Science Media Centre

Rebecca Todd writes in The Press about calls by the Secondary Principal’s Association of New Zealand to restric what dairies near schools can sell during school hours. Research from the University of Otago has shown that dairies are far more numerous in poorer areas, and areas which include schools. An excerpt: (read in full here) [...]

A hard-hitting report from the UK health watchdog group National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) calls on government and the food industry to cut salt and fat from processed foods — a move it says would save tens of thousands of lives a year. The report recommends a public health approach to combat [...]

AusSMC: New research from Europe suggests eating three or more burgers a week may boost a child’s risk of asthma and wheeze – at least in developed nations. Conversely, a Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, and fish seems to stave off the risk, the research shows. The research team base their findings on data [...]

Rebeccah Todd writes in the Waikato Times about research being undertaken by Lincoln’s Plant & Food Research scientists into how the composition of food, as well as how we eat it, affects the extent to which it satisfies us. They have discovered, for example, that chewing less and taking bigger bites is probably better for [...]

What sorts of foods should you — personally — eat to be healthiest? Nutrigenomics studies the interaction between our genes and the foods we eat. Specifically, it looks at how people with different genetic makeups are affected by different foods, with the aim of matching people to the foods that suit them best. This emerging [...]

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this month has prompted calls in Europe for EU-wide salt legislation. In the NEJM paper, the authors undertook a computer simulation showing the effects of population-wide reductions in dietary salt intakes among adults aged 35 to 85 years living in the USA. They claim [...]

After the over-indulgences of the festive season, many of us will resolve to get fit and healthy and to shed those excess kilos with the help of “detox diets”. But is it beneficial – or even necessary – to adopt this type of approach in order to get healthy in the New Year? And are [...]

A mother’s diet before and during pregnancy can help determine when a daughter reaches puberty and her own reproductive capacity later in life, according a paper authored by Liggins Institute researchers and appearing in the online journal PLoS One today. Globally, a dramatic decrease in age at the start of puberty is occurring. Over the [...]