There’s an old saying, you are what you eat. If you look at the average Australian diet, we’re in trouble.
The rise of the 24/7 society, unsocial work hours and an accelerating pace of life have led the…
Children involved in practical food activities, such as growing food, tend to eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.
wamblicious/Flickr
Selecting the right mix of foods and preparing them safely doesn’t come naturally to humans – we need to be taught. But lessons about food and nutrition are glaringly absent from the new draft national…
At around 200 pages, the new Australian Dietary Guidelines aren’t easily translated into day-to-day practice.
Flickr/Darren131
We’re just back from holidays. Nothing fancy, just a trip to post-flood ravaged Queensland: sun, sand, surf and every meal bar breakfast eaten out. But unfortunately, a stroll along the beach, a ramble…
Few recommendations have changed since 2003 but the evidence has strengthened.
Image from shutterstock.com
By Warwick Anderson, National Health and Medical Research Council
After nearly four years in the making, around 55,000 research publications reviewed, nutrients modelled into food and food groups, independent expert review and several rounds of consultations, the National…
Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, choose mostly unprocessed grains and cereals, cut back on salt, fat and sugar, and get more active.
jamesjyu.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) today released its updated Australian Dietary Guidelines to advise Australians about the types and amounts of foods needed to maintain a healthy…
Excess kilojoules, rather than dietary fat, leads to weight gain.
Image from shutterstock.com
If food is labelled low fat, it’s got to be better for weight loss, right? Wrong – it’s the total kilojoules that matter most for weight loss. Looking solely at fat content only gives you part of the picture…
Too much sugar is harmful to your health but it’s not the only driver of obesity.
joshbousel
Forty years ago, British nutritionist John Yudkin wrote a book about sugar. Titled Pure, White and Deadly, Yudkin argued that consumption of sugar, not fat, was driving the epidemic of heart disease…
Most pregnant women only need to eat the equivalent of an extra two pieces of fruit and half a glass of milk a day.
Flickr/flequi
We’ve all heard people sprout the phrase, “go on, you’re eating for two now” at barbecues, dinner parties and wherever food is being served, forcing pregnant women to decline offers of more and more food…
Unless you’re allergic to cow’s milk, dairy products are unlikely to cause or exacerbate asthma.
Image from shutterstock.com
Dairy products are good for the bones, so we’re encouraged to have regular serves of (reduced-fat) milk cheese and yogurt. But can they make asthma and allergies worse?
Asthma is a respiratory condition…
Nearly three-quarters of the parents said they were pestered by their children into buying food.
EPA Sam Stephenson
While we think of junk food marketing as something that happens during television commercial breaks or on massive billboard signs, supermarkets are yet another advertising frontier for food companies…
Researchers can now explain exactly how Popeye got superhuman strength from spinach.
Marius Watz
Researchers have finally caught up with the wisdom of mothers, who, for decades have been coaxing their children to eat spinach.
We know this leafy green is a good source of folate, a very important B…
The star scheme is yet to undergo consumer testing to see if it helps guide healthier food choices.
Bruce A Stockwell
The federal government is likely to introduce a star system for food packages next year to help consumers make healthier food choices, ABC’s Lateline reported last week. Much like the energy star rating…
There is no evidence to support the claim that eating peanuts or peanut butter during pregnancy will make your child allergic to peanuts.
Image from shutterstock.com
Anyone else have the feeling something radical has happened with peanut allergy in the past 30 years? I don’t recall knowing anyone allergic to peanuts or peanut butter as a child in the 1980s, yet today…
Swimming isn’t the best way to settle that full stomach but it’s unlikely to cause you to drown.
Jaypeg
The old saying that you should wait at least 30 minutes after eating before you swim is based on the idea that after a big meal, blood will be diverted away from your arms and legs, towards your stomach…
The move to end the tax appears to be a political one.
Sam Howzit
Denmark has scrapped the world’s first “fat tax”, which was charged on foods high in saturated fats, after just one year. Plans to introduce a tax on sugar have also been abandoned.
In making the announcement…
Breathing through your mouth or chewing gum has no effect: the tear stimulus is in your eyes, not your nose or mouth.
Flickr/tarale
The cultivated onion, Allium cepa, is a savoury staple of cuisines around the world. Yet slicing up onions all too often leads to tears: you peel off the papery outer skin, start chopping and before long…
Detox diets may do little harm, except to your bank balance, but neither do they do a lot of good.
katstan
Detox diets make amazing promises of dramatic weight loss and more energy – all achieved by flushing toxins from the body. Toxins have very little to do with it; detox diets “work” because of the very…
Unless you’re up to date with the healthy food guidelines, don’t preach to fat people about what they should eat.
Stocky Bodies (Isaac Brown)
A couple of weeks back I awoke with a swollen and painful knee. I’ve had problem knees since high school and figured that this was just another chapter in the saga. Some days later I was fed up – my knee…
Health claims are commonly exploited to promote the consumption of highly processed foods.
Flickr / ajleon
Australian and New Zealand ministers responsible for food regulation last week bowed to lobbying from processed food manufacturers and agreed to permit them to market products with general level health…
Samples of Lipton teas in China contained up to 13 pesticides, including banned substances.
Paul Watson
Anyone care for a cup of Methomyl? A recent investigation by Greenpeace East Asia has uncovered a catalog of banned and highly dangerous pesticides in Lipton tea products sold on Beijing supermarket shelves…
Men generally prefer higher concentrations of sweet compared with women.
Ethan
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
My wife says she has a sweet tooth. But doesn’t everyone? It’s universal to the human condition (as well as the human palate) to like something sweet.
It may even be an evolutionary advantage to seek…
One in four Australians are now obese. But when – and how – did we gain this weight?
Kyle May
By Anna Peeters, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute and Dianna Magliano, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it – Australia is becoming an obese nation. Today we launch a series looking at how this has happened and, more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic…
There’s no evidence to show chocolate causes acne but milk may play a role.
anjuli ayer
Outbreaks of pimples, blackheads and cysts are a cause of enormous anxiety and embarrassment among teens and young adults. If you’re part of the 20% of Australians who have experienced severe acne, you…
The research has found no causal relationship between food additives and behavioural disorders in children.
Brit
Contemporary processed foods contain many additives, largely to meet consumer expectations for great tasting products that are aesthetically pleasing, all year round. If we didn’t have all these expectations…
When cooked food falls below 60°C, it’s in the temperature danger zone.
riebschlager
Food poisoning doesn’t just come from dodgy kebabs, under-cooked chicken and restaurants with poor hygiene practices – it can also occur in the home. And anyone who has suffered a bout of food poisoning…
Feeding the world is entirely feasible, but food distribution remains a significant challenge.
edwin van buuringen
The Economist has its critics, but it still delivers lots of interesting data. I just found this table (published by EconomistDailyChart) of annual meat consumption per person by country. The data set…
It doesn’t really matter how long food is on the floor, it’s likely to collect the same amount of bacteria.
Flickr/bark
As a food microbiologist, I have always been amazed at people’s belief in the three- or five-second rule. It goes something like this: if you retrieve food dropped on the floor or another surface within…
Hospitals provide a regular flow of captive customers for fast food outlets.
Roslyn in Starfish Island
A number of commentators have raised concerns recently about the increasing corporate presence in Australian schools. At a time of burgeoning rates of obesity and chronic disease, the increasing presence…
Sugar doesn’t play a greater or lesser role in obesity than fat and other carbohydrates.
Esther Gibbons
The debate about the health implications of sugar consumption began back in 1972 when Professor John Judkin, from the University of London, published Pure, White and Deadly, which linked sugar intake to…
Cakes aren’t universally unhealthy – and they play an important role in our society.
Flickr/comedy nose
The obesity epidemic is creating panic in the community, with media commentators expressing outrage at our widening waistbands and academics raising alarms about the health implications of carrying excess…
Australia’s revised dietary guidelines must consider environmental sustainability.
Wonderlane
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is currently revising the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Yet, despite expert advice from public health and environmental sustainability groups…
Neither organic nor conventional food is nutritionally any better or worse for you.
Smaku
Across the world, outbreaks of food-borne illness, contamination and environmental scares have generated a lot of media attention and plenty of fear around food safety. Think of the recent E. coli outbreaks…
There’s no biological evidence to show that chocolate can affect your libido.
Roxanne Cooke
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
There are many ways to a woman’s heart. But is a box of chocolates really one of them?
What makes chocolate romantic is entirely contextual. Valentine’s Day is traditionally the time for couples to profess…
If you’re not meeting your weight-loss targets, you need to eat less or move more.
Flickr/lism
People who struggle to lose weight often blame their difficulty achieving a healthy weight on their “slow metabolism”. So is this a real barrier to weight loss, or is the real culprit an excess of food…
Bad pine nuts can leave you with a metallic taste in your mouth for up to two weeks.
Gemma Bou
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
Pine nuts are those crunchy, delectable seeds we scatter over summer salads, use to make pesto and that form the base of some favourite desserts, such as pignoli and baklava. They usually have a sweet…
ACMA has handballed responsibility for regulating junk food advertising to kids to a preventive health agency.
Eekadman
There’s no evidence that industry self-regulation works to restrict junk food advertising to children. That’s the unsurprising finding of the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) long…
Media messages about food and portion size are confusing and aren’t always based on sufficient evidence.
Floodkoff
By Warwick Anderson, National Health and Medical Research Council
When it comes to diet-related health claims, even the “good” newspapers are usually wrong, making recommendations about which foods people should eat (and avoid) that aren’t based on sufficient evidence…
90% of the glutamate in our diet comes from protein, not MSG.
Kevin H
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is widely viewed as a dangerous food toxin that is responsible for adverse reactions to Chinese food and other meals. But is it really the MSG that’s to blame?
Glutamate is…
The food industry has won this round but the traffic light labelling fight isn’t over yet.
IJClark
The Federal Government has defied expert advice and rejected a traffic light food labelling system for packaged foods, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to show it would give consumers the information…
Fruit juice contains as much sugar as soft drink.
Gail M Tang
We often hear, from health experts and well-meaning parents, that soft drink is terribly unhealthy and we should opt for fruit juice instead. But apart from a few additional vitamins and minerals, there…
Consumers need more useful information about assessing the freshness and safety of food products.
Picture this: you arrive home from work feeling a bit peckish. Sliced mango and a dollop of yoghurt should ease the cravings until dinner, you think. You open the fridge door and, horror, no yoghurt. Not…
Being overweight or obese can increase a teen’s risk of developing a number of diseases.
Cindy Shar-pei
Picture this common scenario: A mother is worried about the size of her 13-year-old daughter, who appears quite a bit heavier than the other students in her class. But the mother is reassured by her friend…
Prescription weight loss medicines are expensive and don’t produce lasting results.
Flickr/Flashstep
Welcome to part nine of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, Lennert Veerman, Senior Research…
Losing weight and keeping it off can be hard due to hormonal changes.
Colros
Welcome to part eight of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, Joseph Proietto, Professor…
Promises of a quick weight-loss fix mask the realities of liposuction.
Laura Mary
Welcome to part seven of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, health sociologist Rhian…
Miranda Kerr lost her pregnancy weight and was back on the runway six months after giving birth.
AAP
Welcome to part six of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, Caroline Homer, Professor of…
How much weight can be lost from reducing calorie intake is generally misunderstood.
Flickr/puuikibeach
Welcome to part four of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, Deakin University Public Health…
Your long-term weight loss success is dependant on both exercise and nutrition.
Kenny Holston
Welcome to part four of The science behind weight loss, a Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. Here, Deakin University nutrition…
Diet pill manufacturers take advantage of consumers' desire to look and feel better.
Flickr/jypsygen
Welcome to part two of The science behind weight loss, a new Conversation series in which we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition.
Here, Michael Vagg, Clinical…
Fad diets might give you short-term “results” but they’re unlikely to keep the weight off.
Flickr/HTB
Welcome to The science behind weight loss, a new Conversation series where we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. In our first instalment, renowned nutritionist…
The links between coffee and better health aren’t strong enough to recommend another cup.
Flickr/doug8888
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
Many Australians begin their day with a cup of coffee. It’s widely viewed as a tonic with revitalising properties – each cup making us feel better. But this isn’t the same as being good for our health…
Australia needs a tax on unhealthy foods that covers more than just fat content.
Flickr/ms Tea
Australia should follow the lead of Denmark and consider taxing foods high in saturated fats to curb the nation’s growing obesity problem, Greens leader Bob Brown said at yesterday’s tax forum.
This week…
Aside from folate, most pregnant women get all the nutrients they need from a balanced diet.
Flickr/Future Street
If you’ve ever been pregnant, you’ll know what it’s like to be bombarded with mixed messages from well-meaning friends and family about what you should eat and avoid to protect your growing baby.
It can…
Trans fats are more harmful to your health than regular fats and should be avoided.
Flickr/Half alive
Trans fats – they’re in our chips, bakery goods, popcorn and cakes. We know we should avoid them, but what exactly are they, and why are they so bad for us?
First, let’s take a step back and look at how…
When you’re sick with a cold, you’re likely to be told to rest and drink plenty of fluids – water, juice, tea and the old favourite, chicken soup.
This has been the prevailing advice for generations and…
Adjusting your protein intake can help you lose weight or build muscle mass.
Neric Blein
For most people, successful weight loss comes down to two things: eating less and exercising more. But new research shows we may have been underestimating the role protein plays in losing weight and building…
Light or “lite” can refer to the colour, weight or kilojoule content of a product.
Flickr/Trusty pics
How much can you believe about claims made on food packaging? For any mention of the word “light” or “lite”, feel free to add your own definition – that will have about as much credibility as any claim…
Is it time to end our love affair with energy-dense foods?
Mild Mannered Photographer
For the first time ever, the number of overweight people on Earth outweighs the number that are undernourished.
From the obesity crisis flows a cascade of health and social problems: it burdens healthcare…
The tongue can register all tastes in all locations but with varying sensitivity.
The myth that the four common tastes of sweet, sour, salty and bitter are located at different regions of the tongue has existed for more than a century.
It arose from studies in the late 19th and early…
There’s no evidence to prove it works, but does that matter?
Flickr/Akane86
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
Of all the homemade winter cure-alls, chicken soup is the best known and most loved. In fact the term “chicken soup” has become idiomatic for all things restorative; benefiting every possible problem from…
Exercise decreases hunger in the long term.
Puuikibeach/Flickr
It’s time to ignore any advice you’ve heard about your sweat and hard work in the gym sabotaging your weight loss efforts by causing you to eat more. Every little bit of exercise can help shift unwanted…
It’s how much you eat, not when you eat it, that affects weight management.
If only a cure to world hunger was as easy as dishing out late-night sandwiches to the starving masses, and seeing them gain weight by eating at night.
The reality is that it’s not when you eat, but how…
Children form lifetime brand associations from age two.
flickr/AlternativeMedia
More than 550 international health professionals and organisations have signed a letter to McDonald’s calling for the Ronald McDonald icon to be shelved.
What’s made Ronald McDonald such a successful…
Any parent would tell you that seeing children fuelling up on sugar-laden cake, lollies and soft drinks at a birthday party is a sure-fire recipe for a bunch of rampaging hyperactive kids.
The connection…
People who exercise have a smaller risk of heart attacks despite larger salt intake.
lululemon athletica/flickr
A recent article has questioned received wisdom regarding the adverse impact of salt on health. Unfortunately, naïve researchers and journal editors looking to stir up a controversy are confusing this…
Restricting junk food is just one element in reducing obesity.
Junk food is one of the mainstays of food advertising to children, who form the key market for junk food advertisers.
Some of the more concerning marketing tactics are the ones that play on children’s…
Some people benefit from salt restriction while others don’t.
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
Ah, salt. We love its taste and yearn to use it liberally in our cooking. But we’re told to limit our salt consumption for the sake of our health. Much like a low cholesterol product, the low salt option…
New research links prolonged bottle feeding to obesity.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quitepeculiar
Children who are bottle-fed until the age of two are 30% more likely to be obese at five-and-a-half years of age, a new study has found.
Of the 6750 children studied by researchers from Temple University…
Even modest weight loss can reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
Anya Quinn
We’ve come a long way in our understanding of diabetes over the past few decades. Rather than cutting down on sugar, the prevention and management of diabetes hinges on weight control and a balanced diet…
People in the developing world are more likely to have lifestyle and infectious diseases.
AAP
On Sunday, China banned smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars and other indoor spaces.
But a lack of public understanding about the dangers of smoking in the nation of 300 million smokers…
Compensating for missing tastes can throw diets out of whack.
If your child were diagnosed with a taste disorder, you’d be forgiven for welcoming an impending disinterest in sweets and salty chips.
But for the one in ten Australian children who can’t perceive sweet…
Flavonoids in chocolate have a positive effect on mood and wellbeing.
By Merlin Thomas, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
There is nothing like chocolate. When it comes to the hedonistic appeal of chocolate, the taste, texture, aroma and packaging are hard to beat.
Australians eat an average of five to six kilograms of chocolate…
Obesity rates have fallen most in children from disadvantaged communities.
Wyan Vota
With one in four children obese or overweight, there is no shortage of bad news about Australia’s battle with obesity. But recently, a glimmer of hope has emerged.
Between 1999 and 2007 the prevalence…
Buying up farmland in developing countries may be the only answer.
ILRI/flickr
FOOD SECURITY – You don’t hear about it as much, but global food security is a major issue, probably of more concern than climate change.
It is driven by increasing population, changes in diet, increasing…
Excessive weight gain in the early years can lead to health problems.
AAP
No parent decides to make their child obese. Yet one in five children will be overweight or obese by the time they reach primary school.
We now know that excessive weight gain actually begins much earlier…
Age-related changes in body weight may have a positive impact on mental health.
keithload/Flickr
Being overweight in childhood, adolescence or during adulthood has traditionally been thought to increase the long-term risk of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular events and some cancers as well as…
NGOs, public health associations and consumer organisations disagree with industry groups about the most useful system for labelling our foods.
The fight over how to label our food has never been more intense. On one side of the argument we have public health associations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and consumer groups looking for effective…
You can achieve a healthy weight gain during pregnancy by eating healthily and being physically active.
TuttleTree
In the past, women have often been told they should eat for two during pregnancy. This old adage is not true anymore, especially if women are overweight or obese when starting their pregnancy.
Restricting…
