Everyone knows about carbs these days. People go carb-free in an effort to lose weight, and athletes carb-load before a big event.

Bircher muesli was invented in 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy.

Wendyl Nissen writes: There's a reason brightly coloured sweets are placed right next to you at the checkout - they're called impulse buys and are designed to make you think "why not?".

I bring raw chicken into the house about twice a year, writes Shelley Bridgeman. And when I do, my kitchen goes into virtual lockdown.

This dip was mentioned to me by a friend who had bought it thinking it was vegetarian.

Andrew and Natalie Vivian like to joke that their chilled ready meal business, Tasty Pot, is their fourth child.

Ponsonby’s Golden Dawn bar has been voted the city’s best in the latest hospitality awards.

I know I'm not the only parent to stand for ages in the cereal aisle of the supermarket looking for a healthy breakfast for my family.

EU is to scrap "best-before" dates on long life food packaging as a measure to stop millions of tons of edible produce being thrown away every year.

The shellfish known as black gold in New Zealand faces a whitewash to make it look more like the rest of the world's stock.

Red velvet cake has been around for many years and in the old days it used to get its deep, red colour from beetroot juice.

I was alerted to these by my daughter, who had them at a friend's house and said they were "yum". I've got nothing against teenage girls snacking on chicken - protein is good.

I do love it when I'm shopping for something to include in this column and a reader offers to help me out.

Each week, Wendyl Nissen takes a packaged food item and decodes what the label tells you about its contents.

This product falls under the "why on earth is it here?" category.

Food, these days, has become less about eating and more about ethics and environmental concerns, Shelley Bridgeman says.

Cream cheese is a great alternative to butter on toast, especially if you are teaming it with salmon or my latest food craze, sliced fresh strawberries.

The fight against sugar has begun, with high-profile scientists and doctors calling for governments and food industries to cut the sugar content of food and drinks by up to 30%.

It is an "edgy, almost forbidden" ingredient that could make the bravest of cooks turn the colour of the traditional chef's uniform.

It's a frightening figure - 11 per cent of early deaths in NZ are due to poor nutrition and obesity. So what can be done to reverse the trend?