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Articles on Food and nutrition

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A mother’s healthy and varied diet during pregnancy might give her child a head start to healthy eating. Bettina Neuefeind/Flickr

Passing on taste: how your mum’s diet affects what you eat

Our parents teach us what is to eat. But this process begins well before the fight to get toddlers to eat their veggies. Not only do our parents give us the genes that define our taste receptors, research…
OK you can trust this food label. But calories? Forget it. Bryan Kennedy

Why most food labels are wrong about calories

Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story. A calorie is a measure…
Any improvements you can make to what you eat and drink will help stack the odds in your favour. Image Point Fr/Shutterstock

Health Check: five food tips that could save your life after a heart attack

Every ten minutes in Australia someone has a heart attack. For 17% this will be fatal; the rest get a second chance. If you have had a close call, these five food tips will help get your health back on…
High intake of take-away foods, red and processed meat, soft drinks, and fried and refined food is a risk factor for poor academic performance. Jay Peg/Flickr

Brain food: diet’s impacts on students are too big to ignore

As their children submit themselves to the ordeal of all-important end-of-year exams, parents of high school and university students may be wondering what they can do to help. One thing they ought to consider…
Newly arrived refugees face many obstacles to making healthy food choices. Lucian/Flickr

Resettled refugees adopt Australia’s bad food habits

Refugees settling in Australia constantly face new challenges. They have to re-adjust to new income levels, cultural practices and language. They also face a new food environment, where many traditional…
Gut bacteria can manufacture special proteins that are very similar to hunger-regulating hormones. Lighthunter/Shutterstock

How the bacteria in our gut affect our cravings for food

We’ve long known that that the gut is responsible for digesting food and expelling the waste. More recently, we realised the gut has many more important functions and acts a type of mini-brain, affecting…
Try to avoid too many saturated fatty acids by choosing oils that are liquid at room temperature. Marjan Lazarevski/Flickr

Health Check: cooking oils to eat and avoid

Health conscious consumers are increasingly ditching old favourites vegetable and canola oil for trendy alternatives like coconut and peanut oil. But are they any healthier? And how do they compare with…
Growing up on broccoli. School lunch via Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Hard Evidence: what do primary school children need to eat?

We should be concerned about our children’s diets. In 2011, nearly 10% of four to five-year-olds in the UK were classified as obese. By the time they leave primary school, nearly 20% of children are obese…
Some recommendations are straightforward: more fruit and veg, less alcohol and meat. But for calcium, it’s more complicated. ransomtech/Flickr

Six foods that increase or decrease your risk of cancer

If you believe cancer is a disease that strikes from nowhere with little in your control to prevent it, you’d be mistaken on both counts. Most cases of cancer are considered preventable by positive nutrition…
The health star rating system aims to provide convenient and easily understood nutritional information on food packs. eddie welker/Flickr

After three-year saga, health star rating labels finally ready to go

Assistant health minister Fiona Nash has announced that Australian and New Zealand ministers responsible for food policy and regulation have signed off on the health star rating system for front-of-pack…

VIDEO: Are raw foods good for you?

There are claims that cooking destroys nutrients and enzymes found in food, and that eating raw, uncooked foods must be better for you. But it’s not that simple and, as Tim Crowe explains, a pure raw-food…
Cheaper than the real thing, but less healthy. David Wright

Poor diet is the result of poverty not lack of education

Public health professionals are calling on the prime minister to do more to help the many families in the UK who cannot afford a decent diet. Contrary to popular belief, people who are experiencing food…
We need to look past the colours, pictures and cleverly crafted claims. Art Allianz/Shutterstock

Fat free and 100% natural: seven food labelling tricks exposed

If you’re confused by food labels, you’re not alone. But don’t hold your breath for an at-a-glance food labelling system that tells you how much salt, fat and sugar each product contains. Australia’s proposed…
Buying fresh and cooking from scratch is a struggle for some. Shutterstock/sunlover

Health Check: is fresh food always the best choice?

When it comes to food, we’re told to eat what’s in season, buy locally and avoid “food miles” – for good reason. But not everyone has access to grower’s markets, or the time and resources to source and…
The prevalence of obesity in Australia hasn’t tripled in the last 30 years because we’ve all lost personal responsibility. Flickr/confidence, comely.

Personal responsibility won’t solve Australia’s obesity problem

Almost two thirds of Australians are now overweight or obese. In fact, obesity and unhealthy diets now contribute to more disease and illness in Australia than smoking. This makes finding solutions to…
Choosing an exclusively raw-food diet can potentially put a person at a small disadvantage. jefah/Flickr

Health Check: are raw food claims overcooked?

Eating only raw foods has emerged as a popular dietary trend. Proclaiming an emotive health message, it is enough to make you think twice before next adding heat to your food. But fear not – on the scales…

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