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Can money make us happy if we spend it on the right purchases?

A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them. The findings were presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting on Feb. 7.

8 Feb 2009

Salt and the City is a killer and we're awash with it!

A new Australian survey on fast foods has revealed that some manufacturers are delivering an astonishing amount of salt in some of their products.

8 Feb 2009

Consumers warned about over-the-counter pharmacy diets

Pharmacies across Australia are offering a range of over-the-counter diet plans designed to encourage people to invest in weight loss programs.

8 Feb 2009

FDA warning on peanut product contamination

So far more than 500 cases of foodborne illness caused by Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported.

5 Feb 2009

ADA releases updated position statement on weight management

The American Dietetic Association has released an updated position statement on weight management calling for people to make a "lifelong commitment to healthful lifestyle behaviors" that includes the prevention of weight gain.

5 Feb 2009

Researcher proposes statistical method to enhance secondary security screenings

A researcher at The University of Texas at Austin has found that secondary security screening at airports is mathematically flawed, and has identified a way to select people for screenings more efficiently and fairly.

2 Feb 2009

Improved strategies to tackle ghostwriting in the medical literature

Better strategies to tackle ghostwriting in the medical literature are the subject of a debate by leading authors in next week's issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

2 Feb 2009

Added salt in our diets is unnecessary and contributes to health problems

Added salt in our diets is unnecessary and contributes to health problems such as hypertension and strokes, write Dr. Ken Flegel and Dr. Peter Magner and the CMAJ editorial team http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg263.pdf.

2 Feb 2009

The end of sex as we once knew it

Women are not from Venus any more than men are from Mars. But even though both sexes are perfectly terrestrial beings, they are not lacking in other differences. And not only in their reproductive organs and behavior, either, but in such unsexy characteristics as the propensity for drug abuse, fine motor control, reaction to stress, moods and many brain structures.

2 Feb 2009

Recent reports regarding mercury and high fructose

ChemRisk, a leading scientific consulting firm, was asked by the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) to examine the recent publication by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), "Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup," and the Environmental Health journal publication "Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar," by Dufault et al, 2009, and to offer our comments and analysis.

2 Feb 2009

Australia in need of a complete food-policy overhaul

The report by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) says that the only way to effectively address the priorities of chronic disease prevention, climate change and social inequality is by a complete overhaul of food policy in Australia.

2 Feb 2009

Scientists, engineers to face obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water

Scientists and engineers will face a host of obstacles over the next decade in providing clean water to millions of people caught up in a water shortage crisis, a panel of scientists and engineers said today at a briefing at the Broadcast Center of the National Press Building on the Final Report on the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

29 Jan 2009

Plums poised to give blueberries run for the money

There's an emerging star in the super-food world. Plums are rolling down the food fashion runway sporting newly discovered high levels of healthy nutrients, say scientists at Texas AgriLife Research.

29 Jan 2009

Octuplets doing well

An American mother has given birth to octuplets - the babies, six boys and two girls were born at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center at Bellflower hospital in Los Angeles and so far all is well.Octuplets doing well

29 Jan 2009

Most Australian food recalls due to 'foreign matter'

While consumers in the U.S. seem to be grappling to deal with an almost continuous parade of food recalls and alerts, Australian consumers will be heartened to hear that since 2000 the number of Australian food recalls has fallen to its lowest level in 8 years.

21 Jan 2009