Nutrition Literacy Is the New Media Literacy
Most parents worry about what their children are seeing on social media. Far fewer spend the same amount of time thinking about what their children are seeing in supermarket aisles, convenience stores, school tuck shops, and online food advertising. Have you ever stopped to think that this kind of messaging may be just as influential? […]
Global Wellness Day: Have We Confused Wellness with Health?
Somewhere along the way, wellness became a product. What was once largely associated with everyday habits and behaviours has evolved into a global industry worth billions. Wellness is now packaged, branded, and marketed through supplements, wearables, retreats, specialised treatments, and an endless stream of products promising better sleep, more energy, improved focus, and a longer […]
A New Weekly Diabetes Injection: A Breakthrough in Diabetes Care or a Sign of a Bigger Challenge?
Every few years, a new diabetes drug arrives with results that seem almost too good to be true. Blood sugar falls. Weight drops. Headlines celebrate another breakthrough. Yet despite these advances, rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes continue to climb. So are we winning the battle against metabolic disease, or simply getting better at […]
Metabolic Health Is The New Cancer Prevention
Every year on the first Sunday of June, the world celebrates cancer survivors. And it should. The fact that a cancer diagnosis is no longer the automatic death sentence it was in 1988, when the first National Cancer Survivors Day was held, is one of medicine’s genuine triumphs (1). Survival rates have climbed. Treatments have […]
Food Safety: An Essential Ingredient for Better Health
Every year on 7 June, World Food Safety Day highlights the important role that safe food plays in protecting our health and well-being. While food safety is often associated with preventing food poisoning and foodborne illnesses, it is also a critical part of building healthier communities and supporting long-term health outcomes. At Eat Better South […]
Youth Month, Freedom and the Courage to Question
Each year, Youth Month provides an opportunity to reflect on one of the most significant moments in South Africa’s history and to honour the young people whose courage helped shape the country we live in today. For many South Africans, the events of 16 June 1976 are familiar. We learn about them at school, we […]
Salt: Have We Been Asking the Wrong Question?
Each year, World Salt Awareness Week returns with a message that sounds settled, almost beyond debate: reduce salt intake for better health. It is often presented as one of the clearer areas of nutrition science, where the evidence is consistent and the guidance is straightforward. But nutrition has a long history of mistaking confidence for […]
World Move for Health Day: Rethinking the Snack
At The Noakes Foundation, we’ve never been fans of snacking. If food is doing what it is supposed to do, meals should be sufficient. Hunger should have a rhythm, not a constant presence, and the need to snack every few hours often says more about what we are eating than about how often we should […]
The Silent Killer: Stress May Be as Dangerous as Smoking Daily
April is observed as Stress Awareness Month, a time to pause, reflect, and confront one of the most pervasive yet often overlooked challenges of modern life, stress. While stress is a natural human response, growing evidence shows that chronic, unmanaged stress is one of the most significant threats to both physical and mental health today. […]
World Health Month: The Foods We Think Are Healthy
There is a quiet assumption that sits underneath many of our everyday food choices, and it rarely gets questioned. It is the idea that we can recognise what is healthy simply by looking at it, or by relying on how it has been positioned to us over time. Foods that feel familiar, convenient, or widely […]