Rapid increase in swine flu cases in England

The number of new cases of swine flu in England has rocketed in the last seven days, health experts have confirmed.

According to the Health Protection Agency there were an estimated 53,000 new cases diagnosed during the last week.

The figures represent a sharp rise from the 27,000 new cases of the H1N1 virus estimated for the week before.

In England, another ten people also died after contracting swine flu, taking the total number of deaths to 93.

In Scotland, there were four more deaths, including a 16-year-old boy, taking the total to 21.

All four are said to have suffered from underlying health conditions.

Watchdog rules smoothies part of five-a-day

Health officials have finally put a long-running debate to bed by declaring fruit smoothie drinks do indeed count for two of the recommended portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

Smoothie maker Innocent received a series of complaints after launching an advertising campaign claiming its drinks could count for two of the five a day.

However, the Advertising Standards Agency, having consulted with the Department of Health, Food Standards Agency and the British Nutrition Foundation, has now declared that the non-dairy 250ml drinks do contain enough pulped fruit and juice to consist two of the recommended portions.

A statement on the Department of Health's 5 A DAY website declares: 'Smoothies may count as a maximum of two of your five-a-day where they contain both pure 100 per cent fruit juice and all of the edible pulped fruit and/or vegetable… one portion is defined as at least 150mls of fruit juice or 80g of fruit or vegetable.'

Dr Shilpee Aggarwal, nutritionist for Innocent drinks, said: 'This is good news for the consumer as now the Food Standards Agency, the British Nutrition Foundation, the ASA and most importantly the Department of Health all agree that smoothies can count as two portions of fruit.

'Smoothies are an easy and tasty way to help people reach their five-a-day target.'

Teenage yobs 'confuse disgust for anger'

New research claims to have discovered the reason behind the aggressive tendencies of some children – misinterpreting facial expressions.

In the report, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, researchers suggest the youngsters frequently misinterpret facial expressions of disgust as anger, providing a possible cause for their aggressive behaviour.

Researchers compared the ability of 24 male adolescent delinquents incarcerated in Japan with that of their peers without conduct problems to recognise emotional states.

The adolescents were shown 48 photographs of faces expressing six basic emotions and were asked to match each face with an emotion.

The study found delinquents were more likely than their peers to misinterpret facial expressions of disgust as anger.

Wataru Sato, from Kyoto University, said: 'The present study provides the first clear evidence that delinquents have a bias toward the misrecognition of others’ disgusted expressions as anger.

'This bias towards misrecognising other emotions as anger is particularly significant because anger appears to play an important role in delinquency.'

Previous studies have found that juvenile delinquents often have short tempers and experience more intense anger than other children.

The researchers conclude: 'Taken together the data suggest that delinquents might be projecting their own heightened angry emotions onto others when they misperceive others’ negative, but not hostile, emotional states as anger.'