Tagged: food

Better nutrition for mental health – food for thought - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 29, 2017 •

• Diet,
• food,
• Horizon Scan,
• mental illness,
• micronutrients,
• Natural Health Products Bill,
• nutirtion

By Prof Julia Rucklidge, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Canterbury. Mental illness affects one in five New Zealanders and, despite the wide availability of solid empirically supported therapies, these statistics are not getting any better. We appear to have reached an impasse improving outcomes, despite improvements in other areas of medicine. We need to explore new avenues. Read More

Do humans need dairy? Here’s the science - Guest Work

Guest Author • Dec 16, 2016 •

• diary,
• digestions,
• food,
• Health,
• lactose,
• milk,
• nutrition

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

Cellular ag - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Oct 12, 2016 •

• farming systems,
• food,
• future,
• innovation,
• meat,
• New Zealand,
• Sustainability

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

It’s not just the ‘yuck factor’ that puts people off eating insects - Guest Work

Guest Author • Oct 10, 2016 •

• Consumers,
• food,
• food systems,
• insects,
• marketing

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

Does burnt food give you cancer? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Aug 12, 2016 •

• acrylamide,
• cancer,
• cancer risk,
• carcinogenic,
• carcinogenicity,
• Cooking,
• Diet,
• food,
• toxicology

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

Rocket salad anyone? - Pointing At Science

Steve Pointing • Aug 12, 2015 •

• botany,
• food,
• NASA,
• space

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

GST confusion - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Apr 19, 2015 •

• food,
• GST,
• inequality,
• John Creedy

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

From the Mouth of Food Babe - Molecular Matters

Michael Edmonds • Mar 26, 2015 •

• food,
• Food Babe,
• misinformation

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

How to avoid DNA - Genomics Aotearoa

Peter Dearden • Feb 10, 2015 •

• banana,
• DNA,
• food,
• rotifer

How I learned to stop worrying and love DNA … Read More

Will the Health Star Rating labels improve people’s diets? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jul 17, 2014 •

• Diet,
• food,
• FOPL,
• healthy culture,
• healthy eating,
• obesity

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