Not a fan of cooking each night? Well you have probably noticed the growing chilled ready-to-eat meal category. After a *busy* day, opting for a microwave meal might bring a smile to your dial. What ones are worth it?

*Check out our RTE Meals Guide*

We cover:

• 2:30 Australia and New Zealand ready-to-eat meal brands
• 4:15 Explanation of “real foods”
• 6:00 Saturated fat content in ready-to-eat meals
• 8:00 Dietary fibre content in meals
• 9:40 Upgrading nutrients/ vegetable content

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

"By real foods, I mean quality, whole foods which fall under one of the five food groups as outlined in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating."

"An easy way to incorporate quick nutrients is by adding spinach or grated carrot straight into the meal."

"Less than 10% of our energy should come from saturated fat, on average about 12% of energy comes from saturated fat in our diets."

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Named one of New Zealand’s Top Women in Food & Drink, Ashley Wilson provides her take on the 2025 International Congress of Nutrition (ICN) in Paris.

We cover:

• 6:40 The power of connecting
• 9.00 Ultra-Processed Food Heated Debate
• 12:15 Restructure Trial - Meal Texture/Eating Rate
• 13:30 AI Digital Marketing
• 17:10 Sweet Tooth Trial - our taste for sweetness
• 20:00 What the media shows us vs the scientific evidence
• 22:30 Jo Wicks “killer bar” PR vs Eat Lancet
• 25:30 UN High Level Meeting & non-communicable diseases
• 27:20 GLP-1 & Wegovy released in NZ
• 28:35 Heston Blumenthal, celebrity chef - Scaling down tasting menu
• 30:10 Wrap up

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

"We have just had the release of EAT- Lancet 2 which is this global report on planetary health and recommendations on how we should be eating. They have a huge communication campaign in place, however at their launch only half of the badges for the media have been picked up. We are seeing hardly any global media - just a handful of articles on the launch. In comparison, Jo Wicks is getting all of the media. It is really important we are looking to not just the media but other sources of information such as research or our dietitians - our leads in the profession, for this information, not just this the media. Because it can be really one-sided and can be related to click-bait - what’s going to get the readership.”

Ashley's Top LinkedIn Follows:

Ellie Hadjilucas - Founder of Nutricomms, Carrie Ruxton - PhD, Marcia Terra - IUFoST.

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Omega-3 fatty acids are often praised as essential for brain health, heart function, and overall well-being—but how much do we really know about them? In this episode, we explore their benefits, best food sources, and supplementation. Are you getting enough? What’s the difference between EPA, DHA, and ALA? And do plant-based sources measure up? Tune in as we break it all down, separating fact from fiction to help you make informed choices for your health.

We cover:

• 2:45 Deep science dive into omega-3 fatty acids and why they are important
• 9.00 Does the omega-3 and omega-6 ratio matter?
• 13:25 Is canola oil good for you?
• 15:00 Food sources of omega-3
• 15:15 Best fish sources of EPA and DHA
• 18:10 Purslane weed containing omega-3
• 20:00 Conversion rate of ALA into EPA/DHA
• 22:00 Is frozen crumbed or battered fish goof for you?
• 26:00 Would you recommend those who don’t eat fish of a certain age to supplement with EPA & DHA?
• 28:00 Should we be concerned about mercury levels in omega-3 supplements and fish?
• 29:00 Pregnancy, fish and mercury
• 31:30 What is the intake of omega-3 in Australia and globally? What is the optimal omega-3 intake?
• 34:00 Optimal omega-3 for heart disease, dementia, rheumatoid arthritis

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/safe-levels-of-chemicals-in-food/mercury-levels-fish/

One-liners you don’t want to miss:

"18+ years are consuming between 1.2-1.6g/day of ALA & 200-500mg of EPA/DHA/DPA. The nutrient reference values (targets) for ALA for men is 1.3g/day and for women is 0.8g/day. For EPA/DHA/DPA, 160mg/day men and 90mg/day women. Based on this we are meeting them but we need more information for how much we actually need for good health; which is a little bit different to how much people need if they have a health condition like arthritis."

“People talk about the ratio of omega -6 to omega -3 being about 10-12:1 in America. And in Australia they say it's sort of somewhere between And 7-5:1. So that is quite a contrasting difference. The types of oils that used in Australia are lower in omega -6 than what we find in America. And that's because in America they rely a lot more on soybean oil as one of their domestic oils.”

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