September 12, 2026

obesity

Could nutrition be the key to managing chronic musculoskeletal pain?

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A recent study released by the University of South Australia (UniSA) has found that a nutrient-rich diet is directly linked to reduced chronic musculoskeletal pain. 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2022 National Health Survey, around 29% of the Australian population were living with chronic musculoskeletal conditions. These include back problems, arthritis, and osteoporosis or osteopenia. 

Although weight loss has traditionally been considered the primary recommendation to treat chronic pain, the findings of the UniSA study challenge the notion that it’s the only form of relief. Rather, the research highlighted diet quality as a distinct, and increasingly influential, factor in reducing pain severity. 

Obesity has long been recognised as a contributing factor to chronic musculoskeletal pain, and its prevalence continues to rise globally. Research has continued to show a link between excess weight and chronic musculoskeletal pain – for at-risk individuals, the extra weight may be adding more stress to the joints, worsening symptoms. 

The study’s lead researcher and UniSA PhD candidate Sue Ward explained that “chronic musculoskeletal pain is one of the most common and debilitating conditions worldwide.” 

“Whilst weight loss helps many people, this study suggests that improving diet quality itself also eases the severity of people’s pain,” Ward added. 

Researchers conducted a diet intervention study over three months. 104 Australian adults living with obesity or considered overweight reduced their daily energy intake by 30% – from 9100kj to 5800kj – by following the guidelines of the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Participants increased their consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats or alternatives, and reduced their intake of processed foods and alcohol. 

These dietary changes led to measurable improvements.  

At the conclusion of the study, participants saw their diet quality improve by 22%. Reported pain levels also reduced from 50% to 40% among participants with chronic musculoskeletal pain, with markedly less pain severity and better pain-related quality of life. 

“Whilst excess weight is often thought to put stress on joints and drive pain, our study shows that what you eat may independently influence chronic pain,” Ward said.  

“This study shows that adopting a healthier diet may lead to meaningful reductions in pain which improve overall wellbeing,” added Ward’s co-research Dr Alison Hill, noting the results highlight the importance of dietary guidelines in supporting to a healthy lifestyle with minimal chronic pain. 

The researchers hoped their study could assist with improving the understanding of chronic pain and inform future research into pain management. 

“This is a very hopeful finding for people living with chronic pain,” Ward remarked. 

Obesity levels balloon in children

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Many poor countries are now facing a “double epidemic” of malnutrition and obesity.

Childhood obesity has accelerated in many countries during the pandemic as children sit still at home for longer, often in front of a screen.

A global study published in 2017 in The Lancet projected that if the trends seen at the time continued, by 2022 obesity in children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years would surpass for the first time the share who were underweight.

That prediction now appears to have come true, reports The Economist.

Where obesity in children is most prevalent is somewhat surprising. More than a quarter of the world’s overweight children under the age of five live in Africa and 48 per cent are in Asia.

Children’s eating habits and levels of physical activity have changed for the worse during the pandemic. In Germany, for example, 28 per cent of three- to five-year-olds engaged in less physical activity and 20 per cent consumed more sugary snacks during the pandemic.

In rich countries, childhood obesity is concentrated in poor families.

In poor countries, however, it is a middle-class problem – so as average incomes rise, more children are moving into the overweight zone. Many poor countries are now facing a “double epidemic” of malnutrition and obesity.

Spectacular results from Chile’s anti-obesity drive

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Tough laws have led to a 23.7 per cent drop in sales of sugary drinks in two years.

The measures introduced in 2016 restrict the marketing of junk food and sugary drinks and impose a ban on their sale in schools.

Chile’s ministry of health also add labels that warn if the drinks and food are high in sugar, salt or fat. Sugary drinks, unhealthy snacks and packaged foods must carry these prominent labels aimed at warning and educating families about the health dangers of junk food and drinks for their children.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, publishing in the journal PLOS Medicine, said Chile’s anti-obesity campaign went further than any other country in the world.

“This regulation is different because it is the first to require warning labels about excess levels of nutrients of concern, such as sugar or sodium, on the front of food and beverage packages,” said Lindsey Smith Taillie, assistant professor of nutrition at the Gillings School.

“The regulation includes the world’s strictest limits on how and where food companies can advertise junk food to children. The reductions we observed in sugary drink purchases were markedly greater than those seen following the implementation of standalone policies – such as a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages – elsewhere in Latin America.”

Giving calories an exercise context to reduce obesity

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New research suggests that saying how much consumers need to exercise to burn off calories could change eating habits.

A new study by researchers at Loughborough University supports an approach to food product labelling that would display small symbols showing how much physical activity is needed to compensate for consuming the item.

For example, a fizzy drink containing 138 calories could have a small symbol of a person showing it would take 26 minutes of walking or 13 minutes of running to burn off these calories.

The researchers say the approach puts calories in context and may help people to avoid overeating, or spur them to move about more in a bid to burn off the energy they have consumed. They also suggest it might encourage food producers to make products with less calories.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study found that participants selected on average about 65 fewer calories per meal when exercise-based labels were present on food or menus.

While this might not seem a lot, researchers say with each meal this mounts up.

“People think that obesity is caused by gluttony. It isn’t. Obesity is caused by all of us eating just a little bit too much,” one of the researchers, Prof Amanda Daley, told The Guardian.

The three big threats to life

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Food systems are the drivers of obesity and under-nutrition and they also generate more than a quarter of global greenhouse emissions, says a new Lancet report.

The Lancet Commission – a group of 43 world-leading experts in agriculture, economics, human rights and other fields – says the interplay of obesity, under-nutrition and climate change poses an enormous threat to humanity.

Malnutrition, whether it is under nutrition or obesity, was by far the biggest cause of ill-health and premature death globally, the Lancet obesity commissioner Professor Steven Allender, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Excess body weight affects two billion people worldwide, while two billion people also suffer from micronutrient deficiency and both problems are expected to be made significantly worse by climate change,” Professor Allender said.

“Food systems not only drive the obesity and under- nutrition pandemic but also generate more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cattle production accounting for more than half of these emissions.

“Car-dominated transportation systems support sedentary lifestyles and generate between 14 and 25 per cent of emissions,” Professor Allender said.

Climate change’s extreme weather events, droughts, and shifts in agriculture will drive up rates of under nutrition by increasingly threatening food security, according to the report.

The latest report is the second by the Lancet Commission on the impact of nutrition and food systems on human and planetary health.

Physical inactivity “a global pandemic”

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More than a quarter of the world’s adult population – 1.4 billion people – are at risk of disease from not doing enough physical activity, a World Health Organization study has found.

The research, published in the Lancet Global Health Journal, found that one in three women and one in four men do not take enough exercise or move about enough, too often sitting at desks all day at work, in front of the TV in the evening and travelling by car.

That puts them at greater risk of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, dementia, and some cancers.

The minimum amount of movement recommended by the WHO is 150 minutes of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.

Inactivity has worsened over the last 15 years among the more affluent Western countries – rising from 31 per cent in 2001 to 37 per cent in 2016, and was described in Lancet as “a global pandemic”.

“Unlike other major global health risks, levels of insufficient physical activity are not falling worldwide, on average, and over a quarter of all adults are not reaching the recommended levels of physical activity for good health,” said the lead author, Dr Regina Guthold of the WHO.

“National policy needs to be implemented to encourage non-motorised modes of transportation, such as walking and cycling, and to promote participation in active recreation and sports in leisure time.”

The study also called for “more opportunities for safe and accessible leisure-time activity” for women.

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