Keyword: food

The World's 10 Most Dangerous Foods People Actually Eat

Picture: Raw cashew nuts courtesy Elements for Life Jodie Gummow - Many of us take pride in experimenting with adventurous new foods, especially when we travel abroad. But, as tempting as these mysterious delicacies can often appear, some of them can make us violently ill or even worse can be fatal.  So without further ado, here are 10 of the world’s most dangerous foods according to Conde Nast Traveler, that you can eat but probably shouldn’t. You have been warned! 1. Raw Cashews. Most of us wouldn’t hesitate to buy a bag of these...

It Doesn't Take Much Sugar for It to Wreak Havoc on Your Body

Picture: maaco/flickr Jill Richardson - Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop, just coined a new catchphrase that ought to go viral: “Sugar is NOT just an empty calorie.” Her statement contradicts the notion we’ve had for years that the worst thing about sugar is its lack of nutrients. Either you’re eating sugar in addition to all of the calories you need to stay healthy, or you’re eating it instead of them. In the former case, you’re getting too many calories; in the latter,...

Not So Cool Drinks: Is It Time for a Sin Tax?

Picture: Inge Jorge/flickr Glenn Ashton - A few decades ago city workers anticipated a cheap, relatively healthy lunch of a bunny chow – a dollop of stew or curry in a half loaf, along with a pint of milk. Today inflation and industrial food have shifted us to where a lunchtime visit to the corner shop or local supermarket reveals the extent of our dietary rot. For too many, lunch often means a half a loaf of bread and a bottle of cool drink. In our cities cool drinks have almost become ubiquitous, the daytime drink of...

Why Do Those with Full Bellies Determine Food Policy for the Starving?

Glenn Ashton - Imagine fighting fatigue to struggle out of bed each morning, to eat nothing beside a thin gruel of maize meal. Now you must go to work, or seek work or get your exhausted brain to consider ways to get your family though another day, without additional sustenance to fuel your failing body. This is the reality of more than 40% of South Africans. Worse yet, the situation is deteriorating; food inflation markedly exceeds broader inflation. The limited existing food security programmes reach...

Can We Fix a Broken Food System?

Picture: publik16/Flickr Video One billion people go to bed hungry every night and two million children die from malnutrition every year. A high proportion of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, land grabs, food price fixing, commodity trading and the financial crisis all play their part in the food crisis that the world is currently facing. On March 26, the Frontline Club in London hosted a panel of experts to engage with the problem. One thing they agreed on is that there is enough food being produced in the...

The Impact of Food Prices on Poor South Africans

Picture: SACSIS Video Section 27 of the South African Constitution guarantees the right to food. However, if one tracks the impact of inflation on the poor, one finds that their purchasing power is being eroded because the basket of goods on which the CPI is based is determined by the middle class and the elites, argues Isobel Frye, director of the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII). Worse, poor South Africans face even greater prejudices. Her organisation's research has found that the goods...