherwise. Hence this far-reaching proposed ban on all online adverts promoting ‘junk’ food high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS), with the explicit aim of helping protect children from developing long-term unhealthy eating habits.
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av BBC Focus - Science & Technology.
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Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av BBC Focus - Science & Technology.
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Do We Finally Know How the Egyptian Pyramids Were Built? - A number of breakthrough studies are beginning to paint a picture of how these wonders of the world were built, but much of the story still remains a mystery...
A number of breakthrough studies are beginning to paint a picture of how these wonders of the world were built, but much of the story still remains a mystery...How the Egyptian pyramids were built has long been a mystery. Constructed as tombs for the pharaohs over 4,000 years ago, more than 100 of them remain. The largest one, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was originally 147m tall (482ft). It's made up of about 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing between 2.5 and 15 tonnes, and would have had to be transported to the building site and lifted into place with techniques available at the time. To put this into context, it's akin to lifting a double-decker London bus to the top of St Pauls Cathedral a few million times.
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