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This article is part of a broader interdisciplinary project investigating the historical, social, and cultural contexts behind individual and collective differences in taste and consumption. It offers a comparative historical study of nonalcoholic beverage (NAB) consumption in Australia and Japan. Australia and Japan are among the largest NAB consumers in the world, and they have a similar history of progression from brewed tea as the main beverage consumed at meals and between meals, to a widespread consumption of bottled beverages. Yet in the contemporary context, both consumer behavior and its impact on nutrition health differ significantly in the two countries. We compare the Australian case, where "soft drinks" are equated with sugar-sweetened beverages, seen as contributing to the global rise in obesity, with thecase of Japan, where sugar-sweetened sodas are widely available, but people also consume large amounts of cold bottled green teas and herbal teas, that are not just "sugarless" but are not sweet at all. We propose that comparing the NAB consumption cultures of Japan and Australia offers us valuable insight into the importance of the cultural dimension of consumption and nutrition health, and the need to consider it when formulating policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the Venezuelan government has discursively justified passing legislation that forbids NGOs that promote political rights from receiving foreign funding. Existing theories of globalisation theory fail to fully explain this phenomenon, including world polity/ society and world-systems theories. Instead, I argue that although existing cultural scripts promote the spread of democracy and human rights through NGOs, the Venezuelan government has utilised a discourse of national sovereignty to justify its anti-NGO efforts. I argue that instead of one overarching set of cultural scripts, the world polity/ society contains conflicting cultural scripts. In doing so, I develop the concept of the world cultural toolkit in order help us make sense of these contradictory cultural scripts concerning state policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the impact of Venezuela's economic crisis on its influence on regional politics and economic cooperation. It discusses the country's declining influence following the death of Hugo Cháhvez who criticized neoliberalism and representative democracy. Some of Venezuela's foreign relations activities are indicated, including its promotion of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The article investigates the link between intake of dairy products and indicators of diet quality among a sample of children in Australia. Results reveal that higher dairy consumption was tied up with higher intakes of energy, protein, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, zinc, vitamin A, riboflavin, and niacin. Children who consumed more than 2 servings of dairy products daily were more likely to meet food and nutrient consumption.