By Niki Bezzant Last week I attended a fascinating workshop called ‘The Genomic Kitchen’, focusing on the science of nutrigenomics. This emerging science explores how different foods may interact with our genes. It investigates how common food chemicals in the diet could affect our health by altering the expression of genes and the structure of…
Fast facts Name: Robin Oakley Age: 49 Location: Christchurch, New Zealand Work: Oakleys Premium Fresh Vegetables Grows: Potatoes, Candy Beetroot, Pumpkin, Broccoli How did you first become involved in the potato industry? We all had vegetable gardens at home from a very young age and were encouraged by parents and grandparents on how and what to do. There…
The newest blockbuster research report on diet and health to be published in medical journal the Lancet is out. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 is not the most catchy of titles. But its findings caught the headlines. “The diets cutting one in five lives short every year”, promised…
By Niki Bezzant Vegetables are so hot right now. And it’s not just because, we’re told, one in ten kiwis is now always or mostly eating a vegetarian diet. That’s according to a recent Colmar Brunton report, Better Futures. That shift to plant-only eating, the report says, is a sign of an increasing commitment towards sustainable living. What else are…
By Gemma Carroll, Communications & Engagement Officer As PNZ plans for 2019, the opportunity to get support the ANA (Activity Nutrition Aotearoa) conference https://ana.org.nz/ came up, so I started reading about Sport’s Nutrition. It got me thinking about how great spuds are – again! 😊 For the past 40-50 years we have known through research, that carbohydrates are the best macronutrient for physical performance, both sustaining…
By Niki Bezzant These days we hear many trends are driven by the millennials – that generation of people born between the mid-80s and early 2000s. They’re influencing what we see on our screens, what we wear, what we listen to and, more and more, what we eat. This is something I’ve heard from researchers and…
Two very interesting reports have kicked off the year for anyone interested in food, health and sustainability. Which should be anyone who eats, really. The first was a piece of research from Otago University researchers, looking at the links between fibre intakes and health. The research found a link between higher intakes of dietary fibre…
It’s always interesting to look at food trend predictions, which come around every year telling us how and what we’re going to be eating in the next year. It’s fun to look back, too, to see which predictions have stuck. I remember when I was a kid being pretty keen on the idea of those…
“November means new potatoes”, as the catchy slogan goes, and that means lovely potato salad in all its guises. Traditional potato salad – dressing-heavy, gluggy, rich – leaves me a bit cold (pardon the pun). Those old-school potato salads – while they have their own appeal – to me don’t really celebrate the flavour, texture…
Two reports were released recently which should have sent us all into an urgent, we-have-to-do-something-now panic. The first was a warning from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says we’ve got ten years in which global leaders will have to make unprecedented action in order to stop the planet’s average temperature from rising…
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