Questões de Inglês

Children’s sugar intake equals five doughnuts a day,
campaigners say

  Children and young people are consuming the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip biscuits a day in sugar, according to anti-obesity campaigners. The calculations by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) have led to renewed calls for food and soft drinks manufacturers to make their products healthier to cut the number of dangerously overweight children. They want urgent action to reduce the amount of “hidden” sugar in many common foodstuffs.

  Children and young people aged between 11 and 18 typically have an intake of 73.2 grams of sugar a day, far in excess of the 30 grams – or seven teaspoons – maximum recommended in official health advice, according to the OHA’s estimates. Those 73.2 grams are the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip or custard cream biscuits, 14.6 jelly babies or 4.8 jam-filled doughnuts. Four- to 10-year-olds are consuming 53.5 grams of sugar a day, while the figure among 19- to 64-year-olds is 59.9 grams daily.

  Dr Alison Tedstone, Public Health England’s chief nutritionist, said that while some food manufacturers have pledged to cut the amount of sugar in their products, certain kinds of retailers – including coffee chains – need to follow suit. Producers including the supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose, Nestlé, and Kellogg’s have announced plans to reduce their use of sugar as part of a reformulation drive ahead of the government’s sugar tax coming into force in 2018. However, many other firms have made no such commitment and may be hit by the tax. Public Health England (PHE) wants all food manufacturers and outlets to strip 20% of all sugar out of a wide range of products by 2020. 

  Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, said that overweight or obese children are much more likely to be dangerously overweight in adulthood and thus increase their risk of developing 11 forms of cancer.  

(Denis Campbell. www.theguardian.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)

Children’s sugar intake equals five doughnuts a day,
campaigners say

  Children and young people are consuming the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip biscuits a day in sugar, according to anti-obesity campaigners. The calculations by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) have led to renewed calls for food and soft drinks manufacturers to make their products healthier to cut the number of dangerously overweight children. They want urgent action to reduce the amount of “hidden” sugar in many common foodstuffs.

  Children and young people aged between 11 and 18 typically have an intake of 73.2 grams of sugar a day, far in excess of the 30 grams – or seven teaspoons – maximum recommended in official health advice, according to the OHA’s estimates. Those 73.2 grams are the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip or custard cream biscuits, 14.6 jelly babies or 4.8 jam-filled doughnuts. Four- to 10-year-olds are consuming 53.5 grams of sugar a day, while the figure among 19- to 64-year-olds is 59.9 grams daily.

  Dr Alison Tedstone, Public Health England’s chief nutritionist, said that while some food manufacturers have pledged to cut the amount of sugar in their products, certain kinds of retailers – including coffee chains – need to follow suit. Producers including the supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose, Nestlé, and Kellogg’s have announced plans to reduce their use of sugar as part of a reformulation drive ahead of the government’s sugar tax coming into force in 2018. However, many other firms have made no such commitment and may be hit by the tax. Public Health England (PHE) wants all food manufacturers and outlets to strip 20% of all sugar out of a wide range of products by 2020. 

  Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, said that overweight or obese children are much more likely to be dangerously overweight in adulthood and thus increase their risk of developing 11 forms of cancer.  

(Denis Campbell. www.theguardian.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)

Children’s sugar intake equals five doughnuts a day,
campaigners say

  Children and young people are consuming the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip biscuits a day in sugar, according to anti-obesity campaigners. The calculations by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) have led to renewed calls for food and soft drinks manufacturers to make their products healthier to cut the number of dangerously overweight children. They want urgent action to reduce the amount of “hidden” sugar in many common foodstuffs.

  Children and young people aged between 11 and 18 typically have an intake of 73.2 grams of sugar a day, far in excess of the 30 grams – or seven teaspoons – maximum recommended in official health advice, according to the OHA’s estimates. Those 73.2 grams are the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip or custard cream biscuits, 14.6 jelly babies or 4.8 jam-filled doughnuts. Four- to 10-year-olds are consuming 53.5 grams of sugar a day, while the figure among 19- to 64-year-olds is 59.9 grams daily.

  Dr Alison Tedstone, Public Health England’s chief nutritionist, said that while some food manufacturers have pledged to cut the amount of sugar in their products, certain kinds of retailers – including coffee chains – need to follow suit. Producers including the supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose, Nestlé, and Kellogg’s have announced plans to reduce their use of sugar as part of a reformulation drive ahead of the government’s sugar tax coming into force in 2018. However, many other firms have made no such commitment and may be hit by the tax. Public Health England (PHE) wants all food manufacturers and outlets to strip 20% of all sugar out of a wide range of products by 2020. 

  Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, said that overweight or obese children are much more likely to be dangerously overweight in adulthood and thus increase their risk of developing 11 forms of cancer.  

(Denis Campbell. www.theguardian.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)

Children’s sugar intake equals five doughnuts a day,
campaigners say

  Children and young people are consuming the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip biscuits a day in sugar, according to anti-obesity campaigners. The calculations by the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) have led to renewed calls for food and soft drinks manufacturers to make their products healthier to cut the number of dangerously overweight children. They want urgent action to reduce the amount of “hidden” sugar in many common foodstuffs.

  Children and young people aged between 11 and 18 typically have an intake of 73.2 grams of sugar a day, far in excess of the 30 grams – or seven teaspoons – maximum recommended in official health advice, according to the OHA’s estimates. Those 73.2 grams are the equivalent of 20 chocolate chip or custard cream biscuits, 14.6 jelly babies or 4.8 jam-filled doughnuts. Four- to 10-year-olds are consuming 53.5 grams of sugar a day, while the figure among 19- to 64-year-olds is 59.9 grams daily.

  Dr Alison Tedstone, Public Health England’s chief nutritionist, said that while some food manufacturers have pledged to cut the amount of sugar in their products, certain kinds of retailers – including coffee chains – need to follow suit. Producers including the supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose, Nestlé, and Kellogg’s have announced plans to reduce their use of sugar as part of a reformulation drive ahead of the government’s sugar tax coming into force in 2018. However, many other firms have made no such commitment and may be hit by the tax. Public Health England (PHE) wants all food manufacturers and outlets to strip 20% of all sugar out of a wide range of products by 2020. 

  Sarah Toule, head of health information at World Cancer Research Fund, said that overweight or obese children are much more likely to be dangerously overweight in adulthood and thus increase their risk of developing 11 forms of cancer.  

(Denis Campbell. www.theguardian.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)

Zika, Ebola outbreaks can be predicted using
climate change, scientists say

Jamie A.
June 14, 2016

Women walk with their wares through the West Point slum on February 9, 2016 in Monrovia, Liberia. West Point, the most impoverished and overpopulated community in Liberia, was hard hit by the Ebola outbreak, and health facilities at the time were overwhelmed. After almost two years, on January 14, 2016 the World Health Organization declared the epidemic over, after the virus had killed some 11,300 people and infected more than 28,500 people in West Africa.

  Scientists in the UK said that Zika and Ebola outbreaks could be predicted based on changes in the environment. Researchers at the University College London (UCL) developed a model that can predict outbreaks of zoonotic diseases – such as Zika and Ebola that came from animals – based on changes in climate, population growth and land use.

  The study, which was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, is described as “a major improvement in our understanding of the spread of diseases from animals to humans,” and the researchers said that the study could help governments prepare and respond to outbreaks, as well as consider the environmental risks when making policies. “Our model can help decision-makers assess the likely impact (on zoonotic disease) of any interventions or change in national or international government policies, such as conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands,” Kate Jones, professor at the University College London’s genetics, evolution and environment department and co-author of the study, said in a press release. According to the study, more than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic by nature, and that aside from Zika and Ebola, other highly infectious diseases such as Rift Valley fever and Lassa fever are predicted to spread with changing environmental factors.

  Researchers tested the new model with the Lassa fever epidemic in West Africa, which was caused by the Lassa virus from rats. The team used the locations of 408 known Lassa fever outbreaks in West Africa between 1967 and 2012 and the changes in land use and crop yields, temperature and rainfall, behavior and access to healthcare.

  To track the virus’ location against ecological factors, the researchers also identified the sub-species of the multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) responsible for transmitting the virus. With these information, the model predicts that the number of people infected by the disease will double from 195,125 to 406,725 by 2070.

  “Our new approach successfully predicts outbreaks of individual diseases by pairing the changes in the host’s distribution as the environment changes with the mechanics of how that disease spreads from animals to people, which hasn’t been done before,” Dr. David Redding of UCL and co-author of the study said in the press release. “It allows us to calculate how often people are likely to come into contact with disease-carrying animals and their risk of the virus spilling over. Alongside population increases, the expected future changes to climatic patterns will drive an expansion of the areas of West Africa considered high risk, especially the western most regions around Senegal and Guinea, the coastline of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and in Central Nigeria,” Redding added. According to the researchers, the model could be refined to include the impact of travel infrastructure, human-to-human contact rates and poverty.

(www.natureworldnews.com. Adaptado.)

Zika, Ebola outbreaks can be predicted using
climate change, scientists say

Jamie A.
June 14, 2016

Women walk with their wares through the West Point slum on February 9, 2016 in Monrovia, Liberia. West Point, the most impoverished and overpopulated community in Liberia, was hard hit by the Ebola outbreak, and health facilities at the time were overwhelmed. After almost two years, on January 14, 2016 the World Health Organization declared the epidemic over, after the virus had killed some 11,300 people and infected more than 28,500 people in West Africa.

  Scientists in the UK said that Zika and Ebola outbreaks could be predicted based on changes in the environment. Researchers at the University College London (UCL) developed a model that can predict outbreaks of zoonotic diseases – such as Zika and Ebola that came from animals – based on changes in climate, population growth and land use.

  The study, which was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, is described as “a major improvement in our understanding of the spread of diseases from animals to humans,” and the researchers said that the study could help governments prepare and respond to outbreaks, as well as consider the environmental risks when making policies. “Our model can help decision-makers assess the likely impact (on zoonotic disease) of any interventions or change in national or international government policies, such as conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands,” Kate Jones, professor at the University College London’s genetics, evolution and environment department and co-author of the study, said in a press release. According to the study, more than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic by nature, and that aside from Zika and Ebola, other highly infectious diseases such as Rift Valley fever and Lassa fever are predicted to spread with changing environmental factors.

  Researchers tested the new model with the Lassa fever epidemic in West Africa, which was caused by the Lassa virus from rats. The team used the locations of 408 known Lassa fever outbreaks in West Africa between 1967 and 2012 and the changes in land use and crop yields, temperature and rainfall, behavior and access to healthcare.

  To track the virus’ location against ecological factors, the researchers also identified the sub-species of the multimammate rat (Mastomys natalensis) responsible for transmitting the virus. With these information, the model predicts that the number of people infected by the disease will double from 195,125 to 406,725 by 2070.

  “Our new approach successfully predicts outbreaks of individual diseases by pairing the changes in the host’s distribution as the environment changes with the mechanics of how that disease spreads from animals to people, which hasn’t been done before,” Dr. David Redding of UCL and co-author of the study said in the press release. “It allows us to calculate how often people are likely to come into contact with disease-carrying animals and their risk of the virus spilling over. Alongside population increases, the expected future changes to climatic patterns will drive an expansion of the areas of West Africa considered high risk, especially the western most regions around Senegal and Guinea, the coastline of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and in Central Nigeria,” Redding added. According to the researchers, the model could be refined to include the impact of travel infrastructure, human-to-human contact rates and poverty.

(www.natureworldnews.com. Adaptado.)