Health & Environment

Can the WHO's idea of a tax on sugary drinks work in Hong Kong? by Tracy Zhang A group of primary school students were sitting around a table at McDonald's in Kowloon City Plaza, enjoying their meal with sips of cola. "I drink cola every meal because I love it so much," said a plump 12-year-old boy. In Hong Kong, almost all fast food restaurants provide cola and lemonade as their main beverages. Convenient stores and vending machines also display a variety of sugary drinks. The World Health Organization(WHO) released a report on October 11, stating that taxing sugary drinks can efficiently lower the consumption and reduce the rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. Fiscal policies that raise the retail price of sugary drinks by 20 per cent or more would bring about proportional reductions in consumption of such products, according to the report titled "Fiscal policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases". Just days before, Hong Kong government was urged to implement WHO's call to tax all sugary drinks in order to curb the rising rate of obesity. A survey from the Department of Health shows more than 46 per cent of people in Hong Kong are in the class of overweight or obese, with one in four primary school children being overweight. The rate is still climbing. According to WHO global estimates, 39 per cent of adults worldwide are overweight and the figure has more than doubled between 1980 to 2014. WHO suggests sugar-sweetened beverages are largely to blame for people getting overweight and catching diseases. The tax policies could be an effective device to tackle the problem. According to WHO global estimates, 39 per cent adults worldwide are overweight and the figure more than doubled from 1980 to 2014. "Overseas and local medical …

A new remedy for food allergies by Crystal Tai When Kelly Tang Tsz-yu was just two years old, she took a spoonful of shrimp and shortly after that, her skin was covered with an itchy rash. Her mother Iris Tai Lok-man was terrified when she began to have breathing difficulties. Since then, her mother always makes sure that Kelly stays away from seafood, peanuts and other common allergens. Like many parents, she holds on to the belief that her child will be fine as long as she stops eating food that triggers an allergic reaction. But new findings show that adding peanuts and eggs to babies' diets – rather than keeping them away, can cut the rates of allergies. An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month, found that early introduction of allergenic food to infants, can reduce risk. The journal shows evidence that feeding peanuts to babies aged between 4 and 11 months,  can lower their chance of developing a peanut allergy. Further studies suggest that early introduction of other common allergens like eggs and fish,  was linked to fewer amount of allergies later on. The new approach to treating food allergies is in contrast with the research released around a decade ago.  At the time, the American Academy of Pediatrics asked kids to stay away from allergens until they were much older. Researchers concluded that there was a "moderate" certainty that putting food allergies in babies' diets prevents the allergy from developing. Ms June Chan King Chi, Senior Dietitian at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital said that early introduction of allergens to children has been a heated topic in the UK and the US recently. She said between 2008 to 2015, 1,300 three-month old infants were regularly fed small portions of milk, …