Chemicals in fragrances could trigger asthma and skin problems

Next time you overdo it and shower yourself in perfume or aftershave, spray deodorant on, spray air freshener around the home, use scented candles or even scented toilet roll – think about what all these things could be doing to your health.

We warn this as a leading health expert has spoke on the different ways, highlighting that part of the problem could be down to a ‘contact allergy’ that roughly one in 20 of us suffer from, and this number may be increasing. The contact allergy is in reference to when perfumes and other scented products cause eczema outbreaks as well as dermatitis when they touch the skin, and many more problems other than this can arise.

It is believed that molecules in the fragrances trigger an immune response and result in the sufferer experiencing scaly, cracked, dry and itchy skin.

Dr Susannah Baron, consultant dermatologist at Kent & Canterbury hospital, and BMI Chaucer Hospital, warns that more of the population may start to suffer from such problems in the future. She commented, “Allergies are on the increase, and the amount of perfumed products is also on the rise. Fragrance allergy can show up as contact dermatitis in the site a perfumed product is applied, or as a flare-up of existing eczema. It can be a real problem.”

Dr Baron’s comments follow-on from July of this year when the EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety requested that perfume manufacturers should state any possible allergens in their product after reports emerged regarding the risks of skin conditions flaring up after usage.

Dr Baron further warns people to be careful regarding over-using fragranced products as it may not be fully obvious you have developed an intolerance or allergy. She continued, “You don’t react immediately; the body notes that it does not like the chemical and develops ‘memory cells’, which cause inflammation when the body is next exposed to this chemical. Gradually, as you are exposed more and more, the body ramps up its reaction, until it becomes more noticeable to you.”

Even those without existing problems or allergies may be at risk of building up to eventually have a fragrance allergy. Dr Baron says, “You can become suddenly allergic to perfumes and personal care products that you have been using for years. You can also have problems with unexpected products such as scented toilet roll and scented wipes which can cause irritation.”

However, it gets worse. People with skin and scalp conditions are not the only people who could suffer. Those who battle with regular migraines could see a more regular occurrence of severe headaches and experts further warn that products like plug-in deodorisers and mild air fresheners have chemicals in them that could induce an asthma attack. The charity Asthma UK claims that perfumes can affect the airways in asthma sufferers and result in breathing difficulties.

Asthma UK are not the only ones to warn about the dangers though. Over in America, Dr Stanley Fineman, of the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic in the U.S., says he has conducted research that shows a clear alteration to lung function when the lungs come into contact with particular chemical fragrances.

So what can be done then to avoid or manage all these potential problems? Firstly, if you do suffer with eczema, you should always try to only use non-fragranced emollient to wash your hands and body. Migraine sufferers would be advised to keep a diary that documents what particular products trigger a migraine and this will enable them to keep their exposure to an absolute minimum. Dermatitis is another issue that we touched upon earlier, and this can be treated with therapeutic medicated shampoo such as T/Gel which costs just £4.95 from Medical Specialists Pharmacy. In addition, if you have suffering with allergies and/or asthma then we are at hand to help. We have a vast range of medications to help both asthma and allergy sufferers, all at great prices. If you are suffering from asthma-like symptoms, you should see your doctor immediately for a diagnosis.

Your doctor is able to prescribe medication if he feels you have asthma. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler or have lost your inhaler or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. For suitable patients we have both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone and Qvar Easi-Breathe.

If you suffer from hay fever or allergies we have many options for you including Alomide allergy eye drops , Loratadine tablets, Nasonex spray, Prevalin allergy nasal spray and Prevalin allergy kids nasal spray.

Free bus passes keep the elderly fit and healthy

There have been long-standing rumours that the coalition government plan to scrap free bus passes to the over-60s and the disabled in an attempt to save on the £1.1 billion each year that the scheme costs. The initiative was first introduced in 2006 and enables holders to cost-free local bus travel after 09.30am on weekdays and all day long during weekends and public holidays.

It means those who are eligible for the passes can relax slightly in regards to money worries in the grip of the UK’s double-dip recession. As David Cameron faces pressure to curb public spending, the scheme may be wiped out altogether though or be restricted on a means-tested basis where the person’s wealth would be studies prior to acceptance.

However researchers from The Imperial College London have hit back at these plans. They argue the free bus pass scheme for the over-60s should remain and that it may even be more cost effective to stick with it in the long-term, saying it is ‘value for money’ amongst older people.

The researchers analysed information they had obtained from the National Travel Survey which dated back to 2005, a year prior to the free travel coming into play. Their data ran through for two years after the scheme had been operating, to 2008.

They studied the travel diaries and habits of 11,218 people who possessed a bus pass, against 5,693 who did not have one. The percentage of respondents with a free bus pass soared from 56.8% to 74.7% between 2005 and 2008.

It was discovered that those with the bus passes were nearly four times more likely to engage in journeys via ‘active’ travel during the week they kept their diary, and were additionally found to be 15% more likely to report walking three or more times each week. The active travel was defined as walking, cycling or using public transport.

Researchers segregated the bus pass holders into various sub-categories and determined that women over 70 years old and living in London or in urban areas were considerably more inclined to use buses and walk three or more times in a single week in comparison to those without the passes.

The data that they examined to find these conclusions included varying socio-economic groups, indicating that both poorer and wealthier people were fully taking advantage of the scheme, meaning it encourages older people to become more physically active regardless of how wealthy they are.

Sophie Coronini-Cronberg, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, led the study, and argues that the scheme is advantageous in terms of public health and that the government should take this into account before deciding to overhaul it. She commented, “Although the costs of the scheme are considerable, it may offer value for money as it seems to promote physical activity among older people, thereby helping to reduce inactivity-related mortality and morbidity. Given the need to encourage older people to be physically active, it’s good news that the provision of free bus passes seems to be having a positive impact. Before the government looks at reforming the scheme, they should make sure we understand its value to society. We would welcome more research in this area, such as a detailed cost analysis to establish whether the scheme represents good value for money.”

Scientific proof that chocolate really is addictive, not that we needed a scientist to tell us that!

We've probably all done it at one time or another, you’re sat on the sofa at night and you’ve already eaten a few rows of chocolate. You’re starting to feel full, but for some reason you feel compelled to finish the rest of the bar off and you’ve no idea why.

Well now researchers have found new evidence to explain why many of us are unable to resist a good chocolate every now and then. The urge to overeat such deliciously sweet and fatty treats, traces to an unexpected part of the brain and its production of natural opium like chemical.

The area, part of a larger brain region called the striatum, had previously been primarily linked to the control of physical movement. The new research published this week in the journal, Current Biology and carried out by Alexandra DiFeliceantonio of the University of Michigan, tested this area of the brain out on rats.

DiFeliceantonio’s team made the discovery by giving rats an artificial boost, with a drug delivered straight to a brain region called the neostriatum. Those animals gorged themselves on more than twice the number of M ‘n’ M chocolates than they would otherwise have eaten.

“This means that the brain has more extensive systems to make individuals want to over consume rewards than previously thought. It may be one reason why over consumption is a problem today,” said DiFeliceantonio.

The scientists, from the University of Michigan, studied the area because there were some hints that it might be involved in reward seeking behavior, specifically in encoding just how rewarding something should feel.

So the scientists decided to see what would happen if they infused the area with a synthetic version of the endorphin enkephalin, which acts naturally in the region, while letting rats eat as much as they wanted of M&M chocolates. When the researchers infused that specific area with enkephalin, whose most well known function is as a pain relieving peptide, the rats suddenly upped their intake of chocolate by more than double.

And when they took another group of rats and measured the levels of naturally occurring enkephalin in the area, they found that M&M consumption led to an immediate increase in enkephalin. And the more enkephalin they detected in the region, the faster the rats ate. The study found that enkephalin binds to molecular receptors in the brain, sensitive to opiate chemicals to reduce pain and produce pleasurable feelings.

The extraordinary findings showed comparisons between drug addicts and obese people. DiFeliceantonio said, “The same brain area tested here is active when obese people see foods and when drug addicts see drug scenes. It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of over consumption and addiction in people,”

The researchers now hope to unravel a related phenomenon that some of us might wish we could do more to control, what happens in our brains when we pass by our favorite fast food restaurant and feel that sudden desire to stop.

In their paper, the scientists concluded, “Opioid circuitry could in this way participate in normal motivations and perhaps even in generating intense pathological levels of motivation, to over consume reward in binge eating disorders, drug addiction and related compulsive pursuits.”

Binge drinking culture is rife in teens from Manchester and Merseyside

Researchers based at Manchester University have worked with counterparts at Liverpool University to conduct the largest ever health and lifestyle survey of 26 cities and conurbations across Europe. The study has been named as ‘The European Urban Health Indicator System (EURO-URHIS 2) project’.

The areas they looked at were collectively known as the ‘Euro-26’ and included: Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bistrita, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Cardiff, Craiova, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Iasi, Kaunas, Koln, Kosice, Liepaja, Ljubljana, Maribor, Merseyside, Montpellier, Oberhausen, Oslo, Riga, Siauliai, Skopje, Tetova, Tromso and Utrecht.


The pan-European survey analysed factors such as life expectancy, health and lifestyles across the population in each areas to highlight key policy recommendations.  In regards to the UK regions in the survey, there were perhaps some eyebrow-raising  results.

It was found that Merseyside has the highest population of teenage drinkers, with 55% of 14 to 16 year olds apparently being heavy drinkers. Manchester didn’t fare much better, coming in with 50% still. To put this into perspective, the European average was merely 33% and the lowest rate was found to be 16% in Tetova, Albania. In both Manchester and Merseyside it was also found that the rate of kids who had drunk prior to the age of 13 stood at a shocking 61%. However, the figure was worse though in Bordeaux, France (68%) and Bratislava, Slovakia (62%), although these places did not have high heavy youth drinkers in comparison.

In Greater Manchester and Merseyside it was discovered that depression and anxiety were key problem areas that need to be addressed. Both could be connected to the high rates of binge drinking that evidently seems to be an issue in these regions, and also ever-increasing unemployment rates due to the recession. Cancer, respiratory disease and obesity were both higher in these regions too than the Euro-26 average.

On the flip side, it was not simply all doom and gloom for Mancunians and Liverpudlians. People in Manchester consume a lot more fruit and vegetables than the Euro-26 average and also eat breakfast more frequently; a meal most would argue is the most important meal of the day. Strangely, those in Liverpool had a lower than average perception of their own well-being, yet the survey shows that they tend to smoke a lot less than European counterparts and a flick through many recent Medical Specialists news stories will give you plenty of reasons why not smoking hugely benefits both you and others around you!

More British cities looked at were Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow. Respiratory disease fatalities are apparently much higher in Birmingham than the Euro-26 average, but the incidence of male cancers was a lot less. Youngsters in Birmingham can be looked at in a positive light after it was found that heavy drinking and smoking among this group of people is way below the Euro-26 average.

Project coordinator Dr Arpana Verma, from The University of Manchester, explained a bit more about the purpose of their study and said, “The gap between the rich and poor living in urban areas across the world is widening. The urban poor are now worse off than the rural poor. Health inequalities are a greater issue than ever before and it’s becoming increasingly important for policymakers to take the valuable information that we have to offer and translate into policies that can help improve our health. The European Urban Health Conference highlights these disparities and demonstrated effective tools that policymakers can use to improve health for all. Comparison within cities and between cities is becoming an area of interest to researchers, policymakers and the populations they serve. We will shortly launch our website with our preliminary results, including the differences we have seen. By highlighting these differences, we can learn from each other to make our cities healthier, and empower the citizens of Europe.”

Dr Christopher Birt, from the University of Liverpool, added to Dr Verma’s comments and commented, “Networks and public health advocacy is vital if we are to make our urban areas work for our populations in the future. Policy makers and researchers need to work together, with the best evidence, to reduce inequalities and improve health.”

Get aware and protected for Sexual Health Week

You may not be aware of it but this week as well as being National Cholesterol Week, is also Sexual Health Week. Pioneered by The Family Planning Association (FPA) and proudly supported by Medical Specialists Pharmacy, the aim of this week is to promote awareness of a wide variety of sexual health issues. Each year the FPA focus on a different subject in a bid to get people aware and looking after their sexual health. Back in 2009 the main topic of this week was looking at sex and alcohol, in 2010 it was sexual health in the over-50’s, in 2011 it was ‘The Facts of Life, how and when to talk to your children about puberty, relationships and sex’, and now this year in 2012 the FPA and Brook are working together on the ‘XES We can’t go backwards’ campaign.

For those not in-the-know about this new national campaign and its aims, it is a campaign urging people to join in against fighting budget cuts, policy changes, and more specifically; the lack of easy access to contraception due to closures of sexual health centres or alterations to their opening hours. Basically the main premise of the campaign is to protect contraceptive rights and choice.

Both leading sexual health charities FPA and Brook, say that they are receiving an ever-growing number of calls from worried and unhappy members of the public, being denied basic access to the advice, products and services that they require.

FPA Chief Executive, Julie Bentley, commented: “We are seeing the beginnings of a crisis in this critical women’s health issue. Modern contraception is effective in stopping unplanned pregnancy and is also highly cost effective. But it is simply useless if women are stopped from accessing and using it. A woman’s reproductive years span over half of her lifetime and every reproductive choice she makes carries social, economic, and personal consequences. There’s a genuine risk that we’re slipping back to the dark ages. We cannot stand by and wait for the crisis to happen – we’ve got to act now.”

Adding to Julie Bentley’s comments was Brook Chief Executive, Simon Blake, who said: “A blend of different circumstances in sexual health are forming into a toxic mix. Services are being cut, and budgets reduced, the national sexual health and teenage pregnancy strategies have ended, the NHS is being radically reformed and there are attempts by a small vociferous minority to undermine women’s reproductive rights. By working with the public to understand the true scale of the problem, this campaign will help to protect the improvements made in recent years so everyone can access the contraception and advice they are entitled to. We simply cannot and must not go backwards.”

The FPA and Brook are now urging people in the UK to embrace the scheme and also to discuss and rate their own personal experiences of contraception services, both good and bad. This can be done via the interactive online sexual health map at www.wecantgobackwards.org.uk.

However it is not only the UK who is involved in promoting sexual health this week. Australia are also doing their bit for Sexual Health Week, with many public health experts speaking out and encouraging everyone to ask their doctor for regular sex health check-ups as well as to continue with safe-sex practices such as making sure to wear a condom.

Health authorities over in Australia have initiated a scheme called ‘Check it Out’, aimed at targeting the high spreading of the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia, which also happens to be the most common STI in the UK too. The decision to focus the majority of their efforts on chlamydia may have something to do with the recent publication of figures that show that chlamydia rates are continuing to increase by an average of 15% every year among 16 – 25 year olds in the South Eastern Sydney region of Australia.

Director of Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Dr Anna McNulty, commented that though increased rates of diagnosis may be due to more testing for the STI, notification rates continued to remain high amongst gay men. She said, “This is largely due to increased testing for Chlamydia, but also due to increased Chlamydia notification rates, which are unfortunately still high amongst gay men, and more so, men who have sex with men. Many people who have an STI do not have any obvious symptoms or signs, particularly with Chlamydia, which often has no symptoms. Chlamydia is easy to test for with a urine test and, like many STIs, is easily treated with a simple dose of antibiotics.  But it is better to have never had it at all. Chlamydia is easily prevented by using condoms. We encourage young people who are sexually active to use condoms and to see their GP, local sexual health clinic or youth health service to check out their sexual health and regularly test for STIs, in particular Chlamydia.”

If you do suspect you may have chlamydia, Medical Specialists Pharmacy can provide the Clamelle chlamydia test kit from just £24.85, which can be used in the privacy of your own home to avoid an embarrassing trip to the doctor. Or, if you have been confirmed as having this or gonorrhoea, the antibiotic Azithromycin can prevent the spread of the bacteria so that your body’s natural defences can fight back and remove the infection from your system. We also have the antiviral prescription medication Valtrex which helps to slow the spread of the herpes virus.

To minimise the risk of catching and spreading an STI, men must always wear condoms, and this is where we come in. We have a massive selection of condoms at fantastic prices such as the highly sought after Durex Performax Intense. This particular condom benefits both partners. It contains a lubricant – benzocaine 5%, which will prolong his climax, whilst the outside of the condom is ribbed and dotted to heighten her orgasm. On top of this we have a huge range of different condoms in our expanding chemist shop such as Durex Play Vibrations, which can be used in conjunction with a condom to add to the pleasure!

Tips to improve heart health and avoid high cholesterol

If you are not already aware, it is currently National Cholesterol Week! Medical Specialists Pharmacy supports the raising awareness of such an important subject and we are doing everything we can to get people in the know about the risks of having high cholesterol. This seems especially vital after we reported yesterday that many of the population are not fully clued up on the subject, to say the least.

Medical Specialists are not the only major organisation in the UK to get behind the scheme however, other major organisations to throw their support behind the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle include: Marks and Spencers, Coca Cola, Tesco, Sainsbury and Dr Oats. The main theme with this year’s National Cholesterol Week is holding a ‘Hearty Tea Party’, whereby people are encouraged to host a tea party for family and friends. These tea parties will hopefully help to raise money through things such as raffles, selling tickets for entry to your party, charging guests for a brew, stalls selling plants, crafts, cakes etc., and the old classic ‘guess the weight of the cake’ game. The money raised will go towards helping those suffering with high cholesterol and who are at a dangerous risk of suffering heart attacks, strokes, blood clots and many other life-threatening conditions.


One of the most effective ways to decrease your ‘bad’ cholesterol levels is through statin therapy with the use of medications such as Crestor or Lipitor. However, there are many other things you can start doing to improve your lifestyle that will drastically improve your heart health in the process too! These are things you should not wait until years into the future when it could be too late, take a positive and proactive view today, your heart will thank you for it.

. Reduce your salt intake

Having too much salt in your diet will raise your blood pressure and thus increase your risk of coronary heart disease. Anybody over the age of 11 should be having no more than 6g of salt each day in their diet. Certain foods have a high salt content and you should think about having them less frequently, or cutting them out of your diet. They include: bacon, baked beans, bread, canned vegetables, cheese, crisps, ham, pork pies, pizza, and ready meals. Parents should try to make sure their children don’t eat too much salt which will result in them developing a taste for salty foods and affect them in later life.

. Cut out the cigarettes

More specifically, stop smoking! There is surely nothing else that a person can do themselves that will help them live for many more years. Non-smokers are twice as less likely to suffer from a heart attack in comparison to their smoking friends. With smoking bans still very much in place for the foreseeable future, and plenty of wet/miserable weather hitting the UK currently, there has never been a better time to stub out for good!

. Control your alcohol intake

Drinking more than four to five units of alcohol each day can pose problems for cardiac health. Consuming high levels of alcohol can over time increase triglycerides in your blood. These are a particular kind of fat found in the bloodstream and increased levels of triglycerides can result in artery walls thickening up, leaving you susceptible to blood clots.  Limit your intake to one or two units of alcohol per day and this will then reduce your risk of developing atherosclerosis, which is when a build-up of cholesterol and other fats clog up the walls of the arteries and can result in chronic chest pain and a heart attack. Consistent binge drinking can also put you at risk of a heart attack as well as weight gain and obesity.

. Eat more fruit and vegetables

Fruit and veg should be a staple of everybody’s diet as they are an excellent natural source of vitamins and minerals. A healthy diet should ideally include five or more serving of fruit and vegetables each day as they include antioxidants and other nutrients that are beneficial for great heart health.  Some studies though have shown that eight servings a day can even lead to a 22% reduction in the risk of dying from heart disease. Vitamin C is a common and powerful antioxidant found in many fruit and veg and this works at preventing cholesterol from ‘oxidising’. This basically means when cholesterol levels in your blood get too high and become ‘sticky’. Therefore the cholesterol attaches better to artery walls and calcifies as plaque. This plaque causes major health problems in regards to cardiovascular health.

. Become more active

Adults should try to do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per day for five days a week. This can include: basketball, cycling, hiking, rollerblading, volleyball and walking fast. These activities mean you will be working hard enough to increase your heart rate actually break out in a sweat. Remember that your heart is a muscle; it needs to you to exercise so it can remain fighting fit and pumping blood around your body to the best of its ability. Exercise can also lift a person’s mood and prevent weight gain.

. Check your family history

As we mentioned yesterday, ‘familial hypercholesterolaemia’, (FH), is a potentially dangerous inherited condition that not many people are aware of. It is where somebody is born with high cholesterol because of a genetic defect, putting them at high risk of having vascular diseases and hardening of the arteries much earlier than normal. There are an estimated 120,000 sufferers in the UK and only around 15% are even aware they have the condition. It is advisable that everyone visits their doctor who can carry out a simple cholesterol check. If your cholesterol is abnormally high then they can suggest ways to best manage this, such as through statin medication.
So there you have it. These are just six of many ways that you can improve your heart health and also reduce the risk of you suffering from high cholesterol. They are all changes that you can start doing today, not five or ten years into the future. We encourage everybody to get on board and support National Cholesterol Week. With the weekend approaching, why don’t you begin organising your own Hearty Tea Party, raising both money and awareness about the dangers of high cholesterol. You can even share your own health tips and ideas with friends and family, listen to stories about what others are doing and start arranging healthy activities to get involved in with others such as trips to the gym, etc.

Are foods labelled ‘lighter’ any healthier?

So called low fat foods can contain a similar number of calories to the standard versions and in some cases contain even more sugar, according to a study by consumer watchdog Which?

The investigation by Which? found that as many as six out of 10 consumers eat low fat and light foods several times a week, believing that they are a healthier option and can help them to lose weight. But its snapshot sample of 12 low fat, reduced and light products from supermarkets, compared with their standard counterparts found minimal differences in calorie content.

A standard McVitie’s chocolate digestive contained 85 calories and a light one had 77. A Tesco low fat yoghurt had more calories per pot at 130 than a standard Activia version at 123, while the Tesco option contained more sugar at 20.2g, more than four teaspoons than the 16.9g in the Activia pot. The high fat and saturated fat content of cheese, meant Cathedral City lighter cheddar still contained a fat content, higher than the governments recommended guidelines.

The problem appears to be the public’s general misconception of words such as: low fat, lighter, lite and lighter. Labelling regulations define low fat as containing less than 3% fat, which is great; however, what most people don’t realize is that there is a big difference between low fat foods and those labelled light, lite and lighter. A product labelled light, lite or lighter only has to contain 30% less fat than the standard version.

30% less fat than the standard product sounds very good, but not if the standard product contains far too much fat in the first place. In such cases even though the product contains 30% less fat than the standard product, it still contains a very high fat content.

Which? found misconceptions among consumers about the meaning of the terms reduced fat and light, with only 16% of people correctly stating that products carrying the label had to contain 30% less fat than the standard alternative. The Consumer Watchdog said, “While shoppers believe that words such as light and low fat are interchangeable, they have significantly different meanings.”

Richard Lloyd, executive director at the consumer group Which? warned consumers to read the labels carefully before they buy light, lite or lighter foods. He said, “Consumers are choosing low fat and light options believing them to be a healthier choice, but our research has found that in many cases they’re just not living up to their healthy image. Our advice to consumers is to read the nutritional labels carefully.”

This is a view backed up by Maya Monteiro, Senior Education Manager at the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), who said, “There is a troubling lack of understanding about the calorie content of everyday food, a fact that is not helped by products being labelled light, when in fact they have a very high calorie content.”

One positive development is the introduction of the traffic light labelling system, which many of the major Supermarkets are now adopting. Food sold pre packed is labelled with a traffic light label, showing at a glance the proportions of fat, saturated fats, sugar, and salt using traffic light signals for high (red), medium (amber) and low (green) percentages for each of these ingredients.

Ingredient	Green (low content)	Amber(medium content)	Red (high content)
Fat	less than 1,5 g	between 1,5 g and 10 g	more than 10 g
Saturated Fats	less than 0,75 g	between 0,75 g and 2,5 g	more than 2,5 g
Sugar	less than 2,5 g	between 2,5 g and 6,3 g	more than 6,3 g
Salt	less than 0,3 g	between 0,3 g and 1,5 g	more than 1,5

Foods with green indicators are healthier and to be preferred over those with red ones. The label is on the front of the package and easier to spot and interpret than Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) labelling, which will continue. The GDA is difficult to understand for many and does not lend itself to quick comparisons.

The use of traffic light labelling is supported by many physician groups, including the British Medical Association and welcomed by consumers. Despite worries from some in the food industry that red foods would be shunned, the British Medical Association, Food Standards Agency and others agree, that consumers interpret the labels sensibly, realise they can have red foods as a treat, and they are easier to understand than lists of percentages.

Which? has campaigned for clearer food labelling and is calling on Morrisons andIceland, the two remaining supermarkets yet to adopt the traffic light system, to do so as soon as possible.