Martin White

Nov 15, 2024 | bmj.com | Martin White

Rapid Response: Dear Editor,Alain Braillon (BMJ 2024;387:q2415) is right to highlight the importance of social media as an influence on children and young people's dietary preferences, but incorrect in his assertion that the UK Government's new regulations, due to be implemented on 1st October 2025, do not apply to social media.

Jun 10, 2024 | nature.com | Nina Rogers |Steven Cummins |Catrin Jones |Chrissy h. Roberts |Syed Shah |Aziz Sheikh | +1 more

AbstractSugar sweetened beverage consumption has been suggested as a risk factor for childhood asthma symptoms. We examined whether the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), announced in March 2016 and implemented in April 2018, was associated with changes in National Health Service hospital admission rates for asthma in children, 22 months post-implementation of SDIL. We conducted interrupted time series analyses (2012-2020) to measure changes in monthly incidence rates of hospital admissions.

Sep 26, 2023 | nature.com | Bob Doherty |Peter Jackson |Carol Wagstaff |Martin White

Minister Mark Spencer announced in May 2023 a reversing of the decision to develop a strategy for horticulture. Instead, the government says it now wants to focus on a labour review and a farming innovation programme. Dimbleby’s independent review in 2021 (ref. 6) had set out how UK diets will need to change over the next ten years to meet the government’s targets on health, climate and nature. By 2032, fruit and vegetable consumption will have to increase by 30% and fibre consumption by 50%.

Mar 18, 2023 | allafrica.com | Martin White

There was a goldmine inside a building in Malawi, but it lay covered in dust and neglected. Not many seemed aware of the riches that lay in disarray inside MBC, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. The gold at MBC was of an elusive sort, beautiful sounds, words and melodies, unique, irreplaceable records of Malawi's national treasure: its culture. We're talking about sound recordings stored on magnetic tapes, which unlike that other kind of gold, are perishable.