Meeting up at the bar or pub? Sharing a drink with friends? These are the times when you notice salty snacks everywhere – potato crisps, corn chips, beer nuts, cashews, pretzels and rice cracker snacks. Salty snacks fly under the radar – no one remembers eating them. Yet they’re a big problem for health and may explain why you can’t lose weight. Here’s my take on them.

Peanut butter enthusiasts – buckle up. There’s a new healthier alternative in town. I love peanut butter. I remember when I was younger, I’d go for spoonful after spoonful of this sinfully-wonderful-peanut-y-creamy paste after school. Yes, “glutton” I hear you say. But as I grew older, I soon realised that this spread isn’t too innocent afterall.

With their bright colours and pack shots of root vegetables, they scream "healthier snack". But are vegetable chips really better? We did a taste test side by side of two brands of vegetable chips and line them up against your standard salted potato crisp to see how they fare.

Wondering how much fat is in that recipe? Or whether something is gluten-free? Or ok for your partner on a low-salt diet? Here's how we classify the recipes on the Foodwatch site in terms of nutrition. Check out the fat, saturated fat, kilojoules, fibre, GI, carbs, protein ... and allergy listings.

Nutritionists suggest we cut back on salt but it's sodium you'll see listed on food labels and on any recommended daily intakes. So what's the difference and how can you convert sodium into salt? And vice versa?

Since October 2009, most bread in Australia is now being baked with iodised salt as part of a move to lift overall iodine intakes across the nation. At present just under half the population - some 43 per cent of Australians - don't take in enough iodine. Following iodine fortification, this is estimated to drop to a low 5 per cent.