Pregnant women and toddlers have been targeted in a new £40m anti-obesity initiative in Scotland.

Obesity rates north of the border have hit record levels, with around one in five Scots clinically obese. It costs the NHS £200m a year.

And chiefs are determined to tackle it – starting with mums-to-be and under fives in deprived areas.

Celebrity blonde endorsement machine, Paris Hilton, has unveiled a new diet plan: jellyfish.

In a move that will no doubt lead to mass depletion of the ocean’s supplies (just like Delia and that rank frozen spud stuff), Paris has been banging on about the virtues of the spineless treat.

Millions of people have a ‘fat gene’ that makes them more greedy than others.

If you are one of these unfortunates, you’ll take in an extra 300 calories in the course of an average day. Over time, this will lead to being overweight, and even obese.

Ladies who stuff it in first thing stay fuller for longer, snack less, lose weight and keep it off. Sounds like a convincing argument for an almighty grill-up.

We’ve always known breakfast was the most important meal of the day because our mum told us, but now there’s science fact as well as mum fact to back it up.

Stunning Ali Larter, 32, who plays bendy ass-kickers Niki and Jessica Sanders in Heroes was once left sobbing about her weight gain.

Larter tells Allure magazine that while shooting on location, a film’s producers and director picked on her for piling on the pounds.

New research from Japan has found that a sniff of early-morning Java could be just as effective at waking you up as taking a big old swig.

To aid the experiment, scientists got a bunch of rats and kept them awake all night. Personally, I’m wondering how, but that’s not the point of this story.

The sleepy rodents had reduced levels of mRNA, which are messenger molecules that indicate when a gene is being expressed. The lowered levels were found in eleven of the rats’ genes.

Angry medical professionals have hit out at the manufacturers of a new diet patch.

The National Obesity Forum, which lists doctors, nurses and dieticians among its members, have branded the marketing strategy for The Pink Patch ‘dangerous’.

Now, if you have not seen the new adverts, I’ll be surprised. They seem to be all over the internet at the moment.

We had no idea fashion journalism was such a difficult job.

Not only do you have to travel around the world and hang out with supermodels, apparently you have to be as thin as them to. Or, at least, that’s how Hollywood sees it.

Why else would they take one of their thinnest stars and virtually make her starve herself just to play the role of a magazine hack?

Women in Britain drink so much they have developed a new type of body shape – appropriately called the wineglass.

That’s according to a leading dietician in the UK, who says the growth of women such as Welsh songbird (or should that be thrush?) Charlotte Church with large upper bodies and thin lower halves is down to a lot of exercise but too much boozing.

But before women in the UK all start to give themselves a pat on the back for inventing something new, let’s just say health and diet experts do not share your enthusiasm.

Who said men could not careless about how their bodies look?

In fact, according to the most predictable health and diet survey since yesterday, men are just as keen as women to get rid of their flabby arms and stomachs as women.

Or at least in the UK they are. Not that we are saying other men around the world are not interested in shedding the pounds. No way!!

Life’s big decisions are best taken on a full stomach, while skipping meals makes you careless, a new study suggests.

According to a recent study from Cambridge boffins, skipping meals will lead to a reduced level of Serotonin in your brain.