Should You Really Eat That?
by SBS
Native foods: Bush lollies, medicinal source, climate-change tool
About this podcast
Are olive oil shots a good idea? Should we dunk butter in our coffee? Is soy really “the most dangerous food for men?” and is chocolate actually a health food? (The royal pharmacist certainly thought so when he treated Marie-Antoinette’s headaches during 18th-century France with chocolate!). If health experts tell us we’re consuming too much salt, how do we balance that with cookbooks advising we season our food generously for flavour? And are we overlooking the health and cultural impacts of Indigenous ingredients? It can be tricky trying to consume the ‘right things’, and the forces that shape our diets go far beyond what’s supposedly ‘good for us’. On Should You Really Eat That?, food writer Lee Tran Lam untangles the mixed messaging about the food and drinks we consume – with the help of chefs, dietitians and other guests.
Episodes
- Native foods: Bush lollies, medicinal source, climate-change tool · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 6Whether you call them traditional foods, native ingredients, bush tucker or something else, what’s harvested here is unique. Australia’s a “megadiverse” country, home to around…
- Salt: Slug repellent, history shaper, chip enhancer · 34 min · Season 2 Episode 5From Persian blue salt to Murray River pink salt and every colour in between, sodium chloride has been essential for millennia. The Great Wall of China was funded by a salt tax…
- Olive Oil: Lamp fuel, criminal swag, pharmacy staple · 29 min · Season 2 Episode 4For thousands of years, we’ve used olive oil for everything: from lighting lamps to chasing bugs out of our ears. In Australia, the oldest olive trees – planted 200 years ago…
- Butter: Bakery essential, insult inspiration, wedding gift · 36 min · Season 2 Episode 3Not that long ago, butter had its health-villain era. Margarine reigned and fridges were stocked with ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’ and alternative dairy spreads. But in…
- Soy: Traditional craft, miracle crop, male threat? · 32 min · Season 2 Episode 2Is soy “the most dangerous food for men?” This question was posed by a viral Men’s Health article and, like the #soyboy insult, it plays into modern fears that soybeans…
- Chocolate: Food of the gods, romantic gesture, dog poison · 23 min · Season 2 Episode 1In 18th-century France, the royal pharmacist treated Marie-Antoinette’s headaches with chocolate. This sweet even appeared in European hospital prescriptions! Medicinal use of…
- Season two trailer: Should You Really Eat That? · 4 min · Season 2It can be tricky trying to consume the ‘right things’, and the forces that shape our diets go far beyond what’s supposedly ‘good for us’. On the second season of Should You…
- Seafood: Cooking inspiration, mercury magnet, cultural storyteller · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 6Our taste for seafood goes back a long time. We’ve been snacking on shellfish for more than 100,000 years. And the foods we gather from the ocean (whether it’s mussels or…
- Cheese: Calcium source, place marker, vegan inspiration · 27 min · Season 1 Episode 5Our love of cheese is so vast, it can be plotted across the planet. From Gorgonzola in Italy to Oaxaca in Mexico, many places are famous for their wedges and wheels. But can you…
- Coffee: Caffeine hit, productivity booster, wedding custom · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 4Around the world, people drink coffee – whether it’s sweetened with condensed milk in Vietnam or spiced with cinnamon in Mexico. It powers us through our workdays, deadlines and…
- Tea: Scandal water, life saver, yum cha essential · 25 min · Season 1 Episode 3Tea is the most-consumed drink on the planet, second only to water. Originally consumed for medicinal reasons, a well-brewed pot also helps with break-ups and bad news. But are…
- Bread: Historic staple, riot-starter, loneliness cure · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 2The oldest bread that still exists today was baked 14,500 years ago in Jordan. We’ve eaten this staple for a long time, but rejecting bread because it’s ‘bad’ for you has become…
- Rice: Dietary staple, daily greeting, and nutritional villain? · 24 min · Season 1 Episode 1When dietitian Susie Burrell named white rice as something she’d never put in her shopping trolley, food writer Lee Tran Lam was intrigued... and a little confused. Rice is the…
- Introducing Should You Really Eat That? A new podcast that makes sense of food confusion · 3 min · Season 1It can be extraordinarily confusing keeping up with what foods are ‘good’ for you. Should you actually put olive oil or salt in your coffee as recent food trends suggest? Is…







