Health Farm

Just
the good
stuff

GOOD MEDICINE: Cranberry’s hidden powers may help fight antibiotic resistance

June 08, 2019 • 1 min read

The problem of antibiotic (microbial) resistance is so dire that people are predicting the era of antibiotics may soon end, ushering in a ‘post-antibiotic’ apocalyptic age of drug-resistant superbugs likely to kill anyone unlucky enough to pick up a common infection.

PLANT-BASED FEEDING FRENZY: Fake meat fuels fast-food business boom

June 08, 2019 • 1 min read

Seems almost every fast-food marketer wants to bite into the market for plant-based burgers. And why not, given the fake meat category’s mouth-watering growth, which some pundits say is likely to slice $40 billion from the $270 billion US meat market.

PLANT POWER: Blueberries – what makes this food ‘super’

June 08, 2019 • 1 min read

Anthocyanidins. There you have it. Anthocyanidins are exceptional antioxidants found in red/purple fruits and vegetables (let’s call this lot ‘super’ too).

PROCESSED FOODS. Bad. Really bad

June 08, 2019 • 2 min read

Who doesn’t like to dabble – or occasionally gorge – on the bad boys of the food pyramid? We’re talking ultra-processed foods, such as packaged snacks, baked goods, and even dehydrated vegetable soups (vege soup – who knew?).

UNHEALTHY RESEARCH: Food and beverage companies busted for funding research spun into pseudoscience-based PR

May 29, 2019 • 1 min read

Just as the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to implicate saturated fat, and not sugar, as a cause of heart disease, food and beverage companies are funding research that is spun into pseudoscience-based PR.

SUNSCREEN FAIL: Most sunscreens flunk proposed FDA standards of safety and efficacy

May 29, 2019 • 2 min read

Bad enough that China’s rogue manufacturers continue to pump ozone-depleting CFC-11 greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. But to discover that smothering ourselves in sunscreen is unlikely to protect our skin from nasty UV rays streaming through the widening hole in the ozone layer – never mind toxins contained in sunscreen seeping into our bloodstream …

PLANT POWER: Brazil nut – Technically a seed, chock full of healthy fats, protein, fibre, and selenium

May 29, 2019 • 1 min read

A single Brazil nut contains 68 to 91 micrograms (mcg) of selenium – more than enough to satisfy the daily recommended adult allowance of 55 mcg. Your thyroid gland will love you for it.

SUGAR TAX: Seems to be working

May 29, 2019 • 2 min read

Cursed by soft drink junkies and fobbed off by governments waving Coca Cola-funded science, sugar tax is back in the news, with a tax in Philadelphia on sugar-sweetened beverages leading to a 1.3 billion-ounce decrease in beverages sold in the city.

DOCTOR’S ORDERS: On ya bike

May 20, 2019 • 1 min read

Doctors in Cardiff are prescribing pedal power to put their patients on the path to better health.

SUGAR LOSING SWEETNESS? Australians go sour on sugar; Asia slurps up slack

May 20, 2019 • 1 min read

Sugar consumption in Australia has flat-lined, with pundits attributing the crystalline commodity’s changing fortunes to a combination of rising appetites for low sugar and sugar-free options, and state-sponsored advertising linking sugar with rotting teeth and fatty organs.