HEALTH NOTES: Stick to single servings if you enjoy eating popcorn

Snack-loving Britons eat nearly 50 per cent more crisps than they should in one sitting, a study shows. As for popcorn, they exceed the recommended amount by at least 150 per cent when eating from a cinema-style bucket.

Scientists at Leeds University compared the recommended serving sizes listed on packets with what consumers actually ate. Their results revealed consumers largely ignored the recommendations – leading to a call for studies into whether small pack sizes could help curb the obesity epidemic.

A 2016 poll found more than one in three men and one in four women regularly munch an entire 150g ‘sharing’ bag of crisps – meant to serve four.

Breathing deeply can boost brain   

Taking a deep breath can boost your brain power, a new study has shown.

A research team in Israel asked volunteers to inhale deeply before an exam and found they performed better than those who did not.

The results, published in Nature Human Behaviour, showed that those who inhaled the most amount of air achieved the highest score on the tests.

Experts think inhaling deeply somehow prepares the brain for receiving new information.

Whiff of a pregnancy myth    

It’s a commonly held belief – but women do not develop a heightened sense of smell in pregnancy. A Brazilian study found very little differences in smell ‘scores’ between 100 pregnant women and 100 others who were not expecting.

The only significant difference was that women in the first three months of pregnancy tended to consider some smells less pleasant, the research showed.

It’s a commonly held belief – but women do not develop a heightened sense of smell in pregnancy

Turmeric is said to banish colds and boost mood, but it could also heal spinal injuries, say scientists in China. 

A team at Shaoxing University found curcumin – the active ingredient in turmeric – can block the activation of certain genes involved in triggering scar tissue in the spine. 

Damage to spine tissue can take a long time to heal and the developing scar tissue is often raised, red and inflamed. 

But the researchers found that the compounds in curcumin could speed up the healing process. 

The findings are the latest in a serious of studies suggesting that the curry spice favourite can potentially prevent numerous conditions, including Alzheimer’s. 

A team at Shaoxing University found curcumin – the active ingredient in turmeric (pictured) – can block the activation of certain genes involved in triggering scar tissue in the spine