Juice, Fruit Drinks, Fruit flavoured drinks - they're all fruit drinks but some can contain 100% fruit and some contain no fruit at all! So which is the best option? And what are we drinking when there's no fruit at all - just a cocktail of colourings, flavourings and sugar?
Petra takes us inside one of NZ's biggest caged egg farms and what really makes our yolks so yellow?
Carbohydrates - friend or foe? Are potatoes making us fat, would we be better off eating rice or pasta? Petra digs the dirt on spuds.
How much do we really know about what we're putting on our toast? Is there any nutrition in our favourite spreads or are they simply convenience in a jar laden with salt, fat and sugar?
Is choosing to eat red meat putting our health at stake? Roasted, grilled or fried its traditional kiwi fare but is how we cook it, thats the recipe for cancer? Are we eating too much, or should we even be eating it at all? What role does beef have in a healthy diet?
Is it a health tonic packed full of antioxidants, the secret to a long life, or a cancer causing drug? What exactly goes into our wine, and does it have any nutritional value at all?
Sure some biscuits are loaded with sugar, flavours and artificial colour, but are there good ones? And what about crackers, are they healthier? Tonight we discover that just because it's called a cracker it doesn't mean it's better for you than a chip.
We're a nation that's big on cheese, but we also have a very high rate of heart disease. Tonight we investigate the link. We also discover some good news for soft cheese lovers, and the bad news on mould.
Where do our nuts come from and are there any health risks? We also investigate the role nuts could play in lowering bad cholesterol, and providing our bodies with essential nutrients.
We all know chocolate is hard to resist but why? Petra sets out to find out what's in chocolate that makes it so desirable, and hopes to find some nutritional evidence that will justify our appetite for the stuff. Final.
Can you tell your UVA from your UVB? Do you really understand what it takes to keep yourself, and your family, sun-safe? Petra investigates nanoparticles, discovers what sort of sun-protection we need, and reveals the startling truth about sunscreen application.
Petra looks into the holy grail of personal care products, sorting the science from the snake oil, and asking if spending more is any guarantee of results.
We look into the chemicals in shaving creams, aftershaves and depilatories - and ask just how smooth is a baby's bottom?
Is it simply fat and sugar-laden junk food or is there some nutritional goodness? Carolyn investigates if low-fat ice cream is a healthier option, if sugar is addictive and if it's making kids hyperactive. She also discovers a surprising mystery ingredient.
It's on our salads and in our frying pans but which oils are best for what and which are best for us? Could the BBQ cause cancer? And Carolyn uncovers a controversial hidden ingredient in many table spreads.
We're being inundated with pure, low-carb and additive free beer. So are traditional beers full of additives and preservatives? Carolyn investigates why so many women hate the taste and if some beer could actually lower a man's sperm count.
Whether frozen, dried, locally grown or imported, we can now buy berries all year round.
Pasta is paste of wheat, flour and water associated with Italy.Noodles are basically pasta from Asia and are usually made with wheat, but also rice.Rice is simply the seed of a plant.Nutritionally, these starchy staples are classified as cereals.
New Zealanders gobbled down enough yoghurt to fill 13 Olympic pools last year. Yoghurt is a multi billion dollar global industry.
Over 200 million tonnes of soybeans are grown worldwide every year. In New Zealand, our main sources of soybeans are Canada, India, China and Australia.Last year we imported over a million kilos of soybeans alone.We also import soy in the form of soy flour and soy meal, soy sauce, soy milk, and food ingredients such as textured vegetable protein.
Shellfish are one of New Zealand’s most abundant forms of seafood, with around three thousand six hundred native species. The creamy rich flavour you get from eating oysters and mussels is the taste of the reproductive tissue. Last year we imported nearly two million oysters and over 600 tonnes of other shellfish species. We spent even more on home grown shellfish and splashed out a massive 35 million on green shell mussels alone.
We eat over 63,000 tonnes of pork each year – that’s over 700,000 pigs. Based on iron content, which is what makes red meat red, pork can be considered a white meat. It has less iron than beef and lamb and about the same amount as chicken
Carolyn explores whether baked beans are better than spaghetti, learns more about a simple nutrient that can help prevent illnesses like heart disease and seeks the answer to an age old question - do beans really cause flatulence?
We munch our way through millions of burgers each week. But are they made with meat containing hormonal growth promotions? Is advertising for burgers manipulating our taste preferences? And are burger patties made with meat from unspeakable places?
What goes into a curry and where do the ingredients come from? Carolyn Robinson explores whether spices can protect us from cancer and whether chili could be toxic.
Is milk really a super food? Could some varieties trigger heart disease, diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome? And what’s the environmental cost of our dairy industry?
Are all fish and chips loaded with fat? Could toxic heavy metals be lurking beneath the batter? Carolyn Robinson finds out if we should be worried about imported fish.
When it comes to lamb, are we serving hormones and antibiotics in our Sunday roast? Can the right vegetables reduce your risk of cancer?
Find out if bottled water is really any better than tap water. Do soft drinks contain cancer causing ingredients? Are tea and coffee messing with our sleep?
We eat millions of pies a year so what is it that has us hooked on the taste? Consumer champion Carolyn Robinson finds out to let us know if there really is such a thing as a dodgy pie.
Can salad prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease and even improve our eyesight? Or does the risk from pesticides and toxins mean we shouldn’t be eating it at all?
Chips are New Zealand’s most popular savoury snack food. Kiwis consume around 42 million packets of chips every year. Although chips can be made from corn, wheat and even the same plant as sago, potato chips remain by far the most popular.
Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar (some are 10,000 times sweeter than sugar). This means a lot less of them have to be used and the tiny amounts used in food contribute almost no energy. Although they have a bad reputation online, scientific evidence suggests artificial sweeteners are safe and they are approved by over a hundred government bodies around the world.
