Living without a car in areas with high fast food availability ups obesity risk

October 5th, 2009 McDonald's to become Mona Lisa's new neighborPARIS — French culture and American convenience will come together in December — thanks to plans by the McDonald's restaurant chain to hang its shingle in the shadow of the Louvre. McDonald's is delighted at the prospect of feeding hungry culture vultures.

September 25th, 2009 LONDON - Victoria Beckham's skeletal size zero frame has inspired gamers to launch an internet game where players hurl food at her. The game titled 'Nosh for Posh' requires players to throw burgers, fruits, veggies and sushi at a tiny moving face modelled on the former Spice Girl.amers are introduced to the game by a cartoon of Posh, which says: "Help me!!! I need to put on weight!" The game can be played at www.missbimbo.com/noshposh and gives 30 seconds to players to fling food at Beckham as she appears on different windows.he score is visible at the right hand corner of screen and Beckham changes the windows more quickly as the level increases.

September 24th, 2009 LONDON - Six out of 10 British women have confessed that shopping gives them a buzz - even if it just meant buying bread or milk, says a new survey. According to a poll of 5,347 women, over half of the entire female population shop because it gives them a high and a third can't help spending money - even when they can't afford it.

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If parents use physical discipline on kids during their childhood, it could lead to behaviour problems in adolescence, concluded two new studies. Researchers at Duke University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Auburn University, and Indiana University conducted the study to explore how discipline changes during childhood and adolescence, and what family factors affect those changes.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Eat at the right time of day if you actually want to shed those extra pounds, for an American study so suggests. Researchers at Northwestern University have found that eating at irregular times influences weight gain.

July 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Smokeless tobacco products, as used in Europe and North America, do not seem to increase cancer risk, according to the latest research. A comprehensive analysis has shown that snuff as used in Scandinavia has no discernible effect on the risk of various cancers.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Playing active video games can be as beneficial for kids as moderate exercise, says a new study. Research by Oklahoma University (OU) paediatricians shows that active video games offer a great alternative to moderate exercise for sedentary kids who may be at high risk of obesity and diabetes.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - A leading headmaster has warned that children, whose parents do not take risks, will end up unable to cope with work or grown-up life. Rod Grant, headmaster of Clifton Hall independent school in Edinburgh, who thinks that parents have become hugely "risk averse", says that it is wrong to remove trees from playgrounds or diving boards from swimming pools in a misguided attempt to protect youngsters.

July 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Lack of sleep raises a woman's risk of heart disease more than it does for a man, according to a new study. Sleeping less than the recommended eight hours a night has been linked to a raised risk of heart problems.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - After battling acne for years, Cameron Diaz has yet another skin condition to deal with. The movie beauty has a nasty case of psoriasis just below her right elbow - and the itch is known as 'heartbreak' by skin doctors, because it doesn't clear easily and can come back.

June 17th, 2009 Correction: 'Food, Inc.' reviewLOS ANGELES — In a June 15 review of "Food Inc.," The Associated Press reported erroneously that the documentary showed chickens puffed-up and collapsing from steroids. One chicken farmer in the film showed oversized birds that had been given antibiotics.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers have challenged the age-old belief that living near a fast food outlet increases weight-related problems in kids, and that living near fresh fruit- and vegetable-selling supermarkets lowers weight. The researchers compared children's weights over time before and after one of these food purveyors moved near the kids' residences.

May 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An American study suggests that 'Cyber Millenials'-a term used to describe tech-savvy singles and couples living in fashionable neighbourhoods on the urban fringe-are most likely to engage in high-risk drinking. Howard B. Moss, the study's corresponding author who is also the Associate Director for Clinical and Translational Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), revealed that the research group identified cyber millenials after categorizing people by their behaviours, attitudes, opinions, or lifestyles in a widely used in social-marketing efforts called 'Audience segmentation'.

May 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An ongoing study suggests that a daily exercise programme may help reduce levels of several known risk factors for cardiovascular disease among school children as young as 11. Started four years ago in the German city of Leipzig, the study has already shown that kids assigned to daily exercise lessons reduced their overall prevalence of obesity, improved their exercise capacity, increased their levels of HDL-cholesterol, and reduced their systolic blood pressure.

May 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - South Asian people migrating to Europe face an increased risk of diet-related diseases as they adjust to a 'Western' lifestyle, according to scientists. Indian-origin researcher Dr.