Healthy eating

Rolled oats, dried fruit and nuts spring to mind when considering the main ingredients of a common muesli bar, but a group of University of Otago researchers want alarm bells to ring instead.

In a variation of the apple-a-day recipe for health, a gold kiwifruit or four led elderly people to shake off some cold symptoms faster than usual.

American researchers may, at long last, have found a better way to encourage youngsters to eat those healthy but often massively little-loved vegetables.

Television New Zealand is marketing them in a prime-time slot as Britain's "fattest and laziest family".

But the stars of the show - a family of four who collectively weigh almost 500kg - have lashed out at the broadcaster, saying there are fatter families in Britain.

Life's wasted opportunities motivate Trudy Dent to help people with eating disorders.

Dunedin canteen staff gathered fresh ideas for healthy, child-tempting food at a cooking demonstration by Dunedin chef and food writer Judith Cullen yesterday.

New Zealand could lead the charge against the existing "illness care" system, which is sick and needs to urgently change its focus on drugs and surgery.

Earth Day's 40th anniversary last month got me thinking about all the wacky notions advocated by the long-haired, tie-dyed, youthful hipsters of the early 1970s.

Fish and chips are out and baked potatoes are in at Pembroke School in Oamaru.

It really is possible to develop a taste for healthy foods you've avoided for years, nutritionists say, and they have some advice for those keen to make the effort.