WorldWide Health News

The city of New York has instated new laws for chain restaurants to list nutritional information on their menus. The proposed bill is aimed to abate the growing obesity rates with the hope of making people think twice before ordering a Double Whopper with Cheese - which contains a massive 990 calories!

Nearly two-thirds of the American population are classified as obese, and on average a third of calories consumed are from dining out. Food from restaurants and other establishments contains more calories than food prepared in the home and may be one of the major contributing causes to obesity. Although supported by the Obesity Society, its president Dr David Allison seems doubtful the new scheme, said to take effect at the end of March, will actually help. Instead of making people re-think they’re order, Allison believed it may actually heighten ‘the forbidden fruit allure’ of high-calorie foods.

Melvin Thompson, vice president of the Restaurant Association, is keen to find a compromise that will please both food establishments and health organizations. However, in a recent report he too cast doubts on the success of the scheme, stating; “We’re not sure whether simply providing this information will encourage customers to change their behaviour. We’ve seen nutritional information on food packaging since the early 1990s, yet during that time our obesity rates in the country have doubled.” There is still huge controversy on the subject between those who think it will help combat obesity numbers, those who think it will encourage unhealthy eating habits and those who believe it will spawn an epidemic of eating disorders.

Eli Lilly the creators of tadalafil, marketed as Cialis, which was the first and only impotence drug which worked for up to 36 hours have gained approval from the food and drug administration in the USA for a daily version of their Cialis drug.

The new daily version of Cialis will be available in two doses of 2.5mg and 5mg which will allow for dose adjustment where needed allowing for minimal side effects, much like its predecessor, The manufacturer of this treatment are so confident at its success that they have claimed that a patient will be able to have sexual intercourse any time between doses, which could be considered by some to be the closest to a cure the medical community have come to for erectile dysfunction.

Approval has been applied for within other parts of the world, with Eli Lilly being granted marketing approval in several European countries with others, the UK included, expected to follow suit. With this in mind, it is estimated that this treatment will become available towards the end of 2008.