The short answer is yes – you can eat mussels if you have high cholesterol. Mussels are low in kilojoules, cholesterol and fat. The little fat they do have is mostly healthy unsaturated fat with plenty of omega-3’s to help stabilise the heart muscle, reduce triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), make arteries more elastic (which helps reduce blood pressure) and reduce blood clotting and inflammation.

Douse your mussels with butter, cream or other saturated fat and they will be more of a heart hazard than anything else. But if you eat them as we did at the Boat Shed Cafe in Nelson (northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island) – steamed with garlic, wine and parsley and served with a local pinot gris – your heart and your taste-buds will be very happy.

Last week we jumped on board the Pelorous Sound mail boat which chugs the length of Pelorous Sound three times a week delivering mail

Are the following words types of cheese, pasta, grapes or olives: frantoio, koroneiki, leccino, pendolino, picholine, picual?

If you answered olives, you would be right. But even more interesting than their unusual names is that they are grown in the Waikato. Believe it or not, the Waikato, New Zealand’s premier farming region, produces more than great meat, milk and cheese. A group of around forty olive growers, including retired farmers, an accountant, a marketer, a builder, and a debt collector are now producing extra virgin olive oil – this year about 1500 litres of it – and it tastes yummy. I know because my uncle Richard is one of them. A born and bred sheep and cattle farmer, he now makes delicious, nutritious extra virgin olive oil. He has just sent me three bottles and I can’t wait to try it.

What I like about this oil is that each bottle is made from pressing just one type of olive. The Olive Estate (that’s the brand name of the oil this group produces) doesn’t blend varieties. Not that there’s anything wrong with blending but it is fun to taste the difference between a koroneiki and a frantoio. From a nutritional view point the most important thing is that this oil is extra virgin. ‘Extra virgin’ is the best quality oil made from the first press of the olives. It is the richest in antioxidants and other nutrients. Virgin olive oil is made from a second pressing so it’s not quite as good as extra virgin. Lower down the quality scale you have ‘pure’ and ‘light’ olive oil. ‘Light’ olive oil is simply a lighter flavour and colour – it’s no lighter in kilojoules or fat!

If you want to try a little extra virgin pendolino, visit the farmers markets at Pirongia, Morrinsville and Tamahere, or e-mail: theoliveestate at yahoo.co.nz  –  As for me, I’m looking forward to drizzling some of the koroneiki olive oil over a classic Italian salad of fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil. Thanks, Uncle Richard!

Super-heroes move over – here comes the potato! No more Mr Humble Potato. He now has his own World Potato Congress. And at the 7th congress in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March he had renowned food writers and even politicians calling him a food hero. Why?

• Potatoes are nutritious
• Potatoes are cheap
• Potatoes taste good and are incredibly versatile – think baked, boiled, mashed, scalloped and gnocchi (like pasta but it’s potato).
• Potatoes need little water to grow. One kilo of potatoes needs 75 litres, a kilo of wheat needs 500 litres and a kilo of rice needs 3000 litres of water to grow. If you are into saving the world’s water, choose potatoes!
• Potatoes are easy to grow. The Maori people know all about this. When Europeans brought the potato to New Zealand, life became sweet. No more toiling over the sensitive, tropical kumara that struggled in our cold, wet Kiwi climate. Potatoes were tough and hardy, and quickly became a staple food.

I’ve just got one little problem with potatoes. It’s when they are sliced really thin (or worse, crinkle cut, where there is more surface area) and deep fried in fat. Don’t kid yourself that a feed of fries is a great vegetable meal; there’s more fat than vegetable in there.

Now that he’s been elevated to food hero status, I think even Mr Humble Potato would only want to be associated with the more gourmet thick chunky chip – preferably ‘lightly fried in a heart-healthy oil’. Ah – that sounds so much better!

Professor John Birkbeck, a highly respected nutrition icon in New Zealand, was very busy last week. If you’ve moved jobs and homes at the same time you’ll know what it’s like. But he still made time to spend an hour and a half with a reporter who wanted to interview him about his life and his career. Two stories came out of it: one about his life and career ‘The truth is – size matters’ NZ Herald 31/5/09, and another titled ‘Expert – it’s your fault if you’re a fatty’ NZ Herald 31/5/09.

It’s the second story that grabbed people’s attention, causing apparent ‘outrage’ and creating an ‘individual versus environment’ fat fight.

Here’s what I think happened. A second reporter read the original story and picked up a couple of potentially controversial and non-PC statements. She phoned the two obesity organisations mentioned in the story and said, “Professor Birkbeck said this. What do you think of that?”

The same thing happens in the playground and in the workplace – a comment used out of context – and it can blow things way out of proportion.

Sensible healthy eating stories don’t make ‘news’. There has to be some controversy, conflict or an ‘est’ – latest, greatest, first or worst. (I know the last two aren’t ‘est’ but I’m sure you get what I mean.) It’s even better if you have an ‘expert’ quote – either a person or the latest study.

As readers we tend to skim stories, picking up meaning from the heading and the first paragraph. Often the real balance in a story lies in the last few paragraphs where many of us don’t read to, or embedded in the story where a light skim may miss it.

This story is a great example of media sensationalism and it trivialises an incredibly complex question – why are we getting fatter and how can we stop it? As Professor Birkbeck said, “If I had the answer, I’d be rich!”

Follow-up story in NZ Herald 7/6/09 – “Fat chance of tough love on the obese”