Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article Following on from my previous post on the futility of government intervention in the case of obesity, the Herald obligingly provides this piece of on-topic spam: Support high for GST trim Political momentum for removing GST from healthy food is increasing with both [...]

Apparently there is a war on obesity. Trouble is, there does not seemed to be a well-defined enemy in this war. Is it the fast food industry? Perhaps it is the actual fat in foods? Maybe it is the obese person themselves? Or their wicked, neglectful parents? Or perhaps it is carbohydrates, not fats, that [...]

Here is a good illustration why newspapers desperately need proper science reporters: Major research finds link between multi-vitamin pills and breast cancer Women who regularly take multi-vitamin pills face a much higher risk of breast cancer, a study has found. The Swedish study, which looked at more than 35,000 women aged between 49 and 83 [...]

It is all so unpredictably zany… Today in the News Millions wasting their time trying to get fit, says study Apparently exercise is a complete waste of time for about 20% of the population. Of course, that means for 80% of New Zealanders it is every bit as good for you as doctors have been [...]

I would imagine that there is nothing scarier for a teacher than to be confronted by a child having a full-blown allergic reaction to something. It is pretty stressful for emergency-trained doctors and nurses so it must be doubly so for a non-medical person. Schools have the dilemma of wishing to reduce the risk of [...]

At first glance the proposal by the World Health organization to ban all junk food advertising to children seems a reasonable thing to do. After all, we know that the ban on advertising tobacco has been shown to decrease the prevalence of smoking significantly. It would seem logical that banning junk food ads aimed at [...]

New research on folic acid has largely dismissed the cancer concerns that led to the Government’s going cold on plans for its mandatory addition to bread. Ah yes, these would be the cancer concerns that every doctor and scientist (as opposed to journalist, baker  and blogger) said were blown out of all proportion and were [...]

I read with some horror that a Herald on Sunday investigation has found an energy drink with 3333mg caffeine per litre in it. The Demon Energy Shot, which contains this horrendous amount of caffeine, gets around the Food Standard Authority regulations (which restricts caffeine to a level of 320mg per litre) by calling itself a [...]

Otago university has just presented a study suggesting that healthy food is subsidized for the poor. Discount cards or vouchers for cut-price, healthy food have been proposed for the poor and chronically ill. Research by an Otago University health economist proposes a food-discount system similar to the food stamps distributed to the poor in the [...]

In an interesting turn about, Professor Michael McMahon of Nuffield Health claims that overweight celebrities are seen as role models, which may help to make being overweight acceptable. Professor McMahon, a expert on keyhole surgery, said: “The increasing profile of larger celebrities, for example James Corden, Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Jones and Beth Ditto, means that [...]