Sweeter than sugar

“Honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar.”
William Shakespeare – As you like it

We are constantly being warned by dieticians that too much sugar is bad for your health and we now have labels on food and drink warning how much sugar and salt is in each product. Australian manufacturers are guilty of putting too much sugar in just about everything, making even dark chocolate and tonic water unpalatably sweet.

Julian Assange - saint or sinner

Analysing what makes Julian Assange do what he does would possibly make an interesting PhD paper for some aspiring student of human nature. When you read Assange’s biography in Wikipedia his life seems to follow the philosophy of Don Chip who said ‘the Democrat Party’s purpose in Parliament was to keep the bastards honest’. It’s a pity that Don Chip isn’t around today to keep Julia Gillard and the rest of the Gang of Four honest.

Boat People AKA Asylum Seekers

The recent sinking of an asylum seekers boat with a loss of more than ninety lives has reopened the festering wound of border security in Australia. The number of asylum seekers now averages 850 a month and the costs have blown the budget more than tenfold.

Is sliced white bread and good taste an oxymoron?

The challenge

Bread doesn’t taste as good as it used to! There are so many bread varieties that we will assume that the challenge is about production line sliced white wheat bread produced in Australia.

Fish fingers AKA fish sticks

Fish fingers, otherwise known as fish sticks, have been popular for over half a century. It is thought that they were invented in the US in the 1920’s to use up an oversupply of cod. Birdseye in the UK tried the same tactic in the 1950’s to take advantage of an oversupply of herring. The herring product was test marketed with the much blander cod product as a control, but to Birdseye’s surprise the cod product was much more popular than the savoury herring product. The cod product and its variations have been in production since 1955. The fish finger is now produced by numerous manufacturers including large supermarket brands.

Eight glasses of water

For many years I have thought that drinking eight glasses of water on top of your normal diet of food and beverages is illogical. I was a lone voice in the wilderness, but now I have an ally in La Trobe University lecturer Spero Tsindos (PhD, Dietetics and Public Health). Drinking eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy is a myth says Mr Tsindos, people can get their daily fluid intake from fruit, vegetables, juices and even tea and coffee.“We should be telling people that beverages like tea and coffee contribute to a person's fluid needs and despite their caffeine content, do not lead to dehydration."