All the facts on the numbers of people arriving in Australia by boat since 1989, graphed for your pleasure.
Articles by David Gillespie 
Fruit juice: a nutritious way to get extremely fat
A glass of apple juice is no better for you than a glass of Coke — the average soft drink is 10% sugar and so is the average juice. Drinking fruit juice is just a nutritious way to get extremely fat.
Heart attack debate not weighted in favour of the shake
Why would Nestle start spruiking a shake diet to lose weight, which has a known cause of heart disease as one of its main ingredients? Sounds like a conspiracy for getting fat people to have heart attacks.
The handy guide to dealing with consumer concern about sugar
A letter from US Big Sugar to its Australian counterpart on how to get around those pesky health warnings. The letter may or may not be fictional but witty satire.
Why fructose-laden drinks when there’s a healthy option on tap?
In the name of getting enough water, Australia’s school canteens are selling kids a drink sweetened with 21g of pure fructose. When did we become a nation requiring constant hydration, anyway?
Growing profit on the fat of the unfortunate
A new trial intending to fit 30 overweight indigenous Australians with lap-bands to lose weight is nothing more than a disingenuous attempt to open up a brand new government-funded gold mine for the surgery’s creator, Allergan.
Still sweet for sugar in fat, slumbering Australia
Big Sugar in the United States is spending vast streams of cash to defend sugary drinks in the debate around soft drink and obesity — but at least they’re having a debate.
Big Sugar dresses up as Santa
Why would an industry built on getting kids hooked on sweet drinks from the age of 12 months suddenly voluntarily decide to remove the substance that makes them sweet and addictive?
Ad self-regulator says 72% sugar is a simple serve of fruit
The Advertising Standards Bureau has ruled on my complaint about Nestle’s Fruit Fix advertising. The upshot: it’s perfectly ok to advertise a product which is 72% sugar as being equivalent to one serve of fruit.
All this nagging, Nicola, isn’t making us thin
Health Minister Nicola Roxon thinks we’re too fat, smoke too much and drink too much. But don’t worry, she’s got a solution: she’s going to nag us to death instead. Even if research suggests it won’t work.
A life high in sugar is driving us mad
Next year is a red letter year for our health and social security systems — and especially for the handling of Alzheimer’s disease — as the the first of the baby boomers turn 65.
