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Dirk Holzinger

@dirkholzinger

Pediatrician at University Hospital Essen, scientist, nurse caring for childrens’ health and climate change. Professor for pediatrics at HS Gesundheit Bochum

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10.09.2023
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Latest posts by Dirk Holzinger @dirkholzinger

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Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease We examined the impact of exposure to sugar restrictions within 1000 days after conception on type 2 diabetes and hypertension, leveraging quasi-experimental variation from the end of the United Kingd...

🍭 Evidence matters too: studies show that children exposed to less sugar in their first 1,000 days have lower risks of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease later in life.
If industry won’t act, policy measures are needed to make healthier choices easier
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

🏭 One piece often missing in these discussions: the responsibility of the food industry to provide healthier products and clear labeling.
There’s a reason sugar taxes keep being debated.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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🤝 The takeaway: it’s not enough to tell families to take “personal responsibility.”
Healthy food environments require joint action from families, schools, society, policymakers—and the food & advertising industry.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

4️⃣ External influences matter:
• advertising for unhealthy foods
• peer pressure
Both can make healthy choices harder for kids and teens.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

3️⃣ Society matters:
Access to healthy food is shaped by
• socioeconomic status
• financial constraints
• cultural/ethnic background.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

2️⃣ Schools matter:
• nutrition education
• practical learning (e.g., cooking or food projects)
• healthy school meal policies
Schools can actively support balanced eating habits.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

1️⃣ Parents matter:
• role modeling healthy eating
• shared family meals
• reasonable food rules & limits
These are strongly linked to better diet quality in children.

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

How can healthy eating become everyday reality for children and adolescents?
Research by Maginsh Dahal et al. shows it’s complex and shaped by four interacting factors. 🧵
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

08.03.2026 10:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Surveying 813 scientists on Twitter & Bluesky, Shiffman and Wester found overwhelming agreement: Twitter is no longer professionally useful or pleasant. Many have moved to Bluesky—and report that every professional benefit they once got from Twitter, they now get more effectively on Bluesky.

20.02.2026 16:08 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

#Scientists have long used social media for networking & outreach, with #Twitter as the main hub for over a decade. But recent changes there—rising pseudoscience, conspiracy content, and harassment—have pushed many to look elsewhere.

academic.oup.com/icb/article-...

20.02.2026 16:08 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

“Real” men can do this:
“I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see.”

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

🍱 What we need are three ingredients for mature, long-term action:
1️⃣ Recognize and address real threats
2️⃣ Reflect on our self-image — including masculinity
3️⃣ Think long-term
Solving planetary crises is a multi-generational project, much like building medieval cathedrals.

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Discounting environmental policy: The effects of psychological distance over time and space Many environmental policies are characterized by long time horizons (e.g., multiple generations) and high geographic dispersion (e.g., multiple countr…

Support also drops sharply once benefits occur outside one’s own country. Environmental policies receive less support overall, even when benefits are here and now. More concrete threats — like natural disasters — gain much higher approval.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

5 of the 7 ecological risks are long-term threats and long-term solutions — with delayed rewards — are exactly what we struggle with in environmental policy. The further benefits lie in the future, the less support policies receive.

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Man enough to save the planet? Masculinity concerns predict attitudes toward climate change Despite scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, many individuals deny that the climate is changing. Although past work has examined gen…

Men who strongly emphasize “being a man” worry less about climate change, feel less personal responsibility, doubt human causes more often.
Why? Because some men perceive “warmth” as feminine — and caring for the environment is seen as a “warm” trait.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

👥 Most decision-makers are men.
That alone isn’t the problem.
The problem is how misguided ideas of masculinity interact with climate action.

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Global Risks Report 2026: Top risks in an 'age of disorder' As the world faces uncertainty, geoeconomic confrontation is the main short-term risk, while environmental issues shape the long-term outlook, experts say.

Let’s talk about the #ClimateCrisis and false ideas of masculinity.
🌍 First, the encouraging news:
The World Economic Forum ranks 7 impacts of planetary crises among the top 20 global risks.
📖 www.weforum.org/stories/2026...
The danger is recognized — but something still worries me:

17.01.2026 16:01 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Body & Balance On Air Podcast Download ~ Podcast von Katharina Kessel ~ podcast 3509733 In den Body & Balance On Air Podcast kostenlos online reinhören und hier abonnieren.

🌍 Dabei geht es neben den Planetaren natürlich vor allem um Lösungsansätze im kleinen aber auch großen und der Frage wie muss eine nachhaltige und gerechte Welt für Kinder aussehen.

Absolut hörenswert sind auch die anderen Folgen:
📻 www.podcast.de/podcast/3509...

14.01.2026 16:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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#36 Gesund auf einem kranken Planeten? Mobilität, Ernährung & mentale Gesundheit in der Klimakrise

In Folge #36 darf ich mit der wunderbaren Dr. rer. nat. Katharina Kessel in ihrem Podcast "Body & Balance on air" über Planetare Gesundheit und deren Bedeutung vor allem für Kinder und Jugendliche sprechen.
📻 open.spotify.com/episode/5j5x...

14.01.2026 16:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Mortality impacts of rainfall and sea-level rise in a developing megacity - Nature High-resolution rainfall, tide and mortaility data are used to quantify the impact of rainfall and flooding on urban health in Mumbai, India, revealing an order-of-magnitude discrepency between observ...

This is a frightening example of #climate (in)justice: rainfall causes more than 8% of Mumbai’s deaths during monsoon season, 80% of this burden is borne by slum residents. Children and women face the biggest increase in mortality risk by rainfall.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

21.11.2025 09:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer

⏳ Das Leben ist zu kurz für irgendwann ... deswegen ist es dringender denn je, endlich ins Handeln zu kommen. Nicht nur für uns sondern auch vor allem für kommende Generationen.

📖 academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

- Es bedarf eines Systemwandels, der individuelle technische Ansätze mit einem umfassenderen gesellschaftlichen Wandel, Regierungsführung, politischen Maßnahmen und sozialen Bewegungen verknüpft.

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

💪 Was jetzt passieren muss, machen die Autor*innen auch deutlich:

- Gesellschaftliche Wendepunkte sind notwendig und können rasche Veränderungen auslösen. Selbst kleine, nachhaltige gewaltfreie Bewegungen können öffentliche Normen und politische Maßnahmen verändern!

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Der kombinierte Verbrauch von Solar- und Windenergie stellte zwar ebenfalls einen neuen Rekord auf, lag aber 31-mal niedriger als der Verbrauch fossiler Brennstoffe. ... und das ist nur eine Auswahl

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

- Aktuell befinden sich 22 von 34 planetarischen Vitalzeichen im kritischen Bereich
- Im Jahr 2024 erreichte der Verbrauch fossiler Brennstoffe einen Rekordwert, wobei Kohle, Öl und Gas allesamt Höchststände erreichten.

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

⚡ 🌎 Wir bräuchten mindestens eine Sondersendung oder mehrere Talksohows, um uns bewusst zu machen, was im aktuellen The 2025 state of the climate report steht:
- Im Jahr 2024 wurde ein neuer globalen Durchschnittstemperaturrekord aufgestellt und signalisiert damit eine Eskalation der Klimakrise

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Lasst uns reden über - den Zustand unseres Planeten!

📣 Warum sind uns Taylor Swifts neues Album oder Harry Kanes nächster Torrekord Push-Nachrichten unsere Aufmerksamkeit wert - aber nicht der Zustand unseres Planeten?

11.11.2025 10:33 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Current mood

(source unknown - but I am very thankful)

10.11.2025 09:02 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

❗Wäre es daher nicht wichtig, wirklich da zu sein und Ablenkung durch Handy, den neusten Trend oder Klatsch nicht zu zu lassen. Denn nur wenn wir Krisen noch als Krisen wahrnehmen, können wir ins Handeln kommen und so für unser Dasein und das folgender Generationen eintreten.

09.11.2025 16:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The normalization of (almost) everything: Our minds can get used to anything, and even crises start feeling normal Our minds can get used to anything, and even crises start feeling normal

So steht unsere kognitive Adaptationsfähigkeit einem nachhaltigen Dasein im Weg.
📖 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

09.11.2025 16:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0