Malnutrition – you can be fat or thin

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The word 'malnutrition' makes most people think of a thin child, starving because of famine. Aid agencies have helped to reduce the number of people who do not have enough food to eat in developing countries. But the starchy foods which are available to them at low cost – plus the emergence of cheap junk food – is fuelling another form of malnutrition - obesity. A series of papers in the Lancet urge action on the issue before it’s too late. Climate change is beginning to be linked with changing patterns of weather. A doctor working on the west coast of Ireland noticed how storms prevented some of his patients from getting to appointments. He thought that drone technology might provide an alternative way of getting vital drugs out to his patients – such as diabetics who rely on insulin. Women were not allowed into the magicians’ club – the Magic Circle - until 1991. But as well as being a male-dominated industry, there is an extra obstacle in the path of women conjurors – the way the minds of those in the audience work. We hear from a researcher from Goldsmiths University of London who has analysed reactions to magicians – depending on whether they were women or men. (Photo: African woman cooking a wood fire. Credit: Golero/Getty Images) Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath