lifestyle

A recent study found that more than 2 billion adults and children globally are overweight or obese and suffer health problems because of that -- but this is nothing new.

The sea of weird and wonderful classes now available has had most people contemplating at least one new talent or skill that they believe will make them more fit, limber or relaxed.

Trampolining, meditation, barre classes and pole dancing are fairly well-established. Various iterations of yoga are joining in, including more unusual formats alongside goats or cats, or encouraging laughter as you hold that downward dog.

Why would you care anyway…water is water and does the same thing, right? Wrong!

According to Michelle Tempongko Jones, it’s not.

She is a naturopath, herbalist, nutritionist, iridologist, anti-ageing practitioner and wellness coach.

Of course the uses for water remain the same, but not its effect when consumed.

All bottled water have different levels of properties, as well as tap water, depending what area it is from.

You might skip breakfast. At lunch, you may opt for a salad with lots of veggies, no croutons and low-fat dressing -- on the side, of course.

Then, three o'clock hits.

You're incredibly hungry and craving candy, sweets or chips. You finally cave, eating a candy bar or other treat.

By 6 p.m., you're tearing the kitchen apart, snacking on anything you see.

Peni is part of the Women on the Move (WOTM) group that carries out a health and fitness program, including walking sessions.

In the busy schedule where gym time cannot be squeezed in, walking is a more flexible option.

“Walking is good because you can do that anytime, anywhere, by yourself, it’s free and you don’t need to go to the gym,” she said.

Clare Press, fashion writer and editor, described this as her "canary in the coalmine moment" — the point at which she decided to become a passionate advocate of slow fashion.

She cites a study from 2006 that found British women were consuming four times as many clothes as their 1980 counterparts, and sending 30kg of textiles and clothing to landfill annually.

Global market research company Mintel monitors the way new food and drink products perform in the market while surveying consumers to understand their eating habits.

Justin Nell from the company's Australia and New Zealand arm is in Adelaide to speak at the Food South Australia Summit and says these are the biggest trends playing out in 2017.

The causes include unsafe water, lack of sanitation, poor hygiene practices and indoor and outdoor pollution, as well as injuries.

The new numbers equate to these pollutants being the cause of one in four deaths of children 1 month to 5 years old.

One new report highlights that the most common causes of child death are preventable through interventions already available to the communities most affected. These causes are diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia, which can be prevented using insecticide-treated bed nets, clean cooking fuels and improved access to clean water.

She was, it turned out, a 3,500-year-old Egyptian princess, her mummified skin leathery brown, her coffin over 10 feet long and lavishly carved.

But when researchers slid Princess Ahmose Meryet-Amon’s body into a CT scanner, they found, at least in one respect, she was not so different from some 92 million un-royal Americans: Her arteries were hardened and blocked by plaque. The researchers also examined the shriveled blood vessels of over 100 other mummies from Egypt, Peru, the American Southwest, and the Aleutian Islands — and found similar signs of cardiovascular disease.

They also smoke a lot less, but they do get more infections which could potentially increase the risk of heart problems by causing inflammation in the body.