Food prices are rising at the fastest rate in almost four decades, with fruit and vegetables up more than 22 percent in the past year. As often happens during a cost of living crisis, there have been calls to remove the goods and services tax (GST) from fresh produce. But is this actually a good Read more
Many of us are underfed or overfed. A study on chronic undernourishment and obesity shows we live in a world of extremes. Of a world population of 7.5 billion, the proportions of those suffering from chronic undernourishment or afflicted by obesity are similar. They account for about 11 percent of all people. New Zealand’s up Read more
Years ago, after a plane trip spent reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Weight Watchers magazine, Woody Allen melded the two experiences into a single essay. ‘I am fat,’ it began. ‘I am disgustingly fat. I am the fattest human I know. I have nothing but excess poundage all over my body. My Read more
Professor Boyd Swinburn believes churches in the Pacific Islands could be effective preachers of the good news about weight loss because any effective obesity programme needs to address socio-cultural barriers and churches are often the custodians of culture. He has reached this conclusion after a three-year project to reduce obesity levels in the Pacific which worked well in Australia but was ineffective Read more