Processed foods are largely to blame for nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of adult New Zealanders consuming more sodium than current nutrition guidelines recommend, according to researchers from The University of Otago, in New Zealand. The researchers analysed urine samples taken from 3,000 people who took part in the New Zealand government’s latest adult nutrition survey. The average sodium intake for New Zealand adults was estimated to be around 3,500 milligrams per day (equivalent to around... ...Read more »

A lack of motivation and attention of consumers prevents nutritional information on food labels from impacting positively on food choices, a European study has found. The study was part of the ‘Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life’ (FLABEL) project, which provides research on consumer behaviour and nutrition labels to help guide industry players and policy-makers in Europe. The FLABEL consortium is comprised of academic experts, retailers, and not-for-profit organizations in the... ...Read more »

New research from Harvard University, in the U.S., has shown that cooked meat provides more energy than raw meat. The researchers claim their findings suggest cooking played a pivotal role in human evolution by increasing the energy content of some foods. Conducted by Rachel Carmody, a student in Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research also raises... ...Read more »

American beverage company, ArKay Beverages, has launched what it claims is the world’s first alcohol-free whiskey. Launching the new drink, a spokesperson for the Florida-based company said ‘ArKay’ was designed for “anyone with medical conditions or with religious beliefs to drink whiskey without guilt”. The company claims the drink tastes and looks exactly like traditional whisky. According to ArKay Beverages, the whisky drink is the result of five years of beverage industry research,... ...Read more »

US scientists have used surveys of public school students from Boston, Massachusetts, to suggest an association between high soft drink consumption and teenage aggression. The research, published today in Injury Prevention (an online scientific journal) suggests that teenagers who drink more than five cans of non-diet, fizzy soft drinks every week are significantly more likely to behave aggressively than teenagers who consume less soft drink, even taking into account factors such as age and gender,... ...Read more »

McDonald’s Corporation, one of the world’s largest food chains, has announced financial results for the third quarter ended 30 September 2011. The company posted higher revenues, operating income and earnings per share compared with the prior year. McDonald’s Corporation reported that its global comparable sales increased 5 per cent, with the US business up 4.4 per cent, Europe up 4.9 per cent and Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa up 3.4 per cent. McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer... ...Read more »

A University of Sydney PhD student has discovered that a patient’s diet and cookery styles impacts on the required doses of medicines commonly used to treat illnesses such as depression and psychosis. Vidya Perera, a final year PhD student in the university’s Faculty of Pharmacy, found that people from South Asia could need lower doses of these medicines because they are likely to have lower levels of CYP1A2, an enzyme that metabolises drugs. Vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli... ...Read more »

Potatoes and other foods reportedly high on the Glycemic Index (GI) might not be the dietary villains that many dieticians claim them to be, according to a new study by the University of Otago, in New Zealand. The findings, published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, were from Dr Bernard Venn and colleagues from Otago’s Department of Human Nutrition, who studied 30 healthy adults aged between 18 and 50. They found that despite potato being a high-GI value food, a meal containing... ...Read more »

The United Nations has called for action to ensure long-term global food security as a new report shows that high food prices are likely to continue over the next decade. ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2011’ report states that small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity. “Even if the Millenium Development Goal were achieved by 2015, some 600 million people in developing countries would still be undernourished.... ...Read more »

The UK non-profit organization Sense About Science has launched an ‘Ask for Evidence’ campaign in response to growing concerns about the number of unsubstantiated, distorted and misleading claims being made in the public domain, particularly the internet. The campaign aims to encourage people to insist on evidence when concerned about the risks or benefits being claimed on a website, product, advert, advice, publication or policy announcement. The campaign says consumers do not need a... ...Read more »