A shortage of vitamin D can increase a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life, new research suggests.

One 30-year study of 3,000 people revealed a three-fold higher risk of developing Parkinson’s in those with low blood levels of vitamin D.

A separate investigation found that low vitamin D intake was associated with a 60 per cent greater chance of suffering seriously impaired mental faculties later in life.

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Computers can make you fat – and not just from lack of exercise.

Research shows that staring at a computer screen makes us work up an appetite for sweet treats like chocolate cake and biscuits.

It is thought that the mental stress of computer work triggers changes in blood sugar and hormone levels that trick the brain into thinking it has worked off lots of calories that need replaced.

Computer games and TV watching have the same effect, the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm heard.

Researcher Jean-Philippe Chaput suggests that office workers who want to keep trim should take regular screen breaks – and even consider typing while standing up.

Dr Chaput, of the University of Copenhagen, started to research the subject after noticing how is supervisor regularly snacked on chocolate biscuits when doing computer work.

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Also: taking the toys out of kiddie fast food; providing free childcare for women with breast cancer.

When you’re feeling blue, do you have an urge for a bite of chocolate? Well, you’re certainly not alone.

New research, published this week, reveals that people suffering from depressive symptoms tend to eat more chocolate than those in a happier frame of mind.

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Those who stick to a low-calories diet in the hope of losing weight shouldn’t bother unless they exercise as well, according to scientists.

A new study found that simply reducing portion sizes pr swapping snacks for healthier alternatives was not enough to promote significant weight loss.

Scientists from Oregon Health and Science University said this appeared to be due to a natural compensatory mechanism that reduces a person’s physical activity in response to a reduction in calories.

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Calls to ban trans-fats from all foods in the UK have been backed by US public health experts.

Trans-fats – solid fats found in margarines, cakes and fast food – are banned in some countries.

An editorial in the British Medical Journal said 7,000 deaths a year could be prevented by a 1% reduction in consumption.

But the Food Standards Agency said the UK’s low average consumption made a complete ban unnecessary.

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Huntington, West Virginia, is a small city nestled along the bank of the Ohio River. It has five parks, a famous college football team, dozens of churches, countless fast-food restaurants, a population of 49,000 and a mayor, Kim Wolfe, who rides a horse and delivered all of his eight children himself.

It has also been recently crowned the fattest city in the U.S., which is the developed world’s most unhealthy country.

Everywhere you look in Huntington, there are oversized people — in the cinema complex, outside Starbucks, squeezing into booths at Buddy’s All American Bar-B-Que.

A few are just large, but more are properly obese — bulging out in all the wrong places and too big to run, jog, ride a bike or even walk without wheezing in pain.

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Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” just got a shot to the gut.

A controversial study published by Arizona State University, the University of Cologne in Germany and Erasmus University in the Netherlands found that ads featuring plus-size models cause women who are either normal weight or overweight to feel just as bad — if not worse — about themselves as ads featuring super-thin models.

Since the 2006 death of 21-year-old model, Ana Carolina Reston, who died due to complications of anorexia — Reston was 5-foot 8-inches tall and weighed 88 pounds at the time of her death — the fashion industry has been doubling back on its malnourished roots.

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When is a stationary bike not a stationary bike? When it turns sharp corners and climbs up hills – or feels like it, anyway.

I am not a real rider. I do not own a bicycle (or a car, for that matter); my primary mode of transportation is my own two feet. Years ago, I took up spinning which, as my cycling friends are quick to point out, is not the same as tackling 50 kilometres of hilly terrain. But I appreciated spinning as a workout – the drills, the music, the profuse sweating – and attended three times weekly until deciding I wanted a break a couple of years ago.

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Don’t get sucked into the idea that food is your enemy when you’re trying to lose weight. In fact, it’s just the opposite: Befriend the right foods, and the pounds are much more likely to peel off than if you just try to cut calories across the board. Here, seven foods known to nutritionists to boost your body’s fat-burning potential.

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Frozen vegetables can be more nutritious than supposedly fresh supermarket produce, a study has found.

Fresh vegetables can lose up to 45 per cent of important nutrients by the time they reach the dinner table.

Time spent in storage, in transportation and sitting on the shelves means it can be more than two weeks from the vegetables being picked to being eaten.

By contrast, produce frozen close to the point of harvest maintains a higher level of many vitamins and nutrients.

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