Apropos of the state supplying food to poor children in schools. Everyone seems to assume that the reduction in learning ability seen in children who come to school without food is due to their being hungry. Thus, feeding them will improve their long-term ability to achieve academically. However, the MacDoctor has seen little or no [...]
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. And in the quest for ever more sensational headline, MacDoctor brings you the original spam – food. Tasty foods linked to addiction Sugar and fat produce changes in the brain which resemble the effects of addictive drugs, a Waikato [...]
Vi♦ta♦myth [vahy-tuh-mith; Brit. also vit-uh-mith] A factoid about vitamins that is wildly inaccurate or untrue Vitamyths come from both ends of the vitamin spectrum. Those who promote the consumption of vast amounts of vitamins are usually happy to make outlandish claims about their efficacy. This is, in some ways, quite understandable, as it is in [...]
New Zealand is, apparently, the third fattest nation in the world according to OECD statistics. Yet fighting the obesity “epidemic” is not rocket science. Apart from the very few people who have some serious metabolic disorder, all that causes obesity is taking in more calories than you burn up. Yes, it is rather more complicated [...]
The title of a great Led Zep song and a piece of advice that the Invercargill man – who is issuing death threats to Coca Cola workers for “poisoning his wife” – should take to heart. The man claims his wife was poisoned by Coca Cola and this is possibly true – but only because [...]
No, that’s not what the headline was on the front page of the Weak-end Herald today – it was considerably more alarmist: Fruit juice, apples linked to fetus harm An expectant mother could be putting her unborn child at risk by drinking as little as three glasses of juice a day or eating five apples. [...]
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 [...]
