Home cooking and minimally processed foods best for weight loss, study finds

People lose more weight if they cook minimally processed food from scratch than if they eat ultra-processed and ready-made foods, according to the first study to establish a clear link between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and weight.Trial participants were given one of two diets with the same nutritional profile for eight weeks. One diet was made up of UPFs while the other comprised minimally processed foods.When the first group ate breakfast bars and ready-made lasagne, for example, the second ate oats soaked in milk and natural yoghurt and homemade spaghetti bolognese.At the end of the trial, participants on the second diet had lost twice as much weight as those on the first

Experts express concern for future of Health Survey for England

Public health experts have expressed concern for the future of a “vital” health survey, after the government said it would no longer be run by NHS England.The Health Survey for England, launched in 1991, is an annual study that collects data from about 8,000 adults and 2,000 children across the country, through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires.It gathers data on a range of important health metrics such as height and weight, smoking and alcohol use, with public experts describing it as an “arterial” source of data due it being nationally representative and high quality.At a briefing in July by the UK Data Service, the government said the 2025 edition would be the last one because “NHS England will not be prioritising population health surveys in its long-term strategic work plan”.The news comes amid unprecedented cost cutting within the NHS, as the health service faces a predicted shortfall of nearly £7

Call to crack down on ‘hooch’ and medicine in prisons after Dorset death

Ministers should draw up a specific policy to reduce inmate access to illicitly brewed alcohol and medication, a coroner has said, after the death of a vulnerable prisoner.An inquest jury found last month that Sheldon Jeans, who was discovered dead in his cell at HMP Guys Marsh in November 2022, had died as a result of consuming illegal alcohol and four different medications that had not been prescribed to him, recording death by misadventure.Rachael Griffin, the senior Dorset coroner, issued a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report in response to findings at the inquest, highlighting national policy and guidance relating to the handling of hooch and medication in prisons as areas for concern.“In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken … There is a lack of national policy, and local guidance at HMP Guys Marsh, to inform staff working in prisons of the dangers of illicitly brewed alcohol, also known as hooch,” she wrote.The report has been sent to the Department of Health and Social Care, HM Prison and Probation Service, HMP Guys Marsh, and Oxleas NHS foundation trust, requesting a response by 19 September 2025 detailing actions to be taken and a timetable for that action

A Clockwork Orange estate fights ‘art washing’ redevelopment plans

Protesters staged a sit-in at a brutalist 1960s estate featured in Stanley Kubrick’s dystopic film, A Clockwork Orange, to highlight concerns about a development they say amounts to gentrification and art washing.The brief occupation on Saturday of the Lakeside Centre in Thamesmead, an arts centre in south-east London, is part of a wider battle by longstanding residents, who claim that the soul of the community, along with many socially rented homes, will be lost as part of a huge regeneration by the housing association Peabody.Thamesmead was conceived by a group of architects at the former Greater London Council in the 1960s and hailed as “the town of tomorrow”, providing alternative housing to replace dilapidated inner-city homes in London.Lesnes, one of the estates built in the area in the 1960s, was famously depicted in A Clockwork Orange.Sixty years on, improvements are urgently needed and Bexley, like other councils, does not have the cash to do this

‘Cat-sized’ rat found in Teesside town puts focus on pest control cuts

Cuts to council pest control services are being blamed for a town’s rodent problem, which includes the discovery of a supersize rat said to be 22in (56cm) from nose to tail.The giant rat, about the length of the carry-on luggage people might be wheeling on to a flight – or, if not on holiday, a desktop monitor – was found inside a person’s home in Normanby, Teesside.“I had to do a double take when I saw a picture of it,” said Stephen Martin, a Conservative councillor on Redcar and Cleveland council. “You can tell by the size of the bag that it’s not a normal size. It’s the size of a cat

UK pornography taskforce to propose banning ‘barely legal’ content after Channel 4 documentary airs

The new pornography taskforce will propose legislation this autumn aimed at banning a type of “barely legal” content produced by the porn star Bonnie Blue, the Guardian has learned.The proposed action by the independent pornography taskforce, launched last month by the Conservative peer Gabby Bertin, comes in response to the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. The programme followed the performer for six months and included her claim to have had sex with 1,057 clients over the course of 12 hours.Visa and Smirnoff are among a number of businesses that have pulled online advertisements from streaming of the documentary, after reviewing the content. The film was condemned by the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, for “glamorising and normalising” extreme pornography