Go To Health With Frances Cook

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's how to get the fresh food you need without losing money or time. Hosted by Frances Cook.No, it's not just you. It's increasingly difficult to feed yourself properly without needing help from a loan shark.2017 was a bad year for the price of fresh fruit and vegetables. In September, fresh produce prices were up 5.7 percent on the year before.It was even worse in May, when the price of fruit and veges shot up 14 percent compared to the same time the year before.Part of the problem was the soggy weather we had, which saw some vegetables literally rotting in the soil where they were supposed to grow.At various points through 2017 we saw cauliflower shoot up to 10 bucks a pop, kumara jump up to over $8 a kilo, and the always maligned avocados were a costly $4.50 each.If you're trying to feed a family their five plus a day, it's beyond me how you deal with that.Bu

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's how a low income hurts your health, and who's responsible for fixing it. Hosted by Frances Cook.When you're short on money, just about everything becomes more difficult. It's hard to get a house that's warm and dry. I remember all too well living in places where a breeze would rattle through the room even when all the doors and windows were technically shut.  It's also hard to feed yourself properly. Fruit and veges are expensive and only became more expensive through 2017. It's cheaper to buy stacks of white bread and weetbix, which will at least technically stop you feeling hungry. It's also hard to plan for the future. You're in survival mode, and focusing all of your energy on getting through right now. Good luck with putting aside savings or thinking about taking a course to get you into a well paid job, when you're dealing with all of that. Obviously,

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's the effect of modern work expectations on our mental health. Hosted by Frances Cook.It's all too easy to slip into the habit of working harder and harder, drawing your sense of worth and accomplishment from dealing with an increasing amount of pressure in your job.But it's a balancing act that can only go for so long before something has to give. An increasing number of New Zealanders are now facing exactly that problem.Last year's Wellness in the Workplace survey, put together by Southern Cross and Business NZ, has documented a spike in workplace stress levels over the last two years.The biggest factor for the people they surveyed was being overloaded, with just too much to do.A recent survey by Seek also backs this up, finding one in three Kiwis feel stressed out from their job, and can't stop themselves bringing work home at the end of the day.Our working

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's what the science says about modern pregnancy. Hosted by Frances Cook.We all know the pain of trying to get accurate health information online.A quick google can mean a headache is diagnosed as a brain aneurysm, or an aching hip becomes bone cancer.But one area that seems to get more than its fair share of misinformation is pregnancy.How long you should try to get pregnant the regular way before calling in the professionals. How much modern medicine can help you out. And most importantly, at what age will your ovaries wither and turn to dust?There's so much pressure around having babies, often directed at telling women to hurry up and get on with it before they're over the hill.The last thing I want to do is add to that pressure. Ladies, we have enough on our plates.But I do still want to find out what's fact, and what's fiction, so that we're at least making

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's whether you should worry about exercise backfiring on weight-loss goals. Hosted by Frances Cook.If you’re looking to lose weight, most people will reach for the tried and true. Increase the exercise, and watch the pounds fall away.The problem is a solid sweat session can leave you ravenous. You’ve burned energy, so it makes sense that your body asks for you to put more in.The latest research not only backs this up, but also says some workouts will make you hungrier than others.It’s understandable people would start to worry that it’s all a bit pointless. But is hunger really the enemy?Now there’s an important point that needs to be mentioned here. Your size has nothing to do with how healthy you are.We’re all made differently, so look different from each other too.But for the many people likely to resolve to lose weight at this time of year, whatever your re

In this summer podcast series, each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast will look at a different health issue. Today, it's the facts about vaccines, and why they're a medical miracle. Hosted by Frances Cook.Personal choice is a beautiful thing. You should have the freedom to live the life that makes you happiest, even if it seems strange to other people.But only if you're not hurting anyone else.This is exactly the problem with the so-called 'Vaccination Debate'.I'm a fan of vaccines because I'm a fan of facts. And the facts show vaccines are a safe and proven way to stop people suffering and dying from preventable diseases.Even then, I wouldn't care about people leaving themselves open to these diseases if it was only about them. But there are people who can't be vaccinated, like the very young, very old, or people who have allergies.If one of these people catches a disease like mumps, it's serious. Mumps leads to meningitis in one in ten cases.Or maybe measles. There's been se

In this summer podcast series, the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast tackles a different health issue each week. Today, it's how to stay motivated when you're trying to make a positive change. Hosted by Frances Cook. If you're trying to make a big change, it's common to start out with a hiss and a roar. Only to have it all fall apart a couple of weeks later, when you run out of puff and motivation. It's a dispiriting cycle that happens to many of us, and if it happens too often you could be forgiven for giving up on trying at all. After all, what's the point of putting yourself through the wringer trying to change, when you know it will all disappear after only a few weeks of effort? But while giving up is a totally human response, it's grabbing at the wrong end of the stick. The trick is finding ways to keep yourself motivated through the inevitable hard parts of making a change. To pick one thing at a time, and stick with it long enough to make it a habit. I called Makaia Carr, found

In this summer podcast series, Newstalk ZB and the New Zealand Herald's Go to Health podcast tackles a different health issue each week. Today, it's whether our health system can handle medicinal marijuana, and whether we should stop there. Hosted by Frances Cook.It doesn't take a genius to realise our current approach to drug use is … flawed.Synthetic cannabis is a growing problem, with users often left a drooling mess, and rolling the dice that homemade concoctions may actually kill them.Meth use also doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast, with the expensive habit often sucking addicts into criminal activity in order to keep the drugs coming.Meanwhile, the rest of us are sitting around debating whether people who are dying of cancer can use medical marijuana as pain relief. The new Government is set to introduce medicinal cannabis legislation for those with terminal illness or chronic pain, as part of their 100 day plan. But even if there's action on that point, the rest of our drug laws still look topsy t

In this summer podcast series, Newstalk ZB and the New Zealand Herald's Go to Health podcast tackles a different health issue each week. Today, it's the changing trends in fitness, and how you can use it to your advantage. Hosted by Frances Cook.When you're slogging away at improving your fitness you want to be sure all that effort isn't wasted.It seems there's a new way to get fit every day. Aerial suspension ran hot for a while, with people trying yoga or strength classes while suspended in reams of silks.There are shake weights, rolling weights, or weights you can strap onto different parts of your body.For those who fancy themselves a bit of a ballerina, barre classes have been popular for a while now.I love a good gimmick, and if it gets me moving, all the better.But under all the fads, I want to know what's actually working for people, and what the experts recommend as we head into 2018.So I called Ish Cheyne,  Head of Fitness for Les Mills.He'd just returned from an international fitness conference, so

In this summer podcast series, the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Go to Health podcast tackles a different health issue each week. Today, it's what happens when you try to radically improve your fitness in a short amount of time. Hosted by Frances Cook.We've all had those moments when we've realised we're not looking after ourselves the way we should be.In those moments it's easy to wish you could just hand yourself over to the experts, and let them have their way with you. To be told what to eat and how to move your body, then watch the changes start.Well, one of my colleagues has spent the past six weeks doing just that. She called in a nutritionist and a personal trainer, and sat down to hear the truth about the changes she should be making.Not only that, but she put in the hard yards of actually making those changes, and documenting how she felt during all of this. It's not always pretty trying to make a big lifestyle change, and let's just say, she was fairly honest about that.I spoke to Tess Nicho