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Britons bite more fat than they should
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-11 07:46

Britons are eating 20 percent more saturated fat than they should, the country's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said yesterday as it launched an advertising campaign promoting healthier diets.

The 40-second TV ad shows a jug of saturated fat being poured down a kitchen sink, overloading and blocking the pipe.

"People say they do know that saturated fat is bad for them but they don't necessarily link it to heart disease," said the agency's Chief Executive Tim Smith.

"It's important they make that connection, because heart disease is the UK's number one killer - one in three of us will die as a result," he added.

The agency recommended people grill rather than fry food, cut the fat off meat, switch to low-fat food products and use vegetable oils instead of butter.

A high intake of saturated fats can raise cholesterol levels in the blood, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, heart attacks, angina or stroke. The agency said cutting such intake could prevent up to 3,500 premature deaths per year.

In a survey, the FSA found that only 29 percent of people take the fatty skin off poultry, only 24 percent cut white fat bits off meat joints and less than half (43 percent) grill their meat instead of frying.

Postpartum illness, age linked

First-time mothers who give birth after the age of 35 are more than twice as likely as younger mums to suffer postpartum psychosis that could involve a danger to the newborn child, a Swedish study showed yesterday.

"The risk of developing psychosis during the first 90 days (after childbirth) increased with age," said the study, conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and published by the Public Library of Science medical journal.

Women over 35 when they gave birth for the first time were 2.4 times more likely to develop postpartum psychosis than those younger than 19, according to the study, which was based on data gathered from all the nearly 750,000 first-time mother.

While some 80 percent of new mothers experience light depression, only about one in 1,000 women suffer from psychosis in the first months after giving birth, the study showed.

Postpartum psychosis is defined as a serious mental disorder, involving delusions, hallucinations, severe eating or sleeping disturbances and suicidal tendencies.