Will the Sugar Tax Be Implemented in the UK?

A new study has revealed the cost of eating healthy continues to rise, but price of high-calorie processed foods has dropped. With obesity on the rise, on a worldwide scale, this is a situation that does not bode well for the future. Now researchers in the UK are suggesting the British Government introduce a special tax for junk food and use the proceeds to subsidise the costs of fruit and vegetable production.

Data collected in the study, conducted  by the Overseas Development Institute shows cost of fruit and vegetables has soared over the last two or three decades, but in the years between 1980 and 2012 the cost of ice cream has dropped by 50% and ready meal prices have been slashed by 20%.

The UK is not the only culprit though. In China the costs of vegetables have doubled in the last 20 years, in Brazil the prevalence of sugary drinks and crisps and biscuits has been rendered more attractive by low prices, and cabbage lovers in Korean are now paying around 60% more green for their greens.

In Mexico nearly halt the adult population is obese, but little wonder. The cost of fruit and vegetables has increased significantly since 1990, but the Mexican government has already taken a proactive stance in the fight against obesity. In January 2014, a tax was introduced and applied to high calorie food and drinks.

Obesity can shorten the average person's lifespan by around nine years so the Mexican sugar tax could prolong lives, whether or not such a tax will actually become a reality in the UK, remains to be seen.

Six Little-Known Facts about Testosterone

1. Women have it too!

I know if I tell you that women produce testosterone you are going to shout "Balls!", but it's true. Women really do produce testosterone.  Most people are aware the male testes produce testosterone, but if you want to be really accurate about it the testosterone is actually manufactured by the leydig cells that are located in the testicles. Well guess what, women have leydig cells as well. They are located in the ovaries, and they are not as productive as male leydig cells, but they can and do secrete testosterone each and every day.


2. Testosterone Can Make Your Gal Feel Horny
Although testosterone is generally associated with the male sex drive, if your lady is acting a little friskier of late it could be due to elevated testosterone levels. Testosterone can enhance the female libido by targeting the receptors in the brain that are responsible for regulating the sex drive.


3. Testosterone can make you Big and Strong

Testosterone is a natural steroid hormone that can help speed up post-exercise recovery rates, aid the anabolic (muscle building) process and assist protein synthesis.


4. Testosterone Burns Fat

There is somewhat of a paradox here, because when people become overly fat or obese the extra poundage can restrict the body's ability to produce testosterone. But when the body contains a sufficient quantity of testosterone it can assist the fat burning process and help keep you slim.


5. Testosterone Levels Decline with Age

Yep! It's a scientific fact I'm afraid. The older you get the less testosterone your body is likely to produce.  It's not an ideal situation at the best of times, but when you are trying to remain big and strong so you burn off a little extra fat with your significant other, whose producing so much she's turned into a rampant beast, it can be a particularly daunting state of affairs. But do you know what the worst thing is guys? Testosterone production often starts to diminish during adolescence. After that it's downhill all the way.


6. Testosterone Supplements Began as a Piss-Take

Testosterone was first synthesized in 1935 and the production process was strange to say the least. It required a sufficient quantity of the male hormone aldosterone, which had to be distilled from around 4,000 gallons of donated human urine.

Book Talk: A Few Audiobook Advantages

Everyone knows the reasons why eBook readers are supposed to a better option than normal books (no trees are slaughtered in their creation, take up less room on the shelf etc.), but there is another option out there. Yep, I'm talking audiobooks. You know—books that talk to you! And it could be argued that audiobooks are even better than eBooks because you listen to them while eating a bag of chips and not need to worry about getting grease all over your Amazon Kindle, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Let's have a look at a few more reasons why any getting your story fix from an audiobook may be a better option than you ever realized.

You can get your Stories on the Go

Yeah, I know what it sounds like, but I'm not suggesting you listen to your favourite book while you're sitting on the John—although it's certainly doable. But there are many occasions where flicking a few pages or consulting the Kindle are not really possible.

• At the gym:  Thank God for headphones and Terry Pratchett (now if only there was something you could do about the guy next to you with the terminal BO!)
• Driving the car:  always a good option and a real life-saver in a traffic jam.
• Travelling on the bus/train: Well you didn't really want to listen to the lady in front of you banging on about her verruca and varicose veins, did you?

No Glasses Required

After a long day at work the eyes can feel pretty tired and sore, and they can feel even worse if some smelly guy in the gym has given you a good hiding for complaining about his personal hygiene, so it can sometimes be nice to just put up your feet, close your eyes, and listen to a few chapters of a good book (a good book, not The Good Book—all the begatting that went on may have been fun at the time, but hearing about it thousands of years later ain't much fun and the Bible leaves out all the juicy bits that could have made kids actually want to read it last thing at night.)

Space Saving Stories

Although audiobooks were traditionally sold on CDs, and the really old may even have listened to them on cassettes or Long Playing Records, these days most people just purchase an audiobook download and downloads are famous for their space-saving capabilities. And in the case of Audible audiobooks there is no need to even worry about retaining a back-up copy of the file because Audible customers can log-in to their account and access all of the books in their library any time that they want to and download them as many times as required.

Great for Learning Languages

Budding language students or people who need a pre-holiday brush up on their Spanish chat-up lines can study on the go, any time they want, and speak along with the native speaker. Audiobooks are a great way to learn or improve your language skills, even if it does mean you sometimes get a few funny looks when you are talking to yourself at bus stops.

A few other Audiobooks Benefits

• No lights are required
• Audiooks don't discolour and go smelly with age
• Audiobooks can be a brilliant way to avoid listening to your partner during nagging sessions
• Paper cuts are extremely unlikely

Overeating Could Damage Your Liver

Binge drinking may be a big problem in the UK, but it appears overeating may is catching-up fast because a leading health expert is warning that, by the year 2020, most liver transplants are likely to be the results of overeating rather than alcohol abuse.

Dr Quentin Anstee, consultant hepatologist at Newcastle University and the Freeman hospital, says he UK is facing a "major and growing challenge" as an escalating number of Brits succumb to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Around 33% of the British population is already believed to suffer from the condition and researchers are putting it down to greed—people are quite simply cramming themselves with more food than their livers can handle.

"Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the major and growing challenges facing the UK," Anstee said."

But with so much of the population at risk, Anstee says it may be hard to decide which individuals to "home in on".

"There has been a shift in the entire population," Anstee explained. "The truth is that the man in the street is carrying a few more pounds than a decade ago. The rate of liver disease has increased 400% since the 1970s."

The figures are already frightening enough, but Anstee's forecast for the future does not suggest there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

"It’s predicted that by the end of this decade, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease will be the most common underlying reason why people are required to have liver transplants, overtaking alcohol," he said.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a blanket term that covers a number of condition that are caused by a build-up of fat within the liver cells, but the condition is more common in those who are overweight or obese.

Obesity is on the rise on a worldwide scale though, so Brits are not the only culprits when it comes to going large on their meals and growing large a consequence. Unfortunately, once overeating has become a habit it can be a hard habit to break and many people lack the necessary motivation to exercise regularly and eat healthy, even when the stakes are so high, so Anstee's predictions for the future will likely be all too accurate.