How to quit sugar this year: ‘It’s a lifestyle change, not a diet’

Week four is when most people experience a crash, and mine is monumental. But by week six, I’ve come through the other side

Half a million older people spend every day alone, poll shows

Scale of loneliness among over-60s revealed as Age UK develops scheme to provide support and companionship

Sugar is the ‘alcohol of the child’, yet we let it dominate the breakfast table

With kids consuming half their sugar quota first thing, it’s no wonder they’re getting diabetes and liver disease. We have to fight corporate interests

No evidence sugar-free soft drinks aid weight loss – study

Academics say no evidence to support perception that ‘diet’ drinks are healthier than full-sugar versions

How the world got fat: a visualisation of global obesity over 40 years

It’s hard to understand or even believe the contagious way that obesity has spread virally around the world - so Max Galka created this visualisation

Children consume half of daily sugar quota at breakfast – study

Public Health England launches barcode app after finding that under-10s consume three times the recommended limit

Let them eat nuts: dentists want office ‘cake culture’ to end in 2017

Royal College of Surgeons dental faculty also urges firms to provide fruit and nuts instead of biscuits at meetings

The Case Against Sugar review – an unsweetened attack on diet myths

Gary Taubes’s latest assault on the ruinous effect of sugar on our lives and the promotion of fat-free diets is detailed and compelling

Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love by Emily Witt – review

One woman’s quest for personal fulfilment proves a handy guide to sex in the internet age

Having a baby? Don’t be brave – take the drugs

There’s no point in false machismo when giving birth when pain relief is so close to hand