Using this plugin you can strip, encode and decode HTML inside tags or chunks of text. For example you could do:
{exp:channel:entries channel=”news”}
{exp:html:strip}{body}{/exp:html:strip}
or
Encoded: {exp:html:encode}{body}{/exp:html:encode}
{/exp:channel:entries}
Have a look at the screenshots for a better example of how this works. Simple, and a life saver at a pinch!