News summary

Sunlight vitamin “affects surgical outcome”

A study in the US suggests that lung cancer patients who have surgery in the winter are 40 per cent more likely to die than in the summer. Researchers at Harvard University say in a study group of 456 patients high levels of vitamin D were shown to have a positive impact on the success of surgery. Lead researcher Wei Zhou says the results do not suggest that people should try to time their surgery for a particular season, but that “they may mean that increasing a patient’s use of vitamin D before [?] surgery could offer a survival benefit.”
BBC News Online

Working mothers and their children’s health

The children of women who work outside the home have healthier eating habits than those whose mothers are full-time homemakers, according to new findings. “The stereotype of modern family life having a negative impact on children’s diets may not necessarily be the case,” says study author Dr Helen Sweeting of the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow. Dr Sweeting analysed surveys on health and lifestyle issues completed in the 1994-to-1995 school year by more than 2,000 11-year-olds and their parents. She says the findings imply that socio-economic status, as measured by the mother’s educational level and the sort of area where the family lives, has much more impact on children’s dietary habits than aspects of family life, such as number of parents, or maternal employment.
Reuters Health Online

Industry responds to obesity

A group backed by the US food and restaurant industry has launched an advertising campaign aimed at dismissing concerns about the large number of obese Americans. Full-page ads in major newspapers paid for by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) have built upon recent government data questioning assertions that obesity causes nearly as many deaths as smoking. A spokesman for the CCF, which is funded by un-named fast-food corporations, says, “Obesity is certainly a genuine problem. But when genuine problems become political issues they tend to become exaggerated, as this has.”
Reuters Health Online

FSA accuses manufacturers

Food manufacturers are merging advertising and entertainment in their efforts to market their products to children, according to the Food Commission. Kath Dalmeny, author of a study published in the commission’s Food Magazine, says, “When children read books or play games they are at their most receptive to learning and suggestion. It’s an advertiser’s dream situation.” A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation said the use of such promotions was not new. “You can go back decades and find children’s books and games associated with food products. The food industry is committed to working with Ofcom and the government on a whole range of concerns relating to advertising to children.”
BBC News Online

Call for clearer advice

Survey results suggest that half of adults in the UK are fed up with being told what to eat by “do-good” campaigners. Mintel says more than two-thirds of the 988 adults it questioned said they have trouble knowing which foods are healthy, because as expert advice keeps changing. James McCoy, a senior market analyst at Mintel, says, “There is clearly a large number of adults who are suffering from chronic information overload when it comes to healthy eating issues.” He said health education campaigners need to find new ways to encourage change for the better in diet among this section of the population.
BBC News Online

Healthy meals “should be free in school”

The professional body for school caterers says healthy meals should be free for all pupils. Neil Porter, chairman of the Local Authority Caterers Association, says that would be the way to improving children’s diets, and that the long-term health benefits would soon outweigh the extra shorter-term costs. “The big problem we have is that it’s been commercially driven. And the big question is ‘Should school catering be treated as a business?’ And quite frankly, I don’t think it should be,” says Mr Porter, whose association represents caterers in both the private and the public sectors.
BBC News Online

Study casts doubt on supplements

It appears that vitamin supplements taken by thousands of women to prevent osteoporosis may be useless. Research at the University of Aberdeen indicates that among the elderly vitamin D and calcium supplementation have no effect on bone strength or on the liklihood of injury in a fall. The first hospital-based study, the Aberdeen research took in data on more than 5,000 people at 21 hospitals around the UK, who had had at least one fracture within the past 10 years. Professor Adrian Grant of the University of Aberdeen, who led the study, says, “We have found no evidence that these supplements have a role to play. Instead we need to consider other strategies.”
The Independent