Tonight ` I can see the patient punching the other police officer in the face a few times. a reluctant hero puts his body on the line. I just reacted. Definitely wouldn't have stopped. The police called his actions selfless and brave. Now he's fighting for accident compensation. You get injured doing your job, and they just don't wanna know. Plus ` This gets me very upset. I wouldn't give this to my kids. How healthy is the Star Rating system? I think the health stars are very deceptive. And ` High as I can. can a pillow really protect an egg from a bowling ball? It just seemed to me to defy the law of physics. So how did they do it? There's only one thing for it but to try the experiment ourselves. Copyright Able 2016 Welcome to the show. We start tonight with a troubling story of a hero who's been treated like a zero. John Shannon stepped in at work to save a police officer under attack. Police called his actions 'selfless' and 'brave'. But John didn't realise he was going to pay a high price for his bravery. Here's Garth. It's Christmas Eve, just before dawn. At North Shore Hospital, there is a situation. I can see the patient punching the other police officer in the face a few times. GRUNTING He definitely weren't gonna stop. GRUNTING Definitely wouldn't have stopped. John is a senior security officer at the hospital. He's describing how he stopping a violent assault on a police officer by a patient. I hit both of them with such a force that I actually knocked both of them forward. GRUNTING I've grabbed the patient, um, from behind. We had a bit of a scuffle. We got banged up against the door jambs. They tasered him ` TASER BUZZES twice. First time didn't do much. John's quick thinking and bravery saved the officer from serious harm. The actual thinking at the time was... I didn't; I just reacted. Police emailed his boss, full of praise. But John has paid a high price for that bravery. They got him calmed down and everything else, and that's when I started feeling the pins and needles in the fingers. Lucky for John Shannon, he works at a hospital. So getting the care he needs shouldn't be a problem, right? Except that he's been off work since February, unpaid for 10 weeks, nursing injuries and selling possessions to pay the bills. Why wasn't he covered by ACC? We'll get to that. And in any case, John's arm was OK at first. He thought he'd pulled a muscle. He was back at work the next night and not really complaining. As weeks went by, it was getting worse. Trying to sleep at night's almost impossible. Um, as soon as I roll on it, I get the... you know, the sharp, um, spasm and pain. Two months on, his GP was saying he needs a cocktail of very strong painkillers and time to recover. His orthopaedic specialist blamed the trauma for a frozen shoulder, but it wasn't the only thing on ice. As soon as I went on, um, sick, they stopped paying me. These are the payslips ` nothing but zeroes. Blank. So that's, like, two, four, six, eight weeks, no pay there. Our savings are starting to, um, disappear. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Again, where was ACC? Well, the trouble was John had also been to see the company doctor ` the health board's occupational physician. We just don't know whether he had watched the video of the incident, but in his view this was wear and tear ` nothing to do with the fight. CAR ZOOMS He was also trying to blame this. CROWD EXCLAIMS Yep, that very quick Toyota Supra just blew its engine. John was at the wheel. Withhold your judgement; this was five years ago. John walked away from that crash, cracked a rib, hurt his neck but had no sign of any shoulder damage. He continued to perform strenuous duties at the hospital. A lot of people do woodwork and stuff, and this is what I do. He hasn't gone back to racing Supras. He's stuck with his first love ` fixing them up. It frustrates the hell out of me. So what have the last three, four months been like, then? Absolute hell. He's sold one in the past few weeks. He says he needed the money to pay for treatment the DHB and Wellnz weren't covering. So what's going on here? Is it just a mistake, or is it just about the money? You need to know a bit about how this place runs. Waitemata District Health Board promises 'best care for everyone'. Of course, part of running a $1.5 billion annual budget is spending our money wisely, so the DHB has joined ACC's Partnership Programme, a plan it promotes to businesses as ` 'How to pay less'. So in return for a lower ACC premium, the DHB here agrees to do ACC's job and then hires another firm, Wellnz, to help it do that. It's great for everyone ` less work for ACC, lower costs for the DHB, and for Wellnz a nice fee ` as long as John is happy to go from hero to zero pay. I don't think this is the issue here at all. I believe it is, so that's why I've asked you. He says senior managers knew nothing until we told them. No, the issue here is` is that there is a work-related injury and there is some uncertainty of the nature of an injury. And what the issue that is here is that we have not supported a really respected and valued employee through that process. We should never have stopped his pay, and we should work with our staff members closely when there's work-related injures. It has nothing to do with the Partnership Programme. It has nothing to do with saving money. Within three days of our call, they back-paid John every dollar. We immediately back-paid him. We've immediately offered support. We've immediately` We've paid for all the investigations. That we are very sincere in supporting our staff through this process. This process isn't over, though. He now wants John to see a third doctor ` one the hospital has lined up. It's not really an independent report if they're working for you. As a lawyer, Phil Schmidt advises clients challenging an ACC ruling that an independent opinion is crucial. Whenever somebody is looking for an opinion, they find it difficult not to go somewhere where they'll get a favourable answer, and that's why getting somebody who really has nothing to do with it becomes more important. John still has an argument to win, but at least some of the pressure is off now he's back on the payroll. There's still a lot at stake. You can see why the health board has tried to fix this so quickly. Now that we're involved, it's not just about the money. The last thing they want is security staff that hang back, fearing what may happen if they get involved. If I did think twice and didn't, yeah, I would feel more guilty in myself for not reacting, but then you've got the other side of it where you've got all this hassle because you did your job. You know? Yeah, it's` Yeah, it does knock you. Well, that is very good news that he is back in the payroll. What a remarkable situation. You really don't want to have to think about the consequences to you financially of stepping in to help, do you? No, exactly. We hear the police officer has made a full recovery. Now, there's been a lot of talk about the dietary dangers of too much sugar. But is the government's latest labelling campaign misleading the public? This gets me very upset. It's supposed to promote healthy eating. How many stars would you give these products? Zero to one. (CHUCKLES) Is the Star Rating system a supernova fail? I wouldn't give this to my kids. And can an egg really rest easy under a Bambillo pillow? There's only one thing for it but to try the experiment ourselves. Welcome back. We all know too much sugar is bad. If you like giving your kids the odd sweet treat, here's a bit of food for thought. ELECTRONIC MUSIC OK, OK, I know we tell you every week that sweet stuff is bad, but how easy is it to find out how much sugar is actually in those sweet treats? ...three. There's three teaspoons in four gummy snakes, three teaspoons in this muesli bar and 15 teaspoons in this bottle of Sprite. Let your child wolf this down and she's consumed a total of 21 teaspoons. nine, 10, 11, 12... That's more than seven times the World Health Organization's recommended daily intake for a child. I mean, I guess you know there's sugar in lollies, don't you? It's some of the other foods that really concern us. And I was quite impressed, I have to say, when I saw this at the supermarket the other day ` a packet of Ricies with a little teaspoon on it to show you exactly how much sugar you're getting in a serving. Not sure we can claim credit, but good call. And there's no denying a teaspoon definitely gives you a clearer insight into how much sugar is hidden in our food. However, food manufacturers prefer the Star Rating system. The more stars on the packet, the healthier the food is supposed to be. We use the words 'supposed to be' because, when it comes to sugar, we think you need to be very wary of the Star Rating system. Here's Mark. SMOOTH MUSIC Finding out what's in your food can be confusing at the best of times ` added vitamins and minerals, low fat, less sugar. And those nutritional labels are tiny. And it's really hard to read ` small print. Well, there's so much info. There's that, and then you've got this other information. It's probably too much information. So to combat that, the governments of NZ and Australia brought in the Health Star Rating system. And this is how it works ` the stars are on the front of the box. They range from half a star to five stars. This box of Nutri-Grain gets four stars. The more stars you get, the healthier the food is. Or is it? I think the health stars are very deceptive. Simon Thornley is an independent epidemiologist and anti-sugar campaigner. People, I think, are turning away from these sorts of products, and now the government has decided to give them an endorsement, so to me, it's` it's crazy. The Health Food Star Rating formula is 33 pages about an algorithm. But to put it simply, it considers the positive and negative parts of food. Positive is fibre and protein and how much fruit, vegetables and legumes is inside. The negatives are energy content, saturated fat, total sugars and sodium ` the nasty things that make you fat and cause heart disease and diabetes. It's much more heavily weighted towards fat and salt content. I think sugar's the main problem, so sugar should really be the number-one criteria that we rate these products on. So let's take our box of four-star Kellogg's Nutri-Grain. No, I wouldn't` I wouldn't give this to my kids. It's, uh... 25% of this is sugar. There's more sugar in this than an ice cream. The recommended daily intake for a child is three teaspoons. There's two days' worth of sugar in a breakfast bowl of the four-star Health Rating cereal. And Kellogg's changed the recipe so the algorithm would double its initial rating from two to four. Four stars reflects the fact that, relative to other cereals in the breakfast cereal category, Nutri-Grain has relatively high amounts of fibre and protein and relatively low amounts of sodium. Professor Cliona Ni Mhurchu was on the committee that advised the government on the principles that should underpin the rating system. Would you give that four stars? I th` I think on balance the four stars reflects holistically, um, based on the current calculation, what's in the food. Personally, when it comes to a breakfast cereal, I think the sugar content needs to be lower. Back to the supermarket, and here's Milo. Four and a half stars. Must be healthy, right? This gets me very upset. I mean, Milo is 50% sugar. How this can get four and a half stars in a nutritionally government-endorsed system is just beyond me. If you turn the can over and look hard, you can see that the measurement is based on making Milo with trim milk. Well, apparently that's` I think that's the reasoning, but, still, what we're trying to do is discourage people from having sugary products. What this system is doing is encouraging a sugary product. Of course, at the end of the day, it's possible that people might not make it up with skim milk, or they may not use it in that way. They may sprinkle it on ice cream or eat it in other ways. A sugar bomb. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) And, to be fair, there's not a lot that manufacturers can do about that. But, remember, this is a system designed to make it easier for the consumer to make a healthy choice. It's misleading, quite honestly, cos if you don't know anything about nutrition, you think you're buying healthy stuff for your children, so... Uh, the stars might be a bit deceiving, then. If the consumer doesn't trust the system, it's going to fail. And so that's why it's so important that we really do think about these things and that we do raise these concerns. And now we're starting to see those instances where the system isn't really reflecting our dietary guidelines, and therefore it probably does need some review. How many stars would you give these products? (LAUGHS) I would give these zero to one, you know? The reality is we're swimming in sugar, and I see a whole lot of evidence that making big reduction is going to improve our health statistics out of sight. It doesn't quite seem right, does it? I mean, Kellogg's point out the new, improved, tasty four-star Nutri-Grain has more fibre, 25% less sodium and 17% less sugar. Nestle admit there's been confusion over the Health Star rating for Milo, but they say the labelling meets requirements and each serve contains less than one teaspoon of added sugar. The rest comes naturally from the malt barley and milk powder ingredients. Right, all the kings horses and all the king's men are on standby. After the break ` we see if Humpty Dumpty can survive the Bambillo bowling ball challenge. This newspaper reporter couldn't do it,... Oh no! ...but Suzanne Paul sure could. Let's have a look! Just seemed to me to defy the laws of physics. There's only one thing for it ` try the experiment ourselves. Is the Bambillo all it's cracked up to be? Let's see what we've got. Two almost identical fridge-freezers, so what's the difference? The Smiths chose a fridge-freezer that's Energy Star qualified. That means it uses up to 40% less energy. Next time you need a new appliance, look for one displaying the Energy Star. . Welcome back. You can't have missed the TV ads. Can a Bambillo pillow really protect an egg from the weight of a bowling ball? Tonight Hannah takes up the challenge to try unscramble the mystery of the bowling ball challenge. FUNKY MUSIC This story's not actually about bowling. And, yes, they only let me loose with the kiddies' size. Anyway, not so much about bowling as such,... ...but it is about one of these and a certain television ad. Your head can be as heavy as a bowling ball, but those nerves in your neck are as delicate as an egg shell. It's this ad for the Bambillo pillow which really annoyed John Hepburn. Over the past few months, I've noticed that ad on many channels on the TV. Are you ready? It shows Suzanne Paul dropping a bowling ball on an ordinary pillow and breaking the egg underneath... Definitely a no for that one. ...and then trying the same stunt on a Bambillo pillow. ...pressure-reducing filling in the Bambillo, because it offers perfect protection. Are we ready? Here we go. High as I can. (GRUNTS) And the egg is unbroken until Suzanne does this. Ooh, scrambled eggs for breakfast. Yum. But this point, where the ad is edited, got John thinking. I'm just suspect about whether the egg under the pillow in the first place, when they dropped the ball on it, was in fact a fresh egg or whether it might have been a boiled egg. Then they've substituted the fresh egg, which smashes on the bowling ball. John took his suspicions to the Advertising Standards Authority, but he was skittled. They accepted the advertisers' word that there were... And... ...they took on board the company's explanation that, yes, a cut had been made but only to make a longer ad a bit shorter. There it is. And they said that this, the unedited version showing the unbroken egg, also played regularly on telly, so... We agree; we don't think there was any trickery in the ad, but John and many others are mystified as to how the egg survived. Well, I guess it just seemed to me to defy the laws of physics that you could drop a 5kg bowling ball on to a pillow under which there was a fresh egg. That's inevitably going to break the egg. And you wanted Advertising Standards Authority to also repeat the experiment? I did suggest that to them, and they very strongly declined. This year the Bambillo egg ad has come under media scrutiny. CRUNCH! That didn't sound good. Those who've tried have failed to save the egg. Oh no. (LAUGHS) UPBEAT MUSIC So there's only one thing for it but try the experiment ourselves. We've got the Bambillo, we've got the egg, we've got the bowling ball. I've got my lovely assistant, John. So here we go. What do you think ` about there? Yeah, about there. About there? OK. THUNK! Oh, I heard it. I heard it. BOTH CHUCKLE I heard it go scrunch. Yes! Oh! Oh! (LAUGHS) Oh God. And, as an extra test, a boiled egg. John's turn. And go. THUNK! (CHUCKLES) And I take the bowling ball. Let's see what we've got. Same again. Yeah. Well and truly smashed. Sure is. Yep. And we think it's time we got some answers. So no luck for us. How did Suzanne Paul do it? The Bambillo pillow's marketed and sold by Brand Developers, who are adamant there's been absolutely no trickery. After some initial reluctance, they agreed to do a demonstration but refused to comment. It was a very strange scenario. Here we are, then, at Brand Developers' offices. We have our telly crew, and they've got their telly crew ` all good. We've got a massage table. We've got a bowling ball, which I've been told is 11 pounds. We've got eggs. We've got plastic bags. We've got` Um, this here is marked up at 5'2", which is apparently Suzanne Paul's height, which is where the bowling ball is going to be dropped from. And helping me out is Scott. Scott, if you can come in. We're in the peculiar situation where Scott doesn't actually want to say anything, so I'll be doing all the talking. And, uh, we'll just go with the demonstration. We've got the eggs, we've got the pillow, we've got the bowling ball. There she goes. OK. And we do have an unbroken egg. Oops. Well, we did have an unbroken egg. I'm quite surprised. It must mean that the difference between us and our demo was this padded massage table, which is pretty well padded. Whereas, of course, we had an ordinary table under our egg. And look at this in slow-mo ` how the padding really absorbs the impact. Scott did the test again. And again the egg is unbroken ` until you do that. I worked really hard on egg-stracting some comment from Scott. You must be very pleased, I would think. Yeah. Yeah? Oh, we always knew it was true and genuine, so... All right. Good. So you feel vindicated? (CHUCKLES) Yes. But the fun really started when we brought out our own eggs, ball and Bambillo. There's a gentleman here wants to check my eggs for fractures. First the eggs ` looking for cracks. Round the table, all the egg-sperts having a look. Are you happy with my eggs? So you have a different size. We did size six. You have a seven. Oh. What size did you do? Size six. OK, and we` and this is a seven, is it? OK. I don't think that will make too much difference, really. And then it was the pillow's turn for a squeeze and a punch ` all a bit extreme. Enough already! Time to see if we can get the same result. OK, and there we are ` unbroken egg. Aargh! (LAUGHS) It's gone everywhere. (CHUCKLES) It's gone everywhere. This didn't happen to Suzanne Paul. Has anyone got a... tissue? And just to be sure, we did it again. There we are ` unbroken egg. So I think that, oddly enough, proves a point, doesn't it? So there you have it. The difference between scrambled eggs and whole eggs was the use of a hard, wooden table versus a soft massage table. Brand Developers say they used a massage table because it is more like a bed. 'Egg-sonerated'. Enough of the puns. That is the show. But we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme, of course, all about your problems, your thoughts. Do get in touch. We're on Facebook. Email us... Write to us... And coming up next week ` 6 years old and scarred by a burning hot pie. The pie was sitting on her lap, and she screamed and saw this burn ` this horrendous burn. And she was like, 'Oh my God.' The pie caused second-degree burns. It was just big blisters. It was just an ugly, big blister. How did a pie from a Pak'n Save bakery get so hot? Did you cry, or...? What`? Cried. OK. Aw. I'm feeling very sorry for you now. > Her grandmother wants answers. How can that possibly be OK for the filling to spill and cause such a nasty burn? How is that OK? That's next week. Goodnight.