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November 15th 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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It’s finally here … it’s time to announce our EatWell Yummies 2024 WINNERS!
We asked you to vote for your favourite healthy snacks, cooking products and kitchen appliances that help you live a healthy, wholesome life. Over 20,000 EatWell readers have had their say, and without further ado, here are your Eatwell Yummies 2024 Winners!
Category: Supplements & Health Tonics
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WINNER
Coco Health, Probiotic Gummies
Getting your daily dose of essentials vitamins and minerals in, is super easy with one tasty gummy! Coco Health Apple Cider Vinegar + Probiotics Gummies contain a concentrated dose of apple cider vinegar and probiotics, with no artificial flavours or sweeteners
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Power Super Foods, Wild Blueberry Powder
Delicious organic freeze dried wild blueberries for purple power and a fresh berry zing. Ethically sourced and sustainably harvested with exceptional antioxidants.
Category: Pantry Goods
WINNER
Pearl River Bridge, Superior Light Soy Sauce
Ideal for dipping, stir frying, stewing and marinating. Our soy sauce enhances every dish and every food from both the East and the West.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Corn Thins, Multigrain
Corn Thins® Multigrain made simply by popping grains of corn, so taste delicious like popcorn in a crispbread. Healthy can be tasty.
Category: Savoury Snacks
WINNER
Corn Thins, Mini Cheddar Cheese
Satisfy your snack craving with CORN THINS® Minis, a lighter, crispier, bite-sized snack bursting with popcorn and cheddar cheese flavour. Still gluten free & non-GMO.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Tucker’s Natural, Artisan Rosemary, Linseed & Rock Salt Crackers
This wholesome and flavourful snack combines the aromatic charm of rosemary with the earthy crunch of linseed and a hint of rock salt
Category: Sweet Snacks
WINNER
Murray River Salt, Salted Chocolate Bar
Murray River Salt’s salted chocolate bar blends rich, velvety chocolate with delicate flakes of their signature salt, creating a harmonious balance of sweet and savoury flavours.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Driscolls, Sweetest Batch Blueberries
Sweetest Batch Blueberries are perfectly sweet and juicy, they are more than just your average blueberry! They are a specialty, premium fruit known for their extra-large size and extra-sweet flavour.
Category: Healthy Meals
WINNER
Borg’s, Mini Filo Spirals
Borg’s Mini Filo Spirals made using the finest ingredients including Mizithra and Feta PDO (protected destination of origin) sourced from regions in Greece that create authentic cheese.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
The Bare Bird, Free Range Chicken Breast
The Bare Bird vegetarian fed free-range chicken has no antibiotics and no added hormones. This exceptional quality chicken includes nothing but The Bare Bird.
Category: Drinks
WINNER
Hemp Foods, Australia Recharge & Immune Chai
A functional drinking chai made with premium-grade spices and Hemp Gold® Protein. A source of fibre, energy support, rich in iron and magnesium.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Power Super Foods , Dark Drinking Chocolate
A delicious, balancing blend of rich organic cacao blended with extraordinary plant based superfoods for a satisfying naturally uplifting chocolatey boost.
Category: Dips & Spreads
WINNER
Bonne Maman, Intense Strawberry
Full of fruit flavour, a delicious option for your breakfast table, afternoon tea or baking. Each jar is made with 64% of luscious strawberries and 30% less sugar.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Bonne Maman, Intense Apricot
Full of fruit flavour, a delicious option for your breakfast table, afternoon tea or baking. Each jar is made with 67% of luscious strawberries and 30% less sugar.
Category: Eco-Conscious Kitchen
WINNER
GreenPan, Padova ceramic non-stick cookware set
What you cook on matters! This elegant cookware set features a toxin- free ceramic non-stick: no PFAS, PFOA, lead, or cadmium. Infused with diamonds for durability, it heats evenly on all stovetops, including induction.
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HIGHLY COMMENDED
Kakadu Plum, All Surface Cleaner
Kakadu Plum’s plant-based formula eliminates dirt, grease, grime, and odours effortlessly, without harsh chemicals or alcohol.
The post 2024 EatWell Yummies Winners! appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
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2024 EatWell Yummies Winners!
by | | Curated Content
October 3rd 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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The post Golden Healing Soup appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
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Golden Healing Soup
by | | Curated Content
October 3rd 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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Photios Poupoulas shares the Intoleran journey from a small Dutch brand to a global leader in food intolerance solutions.
Tell our readers your brand story.
Intoleran was first known as Disolut and began in The Netherlands in 2008. It was started by Remko Hiemstra, a nurse who later was became a clinical trials monitor, and himself having lactose intolerance. He wanted to bring a solution to his home country, and it started out with lactose and then expanded out to supporting other intolerances over time including the lesser known ones which still affect many people, but options weren’t available. More recently it has become known as Intoleran headed by Harmen Treep our International Director and expanded to the US and across different regions in Europe and the UK. I am a pharmacist by training and was frustrated by the lack of help for different food intolerances in Australia, which saw myself working with them to bring the brand to Australia in 2020.
If a reader was new to your brand, what product in your range should they start with and why?
We definitely recommend firstly discussing any gastrointestinal symptoms with your doctor or dietitian to rule out other conditions, and to pin point likely food intolerance(s) involved. From there, they can purchase one of our trial packs which are handy for giving our products a go to see if they work for you. Quatrase 10,000 is popular especially when more than one intolerance is suspected, and with people diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, and not a specific food intolerance.
What is one of the highlights of your brand journey to date?
Bringing the DAO enzyme through our DAO Mini and DAO Plus products into Australia in early 2023 was definitely a highlight. It was a bit of a process getting it into Australia and we were so happy when we could communicate to customers it was finally available! A close second is the Monash University FODMAP Certification, as people can be assured products with that mark are lab tested for accuracy of ingredients and purity.
Where can we buy your product?
We are available online directly from our website, through the WholeLife Pharmacy & Healthfoods group and practitioners can find us at Ariya Health and Vital.ly. More recently we are available at Chemist Warehouse Online and more independent pharmacies are stocking online, and we have plans to be available in the wider pharmacy and health food network.
Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about your brand?
Sure, we are really proud to offer a solution for these lesser known intolerances, and we are proud our head office is staffed with dietitians so if there’s a tricky question from customers, they can ask and get a professional opinion.
Where you can find Intoleran
Website: intoleran.com.au
Phone: 0403 07 1902
The post Intoleran’s Global Solution to Food Intolerances appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
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Intoleran’s Global Solution to Food Intolerances
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October 2nd 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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Promoting circulation and reducing stiffness in the wrists, hands and fingers is vital for individuals of all ages. Resident personal trainer Belinda Norton guides you through some basic but effective exercises to maintain healthy hands.
In a world where technology use is prevalent, it is crucial to understand the significance of maintaining optimal health in our wrists, hands and fingers. These body parts play a fundamental role in our daily activities, whether it is typing on a keyboard, playing a musical instrument or simply gripping objects. Neglecting their health and flexibility can lead to various issues that can impact our overall wellbeing and productivity.
Before delving into the significance of flexibility and movement, let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of our wrists, hands and fingers. Our healthy hands consist of 27 bones along with an intricate network of muscles, tendons and ligaments that work together to allow us to perform a wide range of tasks.
The wrist is a complex joint that connects the hand to the forearm. It is composed of eight carpal bones, which form two rows of four bones each. These bones are connected by ligaments that provide stability and support to the wrist during movement.
Our fingers are controlled by an intricate system of tendons that connect muscles in the forearm to the bones in the fingers. This allows for precise movements and grip strength essential for tasks such as writing, grasping objects and driving.
One key benefit of keeping our wrists, hands and fingers healthy is the prevention of conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome. This painful condition, often caused by repetitive motions or poor ergonomics, can severely limit our ability to perform tasks that require fine motor skills. By incorporating regular stretching exercises and taking breaks during repetitive activities, we can reduce the risk of developing such debilitating conditions.
Everyone from athletes to computer-based workers relies on hand dexterity for precision and agility. Engaging in specific flexibility exercises tailored to these activities can improve performance and prevent injuries.
Step 1: Begin your workout routine by performing gentle wrist circles in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. This simple exercise helps increase blood flow to the wrists, reducing stiffness and promoting flexibility. Perform 10-15 repetitions in each direction, focusing on smooth and controlled movements.
Step 2: Finger-flexibility exercises
Next, focus on improving finger flexibility by performing exercises such as finger taps, finger lifts and finger spreads. These exercises help strengthen the muscles and improve coordination. Aim to perform each exercise for 30 seconds to one minute, gradually increasing the duration as your strength and flexibility improve.
Step 3: Wrist flexor and extensor stretch
Stretching the wrist flexor and extensor muscles is essential for maintaining wrist mobility and preventing injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Hold each stretch for 15-30 seconds, feeling a gentle pull in the wrist and forearm muscles. Remember to stretch both sides evenly to promote balance and prevent muscle imbalances.
Step 4: Grip-strength exercises
Enhancing grip strength is crucial for maintaining hand function and preventing conditions such as tendonitis and arthritis. Incorporate exercises such as squeezing a stress ball, using a grip strength or performing farmer’s walks with dumbbells to improve hand and forearm strength. Gradually increase the intensity and resistance of these exercises as your strength improves.
Step 5: Thumb-opposition exercises
The opposable thumb is what sets humans apart from other species and plays a vital role in performing everyday tasks. Include thumb opposition exercises in your workout routine by touching each finger to the thumb in a precise and controlled manner. This exercise helps improve dexterity and coordination in the hands, promoting overall hand health.
Step 6: Wrist stability exercises
Finally, focus on enhancing wrist stability by performing exercises such as wrist curls, wrist extensions and wrist pronation/supination. These exercises help strengthen the muscles surrounding the wrist joint, improving stability and reducing the risk of injuries during repetitive movements. Perform 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions for each exercise, gradually increasing the resistance as your wrists become stronger.
Investing time in a six-step routine for your wrists and hands is a proactive approach to maintaining optimal physiological health and preventing injuries.
Furthermore, promoting circulation and reducing stiffness in the wrists, hands and fingers are vital for individuals of all ages. Desk workers, for instance, often experience discomfort due to prolonged periods of typing or mouse usage. Prioritising the health of your wrists, hands and fingers is a proactive measure that can positively impact your quality of life.
Article Featured in WellBeing Magazine 212
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Maintaining healthy wrist, hand & finger flexibility
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November 11th 2024
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WellBeing Magazine
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Plant based diets are vegan diets. It means a person who is stricter in their eating principles than a vegetarian. It is not just a person who does not eat any animal flesh. A vegan also avoids eating any dairy, eggs, and any other ingredients that come from animals. There is huge debate whether plant based diets are healthy or not. Some reports say they are, others not. Some people do well on a vegan, plant based diet while others not so well. Your gut health and genetics play a big part in the reasons why.
Plant based diets and gut microbiome
Gut microbiome are the organisms that live in your colon. They give nutrient synthesis to fibre, fermentation to toxin neutralization and a whole range of other things to help keep your gut healthy. Your gut microbiome changes and the bacteria change in response to your diet, age, and environment. These form when you are young or are inherited.
Babies that are born via a normal birth through the birth canal can have a higher level of Bifidobacteria to babies born via caesarean section. Trauma to the microbiome also plays a role in how these organism’s function. Trauma comes when healthy bacteria are wiped out by antibiotics, chemotherapy, or certain illnesses. This can cause permanent changes to a once-healthy gut bacteria.
Vegans have a different gut microbiome which comes into play as to how they respond to different foods and synthesize some nutrients. Some microbial communities are more veg friendly than others. This is because certain gut bacteria are needed for synthesizing vitamin K2. This is a nutrient with great benefits for skeletal health, insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular health, and prostate and liver cancer prevention.
K2 comes from certain Bacteroides species, Prevotella species, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, as well as some gram-positive, anaerobic, non-sporing microbes. Animal foods contain Vitamin K2. Full-spectrum antibiotic usage can dramatically lower levels of vitamin K2 in your body by killing off the bacteria responsible for K2 synthesis. So, if your microbiome is short on vitamin-K2-producing bacteria, and animal foods are removed from your diet, your vitamin K2 levels can sink drastically. While if you have a lot of K2-synthesizing microbiome you will have more success on a plant based diet.
Amylase and starch tolerance in vegans
Your saliva contains alpha-amylase, an enzyme that divides starch molecules into simple sugars via hydrolysis. Depending on how many copies of the amylase-coding gene you carry, along with lifestyle factors like stress and circadian rhythms, amylase levels can range from extremely low to 50% of the total protein in your saliva. In general, people that have a high starch diet tend to have higher levels of salivary amylase than those from populations that historically relied more on fat and protein. Amylase production strongly influences how you metabolise starchy foods. It determines whether those foods send your blood sugar plummeting or dropping slowly. If you consume starch and you have low amylase, you will experience steeper, longer rises in in blood sugar compared to people with naturally high amylase levels.
Plant-based diets focussed on grains and legumes are likely to bring any hidden intolerance to carbohydrates out into the open. If you produce low amylase increasing your diet in starches very quickly could have a horrible effect. It could lead to bad blood sugar balance, the inability to feel a sense of fullness when eating (low satiation) and weight gain.
Vitamin A conversion in plant based diets
Vitamin A is essential to keeping you healthy. Plant foods don’t contain proper vitamin A. They contain vitamin A precursors such as beta carotene. Beta carotene converts to vitamin A in your intestine and liver. This let’s your body make retinol from plant foods like carrots and sweet potatoes. Animal foods supply vitamin A in the form of retinoids, which don’t require as much conversion to become vitamin A. Certain gene mutations can hinder this conversion which makes plant foods inadequate for vitamin A. Also, such issues as low thyroid function, poorly functioning gut health, alcoholism, liver disease, and zinc deficiency can all cause you to not convert your vitamin A properly.
What about choline production on a plant based diet?
Further to this Choline is an essential but often overlooked nutrient involved in having a good metabolism. It affects your brain health, neurotransmitters, lipids and methylation. Choline deficiency is a big part of issues in fatty liver disease, neurological conditions, heart disease, and developmental problems in children.
The most choline-abundant foods are animal products, but there is a wide variety of plant foods which do contain low levels of choline. Your body can also produce choline. In most cases, the small amounts of choline offered by plant foods, combined with something called the choline synthesized through the Phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT) pathway, can be enough to give your body enough choline. If it doesn’t you could be in trouble because PEMT modulates something called levels of blood plasma homocysteine. These secrete or convert to methionine or cysteine. High levels of homocysteine have been linked to cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease which is prevalent in our society. People’s individual requirements for choline do vary so it is easy sometimes to have a deficiency and this makes plant based low choline diets an issue.
On a plant based diet if you have normal choline levels and good genes you may be ok. But if you are pregnant, male, post-menopausal with low oestrogen, have genetic mutations then your need for choline is much higher. This means plant based diets may not meet your needs. It could increase your risk of muscle damage, cognitive problems, heart disease and increased fatty liver. Learn more about what is right for your health on https://www.stressfreehealthmanagement.com/diet-nutrition
So what do I do?
Given all of the above it becomes important to leave major decisions for your diet to the experts. Naturopaths and nutritionists can help you determine your needs. They will analyse what you eat and your lifestyle. Check out some further information on toxic eating and your cravings on https://www.wellbeing.com.au/body/nutrition/toxic-eating-and-your-cravings-the-fast-food-drug.html. It’s important to be informed. So if you are thinking of going plant based talk with your naturopath and get all the facts first. (Pic thanks to Freepik)
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Plant based diets and your health – good or bad?
