Foods advertised on television 'sugary and fatty but not nutritious'

This is complete rubbish. Nobody has ever shown that sugar is bad for you but it HAS been shown that the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat is irrelevant to health. The report below is, in other words, based on discredited assumptions

I think the general public are more open-minded than scientists are. Scientists get hold of some pet theory and cling to it like grim death -- evidence regardless. I certainly noted that in my own iconoclastic research career and it is certainly obvious in the global warming "debate". Sad that medical scientists seem to be at least as bad, though

Following a diet based on food advertised on television would leave people consuming 25 times more sugar and 20 times more fat than is healthy, research shows.

Prime time programmes include commercials for single meals that have more than three times the recommended daily servings for sugars, the study disclosed.

Researchers found that a 2,000-calorie diet consisting entirely of advertised foods would contain less than half of the recommended servings of vegetables, dairy, and fruits.

But the amount of sugar and fat contained in meals promoted on television is so great that eating just one meal provides up to three times the recommended daily servings.

The research, which is based on an analysis of adverts on US television, has been published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Michael Mink, Assistant Professor at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia, who led the study, said: "The results of this study suggest the foods advertised on television tend to oversupply nutrients associated with chronic illness and undersupply nutrients that help protect against illness."

Researchers analysed 84 hours of prime time and 12 hours of Saturday morning broadcast television over a 28-day period in 2004.

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Is getting angry good for you?

Yes and no. The measures of benefit below are very rough and it could give you a heart attack

Losing your temper could actually good for you, researchers have found, because letting off steam can lesson the effects of stress. The findings appear to back up the common psychological theory that venting emotions is better for mental health than keeping them locked up.

Expressing anger increases blood flow to a part of the brain thought to be involved in feelings of happiness, the research found.

Scientists were interested in what happens to the human body when we are enraged. To test responses they gathered 30 men in a laboratory and slowly increased their anger levels. The volunteers were all given a list of written statements, asked to read each one silently and then recall a situation in which they felt that way.

The sentences escalated gradually from “today is no different from any other day” to “I am consumed with hatred”. The men's’ heart rate, blood pressure and levels of two stress hormones, testosterone and cortisol, were all measured, and their brains scanned, at the start and the end of the experiment.

The findings, published in the journal Hormones and Behaviour, show that the left hemisphere of the brain became more stimulated when the men were angry. Dr Neus Herrero, from the University of Valencia in Spain, who led the study, said that the left frontal region of the brain is commonly thought to be involved in experiencing positive emotions, while the right is more related to negative emotions. [Good God! What a rough measure. There are many differences in hemispherical function]

Inducing anger generated profound changes in the human body which controlled the heart and hormones, he said. "In addition, changes in cerebral activity also occur, especially in the frontal and temporal lobes," he added.

However, the study also found that getting angry could have serious negative effects on the body. The heart rates and blood pressure levels of the volunteers all increased when they were angry.

And although cortisol levels fell, testosterone levels increased, the study shows.

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