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• Cambridge Festival 2023
• Cambridge Festival 2021
• Podcasts
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Cambridge Festival 2023

The crisis in mental health in young women and girls: does our education system make it worse

PhD student Lauren Cross participated in a Cambridge Festival hybrid panel discussion with Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Professor Tamsin Ford, chaired by Murray Edwards College President Dorothy Byrne. The discussion examined why girls and young women are suffering levels of stress and anxiety so far in excess of those their mothers and grandmothers experienced, and what part stress at school and university plays in this.

• Watch the live stream

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Growing up in a changing environment – What really influences what young people eat?

Dr Eleanor Winpenny, Dr Tiago Canelas and Mr Struan Tait discussed the food choices of adolescents and young adults in this Cambridge Festival talk, and the wide range of factors that may influence the food eaten across this period of life. They shared their research from the UK and abroad, focusing on young people’s diets and the influence of changing home, institutional and built environments.

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Cambridge Festival 2021

The new, interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival, replacing the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, took place from 26 March to 4 April 2021. The festival wast primarily digital – to enable wide-reaching engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Involving people in telehealth research during the COVID-19 pandemic – The challenges of scale, engagement and inclusivity

Unit scientists Dr Kirsten Rennie and Dr Rebecca Richards discussed how telehealth approaches are transforming how we are conducting research, focusing on two examples; the Fenland COVID-19 study assessing people’s health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the SWiM-C weight management intervention.

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Life Sciences – A Day in Our Lives

This involved a number of two to three minute-long films, in which PhD students from across Cambridge talk about their average day. Featuring MRC Epidemiology Unit PhD students Matthew Keeble and Julia Carrasco Zanini Sanchez.

MRC Cancer Unit Phd Student Annie Howitt joined Matthew Keeble and others to provide a young person’s guide to life sciences research.

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Podcasts

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Blogging

All blogposts on our own site can be found at www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/blog/category/blog/ These can also be found below, together with blogs, interviews, opinion pieces and recordings by our researchers found elsewhere.

2025

• Sliced Bread – Which cooking oils are best for your health? – Nita Forouhi – BBC Radio 4 – 23 January 2025

2024

• The hidden cost of school uniforms – Mairead Ryan, Esther van Sluijs – School Health Pulse – 03 December 2024
• Breaking through the health boundaries – Ghufran Al Sayed – Gates Cambridge – 25 November 2024
• Combined associations of diet quality, physical activity, and their changes over time with cardiometabolic risk and mortality – Shayan Aryannezhad – Submitted for for 2024 MRC Max Perutz Award – 13 November 2024
• From shelf to health, the global impact of ultra processed food – Divya Bhagtani – Shortlisted for 2024 MRC Max Perutz Award – 13 November 2024
• Are weight loss jabs the solution to the obesity crisis? – Jean Adams, Martin White – University of Cambride Stories – 31 October 2024
• Black History Month video – Kenneth Anujuo – MRC Epidemiology Unit YouTube – 31 October 2024
• Black History Month video – Joseph Odonkor Nartey – MRC Epidemiology Unit YouTube – 30 October 2024
• 10 min/day exercise can lower CVD & cancer risk – Soren Brage – BreathNow – 10 October 2024
• EASO Early Career Network Spotlight: meet Jack Birch – Jack Birch – European Association for the Study of Obesity – 16 September 2024
• Cities and the intersection of climate change and public health – Meelan Thondoo – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog – 03 September 2024
• How equal are the impacts of cycling investments? – Richard Patterson – UCL Celsius ‘ Linking our Lives’ podcast – 27 July 2024
• UK teenagers get two-thirds of their calories from ultra-processed foods – Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde, Esther van Sluijs, Zoi Toumpakari – The Conversation – 18 July 2024
• 5 Ways to Prevent Diabetes – Nick Wareham – BreathNow – 23 May 2024
• EASO Early Career Network Spotlight: Julia Mueller – Julia Mueller – European Association for the Study of Obesity – 28 February 2024
• Spotlight on: Yuru Huang – Yuru Huang – Cambridge Public Health – 15 January 2024
• Spotlight on: Kirsten Rennie – Kirsten Rennie – Cambridge Public Health – 12 January 2024

2023

• Spotlight on: Yuru Huang – Yuru Huang – Cambridge Public Health – 2023
• Being part of the self-correction of science – Jean Adams – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog – 18 December 2023
• How to build healthier neighbourhoods. Nesta talks to…Thomas Burgoine – Thomas Burgoine – Nesta YouTube channel – 11 December 2023
• Where You Live Is As Important As What You Eat – Tollulah Oni – Wired – 30 October 2023
• The Best Medicine: How you treat and entire city like a patient – Tollulah Oni – BBC Radio 4 – 17 October 2023
• Beyond taste and nutrient content: Ultra-Processed Foods and their Impact on Adolescent Health in the UK – Yanaina Chavez-Ugalde, Andrea Smith, Luiza Ricardo, Esther van Sluijs – NIHR School for Public Health Research blog – 29 September 2023
• How equal are the impacts of cycling investments – Richard Patterson – UCL Celsius ‘Linking our Lives’ podcast – 27 July 2023
• 10 tips to help your wellbeing this summer – Lauren Cross, Tamsin Ford – Place2Be blog – 17 July 2023
• The importance of (risky) play: promoting child physical activity, mental health and family wellbeing – Andrea Smith, Kathryn Hesketh, Helen Dodd, Esther van Sluijs – NIHR School for Public Health Research blog – 14 June 2023
• What does the World Health Organization’s guidance that non-sugar sweeteners are not effective for weight loss or disease prevention mean for consumers? – Lorenzo del Grosso – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog – 03 July 2023
• Air pollution is a hidden pandemic in Africa – tips on how to reduce your exposure and help combat it – Gabriel Okello, Meelan Thondoo – The Conversation – 01 May 2023
• Conserving the planet and individual health is not un-Conservative – Dolly Theis – Conservative Home – 02 March 2023
• Are plant-based meat alternatives a nutritionally sound alternative to meat? A comment on recent findings – Daniel Borch Ibsen – Cambridge Global Food Security – 10 February 2023
• Planting more trees could reduce premature deaths in European cities by a third – new research – Meelan Thondoo, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Tamara Iungman – The Conversation – 01 February 2023

2022

• Weight loss treatments are not a permanent fix – that doesn’t mean they ‘don’t work’ – Amy Ahern, Giles Yeo – The Conversation – 17 November 2022
• Public Health, Architecture and Urbanism Dialogues –Tollulah Oni – African Futures Institute – 28 August 2022
• The Food Programme: Reformulation – a fix for the obesity crisis? – Jean Adams – BBC Radio 4 – 07 August 2022
• Meet Tolullah Oni, the innovative doctor who treats cities – Tollulah Oni – Daily Maverick – 24 July 2022
• Inequalities and behavioural weight management – Jack Birch – Alimentos Y Emociones podcast – 05 July 2022
• Half hearted and half baked: the government’s new food strategy – Martin White – BMJ – 22 June- 2022
• The Food Programme: Birmingham’s Food System Revolution – Martin White – BBC Radio 4 – 19 June
• Britain deserves better than 689 failed obesity policies – Dolly Theis – Evening Standard – 17 May 2022
• Social media can be a force for good in a crisis: lessons from Lagos – Tolullah Oni,  Dr Camaren Peter – The Conversation – 16 May 2022
• SWiM-C study: weight gain and wellbeing support during Covid-19 – Julia Mueller, Rebecca Richards – EASO blog – 11 April 2022
• The past, present, and future of health in Nigeria – Ibrahim Abubakar, Tolullah Oni, and Obinna Onwujekwe – The Lancet Voice – 15 March 2022
• Why it’s the right time to lift plan B restrictions in England – Raghib Ali – Guardian, 31 January 2022
• Mental health and young people – Esther van Sluijs, Tamsin Forde, Paul Fletcher – University of Cambridge Mind Over Chatter podcast – 20 January 2022
• Obesity: the gene-environment debate – Sadaf Farooqi, Theresa Marteau, Thomas Burgoine  – University of Cambridge Mind Over Chatter podcast – 13 January 2022
• Why we need better evidence for the long-term health effects of weight loss in type 2 diabetes – Jean Strelitz – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog – 10 January 2022
• Here’s some good news for 2022: this could be the year the pandemic comes to an end – Raghib Ali – Guardian – 04 January 2022

2021

• Heart disease risk from saturated fats may depend on what foods they come from – Marinka Steur, Nita Forouhi – The Conversation, 29 November 2021
• SSM ECRs featuring…Jack Birch! – Jack Birch – Society for Social Medicine & Population Health, 4 September 2021
• Heart health: design cities differently and it can help us live longer – Tolullah Oni, Rizka Maulida – The Conversation, 9 July 2021
• How is food insecurity portrayed in UK newspapers? – Amy Yau, Jean Adams – BMC Series blog – 09 July 2021
• Things I wish I’d known when I started my PhD… from members of the Population Health Interventions programme – Fuse Open Science and MRC Epidemiology Unit blogs – 21 June 2021
• Re-imagining healthy cities for people and nature – Tolullah Oni, Mwikali Muoki – Green Economy Coalition blog – 21 April 2021
• The AfCFTA agreement should be radical in prioritizing Africa’s health – Ebele Mogo – Quartz Africa – 26 March 2021
• Taking the analysis to the data to understand the relationship between legumes and type 2 diabetes – Nita Forouhi, Matthew Pearce – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog – 24 March 2021
• Would an earlier lockdown really have saved tens of thousands of lives? – Raghib Ali – Telegraph – 21 March 2021
• Human Wellbeing, Justice, Climate Action and the road to COP26 – Tolu Oni  – Cambridge Climate Lecture Series – 11 March 2021
• Vaccination offers us a road out of lockdown. Let’s take it – Raghib Ali – Spectator – 21 February 2021
• Live Q&A on Covid vaccine safety – Tolu Oni – @SliderCuts Instagram – 18 February 2021
• UK landscape of prevention research – Nick Wareham, Gavin Malloch – MRC Insight Blog – 02 February 2021
• English obesity policies have long been unfit for purpose, but they are improving – new research – Dolly Theis – The Conversation – 25 January 2021

2020

• Type 2 diabetes weight loss recommendations could be harmful for some, depending on BMI – Jean Strelitz – The Conversation – 16 December 2020
• Portion size estimation in dietary assessment: a systematic review of existing tools – Birdem Amoutzopoulos – Nutrition Reviews: Conversations with the Authors podcast – 31 October 2020
• Why Government policy on obesity affects us all (3 part blog series)- Dolly Theis – Conservative Home – 27 October 2020
• Time to take unhealthy options out of the spotlight – we need tough restrictions on junk food ads – Oliver Mytton – Telegraph – 26 October 2020
• The Government needs a Plan B for Covid-19, lives and livelihoods. Here’s how one would work – Raghib Ali – Conservative Home – 22 October 2020
• Covid-19. The pluses and minuses of the Government’s new plan – and why there should be no more lockdowns – Raghib Ali – Conservative Home – 25 September 2020
• Beyond the pandemic – what should we do? Rethink the menu and how much it costs – Jean Adams – University of Cambridge – 24 September 2020
• Dr Tolullah Oni reimagines society after COVID-19 – Tolu Oni – Global Science TV – 07 August 2020
• A Marshall Plan for Planetary Health – Tolu Oni – Project Syndicate – 24 July 2020
• Cities & Covid-19 – Tolu Oni, VK Madhavan, Ash Amin, Rob Doubleday – Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) Science, Policy & Pandemics series – 10 July 2020
• Type 2 diabetes: eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables daily lowers risk, study shows – Nita Forouhi, Ju-Sheng Zheng, Nick Wareham – The Conversation – 9 July 2020
• What did we learn from Food for Thought 2018? – Nita Forouhi, Dariush Mozaffarian, John Schoonbee, Tim Spector, Navjoyt Ladher – BMJ/Swiss Re Food for Thought 2020 podcast – 29 June 2020
• Public health response to ultra-processed food and drinks – Jean Adams – BMJ/Swiss Re Food for Thought 2020 podcast – 26 June 2020
• How has the world changed and what challenges will we face post-COVID? – Tolu Oni – International Network for Government Science Advice video series – 25 May 2020
• Cycling and walking to work lowers risk of cancer, heart disease and death – Richard Patterson, Anthony Laverty – The Conversation – 22 May 2020
• Food Insecurity During the Covid-19 Crisis  – Jean Adams, Jag Srai – Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) Science, Policy & Pandemics series – 22 May 2020
• Here’s how ‘science diplomacy’ can help us contain COVID-19 – Marga Gual Soler, Tolu Oni –  World Economic Forum – 05 May 2020
• Food insecurity in the UK – why we need a new normal – Amy Yau, Jean Adams, Martin White – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog, 30 April 2020
• Impact Investment’s Pandemic Challenge – Tolu Oni, Gillian Marcelle, Tau Tavengwa – Project Syndicate – 24 April 2020
• The Healthy Food Act – Oli Mytton – Bennett Prospect Prize essay – 22 April 2020
• COVID-19 is showing us the link between human and planetary health – Tolu Oni – World Economic Forum – 22 April 2020
• Sedentary behaviour interventions in real-world conditions: what are the health benefits? – Paddy Dempsey, Elisabeth Winkler, Nyssa Hadgraft  – Sedentary Behaviour Research Network blog – 20 April 2020
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)-induced re-imagination: 7 things we knew, but “could do nothing about”…until we could…and did – Tolu Oni – Next Einstein Forum – 20 April 2020
• This is the best time to plan for urban Africa’s next health emergency – Tolu Oni – Quartz – 16 April 2020
• Road Safety: switch to cycling to keep others safe – Rachel Aldred and James Woodcock – The Conversation – 07 April 2020

2019

• Some countries have introduced mandatory nutritional labelling on menus – here’s why the UK should follow suit – Dolly Theis – The Conversation – 17 October 2019
• Find our Feat: introducing the Food environment assessment tool – Tom Burgoine – Unit YouTube channel – 17 September 2019
• Type 2 diabetes: small reduction in alcohol, big reduction in heart disease risk – Jean Strelitz – The Conversation – 05 August 2019
• Type 2 diabetes: losing even a small amount of weight may lower heart disease risk – Jean Strelitz – The Conversation – 10 May 2019
• Twenty times more English children could cycle to school with better transport planning – Rachel Aldred,  Anna Goodman,  James Woodcock and Robin Lovelace – The Conversation – 18 March 2019
• Working life: Nutrition scientist Nita Forouhi – Nita Forouhi – MRC Insight blog – 06 Feb 2019
• Career inspirations: Nita Forouhi, nutrition scientist – Nita Forouhi – MRC Soundcloud – 06 Feb 2019 (Download the MRC ‘Career inspirations’ series on iPlayer)
• Physical activity programmes in schools aren’t working – here’s why – Rebecca Love, Esther van Sluijs, Jean Adams  – The Conversation – 17 January 2019
• Genetics of Smokers – A. Mesut Erzurumluoğlu – Just an ordinary blog by an ordinary bloke – 12 Jan 2019

2018

• Obesity prevention: Learning to do no harm – Sonja Klingberg – 2018 Max Perutz Science Writing Prize
• Dairy fat and type 2 diabetes – how our new study uses biomarkers of intake to gain novel insights  – Fumiaki Imamura – The Conversation – 12 October 2018
• Indian women confined to the home, in cities designed for men – Rahul Goel – The Conversation, 30 August 2018
• Life after liver transplant: how dietitian Lynsey Spillman aims to improve the quality of life for people who have a new liver – Lynsey Spillman – Primary Care Unit website, 25 July 2018
• Walking and cycling rather than driving may reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by almost a third – Jenna Panter, Oliver Mytton – The Conversation, 22 May 2018
• Junk food – have we #AdEnough? – Jean Adams – The Food Foundation Blog, May 2018
• We uncovered the genetic basis of risk taking – and found it’s linked to obesity and mental illness – Emma Clifton, Felix Day, Ken Ong – The Conversation, 08 May 2018

2017

• Why it’s not always ‘normal’ to exercise – and how that could change – Anna Le Gouais – CEDAR Blog, 21 November 2017
• Lou’s Tuesday. Only 24 hours in a day- why does this matter for health research? – Lou Foley – MRC Epidemiology Unit YouTube channel, 15 August 2017
• Childhood obesity in South Africa – is it a problem? – Sonja Klingberg – 2017 Max Perutz Science Writing Award
• Changing the way we travel – Jenna Panter – Sustrans blog, 28 September 2017
• Which activity types are healthy alternatives to replace leisure screen time and reduce mortality risk? – Katrien Wijndaele – PLOS  blog Obesity Panacea, 10 August 2017
• Maintaining the same weight as you age may prevent diabetes – even if you’re overweight to begin with – Adina Feldman – The Conversation, 17 May 2017
• Dairy got the all-clear last week – but was it justified? – Eirini Trichia, Nita Forouhi – The Conversation, 15 May 2017
• Increasing community weight loss programme commissioning won’t be cheap, but could pay dividends – Amy Ahern – The Conversation, 05 May 2017
• Studying change in behaviour and body weight over time has increased our understanding of the causes and possibilities for prevention of type 2 diabetes – Adina Feldman – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog, 03 April 2017

2016

• Understanding the health benefits of the ‘sugar tax’: how will the soft drinks industry respond? – Oliver Mytton – FUSE Open Science Blog, 16 December 2016
• A fresh insight into the links between birth weight and later life disease – Ken Ong – MRC Epidemiology Unit blog, 29 September 2016
• A varied diet can prevent diabetes – but can you afford it? – Annalijn Conklin, Nita Forouhi, Pablo Monsivais – The Conversation, 21 July 2016
• Are you in a healthy place? Reflections on a public engagement event – Oliver Francis, Paul Browne – MRC Insight blog, 19 July 2016
• Local takeaways create a double burden for obesity – Thomas Burgoine, Pablo Monsivais – The Conversation, 13 May 2016
• How we discovered that genes could influence the age when you first have sex – John Perry and Ken Ong – The Conversation, 19 April 2016
• It’s time to change the way we think about changing what people eat – Jean Adams – The Conversation, 12 April 2016
• Obesity: stop accusing the poor of making bad choices – Pablo Monsivais – The Conversation, 11 March 2016
• Nature’s cure in the modern age – Oliver Mytton – CEDAR Blog, 07 January 2016

2015

• Buses, bicycles and building for health – Jenna Panter – CEDAR Blog, 01 December 2015
• Liberalising agricultural policy for sugar in Europe risks damaging public health – Emilie Aguirre, Oliver Mytton, Pablo Monsivais – The BMJ, 10 September 2015
• Every hour you spend in front of a screen is linked to poorer exam results – Kirsten Corder – The Conversation, 04 September 2015
• Have we been had? – Jean Adams – FUSE Open Science Blog, 14 April 2015
• 2014
• Socio-economic inequalities in diets in UK adults: an updated picture of key food groups and nutrients from national surveillance data – Eva Maguire – Nutrition Society Paper of the Month, 08 December 2014
• Lifestyle and type 2 diabetes  ― small changes, substantial impact – Paul Browne –  MRC Insight Blog, 13 June 2014
• Keep the ‘five-a-day’ message for better health – it works – Nita Forouhi –  Daily Telegraph, 01 April 2014
  

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