A food innovation workshop in Werribee, Victoria yesterday attracted more than 120 participants from government, the food industry and research organizations to share ways to make Australian food healthier. The workshop highlighted the work of the ‘Australian Government Food and Health Dialogue’ (the Dialogue) established in March 2009 following a 2007 children’s nutrition and physical activity survey which found that many Australian children were consuming a diet high in salt and saturated... ...Read more »

Australia’s largest pizza company Domino’s Pizza announced today that it will display kilojoules content details on all its menus nationally. In a statement released today, CEO Don Meij said that the introduction of kilojoules counts on its menu boards, online ordering site and mobile devices was a positive step towards offering customers greater choice. The news comes just days after Australian fast food chain Hungry Jacks made a similar announcement. “We are serious about ensuring our customers... ...Read more »

Scientists from America and Spain have announced that a diet of junk food can lead to infertility in healthy males. A series of studies were conducted by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health, University of Rochester and the University of Murcia, in Spain. The findings were presented today at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. The University of Rochester’s study recruited men aged between 18 and 22. Diets were assessed via a questionnaire and... ...Read more »

Almost half of Australian adults are failing to meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables due to ‘lack of convenience’, according to a survey by kitchenware brand Tefal. According to Tefal, the survey of 2,500 Australians revealed that 45 per cent of Australians failed to meet the recommended daily intake of five vegetable portions. Of these people, 39 per cent said that preparing and cooking vegetables wasn’t convenient as part of their busy lifestyle, and this was major impediment to... ...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 »

A new study from Stanford University’s School of Medicine, in the US, has found perinatal and pregnant women who consume a healthy diet stand a lesser risk of having a baby with birth defects. In the study, published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, women who ate a healthier diet before and during pregnancy gave birth to fewer infants with malformations of the brain and spinal cord, or orofacial clefts, such as cleft lip and cleft palate. The study’s author Suzan Carmichael... ...Read more »

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) has reacted to consumer advocacy group CHOICE’s criticisms of “low-fat” claims on foods. AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said, “If misleading claims are being made, industry would urge the regulators to enforce consumer protection laws. It is also important to remember there are people who need low-fat but not low-kilojoule diets, for example people with high cholesterol.” Responding to CHOICE’s argument that nutrient profiling is in place... ...Read more »

The Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, today launched the new version of a popular Nutrition Panel Calculator (NPC) used by industry to provide important nutrition information on food labels. Ms King said “the NPC has been available since 2001 and is the most popular feature on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, attracting about 10,000 unique visitors per month”. However, feedback received by FSANZ and the availability of new data meant it was... ...Read more »

The effectiveness of popular diet shakes for weight-management programs continues to divide opinion. Whilst celebrity testimonials and marketers claim the effectiveness of these products, health professionals contrive to challenge their efficacy in losing weight. The diet shake debate was reignited last week when Australian cricketer Shane Warne, speaking to Melbourne radio station 3AW, credited diet shakes for his own weight loss. According to recent figures from market researcher IBISWorld, more... ...Read more »