In the two-week window leading up to the end of the 2020 school year, I noticed a frightening phenomenon in my seven-year-old son’s school bag. He had amassed a small mountain of junk food.From play dates and birthday parties, to after-school-care and team sport, it seemed everyone and anyone had deemed it a special occasion to be celebrated with gifts of cookies, chocolate, chips, and candy.I haven’t always been the kind of person who pays close attention to junk food. Six years ago, when I was writing my first book, which is about my efforts to live well, despite being... Read full article »

If you’re anything like about half of the population, the chances are you started out the new year with the best of intentions. Perhaps you resolved to sleep more, or party less. Maybe you decided to loose weight, save money or donate time. Whatever it is that signifies your particular “New Year New Me” pledge, if you’re anything like up to 90 percent of your fellow resolvers, the chances are you’ve already failed, and possibly didn’t even make it through the first week.I’m no exception. I’m a health journalist who’s job is to stay on top of the latest health... Read full article »

My three-year-old son had been offered junk food for what seemed like the millionth time in just a few days, and was looking at me with pleading eyes as if to say “pleeeeease Mum!?” The person offering him the glossy-on-the-outside, but empty-on-the-inside snack was doing it because they thought they were being nice. They wanted to make their time together special and (probably unconsciously) thought that the way to go about it was to give him a “treat.” The problem is that it wasn’t special, or a treat. It was crap. The ingredients on the label read more like a... Read full article »