Discover Health Blogs

“Spring” into good health. Springtime is upon us, with the days getting longer and the temperature getting warmer, and what a time it is to be outside and enjoy a little sunshine with family and friends. Our BBQ has already begun to get some serious use! Finding some interesting ways to serve veg with a BBQ can ensure your meal is both balanced and delicious.   Each season brings about a new array of fresh fruit and vegetables, full of flavours and key nutrients for your health and eating. Eating seasonal produce is cheaper, tastes better and is better for you. If you buy fruit and veg in season you won’t be paying extra for imported goods that are often stored and transported for extended periods of times, thus losing their freshness, flavour, key nutrients such as vitamin C & folate, antioxidants, and phyto-chemicals.   Seasonal produce comes straight from the farms to our stores, thus being much more flavoursome, better quality, more nutritious & better for the envir

Vitamin D; it’s free! With all of these sunny, warm, November days, we remember Vitamin D; an important key nutrient to consider for your health, and the most amazing thing is that it is readily available and free for all!   You may wonder why Vitamin D is so important, well Vitamin D supports muscle strength, a healthy immune system, healthy skin, and is essential in the absorption of Calcium from our gut, therefore enhancing bone health.   Not getting enough Vitamin D, or having a Vitamin D deficiency, can lead to significant health outcomes, such as developing soft, weak or fragile bones and therefore lead to falls or fractures, osteoporosis, and can increase the risk of having altered immunity and other autoimmune diseases.   So, where do we get Vitamin D? Well as you might have guessed, the main source is Sunlight, with it not being possible to meet our requirements through diet alone. We are able to get small amounts from some foods, such as oily fish (salmon, h

Bread; getting a bad rapt – which bread to choose? There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding what you ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ be eating, and bread often gets a bad rapt in the middle of it all!   As a dietitian, one of the more common questions I get asked is; ‘what bread is the healthiest?’ Or another common question is; ‘Should I even be eating bread?’   Bread contains a number of key essential nutrients, a major one being Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are our body’s main source of energy, as they get digested and broken down into glucose, which is used by our muscles as the energy source. Different types of bread contain different types of carbohydrates, which are broken down at different rates and therefore release energy at different rates.   The term to describe how quickly or slowly this happens is called the Glycaemic Index (GI), which is the rate at which carbohydrates affect our blood glucose (or sugar) levels.   High GI carbohydrat

Post Commonwealth Games hype: Recovery Nutrition after Exercise                                                Did watching the Commonwealth Games this month inspire you to get back into training or begin a new form of exercise? Read up about the importance of nutrition, particularly recovery nutrition for after you exercise.   Whether you are training once a day, a couple times a week, or doing two sessions in one day, recovery nutrition is important for all, however importance does depend on the type of training, the duration, along with your personal preferences and goals.   Recovery nutrition can assist in; ·          Muscle repair and growth ·          Refueling and rehydrating the body ·          Support immune function   When do I begin my recovery nutrition after training?   As soon as you have finished training, drinking and rehydrating should begin. However, eating after exercise does depend on how long you have until you will be training again.  

Winter Warming Mealtime June is here, it’s officially winter, and with the cold weather that comes along with it, what better time of year to get your slow cooker out and make some hearty, warming meals. Don’t have a slow cooker? That’s absolutely fine, grab a casserole dish or a heavy, lidded pot and cook slowly in the oven on low for 4 hours or more.   And a hearty meal doesn’t have to be based on a meat component alone. You can include all components that would ensure a nourishing, balanced meal, including some protein, carbohydrates and vegetables to fill you up.   So what should you add to make up this delicious warming meal?   Whether it is a stew, a soup, a casserole or a risotto, you can make them all on a slow cook, letting the aroma’s fill your kitchen.   Pick a protein – beef, pork, lamb, chicken, etc   ·          And who says you need to buy expensive cuts of meat. It doesn’t matter if you pick the cheaper cuts, it just means that these cuts might

Winter bringing on that runny nose? It’s that time of year where the weather can be pretty cold and miserable, and bring along with it that runny nose and run down feeling. Ensuring adequate nutrition and hydration is key to assist with the running of a healthy immune system, and can be just what you need to look at during this time of year to fight off that cold or flu. Aiming to include foods from each of the five main food groups is important to ensure we are getting the range of nutrients we need each day. These food groups are; ·          Fruit ·          Vegetables ·          Grains (particularly wholegrains) ·          Dairy or alternatives ·          Meat or meat alternatives   Along with eating a variety of foods each day, there are certain foods and vitamins which play a key role for maintaining a healthy immune system.   Vitamin C is good for your immune system and research tells us that this can reduce the severity of a cold. -           Fruit in

Postnatal nutrition – what to eat after pregnancy?  As a dietitian involved in Women’s Health, including nutrition in pregnancy and also seeing new mums post delivery, a question I often get asked is ‘Is what I eat once I’ve delivered the baby important?’ In short, whether you are breastfeeding or not, the answer is yes! Understandable that being a new mum brings about different challenges, and worrying about what you are going to eat might seem overwhelming on top of it all. However, a poor dietary intake can increase stress levels, tiredness and those overwhelmed feelings, particularly when added on top of this new mum business. So what can be done? Well, here is some insight into the importance of nutrition during this time, looking at key nutrients, and what foods to try and include throughout the day. Postnatal Nutrition is important for many reasons. After giving birth your nutrition is important to assist with the healing process Whilst breastfeeding, eating a nutritious diet i

Mango's are back! But is there something you don't know about them?  It’s that time of year when a lot of our favourite summer fruits are coming back into season, and delicious mangos have already started making appearances in the shops. Mangos are a tropical fruit that are highly nutrient dense and taste sweet, with the outer skin or peel acting as a protective barrier for the soft component inside. Until a mango is ripe, this outer skin stays green, although then changes to shades of yellow, red or orange (depending on the type of mango you have). The two questions I have been getting lately are; Can I eat the skin of a mango? Can I freeze mangos? So let’s get into these questions and find out if there is something that you may be missing out on when it comes to the mighty mango! 1. The quick answer is Yes and No. Yes: Although vegetable or fruit skins are often discarded, mango being no exception here, the majority are edible and are packed with nutrients such as fibre, vit

What actually is Lactose-Free milk?  Did you know that lactose intolerance affects around 75% of the world’s population? And perhaps now you are asking, what is lactose? This is a great question! So let’s look into Lactose and Lactose intolerance, and also give you a run down on what this ‘Lactose-free milk’ is. Lactose is a type of sugar found in milk products, eg. Cow’s milk, goat’s milk, breast milk, yoghurt, ice cream, and cheese to name some key sources. It is a disaccharide, meaning it comprises of two molecules of sugar joined together, these sugar molecules being glucose and galactose. Most individuals are born with the ability to digest lactose, however, with age some of the population loses this ability, resulting in lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance is where an individual doesn’t make enough of the enzyme lactase , which is needed to digest lactose by breaking up those two molecules (glucose & galactose). Once this enzyme breaks down these sugars, they can be abs

Getting enough iron?   Feeling tired, lethargic or out of breath on effort requiring tasks? Did you know that this could be because you aren’t getting enough iron from your diet? What is iron? Iron is an essential nutrient, and plays a big part in our bodies energy production, and is a functional component of haemoglobin in our red blood cells and myoglobin in our muscle cells.  Iron can be of two forms, haem iron and non-haem iron, with haem iron referring to iron derived only from animal sourced foods, and non-haem iron, which is from animal-derived foods and plant-derived foods.  Our bodies tend to absorb iron from animal foods much easier then iron from plant foods, however iron from animal foods only represents a small proportion of our overall intake, thus plant foods are also important.  Iron deficiency: Not getting enough iron from your diet can lead to iron deficiency, which develops in stages, and can lead to iron deficiency anaemia, however people can be deficient without be

Stuck for Snack ideas?  When life gets busy again, sometimes what we eat get’s pushed to the back of the brain, or time just gets away from us and before we realize the day is over and we forgot to eat our prepared lunch or snacks. Or maybe this busy time has limited your brainpower or ability to think up some fun snacks, so you are left with a lack of interest during the day to eat that overripe mushy banana that you forgot to eat last week. Well I have been in all of those situations, so I thought I would share some fun, simple snack ideas with you, (to share some of that brainpower around), as these ideas have definitely helped me get through. If time is of the essence, then something quick and easy to put in the mouth before or after a toilet break (we all have time to go to the toilet at some stage during the day), or in between meetings/ appointments is what I suggest. And something like a Bliss ball could be the way to go. Bliss Ball : I don’t have a set recipe for these, but