There’s an old Indian tale about giving a group of blind men an elephant to describe through feel. As each of them is feeling different parts of the elephant, they end up squabbling as none can agree on how to… Read More ›
Nutrition and Health 
Motivating the imperfect, irrational human being
At the Dietitians NZ Conference in Nelson this year I attended a memorable workshop by Melbourne-based Psycoholgist John Boyle, on making changes and breaking habits. Lightbulbs went on in my head throughout the workshop, appropriately titled A conversation around compliance,… Read More ›
The expansion of New Zealand waistlines
With the release of the 2008/09 nutrition survey summary report last week, I was heartened to read that diet-wise, New Zealand adults seem to be starting to make the right choices. According to the survey, since 1997 we’ve reduced our… Read More ›
Do tales of expensive tomatoes really protect the public interest?
Media are required to walk a fine line between generating interest from their publics while ensuring they are not misrepresenting facts to do this.They also tend to target one aspect of an issue to illustrate a point with the effect… Read More ›
When is a healthy recipe not a healthy recipe?
It has become the fashion for most, if not all, of our lifestyle magazines to present what they call “healthy recipes”. This is a development that concerns me, not for the fact they are promoting healthy food, but because such recipes… Read More ›
Going the gluten free way
Being recently diagnosed by a dietitian as having a gluten intolerance, I wandered along to the Gluten Free Food & Allergy Show over the weekend. It’s an annual roadshow of producers, tasters, and information stalls, all bundled into one room… Read More ›
Food Week dishes up popular cooking tips
There’s only 2 more days to go in the inaugural New Zealand Nutrition Foundation Food Week! Having completed 16 radio interviews and five interactive celebrity cooking demos with audiences of hundreds, and with 600 “likes” on the Food Week Facebook page,… Read More ›
Understanding food
We all need food to survive, but in an age where you can shop for it 24/7, heat and eat it and get it without leaving your car, have we lost our understanding of food? Having a basic understanding of… Read More ›
Finding new ways to bridge the food labelling debate
A new front of pack labelling system was put forward by Sanitarium today “in order to advance the discussion of front-of-pack labelling tools in the interests of promoting better public health”. While public health experts call for traffic light labelling… Read More ›
The best memories are anchored in our tastebuds
What’s your most memorable meal? One of mine was a steaming hot vegetable tagine, eaten on a rooftop high in the Atlas mountains during a trip to Morocco. It was memorable, not only because it was authentic, delicious and nutritious,… Read More ›