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But the frequency of family meals doesn't appear to make much of a difference, according to research from The Ohio State University. The study found that adults who reported never watching TV or videos during family meals had significantly lower odds of obesity compared with peers who always watched something during mealtimes. Those whose family meals were all home-cooked also had lower odds of obesity than other adults who ate some or no home-cooked meals. The study appeared in the  Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics . "How often you are eating family meals may not be the most important thing. It could be that what you are doing during these meals matters more," said lead author Rachel Tumin, survey and population health analyst manager at the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center. "This highlights the importance of thinking critically about what is going on during those meals, and whether there might be opportunities to turn th...

Brain tumors are the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in children, and are the second most common type of cancers in children. Over the past few years, advances in cancer therapy have resulted in an increasing number of children who survive their diagnosis of brain tumors. However, this improved survival is offset by their high risk of several comorbid conditions and early death. More recently, there is evidence that these survivors areA new study, published in  Scientific Reports , shows that increased body fat in children who have survived childhood brain tumours, compared to healthy children who have not had brain cancer, may contribute to such poor outcomes. The risk factors for these outcomes have not been thoroughly investigated. A new study, published in  Scientific Reports , shows that increased body fat in children who have survived childhood brain tumours , compared to healthy children who have not had brain cancer, may contribute to such poor outcome...

Previous reviews on obesity have reported 20 to 30 syndromes, but in the first systematic review on obesity syndromes, investigators from McMaster and the University of British Columbia have catalogued 79 syndromes with obesity that have been described in the literature. The research was published in  Obesity Reviews  and led by David Meyre, an associate professor of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact with the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. "Rare genetic forms of obesity with many additional clinical features, such as intellectual disability, facial and organ-specific abnormalities, do exist," said Meyre, the senior author of the paper who holds the Canada Research Chair in Genetics of Obesity. "These syndromes, although individually rare, are much more numerous and diverse than anticipated," added Yuvreet Kaur, the study's first author and a recent graduate of the McMaster Bachelor of Sciences Honours Biology Program....

A new study, carried out at Leeds Beckett University, highlights the differences in pain response between different groups of people. The results could reinforce the argument for weight loss programmes being part of pain management plans for obese people suffering from chronic pain. The team investigated 74 volunteers, categorised as obese, overweight or normal according to their body mass index (BMI) -- a standard way of measuring if a person is at a healthy weight for their height. Volunteers in each group had pressure, cold and heat applied to two different areas of the body. The first experiment tested the hand, at the base of the thumb, an area that has little body fat. The second measured responses near the waist, in an area where extra fat is stored. Volunteers were asked to report at what point the pressure, cold or heat first felt painful. Each volunteer was also asked to report their experience of cold pain by putting their hands into icy water. Again, they were ask...