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 […]
7 April World Health Day: Stand With Science, But Don’t Stop Asking Questions
Every year on 7 April, the world marks World Health Day, a global initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to highlight major health challenges and promote action to improve public health. In 2026, the theme is “Together for health. Stand with science.” The campaign encourages governments, scientists, health workers, and the public to […]
The Real Easter Egg: Nature’s Original Multivitamin
Every Easter, eggs suddenly appear everywhere. Chocolate eggs wrapped in bright foil. Caramel eggs. Giant eggs. Mini eggs. Purple eggs. Pink eggs. Even blue eggs. Entire supermarket aisles devoted to them. Children hunt for them in gardens, and adults pretend they’re buying them “for the kids”. But hidden underneath all that seasonal sugar is a […]
24 March: World TB Day Tuberculosis, Immunity and the Power of Metabolic Health
More than 140 years ago, on 24 March 1882, the German physician Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, identifying the cause of tuberculosis (TB) and transforming the understanding of infectious diseases (3). Yet more than a century later, the fight against TB is far from over. Each year, World TB Day […]
Health Is a Human Right: Addressing Inequality in South Africa
Health is not a luxury; it is a fundamental human right. Yet in a society marked by persistent inequality, the right to health is not experienced equally. Human Rights Day reminds us of the struggle for dignity and justice in South Africa’s history. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the inequalities that continue […]
National Breakfast Day: The 100-Year-Old Myth Behind “The Most Important Meal of the Day”
Every year on 18 March, the phrase “National Breakfast Day” pops up across media channels, a marketing-friendly celebration of the meal many of us were told we should never skip. It’s the meal that supposedly kick-starts metabolism, fuels the brain, and sets the tone for the day. And of course, it’s the meal we’ve all […]