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Health ratings fail: Research reveals food star ratings are deceptive

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Research has revealed some of Australia’s favourite cereals are not as good for us as they are made out to be. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Australian not for profit consumer organisation, CHOICE says when the added sugar in food is properly accounted for, Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain and Nestle’s Milo cereal lose 2.5 of their four heath rating stars. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The consumer advocacy group is pushing for an overall of Australia’s health star rating systems for food and says customers don’t get the full picture when it comes to added sugar. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The health star rating system was introduced as a way to give consumers the ability to compare similar products and make a healthier choice more easily. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However CHOICE believes the system must be changed so products with added sugar can be penalised as it has been revealed Australia’s top-selling breakfast cereals can lose up to four stars when the added sugar is considered. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Right now, the health star rating algorithm treats all sugars the same,” CHOICE food expert Linda Przhedetsky told </span><a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/food/food-star-ratings-fail-on-sugar-choice-c-182711"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7 News.</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It doesn't distinguish between extra sugar that's added to foods like breakfast cereals and naturally occurring sugars in dairy or fruits.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We're calling for health ministers to introduce added sugar labelling on all packaged foods and to ensure that added sugar is more heavily penalised.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The advocacy group has called for the health stars system to become a requirement for all foods and drinks as well as a guarantee that industries are not influencing the policies around food labelling. </span></p>

Caring

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Iconic Aussie staple about to go through a major change

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nestle has launched a healthier version of a popular Aussie drink, Milo. They’ve announced a major change to the recipe and have launched a new 30 per cent less added sugar version.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is due to backlash after the product’s 4.5 health star rating.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, there’s one question on everyone’s lips: Does it taste the same as the old one?</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> According to the Nestle Australia’s spokeswoman, Margaret Stuart, it does. She told </span><a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/drink/nestl-to-launch-new-milo-without-cane-sugar-but-does-it-taste-as-good/news-story/1da94bf834d4e2ba4224ea7365f8614d"><span style="font-weight: 400;">news.com.au</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It tastes exactly the same, so much so, most people don’t even notice the difference,” Ms Stuart said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When we were working on developing Milo 30% less added sugar, our focus was on creating a product that looks like original Milo, tastes like original Milo, and behaves like original Milo — crunchy bits and all.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We found in testing that people really loved the concept, but they liked it even more when they tasted it. It really exceeded their expectations. It tastes great.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The development of the new Milo took two years and was developed in response to the changing nutritional needs of families.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nestle general manager Andrew McIver explained why they’ve done the best they can to hold onto the brand’s 85 yearlong heritage.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Milo was originally designed as a nutritious drink for undernourished children during the Depression, delivering added vitamins and minerals in a format children enjoyed,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“With parents increasingly concerned about added sugar in their children’s diets, we’ve created an option that is true to the Milo heritage and encourages people to drink milk, but delivers less added sugar.”</span></p>

Food & Wine

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Nestle forced to reveal the shocking truth about Milo

<p>Milo is a part of growing up for millions of Australians, but a shocking investigation from consumer advocacy group CHOICE has forced Nestle to reveal the truth about the drink – and it’s not pretty.</p> <p>The investigation, which has prompted Nestle to drop Milo’s 4.5 Health Star Rating, found that previous estimates of the health benefits of the chocolate and malt benefit were incredibly misleading.</p> <p>Milo’s previous health rating was based on someone making a cup with just three teaspoons and a glass of skim milk, which CHOICE contends is not the way most people consume the drink.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">WIN! Following CHOICE's campaign, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nestl%C3%A9?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nestlé</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Milo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Milo</a> has agreed to remove their 4.5 health star rating from pack until the Government's review of the system is complete. <a href="https://t.co/qJsHRfRZM9">https://t.co/qJsHRfRZM9</a> <a href="https://t.co/QUYV21ItR8">pic.twitter.com/QUYV21ItR8</a></p> — CHOICE (@choiceaustralia) <a href="https://twitter.com/choiceaustralia/status/968998422475808768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2018</a></blockquote> <p>Public health experts agree with the consumer group and believe Milo should receive a more accurate 1.5 star health rating.</p> <p>“Most Aussies don’t consume Milo with skim milk alone,” Choice’s head of campaigns and policy, Katinka Day <a href="http://www.news.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>told News.com.au</strong></em></span></a>.</p> <p>“To claim a health star rating by adding nutritionally superior ingredients of another product is not helpful, especially for people who eat their Milo with full cream milk, or even straight out of the can or on ice-cream,” Ms Day said.</p> <p>“It’s a move that smacks of marketing trickery rather than a genuine attempt to help consumers make an informed choice.”</p> <p>Ms Day believers the rating should be replaced with a more accurate description.</p> <p>“While we welcome Nestle’s decision to ditch its dishonest star rating, it doesn’t go far enough. Milo needs to display a 1.5 star rating which reflects the product’s actual ingredients,” she said.</p> <p>Nestle spokeswoman Margaret Stuart responded to the investigation, but said the rating would only be dropped by the powder and would be retained any additional Milo-branded products.</p> <p>“It’s encouraging to see a growing body of evidence showing that the HSR is delivering on its key objectives,” Ms Stuart said in a statement.</p> <p>“Crucially, it’s guiding shoppers who are comparing packaged foods within a category in store, and encouraging packaged food manufacturers to improve the nutritional content of their products, resulting in broader improvements across the food industry,” Ms Stuart said.</p> <p>“The system, which was developed with the input of many stakeholders, is fundamentally sound, scientifically robust and compares well with front of pack labelling systems in other countries.”</p> <p>What are your thoughts? Do you think Nestle has a case to answer for? Or are people blowing this one out of proportion?</p>

Body

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Seven people arrested at Milo Yiannopoulos’ Sydney talk

<p>Seven people have been arrested after clashing with police and fans outside the secret Sydney talk of controversial far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos.</p> <p>Yesterday, the venue at Le Montage in Lilyfield, Sydney, was guarded by mounted police, riot squad officers and police vans.</p> <p>Organisers left the location of the event a secret until an hour before it began due to security concerns. </p> <p>As fans of the controversial commentator arrived, protestors chanted, “Muslims are welcome, Milo is not,” and “Nazi scum off our street”.</p> <p>Four people were arrested for breaching the peace, one for assaulting a police officer, one for affray and one for not complying with direction.</p> <p>The protestors waved red flags and as the attendees – who paid almost $1000 for their tickets – arrived, chanted, “racist, sexist, anti-queer, Milo is not welcome here”.</p> <p>Inside the venue, supporters cheered as Yiannopoulos stepped on stage to the sound of Madonna’s “Vogue” while wearing a leopard print fur coat.</p> <p>Twenty minutes into the talk, a man was reportedly evicted by security for throwing a shoe at Yiannopoulos.</p> <p>On Monday, Yiannopoulos’ Melbourne event experienced clashes and tour promoter Damien Costas told news.com.au that Milo and his team “knew for a fact there is going to be a repeat incident” in Sydney.</p> <p>In Melbourne, two protestors were arrested for “discharging missiles”, with five officers suffering minor injuries.</p> <p>Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said the incident unfolded because of “Kardashian-style politics”, where groups use attention-grabbing behaviour to promote their causes.</p> <p>“What we’re seeing in the whole world is if you don’t have a 30-second grab of something really exciting, then you’re not going to make the front page of the news,” he told reporters on Tuesday.</p> <p>“Both these groups — the left and the right — will do everything they can to go and attack the police to get that one shot where it looks like the police are responding in an aggressive way.</p> <p>“It looked like a battlefield from an aerial platform.”</p>

Legal

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Controversial political commentator: “Waleed Aly is a total coward”

<p>He’s been dubbed a “Nazi sympathiser” and “paedophile apologist”, and now, controversial political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has touched down in Australia, and he’s arrived packed with punches aimed at some of our biggest names.</p> <p>“I think Australia might need saving from itself sometime soon, so I’m here as a sort of warning from America,” the alt-right speaker told <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/controversial-rightwing-speaker-milo-yiannopoulos-lands-in-sydney-with-a-bang/news-story/4e1e861c30954eed558445a84542bdd4" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">news.com.au</span></strong></a>.</p> <p>Among British-born Yiannopoulos’ targets are Studio 10’s Jessica Rowe, Today’s Karl Stefanovic, Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. But the 33-year-old’s biggest enemy appears to be The Project’s Waleed Aly, who he called “an intellectual lightweight”, a “total coward” and “insubstantial".</p> <p>“What I really want from them is a serious substantive debate on the issues. I want to talk to Jessica Rowe about why she thinks there is rape culture on campus when there isn’t, why she thinks there is a wage gap when there isn’t.”</p> <p><img width="600" height="400" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7265094/24068254_1060177420786819_6672320144180010651_n_600x400.jpg" alt="24068254_1060177420786819_6672320144180010651_n" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em>Image credit: Milo Yiannopoulos/Facebook.</em></p> <p>Yiannopoulos claims that, outside of the US, Australia is his biggest audience, saying his tour here has already sold more than 10,000 tickets – despite major news programs like The Project, Studio 10 and the Today show all cancelling their scheduled interviews with the “one-man wrecking crew”.</p> <p>He says Stefanovic, Aly and others “have assumed that I’m dumber than I am, assumed that I was some kind of idiotic reactionary Trump-voting lunatic or something, then they realised this person’s quite complex and complicated and interesting and obviously very popular.”</p> <p>The conservative “cultural libertarian”, who has long been a critic of feminism, Islam, social justice and political correctness, also took aim at Australia’s marriage equality debate. Yiannopoulos, who has in fact been in a same-sex marriage since September, criticised politicians for yesterday passing a same-sex marriage bill that he feels doesn’t offer protection for freedom of religious expression.</p>

News

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Jessica Rowe's heated moment on TV

<p>Wherever far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos seems to go these days, controversy doesn’t seem too far behind, and it was more of the same during his appearance on Studio 10 this week where he <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/tv/2017/09/jessica-rowe-opens-up-about-how-post-natal-depression-still-impacts-her/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>clashed with the show’s host Jessica Rowe</strong></span></a>.</p> <p>The outspoken activist used his appearance to slam feminism, calling Rowe a “half-bald feminist”, likening feminism to a cancer that could be “cured”.</p> <p>After Rowe said she was “a proud feminist”, the self-proclaimed champion of free speech said, “That's OK, I'm sure they'll cure you soon, there's a chemotherapy for that.”</p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Ef7Us0zw8Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>“No, no, no,” she began.</p> <p>“Everyone's entitled to a view, but you seem to stir up hate for the sake of it, because you want to provoke.”</p> <p>Yiannopoulos defended his controversial position. </p> <p>“It's perfectly fine if you're a feminist. My problem is with those feminists who say we all need to be feminists when we might not be, and we might think feminism has run its course,” he said.</p> <p>“It's very difficult to describe yourself as 'not a feminist' if you're in the public life. That's an enforcement of a particular political orthodoxy that is not shared by the public majority. </p> <p>“These ideas being enforced in popular culture and on TV are not views reflected in the public.</p> <p>“The gap between media and the public is growing all the time.”</p> <p>Yiannopoulos has built a career on pushing people’s buttons. The one-time senior editor of far-right website Breitbart News was controversially removed from the position when he was accused of being a paedophile apologist. He also famously had his Twitter account deleted from prompting a wave of racist abuse against actor Leslie Jones.</p> <p>What are your thoughts? </p>

TV

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