Guest Author • Dec 16, 2016 •
By Sophie Medlin, King’s College London A lot of people will have already made up their mind about whether humans need dairy in their diet and will be thinking that the answer is obviously “yes” or obviously “no”. But nutrition is based on science not opinion – so, here’s the latest research on the matter. Milk is … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 12, 2016 •
A US meat company is now an investor in vegan burgers, and selling them alongside meat patties. That’s just one of the signals pointing to big changes in food production systems in affluent nations. Lab-grown meat gets the headlines, but burgers made from plant proteins are well ahead of that, and likely to have a much lower yuck … Read More
Guest Author • Oct 10, 2016 •
By Jonas House, University of Sheffield There’s a lot of hype around edible insects. Insects are being championed as a healthy and sustainable alternative to conventional protein sources in Europe and the US, and “ento-prising” new products are appearing almost every week. Cricket-based cocktail bitters, anyone? Of course, these new bug-based foods aren’t for everyone. In … Read More
Guest Author • Aug 12, 2016 •
By Simon Cotton, University of Birmingham If you’re offered a plate of blackened barbecue food this summer, you might think twice about eating it. It’s commonly thought that food that has been burnt could cause cancer. This is in part down to one particular molecule that forms when food is cooked at high temperatures, known as acrylamide. But … Read More
Steve Pointing • Aug 12, 2015 •
I tweeted (@stevepointing) this story yesterday describing how astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) had tucked into their first ‘home grown’ salad in space. It was also the feature of my interview with Duncan Garner on yesterday’s Radio Live Driveshow. The obvious joy at having something other than food from a foil pouch was clearly visible among Scott … Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 19, 2015 •
In last week's NZ Initiative "Insights" newsletter, I'd hit on public misunderstandings around GST. People think taking GST off food would be strongly progressive, because poor people spend a greater fraction of their income on food, but richer cohorts get a much larger fraction of the total benefit because they spend more in total on food. If you want … Read More
Michael Edmonds • Mar 26, 2015 •
Food Babe, aka Vani Hari, has developed quite a following on her blog where she provides advice on healthy living. Some of the advice can be quite good, however, it can also include incorrect information often creates unnecessary chemophobia. A recent article for magazine The Cut provided some good examples of how good advice can be muddled with less … Read More
Peter Dearden • Feb 10, 2015 •
How I learned to stop worrying and love DNA … Read More
Public Health Expert • Jul 17, 2014 •
Dr Ninya Maubach (ninya.maubach@otago.ac.nz) Consumers have a right to have informative yet easy-to-use nutrition labelling, and effective labelling is one tool to help control the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Everyone agrees that on its own, the current Nutrition Information Panel … Continue reading → … Read More
Public Health Expert • Mar 25, 2014 •
Dr Amber Pearson & Associate Professor Nick Wilson Food prices matter for determining access to healthy food – and so we studied fruit and vegetable prices in two NZ cities in this newly published article in PLOS ONE. In this … Continue reading → … Read More